Indonesian Diplomatic Affront: Before Asians Beat & Strip Our President By Olaide Omideyi
A senior Nigerian diplomat was treated like a common felon by some low level, semiliterate Indonesian security officials in a brazen manner without regard to our sensibilities as a nation and putting the video of the attack on social media too. The uncultured, uncouth and primitive officials not only physically tortured him, but also put handcuffs on him and insulted him by calling him rude names. The offensive video also showed one of them putting his dirty fingers in the mouth of the victim while looking very pleased with himself. The Nigerian diplomat was beaten and there were attempts to suffocate or strangle him by the Indonesian security officials while dragging him inside their car. I don’t know the offence he may have committed that warranted the flagrant violation of his human right to be treated decently as a human being. He was thoroughly humiliated and the trauma of that encounter will take a long time to be forgotten by the victim. Watching the humiliation was like being made to swallow prunes on an empty stomach. The video has made and is still making rounds on the social media and is a reflection of the power equation between African countries and their Asian counterparts.
While Asian nationals are respected and treated with courtesy in African countries, the opposite is the case for Africans visiting, living or transiting through Asian countries. Africans are treated like dogs, streotyoed as criminals and viewed as sub-human by Asians. They are made to undergo humiliating searches of their person and luggage and placed under constant surveillance while in Asian countries for no reason other than their skin colour.
This unsavory incident highlighted the need for African countries to adopt reciprocative diplomacy towards the Asians and just about any other country if we want to be respected. We need to respond to outrages like this in equal measure to teach the others that we might be black, but we must be respected. An Indonesian welder will come to Nigeria for instance and be regarded as ‘an expatriate’ and accorded privileges of a foreign professional including security protection but a Nigerian professor will travel to Indonesia and be treated like a market sweeper. The show of inferiority complex towards these disrespectful people must stop.
I personally don’t know what we are benefitting with our relationship with Indonesia because like all the other Asian countries, they are only interested in stealing, cheating and disrespecting our citizens and country. We can do without Indonesians and the other Asian countries but they cannot do without us because of the cheap raw materials, the ease of corrupting our officials and circumventing laid down rules and regulations. Let us flex our muscles against them to let them know our citizens count for something or else, these incidents will never stop.
The restitution for this crime against our senior diplomat and all Nigerians must include asking the Indonesian ambassador to return to Kuala Lumpur for consultations and an apology from their foreign minister. Their apology must be tendered in writing and published in four Indonesian newspapers with monetary compensation paid to the assaulted official.
We must again use what happened to the senior diplomat to reflect on what ordinary Nigerians go through in these countries and how countless citizens got treated the same way and were not helped by the various Nigerian embassies to get justice which emboldened the security agencies in these countries to maltreat our citizens because they know those who are supposed to protect the citizens won’t raise a finger to do it.
Our diplomatic staff working in foreign countries are not only uncaring, they see themselves as tin gods who are at their duty posts to feel big and not to render service to their fellow citizens. They treat every inquiry with a frown and request for help with contemptuous arrogance. I don’t know this kind of orientation they are given before their posting but it definitely did not include having empathy or seeing Nigerians as clients to be provided service. Our foreign service staff should realize that they too will be victims one day if they continue to treat victims of injustice in foreign countries the way they do. The chickens have a way of coming home to roost at unexpected time and place, thus embarrassing those tasked with ensuring the chickens roost in proper places.
The senior diplomat should also see what happened to him as an eye opener to what other Nigerians have gone through and strengthen his resolve to start helping the victims of the excessive aggression of Asian security personnel against blacks in general and Nigerians in particular.
The behaviour of the Indonesian security officers is a reflection of the growing feeling of imperialistic tendencies of Asians towards Africans. They really don’t see blacks as being human and if not because the idea of capturing countries and ruling over them has become outdated, we would have heard about another ‘Beijing conference’ dividing Africa into ‘spheres of influence’ for the purpose of colonialism and extraction of our natural resources again. Our leaders, who are mostly empty heads decorated with fancy caps, are kowtowing to the Asians in a shameful show of inferiority complex already, making colonial conquest by Asians a waste of effort.
Our relationship with Asian countries has always been lopsided but the relationship with China deserves a mention here for what it has become. It is apparent that China is planning to turn Nigeria to another Zambia with the amount of credit being granted the Nigerian government given that Chinese loans are secured with critical national assets which the Chinese will be at liberty to take over and control as they wish. It will be a national shame if our national assets are handed over cheaply to the Chinese because of our insatiable desire for debts. If our dealers masquerading as leaders are always going to China to beg and borrow, how do we expect them to respect us?
The future of our relationship with Asian countries does not look good as things move from bad to worse in Nigeria in terms of leadership quality. The disrespect, barbaric actions and stereotyping will grow worse as their citizens and security agencies see our citizens as economic vagrants trying to sponge on their resources because of poverty. We can expect the attacks to grow worse, the racism to become more brazen and the disrespect more flagrant. I won’t be shocked if they beat up and strip our ministers while travelling in Asian countries under the guise of ‘carrying out surveillance’ as if our own security agencies back home ever stop their citizens to ask them.for their passports and residence permits in shopping malls and restaurants.
The future is bleak snd will get worse as mentioned earlier unless our government grow the balls to confront the racist tendencies and disrespect of Asians towards our citizens. The Asians must be made to stop their stereotyping of our citizens and stop treating them as criminals. We have Asian criminals living in Nigeria and some of them have been arrested before and prosecuted but this has not made our security agencies turn every Asian they see into a potential criminal. They move around our country and are accorded respect which they do not reciprocate towards our citizens. Our senior diplomat must not be allowed to suffer this indignity to his person in vain. The lies of the Indonesian ambassador should not be accepted as there are discrepancies in the story he told. How was a Nigerian senior diplomat approached for his residence permit and when he refused to show it, the same diplomat, who was apparently resisting being dragged into the police car, requested to be taken to the police station? If the victim asked to be taken to the station, why would he want to attack the officers while being taken there? The story stinks because it is a concocted version of what really happened and should not be accepted. The fact that the Indonesian authorities have to resort to lies and subterfuge to cover up means they accepted their guilt and must be made to pay for this.
It is our hope and wish that the issue will not go the usual ‘Nigerian way’ and be swept under the carpet.
We believe our Foreign affairs minister, Geoffrey Onyeama is a man of honour and a proud Nigerian who will not fall to the temptation of going for dinner at the residence of the Indonesian ambassador and forgive them this insult over a plate of rice and sauteed chicken and wine. We await further action on behalf of our assaulted citizen and other Nigerians. This must be the absolute last time they harass our citizens but like e everything Nigerian, are we going to wait until they arrest and strip a Nigerian minister or our president before we take any real action?
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