I spent the second half of July in the UK and was booked to return to Abuja at the beginning of August.

But almost everyone I spoke to urged me to stay put because the #EndBadGovernance protests were due to kick off nationwide on August l; and violence and general mayhem were expected.

Long story short, hardly anyone could understand why I would expose myself to a country in turmoil if I could avoid doing so.

So I called British Airways a couple of days before the end of July, with the intention of changing my return date, only to be told that I would have to pay a penalty fee of nearly £600 (about N1.2 million!) if I postponed my exit from London.

I didn’t have that kind of spare cash to blow, so I decided to stick to Plan A and started to pack with a deep sense of foreboding.

But guess what?

On July 30, the day before the Naija protests started, race riots broke out in the UK, triggered by the fact that three white children had been murdered by a deranged young black man of Rwandese origin.

So, suddenly, the “safe” country I had been strongly advised to shelter in had become as potentially dangerous as the “unsafe” country I’d been strongly advised to steer clear of!

Life is full of both bitter and sweet ironies. And I can’t help wishing that the Nigerian politicians who fled to the UK with their families to avoid protests caused by their failure to take proper care of their impoverished constituents walked slap bang into wahala when they reached destinations they thought would be cosy sanctuaries!

Unfortunately for the British rioters – white far-right racist thugs who hate dark-skinned immigrants and refugees, regard them as criminals, accuse them of stealing jobs from natives and refuse to acknowledge the considerable value that many immigrants and refugees have added to the UK – no support is forthcoming from the largely white UK Government or the average white British citizen.

The bigoted mindsets and actions of “English nationalists” (as they see themselves) have been roundly condemned by their kith and kin…who are determined to ensure that they will not win this nasty little battle that they have started.

Anti-racist white Britons have organised robust counter-demonstrations to assure immigrants and refugees that they are welcome.

Thank God for the power of decent individuals…who exist in every single nation on earth and prevent evil from constantly triumphing.

In the meantime, here is what a Nigerian friend of mine quite rightly said about the anti-immigration hooligans (most of whom are semi-illiterate morons despite the free education on offer to all in the UK):

“The same jobs they’re accusing the immigrants of taking from them, they never applied for, before they were filled. And the other jobs, they lack the qualifications for.

“As for their worries about changes in their demographic; was it not the same Europeans that by their actions, drastically changed the demographic of America, Australia and South Africa, (to mention but a few).

“When 14-year-old Daniel Anjorin, a black schoolboy was killed a few months ago in London by a white assailant, did you see anyone from the black community protesting and attacking white people and their businesses? No.

To be fair, Britain is buckling under the weight of ILLEGAL immigration (thousands of people arriving in small boats from Africa, etc, via Europe every year); and Brits who are worried about illegal immigration have a point. But that is a complicated discussion for another day.

I will address the Nigerian protests when they are over, in next week’s column.

DONU’S WORLD

I have a YouTube channel. It’s called DONU’S WORLD.

https://youtube.com/@donukogbara?si=bBm_IPdFZ_wUyKYq

Check it out every Friday to watch me talking about issues that interest me and other humans. Please “like”, subscribe and share!

In today’s Donu’s World video, I talk about single motherhood.

RESPONSES TO  [email protected]  or to 0805 404 6887. (TEXT ONLY). PLEASE NOTE THAT UNLESS YOU REQUEST ANONYMITY, YOUR EMAIL OR TEXT MAY BE PUBLISHED WITH YOUR NAME AND CONTACT DETAILS ATTACHED.

Please listen to my podcast AfricaHere&NOW.

YouTube.com/@AfricaHereAndNOWPodcast

http://Www.africahereandnow.com

It can also be accessed via Spotify and Apple podcasts