Nigerian Government Protests Mugabe’s Depiction of Nigerians As Corrupt People
Featured, Latest Headlines Friday, April 11th, 2014
The federal government of Nigeria has summoned the Zimbabwe’s Head Chancery in Nigeria Stanley Kunjeku to protest President Mugabe’s depiction of Nigerians as corrupt.
Zimbabwe President Robert Mugabe
Reports say during the occasion of his 90th birthday, President Robert Mugabe has thrown a punch on Nigeria describing Nigerian as corrupt people.
However, the Permanent Secretary of the ministry of foreign affairs, Martin Uhomoibhi on Thursday noted that Mugabe’s statement was not only inaccurate but unfortunately coming from a President who should know that such comments are unacceptable in international diplomacy.
His words:
“He was reported to have said Nigerians are corrupt people, when he hosted service chiefs on his 90th birthday.
“We want to present the strongest protest against that statement; not only does it not reflect the reality in our country, but to come from a sitting President of a brotherly country is most unkind and very dishonourable.”
“At the point sanctions were imposed on your country, Nigeria empathised with Zimbabwe.”
Meanwhile, Zimbabwe’s Head Chancery Stanley Kunjeku has promised to forward the Nigeria’s protest to Harare.
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Mugabe might have gone too far in depicting every Nigerian as corrupt, but the reality is that this government is not doing much to tackle corruption in this country. The EFCC has turned to another thing. What of high profile corrupt allegations against many Ministers and government officials which government has turned blind eyes to. I think we should do assessment of ourselves and put our house in order instead of sending protest letter to Harare.
As Mr. President once said that is President Mugabe’s perception of Nigerians. Since it is only a perception does it really matter?
Of course, anyone is entitled to his or her own opinion by perception and a perception could be right or wrong depending of what it is and where it is coming from. However, making a statement such as : ” Nigerians are corrupt people” is a totally fallacious one because the reality remains that every single Nigerian is not corrupt but some Nigerians are just as you have in other nations. I hope that he should be able to apologize and frame his words better if it at all it is appropriate to castigate another nation with such a generalizing statement.
I agree with president Mugabe, why are we always worried about who and when truth is said…even if all Nigerians are not corrupt, is corruption not pervasive in the country? Lets be honest and repent instead of protesting and behaving as if corruption is not endemic in the Nigeria. A dealing with any Government agency, Police, Customs, Tax authorities, Immigration, Airport officials, Land Ports..will show you simply how miserable the situation is. In Nigeria, Custom officials, police officers and civil servants are wealthy and have several properties all around and no one is asking how. The families of Corrupt Government and private officials are proud to associate themselves with the ill gotten wealth of their kinsmen without asking how they made such wealth. If we do not address this negative culture of corruption…we will pay dearly for it.