Nigeria: #OccupyNigeria Holland - Q & A

I attended the #OccupyNigeria Holland peaceful protest (pictures) in front of the Nigerian Embassy in The Hague yesterday and I was asked a number of questions which I believe I should flesh out in a separate blog.

I cannot offer total recall of those questions but here is an idea of what I was asked and the responses I gave to those questions.

Q: Why are you here?

I am here as a Nigerian to join with other Nigerians all around the globe to protest about issues going on at home with regards to corruption, governance, waste and non-representative democracy. Being in the Netherlands, I felt it was the least I could do to show my support beyond my online activism.

Q: Do you not think that corruption pertains to all citizens in Nigeria?

Indeed, it does but leadership matters in all these things. Leaders are needed to give a direction, inspire the people, create a vision and set example. Without essential leadership in the fight against corruption, the people will become like an army without a general or strategy, they’ll be scattered and listless, meaning nothing can be achieved.

Q: Do you think Southerners being attacked in the North should leave the North?

My early years were spent in the North, even though I am a Yorubaman, I do speak Hausa, they are my people too in the North, I cannot ask them to leave their homes because of the problems.

[Pressing me further on this point.]

To me, there is no Northern Nigerian or Southern Nigerian, we are all Nigerians and we are all affected.

Q: What do you think about the outsourcing of the Visa services?

[Now, I have never used the Visa services of this Embassy]

I have no problems with the outsourcing of the Visa services if it makes the system more efficient. For instance, a few months ago I used the outsourced Visa services for India and the process was completed within 5 days.

Q: What do you think of the turnout?

Other Nigerians might be busy but that the point being made here is that anywhere in the world where Nigerians exist they will come out on the issues that concern their country. For those who could not make it, I will hope that they are able to help and contribute to essential change our country needs in any small way they can.

Q: What is your view of the embassy to this protest?

I am disappointed that they did not engage, apart from the man who came out to receive our letter, they all cowardly hid behind the curtains looking at us like aliens despite the fact that we clearly said we had nothing against them and that we are all Nigerians.

[When asked about the ambassador.]

I have not been impressed with her, when she first arrived in the country, the first speech she gave implied that Nigerians in the Netherlands were not law-abiding and I blogged about it.

Besides, all Nigerians abroad are unwilling (I meant unwitting) ambassadors of the country to all our communities but much more is expected of our official ambassador to be more positively representative of us in this country. I cannot say I have seen much in that regard.

Other comments

Conversing with a fellow Nigerian in Belgium who was involved in #OccupyNigeria Belgium, she said all the embassy staff came out, addressed them, put up pictures of the ambassador and almost took all the credit. Sadly, that cannot be said of the embassy staff in the Netherlands.

The only ones who came out were smokers who needed a cigarette or two. In fact, I noticed that the mailman who had a pile of envelopes – possibly visas and passports was told from the window of the embassy to return at another time.

Nigeria: #OccupyNigeria Holland and the chickens in the embassy


YouTube videos from 9JA.TV of some the interviews conducted yesterday.

Nigeria: #OccupyNigeria Holland and the chickens in the embassy

Cordially invited

I received notice by email on Sunday that #OccupyNigeria was coming to the Netherlands. Sometimes I am amazed about how more engaged I am with Nigerians all around the world through social media than those with a Nigerian heritage in the Netherlands.

At least the few I have spoken to with regards to the issues in Nigeria have been apathetic if not hostile to the idea that the little we can do in the Netherlands could be of any effect.

In my opinion, I beg to differ; it is important that Nigerians anywhere and everywhere in the world are seen to have a unity of purpose and direction to move towards obtaining that long held view that we are people of a country with great potential.

The arrangements

The convenor of the #OccupyNigeria protest in the Netherlands or for simplicity sake #OccupyNigeria Holland had arranged for a peaceful 45 minute protest at the Nigerian Embassy in The Hague though I did call to ascertain this morning if we were to prepare to be jostled by the police. He had received the requisite permits and made out the placards that attendees could hold up outside the embassy.

I had planned to arrive with 10 minutes to spare but by the time the connections between train, tram and bus were made, I was sadly 10 minutes late.

At #OccupyNigeria Holland

By the time I arrived at the embassy, the leaders were chatting to an official who came out to receive the letter of protest, gave some assurances to pass on our message but took no questions and returned to the comfort and security of the embassy building.

A number of press organisations were there as Radio NetherlandsWorldwide (link to their report) and journalists from 9JA.TV, we were interviewed about why we were there, what we came to achieve and our views about the turnout at the protest.

Primarily, I thought it was a disgrace and utterly disrespectful whilst smacking of cowardice for the staff of the embassy to hide behind the curtains of the building peeping out to see what we their fellow Nigerians we up to as if they were unconcerned and we were a spectacle to behold.

The turnout was not high, we are just about 15 as someone wryly noted that if the embassy had called a party the troops would be out in droves to attend and be jolly. Our resolve was however not diminished; for the concerned and the apathetic Nigerian, we are all affected and every little we can do for its progress is commendable.

We are Nigerians

The most important point I had to make was in response to the question about the terrorist attacks in the North and whether I would advise my relations if they were from the South to return home.

I made the point that part of my upbringing was in the North even though my parents are from the South-West, that I speak Hausa which is the language of the majority in the North and that there is neither Northern nor Southern Nigerian – we are all Nigerians together and wherever they are terrorised, they are my people.

Besides, we cannot ask those who live in the North to leave the North for the terrorists.

As we stood in the cold, the men with loud voices voiced our views on corruption – I held up a “No to Corruption” placard, on the fuel subsidy, on bad leadership and the sadly inefficient and lackadaisical attitude of the embassy in the Netherlands.

We stressed that we were not against the government but at the same time, the government and more pertinently, the staff at the embassy had to earn the trust of Nigerians in charting the progress of Nigeria.

Making our point

We sang the protest songs almost like socialists and concluded our protest with singing the National anthem loudly and proudly.

It was the little we could do from the Netherlands, but once again, the authorities are put on notice that Nigerians wherever they are in the world can organise, gather, project and protest with regards to issues back home and how we are represented in the Netherlands.

As we all know, the #OccupyNigeria protests are part of the multipronged approach to take our country back from the rot and rut that has plagued it for decades, we will not relent and we will not despair until our country begins to work and live out the potential it has always had but rarely realised.

It was a pleasure to meet other concerned Nigerians – Long Live Nigeria and God bless our dear fatherland.

A Slideshow of the #OccupyNigeria protest can be found here. Hopefully, I will get links to pictures showing my visage too. Thank you - Sahara Reporters for your coverage - Our Protest and the PhotoNews.

Nigeria: #OccupyNigeria New York townhall disruption

On Sahara Reporters

Now, I am not the greatest fan of Sahara Reporters but I realise that in a country like Nigeria the need for a guerilla news agency beyond the reach of government or powerful influences is critical and important.

I have always contended that they need to be more professional with a better editorial policy, an independent funding arrangement and some control of the quality of commentary that accompanies their stories.

As I learnt to my chagrin and annoyance, some two years ago having praised Sahara Reporters on my blog, their editorial team ripped off my article wholesale and posted it verbatim without acknowledgement or attribution and gave the impression I was a guest blogger when I was not at all.

The interesting knowledge gained from that experience was when I eventually got to see the 33 or so comments posted with relation to my write-up only one appeared to comprehend fully what I was talking about, the rest of the comments were redolent of ignorance and a strange pall of illiteracy that put keyboards at the fingertips of cretins.

Some lessons

Recently, the front-man of Sahara Reporters attended a town-hall meeting in New York where the Minister of State of Foreign Affairs was the guest of honour. He successfully disrupted the meeting which was recorded and posted on YouTube and he made some very crucial points that representatives of Nigeria going abroad will pay heed to appreciate and note.

We are well informed of activities in Nigeria and the global cachet of Nigerians is able to project and protest anywhere in the world.

The idea that Nigerian dignitaries can utilise African time when going to events abroad where we do keep to time and are punctual will no more be condoned. In this case the Minister was shamefully 90 minutes late.

We are not in thrall of people in power, if you are in public service, the element of service to your countrymen has to be paramount, the idea that you will be revered as some potentate with an air of mystique is so last century.

Patriarchy is dead, if you are expectant of respect by reason of the office you hold, you will have to earn it by merit, with competence and the honest engagement that accords respect to the people you desire respect from.

Causing serious embarrassment

The Occupy Nigeria movement has a global outreach and it is evident that despite the fact that the President in his concessional speech revisiting the fuel subsidy issues by promising to cut unnecessary travel, this minister was almost aimlessly gallivanting around the United States with the penchant for arriving late at all events she was invited to.

Though there were Nigerians in Diaspora ready to fawn in supine sycophancy in the presence of Nigerian politicians the goal of Mr Sowore was to call out this minister and in the process address the burning issues going on in Nigeria whilst embarrassing the minister seriously for her classless and reprehensible behaviour, not to talk of the inability of the government to really cut back on the profligacy that had become part of the gripes of the Occupy Nigeria movement.

Mr Sowore made his point by disrupting the meeting and he probably could have been a bit less volatile and abusive in his delivery so as to make even more reasonable points. The meeting eventually commenced after that representation of Occupy Nigerian were escorted out of the venue by the New York Police Department but not before an 11 minute recording had been made which will have the minister having to do some explaining and clarification with regards to what that video clip purports to suggest.

Reviewing the video clip

Without doubt every news organ has an agenda and it behoves them to pursue it with fervour, but it also important that the organ maintains a principle of credibility and integrity for purposes of posterity.

I cannot say if Mr Sowore’s edition of that video had sinister intentions to embarrassing all Nigerian representatives to the point that their positions become untenable. That might be scalps for Sahara Reporters but it does their cause no good at all.

At issue with that video is the idea that the minister and representatives of the Nigerian Embassy in New York sat through the recitation of the Nigerian National Anthem and a cursory viewing of that video appears to suggest that they disrespected the National Anthem and the ensuing consequences will be grave. Many of the comments I have read had both excoriated and condemned those officials but I not convinced that they did sit through that fervent expression of patriotism.

Within the first 1:07 minutes of that recording, there is enough evidence to indicate that the editing of this film clip has either deliberately or inadvertently besmirched the loyalty of these officials.

I have taken timings in playing back that video at normal speed and detailed my observations to support my view.

00:00 The lead in to this video clip introduces the subject of this recording.

00:04 The national anthem was already being sung as the narrator began to set the stage for the event.

00:14 The man at the podium was talking to the audience from what one can see of his demeanour; he could not have been doing this whilst the national anthem was being sung, indicating the audio recording of the anthem was dubbed over the video.

00:30 The lady that approaches the podium after the man also appears to be talking to the audience.

00:35 The lady glances toward the high table as if to acknowledge the people sat there.

00:38 The lady in the black jacket walked over to confer with the lady speaking at the podium.

00:42 The camera pans to the back of the lady in red who appears to be holding a microphone and maybe asking questions – at no other time are we shown the audience singing the National Anthem after the glimpse at the beginning of the clip.

00:59 The clapping at the end of the audio playback of the national anthem appears to be in acknowledgement of the man getting up on the right as he makes for the podium. The minister and the other man are clapping too, it cannot have been for the end of the national anthem.

01:05 As the man approaches the podium we hear the voice of Mr Sowore who seems to have commandeered the microphone and you can see the attention of those sat at the high table directed towards him.

My submission

I will suggest that no matter how late meetings start for Nigerian gatherings there will most probably be a call to prayer and the singing of the national anthem.

In both cases, I will expect that the master of ceremonies will expressly as all in attendance to rise for prayer and then rise for the singing of the national anthem.

It is unlikely that the singing of the national anthem will be a spontaneous activity and hence if the people are asked to rise to sing the national anthem it is almost impossible to contemplate the situation where those at the high-table with expressly ignore that request and sit through the national anthem.

By circumstance, tradition or even rarity, one has to submit that the video was an edited version of the event which inadvertently portrays a side of the story that does not represent the whole truth and by so suggesting the official disrespected the national anthem – there is no indication from that clip that those officials did not rise for the national anthem and until one expressly shows that they did not respect the anthem it will be unjust to suggest impunity.

I will be ready to review any other recordings of this event either to corroborate or dispute my views but this video by commission or omission on the matter of respecting the national anthem is unfair, unjust and heaps opprobrium on the officials to foster an ulterior and dastardly motive which is at best unconscionable if not dishonest.

Nigeria: Our Golden Jubilee celebrations in Holland

There’s a party to attend

It was for the Golden Jubilee celebrations of Nigeria’s independence in the Netherlands that I thought for once in the 20 years I have been in Europe, I would seek out a Nigerian event and attend.

The programme for the event appeared as a Facebook status message, a graphic with alternating green and white backgrounds and text as a homage to the flag of Nigeria.

It is impossible to clearly identify how the Nigerian Embassy in the Netherlands gets news of events out to Nigerians resident in Nigeria but from this notice it is fair to say no lessons have been learnt from criticisms given years before about publishing such notices.

Facebook triumphs

A five day programme of events commencing Wednesday the 6^th of October 2010 was published on Monday the 4^th of October 2010 on the Nigerian Embassy Facebook page and there was no indication of these events on the now much-maligned official website [1] of the embassy.

Maybe when it comes to these events, there are people in the know with the town-crier penchant for information dissemination and using the modern modes of communication and advertisement is for those of us who are to fill the halls for attendance rather than for recognition of our Nigerian affinity.

Therefore, the business forum events of Wednesday and Thursday might well have been attended by those in cahoots with others in cahoots with them who swarm the premises of the embassy which I am made to believe is no better than a raucous marketplace at the best of times.

Though on closer inspection the embassy seems to do much more on Facebook than its official website, if you are not on Facebook, you are not in the loop. It makes you wonder if social networking with its restricted access is the smarter way of information dissemination when the public web presence is the one the most visitors will encounter when searching or information about the embassy. This is begging for a new IT and publicity strategy.

Over here and over there

The Friday Muslim Juma’at service would have catered for those of that persuasion just as the Sunday service would have for the Christians; for a country with at least 10% animist following and a greater percentage of those who dabble in multi-faith allegiances for immediate safety and eternal judgement, no allowances were made for that middle ground of Nigerian heritage.

Saturday was programmed as a full day of events; a novelty football match between Nigeria and its more credible rival Ghana in Amsterdam; and then in Rijswijk a suburb of The Hague - an arts and trade exhibition, a lecture and cocktail and a gala night.

We arrived at the venue thinking we were late for a well organised event when at the entrance we were being offered wrist bands for Nigeria or for supporting the candidacy of the President for the 2011 elections – surely, even if the becoming an ambassador is a political appointment, open politicking under your watch giving partisan advantage to people is definitely not on.

We refused the wrist bands and were immediately accused of lacking patriotism, to which I retorted, our patriotism was already evident in our gracing the poorly announced event.

We were then asked to sign an attendee’s register and I could not help but noticing that there were probably over 150 people there for the event and I was just about 20^th on that register.

Farts and tirades

What passed for arts and trade when we eventually cottoned on what they were would not have helped promote either tourism or trade in Nigeria; for the 1^st time observer, they would have been none the wiser about what any of the statues, material or pictures meant.

In fact, there was nothing indicating what trade Nigeria might be involved in, I dare say, people who have walked the corridors of the embassy might just have recalled seeing those statues before – a nation of 150 million with 400 ethnic groups and centuries of tradition and culture could be better represented with an “Ibeji”, a Benin Bronze, a Nok culture terracotta pottery piece that I believe the Dutch will be familiar with just walking up an exotic antiques street anywhere in the Netherlands.

Die of thirst lowly ones

On arrival we each got a drink but as the day wore on and the programme was running late without any sign of the dignitaries, we could no more sate our thirst as bossy officials stepped up to bar the stewards from serving any drinks to anyone but the distinguished guests of the high table who had not yet arrived and no allowance was made to purchase drinks if needed, certain guests got desperate almost to no avail, thirty and hungry without any idea of if they will survive the night.

About an hour into the scheduling, the ambassador appeared but proceedings did not start for another 30 minutes and when they did start, no one had the courtesy to announce that the national anthems of Nigeria and The Netherlands were to be played, we were well into the first before everyone realised the need to stand up.

Scratch that speech

The compere with his suit fully buttoned up, that is all buttons made no apologies for the late start of the events and the ambassador was introduced twice with all her extraordinary and plenipotentiary titles before she came to the podium where the sounds system dared to spare us for a while – she holds a PhD in something but I suppose her welcome speech was to appeal to the common man in the language of the lowest common denominator

It is the only excuse I could give for the lack of rigour or erudition in the speech which ended in the same admonition I rebuked her for [2] when she was appointed ambassador in 2008. If the ambassador cannot find herself apparently honest, trustworthy, law-abiding Nigerians to engage with that to trot out this tripe; that is unfortunate.

Tell me about this tribal frolic

The glossy programme pamphlet had this whole event set for the venue of the Town Hall in the Hague, but this venue was in Rijswijk; as the order of the programme was dispensed for a hotchpotch of activities with dancers from Edo State coming on stage and squealing down the microphone everyone clueless of the words and intent until at the end we were told these songs were for the Oba of Benin.

I remember visiting opera houses in the Netherlands and where the performance is in another language you either have a narrator and/or sub-titles to describe what is going on – this performance could have well been in a hamlet with the women pounding the brown earth welcoming the bwana in their midst.

The cacophony continued for 30 minutes before the keynote speaker was introduced, that was we thought as the person we thought was the professor rambled on for another 10 minutes before the professor was then called to the podium.

Not the texture of a lecture

I was expecting a lecture, the man sitting in front of me had his head in his hand with a feeling of utter despair if not embarrassment, and only a comforting hand on his shoulder brought a smile to his face.

This professor of some sort of policy failed to acquit himself well, it was not a lecture but a polemic of rehashed clichés about Nigeria, I found no original thought or exercise of productive reasoning but a throw-back to vocal affirmation typical of Nigerian Pentecostal circles, dripping with religiosity and lacking in the rigour expected of a supposed senior academic – I had to ask if the speaker was really a professor.

It might well be that he is not that much of a public speaker but is much better at his day job, however, we much genuflect to people with academic titles and applaud twice more even if we have learnt nothing new from his lecture which the ambassador commended as having ideas that she can convey to the president another holder of a PhD who is begin to fail to exhibit the class, demeanour and conduct expected of those in high office with his bungling of the bomb attacks in Abuja on the 1^st of October.

Breaking rumours for facts

At that point, I had had enough of this atrocious charade, though as people began to sink their teeth into the food and the expectation of jollity, every need to objectively review events to that point would have been lost.

The programme suggested a popular musician (9ice) would be in town, performing in The Hague, but no one was sure if he had even managed to get a visa to visit the Netherlands and perform.

The rumour mill was in full tilt and no one had a story that had a sense of veracity, eventually, 9ice appeared at a venue in Amsterdam where the patrons were fleeced anything from 25 Euros onwards to listen to him.

I have no clue who 9ice is, but if anything was evident from the events of yesterday, the sense of organisation is still lacking even though the jumble would end up a qualified success and one is not encouraged to waste time at any of these events if one could help it.

Suffering like a Nigerian

As I walked to Rijswijk Station, a young man, travel weary and confused asked for directions to the Nigerian event, for 2 hours he had wandered looking for this venue having first gone to the originally publicised venue in The Hague and there is every probability that there was no notice put up there to indicate the change of venue.

Poor chap! But then, how can you be Nigerian and not have to suffer the gross incompetence of fellow Nigerians? I wonder.

Sources

[1] Akin: Nigeria: One look at our Dutch website - Ewww!

[2] Frankly, Madam Ambassador, I am not impressed [akin.blog-city.com]

Cordially invited, my regrets [akin.blog-city.com]

Fortress Embassies of our times

Mum´s home school

My mum who for many years was a school principal sometimes forgot that she had left her school and she was now at home with her own kids.

There were times when we had to be so dressed up and buttoned up because as children of a school principal we had to be examples the kind of comportment expected of school children, I probably suffered to more from this control-freakery till one day that I had an outburst that we are her children not pupils of her school.

The funny thing is that it cuts both ways, we became her fashion police and there was a time we refused to let her go out dressed as she was because it would reflect badly on us the children – sometimes, I wonder if parents can handle any of the medicine they dish their children, but she gracefully heeded our concerns.

Gladly, I was never a student in any of her schools, it would have been hellish with every teacher trying to make an example of one and probably getting accolades for inflicting actual bodily harm on the premise of keeping us on the straight and narrow.

It informed the reason why I blatantly refused to attended sixth form school because it would have been in an area where my mum was quite well known – one has to be smart about these things.

My lot of gallivanting

Anyway, the reason why I brought this up pertains to a number of words my mother used to describe what I do, most especially; she reckoned I was always gallivanting, that word had two connotations, that I was a ladies´ man, well, I did have a coterie of fans and that I roam or move around for pleasure.

I suppose we can conclude that I do roam and move about for pleasure, as for the first, well, sometimes mum knows best, no further comment.

So, I have been gallivanting and ended up in Belgium, England, Germany and the Canary Islands, there is no telling where I would be next.

Democracy armed to the teeth

What caught my interest in Brussels was when I took a taxi ride from our Belgium office to the train station and noted a building with a tank, lots of soldiers armed to the teeth, quite reminiscent of a Russian Embassy of old – it was the American Embassy.

I surmised to the cab driver, that it was strange what our world had become with this war on terror or what has become the terror of our democracies in the quest for some safety from those amongst us.

Not a few days after, I was on another gallivant, in Berlin, this time and saw another spectacle of soldiers, tank, guns and an imposing building in the embassy area, I was wrong to think it was American, this time it was British.

It now appears that running the gauntlet of embassy access in foreign lands of countries that so profess liberty and freedom might be a worse event than being caught in the warm embrace of a Tora Bora event – so much for how far we have gone beyond what the terrorists first intended.

Concern

We have not completed the first decade of the 21^st Century and all that was gained in the last 50 years of the 20^th Century has probably been squandered on the quest to spread alien liberal democratic and capitalist values to hostile lands – I do wonder for the promise of 2007.