World

The Killing of another Nigeria (in China)

/ Adeola / 11 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu.

These are worrying times not only for Nigerians but Africans as a whole. Racism is mounting now worldwide than any other time in human history. The problem now is that it is more of a mind game than physical manifestations. But the killings accompanying the escalated mind games in countries like Italy, Spain, Russia and now in China are indicators that racism is one of the greatest crimes in the world today.

It has not become an international norm to sentence a man to death in the absence of judicial proceedings still in these notorious countries where blacks are killed by security men or touts, nothing concretes are done by the respective governments.

Osamuyia was killed in Spain in the summer of 2007 and his body is still lying in the morgue in Spain. I can’t stop to imagine how very useless the government of Spain is. Extremely useless! It also amazes me the kind of zombies that called themselves leaders in Nigeria. I don’t see any reasonable government in the world abandoning her citizen in the mortuary of another country. It can only be Nigeria!

A Nigerian businessman has been reported killed in China recently. His death was described as brutal!
There has been a discussion on this at this forum on NAIRALAND.COM

This is a wake-up time for Africans and the black race worldwide. Something is going on and unless the black people unite among themselves they are now face with the threats of extinction and extermination. It is real and the earlier we take the bulls by the horns the better for our preservation and perpetuation globally.

We welcome people to our lands and our homes in Africa but we have been paid with negative coins on other continents. We must find out what is wrong and take urgent steps to address the anomaly.

If the world doesn’t listen to us, we MUST make them listen. Let’s put our houses in order and prepare safe havens for our children and children’s children. The ball is now in our court, let’s show how diligent we are!

Racism at the Olympics

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

My son lost Olympics gold to racism, says Chukwumerije
From Alifa Daniel, Asst. Political Editor, Abuja

 (CULLED FROM THE NIGERIAN GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER 26/08/2008)

THE Beijing Olympics may have ended, but in Nigeria, a senator, who spent his funds to send his son on a six-month training across the world, Uche Chukwumerije, has fired a protest to the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) over the manner the boy was allegedly short-changed out of contention for a gold or silver medal in the sports. Chika, Senator Uche Chukwumerije’s son, won a bronze medal.

The senator in a letter to the President which he read to journalists in his office at the National Assembly, explained that beyond protesting the injustice done to his son, his action would alert the administrators of taekwondo and the Olympics of the imminent danger posed to the sport by poor officiating.

Alluding to a racial tendency on the part of the administrators, the senator said that his protest was intended to ensure that the presence of African athletes in future competitions will be treated with more respect. “Sports should be blind,” he added.

He prayed the WTF president to replay the tape of this fight in any international sports channel and give the large international jury of Masters of Taekwondo an opportunity to appraise the fight and make their judgment, adding that such a jury with its experience and professionalism is more likely to deliver a merit and rule-driven verdict.

“I am compelled by the insensitivity which the dead ends of WTF official channels have offered to plead for justice and my fears about the deleterious effect of such deadness on the future of our Taekwondo sport to make this protest to you.

“The object of this petition is the poor officiating in the (Men’s Over 80kg) quarter-final tournament between Nigeria (Chika Chukwumerije) and Greece (Alexandro Nicholaidias) on August 23 in 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium). The officiating was so flawed that the victor was robbed of victory, and the defeated awarded an unmerited victory.

“My locus standi: What, you may ask, is my rightful interest in this matter? I am a member of the Taekwondo family – a senior black belt, a promoter of taekwondo in Nigeria and the father of the short-changed player in this disputed contest, Chika Chukwumerije.

On the grounds for his protest, Chukwumerije noted the overlook of a punishable violation of contest rules by Alexandro of Greece. His words: “In the second round of the contest, Alexandro held Chika by his chest protector and attempted an ass kick on the head, apparently in a desperate bid to wipe off Chika’s two-point lead. Holding an opponent while kicking is a punishable offence by Taekwondo rules. The referees overlooked the infraction. No point was deducted from Alexandro.”

He urged the WTF president to watch the tape of the fight and judge for himself.

Other grounds he gave were: “The attempted ass kick by Alexandro totally missed Chika who successfully ducked. But the referees inexplicably awarded two marks to Alexandro and he levelled up with Chika’s two-point lead.

  • Denial of Chika’s score – Almost immediately after this 2-2 score, Chika made a clear kick to Alexandro’s chest. Inexplicably, the referees denied him the score.

“

  • Second unmerited award to Alexandro – Three seconds to the end of the round, the referees inexplicably gave one point to Alexandro, bringing the score to 3-2 in his favour. No kick, no punch to justify this score.

“

  • Deaf ears to our Constitutional Right to Hearing of our Appeal for a Review – In accordance with the rules, Chika’s coach and the Nigerian Taekwondo leadership filed a protest to the Taekwondo supervisory board against the poor officiating. To underline the seriousness of Nigeria’s concern for the stultifying effect of this level of refereeing on the future of Taekwondo, the top management of Nigeria’s Olympic Sports Organisation (comprising Habu Gumel, Chairman of Nigeria Olympics Committee; Banji Oladapo, Secretary-General of the Committee, Alhaji Bappa, the Assistant Secretary-General, Patrick Ekeji, the Director-General of Sports Development in Nigeria, Nathaniel Nnaji, Chairman, Nigeria Taekwondo Association and my humble self) met the Chairman of Africa Taekwondo Union, General Fouli of Egypt, and re-emphasised our protest.

“We were told that the protest would be considered and a review was under way. The next shock, which hit us was a display on the television screen announcing a tournament for a third position and listing Chika Chukwumerije as a contestant. This meant that our protest received merely a nominal nod, but was never treated, unlike the protest by Britain in an earlier bout.”

He further urged the WTF president to review the tapes and come to his own conclusion.

Chukwumerije went on: “From this account, the following observations are noteworthy: First, by fair officiating, this tournament should have ended 3-0 in favour of Chika Chukwumerije. The calculation is thus:- the three points given to Alexandro were unmerited gifts and therefore a nullity. On the other hand, Chika’s three (3) points — that is, the two (2) points acknowledged by the referees and the one (1) point denied by referees — were clearly earned.

Secondly, the capricious behaviour of the judges was reflected in an unprecedented number of stoppages of the fight for consultations among the referees in the bout. As can be seen in the tape, “on three occasions, the referees stopped the fight and consulted among themselves, thereby giving a strong impression that they were unsure of their readings of the contest. Please compare the stoppages in this fight with referee interventions in all the other taekwondo fights in this Olympic Games.”

Chukwumerije noted that Nigeria was bound to be demoralised, stressing that her only protection and assurance in the sport was the hope that taekwondo convention offers a level playing ground in competitions.

“This hope has now been severely undermined,” the senator lamented, adding that “the international image of taekwondo may be soiled and its standing in the comity of world sports lowered by a growing impression of subjective and unpredictable commitment of our referees to the rules of the game.

He also averred that “the insensitivity of the Taekwondo Supervisory Board to genuine protests against provable acts of poor officiating in accordance with the rules encourages anti-compliance behaviour among practitioners. Compare the responses of the Supervisory Board to two protests — Britain’s and Nigeria’s.

In an earlier bout (Women’s Under 57kg Quarter Finals), the British coach angrily shot up from his seat like thunder bolt and protested in a loud voice against a case of poor officiating. He aggressively followed up after the contest with a strong protest to the board. The supervisory board reviewed the case, played back the tape in full view of the audience, and reversed the verdict of the judges.

In Nigeria’s case, the Nigerian coach quietly waited like a law-abiding practitioner till the end of the bout to make his protest. Nigeria avoided violence of fist or body language. The supervisory board ignored our appeal and the review of the disputed contest did not take place. We gathered from the grapevine that the supervisory council was afraid that a second reversal of an unjustified verdict would be one too many and could deal embarrassing damage to the image of World Taekwondo Federation.”

 

Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian has been disqualified and stripped of his Olympic bronze medal.

(From the  BBC)

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said the Swede was punished for violating the spirit of fair play during the medal ceremony.

Abrahamian, who came third in the 84kg Greco-Roman category, dumped his medal on the floor after receiving it and strode off in protest.

He was furious at a controversial penalty call in his semi-final.

The call decided the match against Italy’s Andrea Minguzzi, who went on to win the gold medal.

Following the semi-final loss to Minguzzi, Abrahamian, who won silver in the Athens Olympics four years ago, had to be restrained by his team-mates.

The IOC executive board ruled that the wrestler’s action amounted to a political demonstration and a mark of disrespect to his fellow athletes.

They added that no athlete will receive Abrahamian’s medal.

The Government of Spain: Please Release Osamuyia’s Body to his family!

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu.

Osamuyia

Photo of Osamuyia.

Osamuyia was killed in Spain on June 9 2007 by the Spanish Police. I have written about this several times and for the next few days I am going to remain focussed on this issue. He was killed by the Spanish Police while being forcefully deported on a notorious Iberia Flight.

Killed in Flight

Notorious Iberia Flight

Today is June 27 and the purpose of today’s blog is to Condemn the Spanish Government for not releasing the body of late Osamuyia one year after its agent murdered him.

The family is is distress and they want to be able to bury their son at home in Nigeria.

Family

Osamuyia's family in Nigeria

Mama

Chester, Osamuyia's brother
Chester, brother of the slained Osamuyia

What is wrong with the government of Spain? Does that country have a sane leadership? You cannot keep a dead body for this long and be normal, can you? The families and friends of this young man whom you murdered are waiting, they have been waiting for more than one year, to be able to bury Osamuyia.

It is time you let Osamuyia go home afterall your dirty mission was to deport him dead or alive. So what are you still waiting for?

It is time to let him rest. The Government of Spain must release the body of Osamuyia NOW.

Photos/Images courtesy of Ahaoma Kanu and The Nigeria Village Square.

RE: KILLED IN SPAIN! ONE YEAR AFTER, A CALL TO ALL NIGERIAN BLOGGERS WORLDWIDE!!!

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By Adeola Aderounmu

I would like to make a humble request that Nigerian Bloggers Worldwide set aside 4 days, June 27-30 2008, as special days for one line of publication. Can we all dedicate these 4 days in June to Osamuyia Aikpitanhi? That young man was murdered on June 9 2007 by the Spanish Police while being cruelly deported on a notorious Iberia Flight.

The story was featured prominently on the

Nigeria Village Square

and Concerned Nigerians Worldwide (CNW) organized a global demonstration to protest the brutal killing of Osamuyia. These four days will coincide with the same time last year (2007) when protest marches were organized to Spanish embassies across the globe.

It may interest you dear fellow bloggers that Osamuyia is still lying in the cold somewhere in racist Spain and his killers are walking tall and free. Our Nigerian government is bad and wicked and this is one of the pieces of evidence that we need to know that our lives remain in our hands. Being our brothers’ keeper is a moral that we should never throw away. Without that principle, millions of people in Nigeria will slip from poverty zone into the zone of extinction.

Many of us have impacted our world with our blog messages and we have teeming readership. If we dedicate those 4 days to Osamuyia, we may succeed where our government has failed woefully. The government failed to build on the Momentum gathered by CNW Some of us have no faith in governance in Nigeria. How else can one express the shocking revelation that the Federal Government of Nigeria cannot secure the release of Osamuyia’s corpse one year after he was murdered in Spain by the Spanish Police?

The Aikpitanhi Family is still in agony and pain as shown by the investigative report of Ahaoma Kanu. They are yet to get the opportunity to bury their son and brother. Osamuyia needs a proper resting place and his family would like to have him back. Let us direct parts of our publications / messages along that line.

While doing that, we must also condemn the racism involved in this entire unfortunate episode. Let us condemn racism in Spain as well as the lack of proper prosecution for the erring murderers in police uniform.

Our message will not be complete if we do not direct more of our energy towards the government at home. Let us condemn in strong terms the handling of this matter by the Nigerian Government. We can call for the sacking of the Minister of External Affairs. Maybe, just maybe we may sensitize someone who has the solution to this shameful act. We can also request for the re-call of Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain. He may be neglecting his duties.

In calling for the sack of the Minister, we can raise questions regarding the investigations that have been carried out and what has stalled the process of demanding for justice for Osamuyia. As Nigerians we deserve to know why a brother has been left in the cold for more than one year.

I hope that we can heed this call to dedicate 96 hours to our late brother and friend. He had dreams like the rest of us in the Diaspora but his was cut short very prematurely. His death has implications for our world: racism, bad governance, irresponsible public servants, police brutality, murder and negligence of duties.

By speaking out and writing boldly on June 27-30 2008, we can one way or the other change the world we live in for the better. We must also hope that Osamuyia’s body will finally arrive in Nigeria at the end of the blog dedication. This is a task started by NVS/ CNW but it is a solidarity call for all of us wherever we are on planet earth.

Suggestions for Blogging


June 27: Condemn the Spanish Government for not releasing the body of late Osamuyia one year after its agent murdered him.


June 28: Condemn the Nigerian Government for not caring for one of its own, even in death.


June 29: Comment further on the situations above and ask for the resignation or sacking of Nigeria’s Minister for Foreign Affairs for negligence of duty and incompetence. Please request the recall of Nigeria’s ambassador to Spain for not acting effectively to send Osamuyia’s corpse to Nigeria.


June 30: Condemn the Spanish government for not prosecuting murderers in its ranks and make a final call for JUSTICE and the release of Osamuyia’s body to his family one year after he was murdered by the Spanish police.

This is how I will blog these four days in addition to what I have written about this case in the past/present.

BA Lies Grounded (By Respect Nigerians Coalition)

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Written by Respect Nigerians Coalition

Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, on May 1, 2008, British Airways issued a Statement supposedly in defence of the action it took on March 27, 2008 over what it considers to be the unacceptable conduct of its Nigerian customers aboard the BA75 flight from London Heathrow to Lagos. Ordinarily, making such a statement should have been accepted as a responsible approach to dealing with the issues at stake, except that the Statement is far from responsible. Worse still, it is a wicked insult on the integrity of its fare-paying Nigerian customers.

When people who run an airline of the calibre of British Airways make the peddling of lies against customers an instrument of corporate policy, they not only demean themselves and the otherwise great institution they represent, they also abuse the trust of society. It is therefore incumbent upon decent people everywhere to expose them for what they are – little-minded people invested in prejudice and suffocating folly.

The British Airways Statement began by saying they “regret the upset that the events onboard the BA75 to Lagos on 27th March have caused in Nigeria”, yet the very next statements that followed this indicate that the last thing they’re feeling is regret. They repeatedly state that “the decision to offload passengers was made in consultation with and on the advice of the UK police, and the sole aim of this decision was to ensure the safety of our passengers, aircraft and crew”. But if this indeed was the case, why were these same passengers thoughtlessly offloaded from the plane just because a few of them dared protest the unjust treatment meted out to one of them? Was this the best course of action in the circumstances, considering that BA precipitated the protest by inviting the police and making false statements to them about Mr Ayodeji Omotade who was subsequently manhandled, arrested, stopped from travelling for his brother’s wedding, banned, had his money confiscated and his luggage damaged and held up for over a week?

However, the worst of BA’s lies was the claim that their crew were subjected to physical assault. It is instructive that throughout the coverage of this affair in the British media, BA had ample opportunity to state this (if it was indeed the case), but never did. Of course, they never did, because it never happened! The police who attended the scene never received a report to this effect and never took any statement from any member of staff supposedly physically assaulted. The police arrested only one man, Mr Ayodeji Omotade and his arrest was not based on assault of anybody. He was arrested on the presumptive ground of affray, but up till now, over two months after, he’s yet to be charged for any offence. Yet, curiously, after over a month, BA suddenly realized that their staff had been physically assaulted and felt convinced enough about this to make it into a press statement in faraway Nigeria a day after the ultimatum given to them by our organization, Respect Nigerians Coalition (RNC) expired!

BA obviously sought to undercut our resolve to make the airline see the benefit of being a good corporate citizen by cooking up this terrible lie! How was it possible that in a place supposedly under “very serious” disturbance by passengers and which needed about twenty to twenty-five police officers to restore peace only one man was arrested? How was it possible that in an enclosure like a plane, with cameras, crew and security operatives watching, only one man was arrested and not for physical assault on anybody? We have challenged British Airways in a face to face meeting with its Executives (which included Mr Adrian Mcloy, the BA Country Representative) at their Lagos headquarters to name the member(s) of staff supposed to have been physically assaulted, but they couldn’t!

We also want to use this opportunity to correct certain erroneous impressions presently making the rounds in the public space. The first concerns the idea that British Airways had made an apology to Nigerians. This apparently emanated from the report in the Nigerian Punch newspaper of Friday, 2 May, 2008 which carried the story of their press release titled “British Airways regrets the maltreatment of Nigerians“. We are hereby attaching a copy of that press release to let you see that there was nothing indicating an apology anywhere in that Statement. The fact that they claim to express regret does not indicate they’ve apologized. As shown above, the Statement is an exercise in contradiction, obfuscation, subterfuge and outright fabrication. It is indeed an insult on the collective intelligence of Nigerians! However, we note that even in criticizing British Airways, the Nigerian Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Aondoakaa accepted this erroneous impression that the British Airways has apologized. They haven’t and we need to clarify this.

Secondly, we note the intervention of the British High Commissioner, Mr Robert Dewar. The Nigerian Guardian newspaper of Wednesday, June 4, 2008 reported him as apologizing to the Federal Government of Nigeria over the incident in question when he paid a courtesy visit to the Nigerian Minister of Information and Communications, Mr John Odey. We find this a curious diversion, not only because we have no issue with the British government, but also because Mr Dewar only went on to restate the lies peddled by the airlines in the guise of apology! At any rate, we do not think the issue concerns the British government. British Airways may be a British company, but it’s not owned by the British government. It is owned by shareholders, some of whom are Nigerians. We assume that all of these shareholders have a social conscience and would not want to be associated with a company steeped in discriminatory and racist practices – a company too vain to apologize for a wrong inflicted on its Nigerian customers.

Crucially, we want to use this opportunity to thank millions of Nigerians and well-wishers who have heeded our call to boycott British Airways goods and services since Thursday, May 15, 2008. They have made us very proud and strengthened our belief in the rightness of our action. The feelers we are getting right now are that British Airways is being hit by the action and they are running from pillar to post seeking ways to stop the bleeding. Of course, they know what to do based on our five demands; but they wouldn’t do so, because it is not in their nature to apologize to Nigerians, even though they’ve done so in the past when it concerns other people. We are deepening this campaign with more actions. At this point we can only ask people to continue supporting these actions once they’re announced. You can always get information on details of the campaign from http://www.respectnigerians.com and http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com, two flagship websites that we employ for this campaign. Please, watch this space, because we are not giving up until BA does what is right by Nigerians and our common humanity.

Finally, we thank you, the Press. We thank you for your unstinting support throughout this campaign. Without you, Nigerians and well-wishers would not have been able to heed this call. Without you they wouldn’t have been able to understand the issues. Without you we wouldn’t be here. Without you British Airways would have ran roughshod over us with their well-oiled public relations machine, silencing the voice of a nation and all decent people worldwide. You know what this fight is about. You know it is not just about Ayodeji Omotade and the 135 passengers on that flight. You know it is about human dignity and national respect.

Please, keep the flag flying! We appreciate all you do. You make us proud, very proud!

Signed:

Tosin Awotesu
Ebi Bozimo
Ishola Taiwo

(For and on behalf of Respect Nigerians Coalition)