By Kate Henshaw
Again, we have  been shown how very little respect is given to a Nigerian simply because we do not stand up for ourselves and take the bull by the horn.

The green passport we carry has again been rubbished and ended up into the trash can by a group of people who we heeded their cry for help when the going was tough for them and how are we repaid,with a big slap that has resounded all over the world. I am wont to say that it does serve us right.

Greed and selfishness have caused us to sell our birthright for a bowl of broth. This is not the first time Nigerians travelling abroad or living in another man’s land have been humiliated and packaged like refugees back home. Giant of Africa indeed, and they have looked us in the eye and said, do your worst? It is time we bare our fangs.

Recall the British Airways saga that saw our people who had paid their fare to fly an airline home were made to miss various appointments and treated no better than  rags.

What did we do? As usual we made all the noise, then they pleaded and we gave in. Any other country like the United States of America or the United Kingdom would not have its citizens treated in that manner no matter if they were at fault as the repercussions would be best imagined. We take the whipping and keep on swallowing the bile forced down our throats in the form of diplomatic relations.

Well if they (South Africa) had any respect at all for us as a people and a nation, remembered the fact that we offered them help in the past in the form of our energy and resources, they would have taken that into consideration. The World Health Organisation has declared Nigeria yellow fever free but South Africa and indeed other African countries do not think they know what they are talking about. Not even the courtesy of informing the High Commissioner before the deportation of no less than 125 Nigerians was done.

To quote Femi Fani-Kayode’s note on face book last week, giving an example of the disdain, disrespect and contempt with which Nigerians are treated, “Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka at Johannesburg airport a few years ago was stopped by immigration officials and treated like a common criminal and kept waiting for hours simply because he was a Nigerian. Though he had a valid visa, he was only allowed into the country after the intervention of  South African government official who was contacted by the Nigerian Ambassador to South Africa in the middle of the night.

So unpleasant was the experience for the Professor that he vowed  that he would never travel to South Africa again”.    I have had a personal experience in the past where the reward for standing up for myself and a few others as I am wont to do; while executing my job as a professional actor and speaking out against the unjust treatment being meted out on a production set, I was shown the door and I walked out with my head held high and stood my ground! Needless to say that I was proved right in the end as things went from bad to worse on the set.

This should make us as a nation sit up, clean our house and put measures in place to make sure that the situation does not repeat itself. It does not help our image at all if yellow cards are sold openly at the airport for 500 naira. Why should this be so? How does one prove the validity of such an important health document?

Do we still need the yellow card given that it has been bastardised? What document do other countries including South Africa produce when they alight at our shores? Or do we just wave them through with their high profile Nigerian protocol officials? Is South Africa not known for its high incidence of HIV for which there is no vaccine? It is not enough to deport their citizens… . This saga has created such a furore and should stand as a lesson to us.

There are quite a number of South African companies here operating  freely and enjoying  Nigerian protection. How are we to know they are obeying our laws with regards to providing quality services to our people while they make millions of naira? They should be scrutinised and probed and if found wanting be made to bear the full weight of our laws.

Enough is enough. Nothing makes Nigerians unite more than any form of humiliation and aggression from  foreigners. We may be fun loving, hardworking, liberal and long suffering but our timidity should not be mistaken for stupidity or weakness. Though we are quick to forgive, we are a proud people .

We will push back with a vehemence that will be hard to resist. In the words of Eleanor Roosevelt. “NO ONE CAN MAKE YOU FEEL INFERIOR WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT”. We do not consent to being made to feel like second class citizens, be it outside or within our nation.