HORRIBLE THINGS NIGERIANS DO!!

Dear readers, i wish to start a new thread on the horrible things we Nigerians do. Things that are detrimental to ourselves and that in no way potray the country in a good light. I would appreciate contributions. The ultimate aim of this thread is to educate ourselves, to re-orientate our minds ( not Babangida's type of national re-orientation ), create jokes and fun, and ultimately effect behavioural changes, if possible. The theme is "Nigerians". They could be in the East or West. USA or Europe, China or Namibia. It is simply those "horrible" or less than acceptable, sometimes humorous, sometimes shameful things, Nigerians do. So, let's ride on!!

I went for the NI ( National Insurance ) interview a couple of months after getting to the UK. The office was a long, open one with lots of tables for interviewers. Of course, the interviewers belong to different nationalities, same goes for the applicants. All the while, i observed a particular interviewer to be a Nigerian, though hanging a name "Agnes" on her chest. From her accent, there was no doubt she belongs to the motherland. So you can imagine my joy ( or appropriately sorrow ) when she called my name. She started by trying to discover possible lapses made by the British embassy and the immigration officials in granting me a visa. She over-scrutinized my passport, asking series of perplexing questions on the type of visa i was carrying. All i came for was to be given an NI number so that when i work, necessary taxes can be deducted!
When i expressed my opinion that she seemed to be going beyond her brief, she said and i quote " when it comes to you Nigerians, one has to be doubly sure"!!! I was dumbfounded! At a stage, i felt maybe i made a mistake. Maybe she was not a Nigerian, but her accent left little doubts. I looked closely at the documents on her table and saw " Agnes Adedeji ". God, here is the case of pot calling the ketttle black - or how do they say it again? Contempt of a Nigerian for fellow Nigerians.
    Brothers and sisters, there are stories to tell. We simply need to change our behaviour and attitudes as Nigerians. Rudeness is entrenched in our psyche. Unwarranted or simply put, senseless pride remains our albatross. A trip to the Nigeria High Commission at Northumberland Road in London creates a solid picture of how not to be civilised. How not to behave, in short. You meet extremely rude and pompous officials. Any prior patriotic feelings of being in your country's premises evaporates on getting to this odious edifice. They are never ready to assist and never taught or knew anything about courtesy or politeness.
    We can go miles and miles. But it is not only the public officials who are guilty. Even the common man on the street has his own portion. But i must not state everything, else i end up in a court of law. Remember our dear President who was confronted for not responding on time to a disaster in Lagos a couple of years back? You know his response? " I don't have to be here, "! This is to a national disaster!!
    I am waiting brothers/sisters. What do you have to say?!!!

Shalom!!

Sorry my brother. I read your ordeal and I couldnt help but to feel for you. You are just another victim of ethnocentricism. The way you were treated at the interview is a fall back of the way the west are looking at Nigerians. You are lucky that you were not subjected to degradatory scrutiny at the airport when you arrived UK. That has been the experience of most of my friends who have travelled to UK on the paltform of HSMP and other legal schemes.

If you are very conversant with the western media, there was a recent documentary about fraud and identity theft in the US. CNN has aired this documentary 2 times in less than a month. The documentary showcased Nigerians as the major perpatrators of these dastard crimes. If "Agnes" went out of her brief to scrutinize you,knowing fully well that she is not oblivous that you are her brother from Nigeria, do not take offence in that. The poor woman is ust trying to do her job, only with some level of unguided overzealousness.

The image of Nigerians  in diaspora has already been tarnished and we relly on people like you out there to make the difference.

Let me end with my experience with the processing of HSMP. I also applied with all the relevant documents when the processing fess was just E150. The applicationwas not considered untill more than a year (13 months) after the submission. You want to ask the outcome of the application? Refusal of course! Refusal on the basis that the Home office could not decide on the athenticity of the tax clearance I submitted. Unfortunately this is where I needed to claim the required points for qualification.

The tax clearance system in Lagos state was change during the period my application was in the backlog; and now I was to be assessed with the new tax clearance that was not in existence when I submitted my application. However I compplained about this and the response was that I needed to submit the cureent Electronic Tax Clearance Certificate (e-TCC) from Lagos State. As you know very well this entails applying afresh since you are submitting fresh and new evidence.n This I did with the payment of the reviewed processing fess of E315. 3 weeks later my apllication was returned unattended to but the fess was not refunded. The reason they gave was that the local embassy in Nigeria has advised them to cast doubt on the authenticity of the (e-TCC). I strongly protested this and even told them that they can confim my tax dtails on the internet but all proved abortive. After the presribed 2 reviews I had to give up.

I later came to conclussion that I have paid dearly for the sins of other Nigerians. I was just a victim of the same ethnocentricism. But I have since left everything behind me. I have to face life and wish to change this already marred image of our.

Shalom to you my brother.[/color][color=#990000][/color][color=#990000]

Shalom Brother Muyete,

    I wholeheartedly agree with you about the sordid acts of we Nigerians. I must say that i cherish all you wrote and indeed fully agree with you that we ought to change our psyche and national orientation. Brother, did you observe something? Responding to this thread has not attracted much reactions from fellow Nigerians simply because the topics raised therein touch our collective conscience. It is a topic wherein each and every Nigerian is guilty one way or the other, to a greater or lesser degree. It is not as attractive as discussing the "beauty" of some half-baked homemade video stars. We are not honest with ourselves in Nigeria. We leave the substance and pursue the shadow.
   Nigeria's image is battered both inside and outside our shores. Our leaders are nothing but a pack of disgrace. They care little about the country they claim to lead. They are more concerned with their pockets and amassing dubious wealth in Europe and America. We the followers are no better. Crime is our hobby in our quest to get rich at all cost without sweat. Your experience with HSMP is no doubt borne out of the general distrust for anything Nigerian. It is rather unfortunate. However, i feel that the likes of "Agnes" are not helping the situation. Not one bit.
   On my part, i try to do what i can, making honesty and integrity my watchword. I do not claim to be a delibrate ambassador for Nigeria. I am just what i am. However, i do believe that with proper orientation, good governance, eradication of poverty, increased access to quality education, Nigeria can definitely go places. In this i am convinced.

  Bracing up for more responses!!


 Shalom!!

Shalom to my brodas _{(Shalom seems to be getting too much here)}

You will get better participation if this thread is placed in a different section. Racism, Tribalism, Sectarianism perhaps

Shalom all the way anyway.

Thanks, Stranger 12. Over now to the moderator for possible re-listing of this thread as suggested.
Shalom can never be too much. It simply means peace.
Nevertheless, thanks for your suggestion, once again. It is really Shalom all the way!!!.


Shalom!!

Dear Readers,

We Nigerians do horrible things - so many indeed. I am stil waiting for the responses. However, is it possible to say that our bad deeds could be beneficial in a way? Please read this and give your comments. Happy reading!!

Dear Brothers,

I was wondering why it took so long why anyone would contribute to such a very sentitive topic as this. I began to ask questions that could it be true that it is onlyn Hsmpwise and Stranger 12 are the only few people on the surface of earth that are concern about the ill treatment our other brothers are mete with on daily basis.
NO! Absolutely no! It is just that most of us have resorted to fate and prefer to smile in the heat of suffering.

Little wonder that the Administrator has been less concern about the topic. This explains why a "catchy" to as this has not been properly classified at three weeks after posting.

Brothers I weep for the black race. It is only when the batle within is fought and won that the batle against stigmitisation of black race could be won.

Shalom Brothers!

Damn! My experience when I arrived Ghana was so very bad.

Here in Ghana, the word "Nigerian" is virtually a synonym for thief, prostitute, armed robber, fraudster (419), con-man and all the evil vices under the sun.

Can you blame the Ghanaians? Hardly. Fellow Nigerians have seen to it that our image is tarnished everywhere.

It is commonplace for armed-robbers to be arrested here, all Nigerians. Though some of them take up Ghanaian aliases, their English and real names give them away.

Its sad and emberassing to even tell pple you Nigerian, Even Ghana has a better Rep than Nigeria,

You are right.

Such is life. One thing I am very sure about is that no one can make you feel or look inferior without you express consent.

We the black race are endowed with unchallengeable dignity we need to keepn that wherever we find ourselves on the surface of the globe.

humm

There is no doubt that this is a very unfortunate situation that calls for serious actions from all those concerned ,but one thing must be made clear about this ,treating someone in bad way because of crime you have no prove that he committed is wrong , generalizing every Nigerian to be some kind of criminal is wrong ,if you don't have prove that someone is braking the law ,then u have no reason to deal with them differently ,this is my stand on this issue .

Good talk

my heart bleeds for us all

i was duped last year December by a so called Barnabas Nwanih who said he lives in the UK and promised to help me.

Everything went smoothly till when he told me to send him a little amount of money so as to facilitate the amount he have been spending in the Uk for my tickets and all that.

I later found out that he is fake when he gave me his resdiential address at Enugu, locating the place took me the whole day. And was like, reporting this issue to the police will cause me the whole year since they are also corrupt.

This is not good in any way, we are not portraying the image of this innocent country both at home and abroad, we undergo series of severe scrutinization on the ports of entry of other countries, interrogations and what have u are uncountable. Nigerian green international passport is now an object of attraction at other country's borders as immigration oficers are always alert on sighting it.

The resources(natural) that God gave us is being manipulated and embezzled by our so called (dubious) leaders. Which is the main source of fraud and poverty in Nigeria.

To me, i can will not be wrong if i say that Nigeria's disease is incurrable, nobody can make this stigma off our lives, even if a Bishop rules this country nothing will happen as per checking fraud (efcc are not doing much), it will only take God's intervention for this country to revert to its fame jsut as every other country needs to be.

We all should try to live a positive life and not to cheat and embezzle in our various communities both home and abraod.
PRAY FOR NIGERIA !!

As a new person in the UK, I bet you must be expecting some favours because that use to be the case in Nigeria. What you must know is that every goverment official here goes by the book and that is why everything works. Even if she were to be your blood sister, don't expect any favour from her. If you are not qualified to have a National Insurance Number, don't expect miracles because you happened to meet someone with a nigerian name. Get real brother, you are in the UK!

It's nice knowing that this thread still generates interest. Really, it goes beyond my experience with the Nigerian NI office lady - that was just a starter to kick off the thread. I hope Jaybee 2412 would take note of this point because he really missed it! I never went to the NI office looking for someone with a Nigerian name or seeking special favours because i met a Nigerian. The focus was on the contempt of Nigerians for Nigerians. Could this be borne out of the horrendous and shameful acts and escapades of our fellow citizens? Or could it just be an inborn malaise in us?Indeed, this is not the best of times to be a Nigerian in foreign countries!
When you may want to believe that an end is near to these shameful stories about Nigerians, you only need to open the dailies to read more. You can imagine my shame when lately Nigerians occupy a position of dishonour and shame in British dailies. It is almost an everyday news. Nigeria never participated in the Iraqi war, but would you believe that some Nigerians are benefitting immensely from this war. They sit down in London and pocket allowances of British soldiers at the war front through their shady connections and deals. They are now serving jail terms, having been caught by the long arm of the law.
If you say that is enough to digest, then what do you have to say about the Nigerian couple recently ordered to refund £1.5 million of scam money? Money made from sending scam mails to people promising to deposit huge sums in their accounts. The stories are endless and i can go and on. Some say we are simply ingenious and only outsmarting less endowed others, but it is my humble conclusion that we are simply sick as a people. Ingenuity we possess that made us incapable of ruling ourselves, of creating a peaceful and prosperous nation. Some ingenuity!!
So, what are those horrible things Nigerians do? Can we start creating a ccompendiumfor them? Nigerians are extremely dishonest. Nigerians steal and kill. Nigerians are scammers. The word Nigeria is an international liability, Brothers and Sisters, the adjectives are endless!!!