Recently, President Muhammadu Buhari granted an interview to The Telegraph, a British newspaper and some of what he said has been causi...
Recently, President Muhammadu Buhari granted an interview to The Telegraph, a British newspaper and some of what he said has been causing outrage and opposition from some Nigerians, especially on social media.
The main issue is the allegation that President Buhari labelled Nigerians as criminals. This was held on to by Senator Commonsense of Twitter (Ben Bruce) who quickly started the hashtag #IAmNigerianNotCriminal and even got into a twitfight with social commentator, Omojuwa and Rotimi Amaechi. Due to the huge controversy, I decided to look up the original interview from The Telegraph and here is the excerpt:
Q: A number of Nigerians use the migrant routes to come to the UK to claim asylum, saying their lives are at risk from Boko Haram. Is it legitimate for them to do so?
"Some Nigerians claim is that life is too dificult back home, but then again some Nigerians have also made it difficult for Europeans and Americans to accept them because of the number of Nigerians in different prisons all over the world accused of drug trafficking. I don't think Nigerians have anybody to blame. They can remain at home. Their services are required to rebuild the country. If their countrymen misbehaved, the best thing for them is to stay at home and encourage the credibility of the nation"
Q: Do you think that Nigerians have an image problem abroad?
"Certainly. But we are on our way to salvage that. We will encourage our countrymen to stay at home, work hard and make a respectable living at home"
