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No. 00294 |
November 1 - 7, 2003 |
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It Can Only Happen in NigeriaBy lute wa lutengano It can only happen in Nigeria. You will recall that a few weeks ago Abuja, the new capital of that most populous country in Africa, played host to the much hyped All Africa Games. Thousands of athletes and hundreds of thousands of other officials, journalists, helpers and the like assembled in Abuja for the occasion. If you remember, Tanzania came back with two medals - one gold and one silver. The athletes were later feted to a sumptuous dinner for that great ‘achievement.’ That, though, is another story all together. But the stories which came out of the games were interestingly enough not about sports, but rather about other side issues to go with the games. First came the news that there were fuel strikes. We read from various news dispatches from Abuja that the country, one of the biggest oil producers in the world, was ironically suffering from fuel shortages. The Nigerian Labour Congress was on the verge of calling for a nationwide strike against the increase of pump prices from 34 Naira to 40 Naira. This followed the deregulation of fuel pump prices to try and galvanise the country’s crumbling oil sector. Luckily the Labour Congress called off the strike just in time. Otherwise the multi-million dollar games could have gone to the dogs. That was not all that was interesting from Nigeria. There were stories of teams lacking transport, officials being locked out of their hotels because the organizers had not paid up, or the Games Village being invaded by strangers who had ‘acquired’ accreditation cards. The influx of strangers into the village had resulted in the dinning hall running out of food several times. Not even the Nicon Hilton Hotel, where delegations heads and ministers were residing was spared. Ministers found themselves struggling for meals and the hotel was forced to ignore accreditation tags that everyone had, and now was demanding room keys before one was served. "We were given a bus, but without fuel. The two saloon cars we had, were not being allowed into the village," complained one delegate. At the middle of all this confusion, the Games organizers decided to sacrifice their Chiefs of Protocol and Transport. The two, one John Attale and one Dakande Adamu were sacked for the chaos that was reigning at the games. I have remembered this chaotic scene, because in this, I have some admiration for the courage some Nigerians gather in efforts to achieve their private ends. For the last one year or so I have been receiving letters from sometimes ‘wives’, ‘sons’, ‘daughters’ or ‘confidants’ of long deceased Nigerian heavyweights wanting me to assist them repatriate millions of dollars their late dear ones left behind. Actually I now receive on average five or six letters a day. The secret is in your giving them details about your bank account and they will empty even the little that you have. I simply delete the lot. But the next day several more from off-springs of the Babangidas, the Buharis still flood in. Or for that matter, what do you make of this Nigerian who, masquerading as a priest, was arrested at the Jomo Kenyatta airport, in Kenya the other day with drugs worth 96million/-. He was not cowed down. He, on the other hand, created a stir when he started preaching to the officers who arrested him in a bid to fool them. "He appears to be very conversant with the Bible because he has been quoting various verses to win our mercy," said one police officer who apprehended the ‘priest.’ See what I mean?
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Last modified:
October 30, 2003. Webmaster: WDJMallya |
