In Reply to Mr. Idang Alibi

By Mustapha El-Sabhi
Bronx, New York.
 

Ethiopia, an embarrassment to Africa?
Where is Mr. Alibi going with that?

I am a resident of Bronx, NY, originally from St. Lucia, in the Caribbean, born Alex Jones in Castries, converted to Islam by choice. My new name, Mustapha, was a second choice, as my first 'Billal,' (the first Ethiopian convert to Islam,) was grabbed by a close friend of mine, and I settled with Mustapha. If I could change and become Ethiopian, I would do it tomorrow. The strangeness about this whole affair is that of all people in Africa, such a slander should come from Mr. Alibi, - a Nigerian. O, Mr. Alibi, have you heard of 'People in glass house should not throw stones?' Well, you are in a glass house, and we can all see that you are totally naked. Now, it does not mean all Nigerians are like Mr. Alibi, but what I am about to say has a bearing on him, and many Nigerians like him.

When I was a student in London in the early Nineties, many Nigerians used to try and pass as Jamaicans, Trinidadians, Black Americans, Ethiopians, Ghanaians, any other people but... They had become notorious as 'trouble makers' in that land, no person in his right mind would rent them rooms. They are deceitful, boisterous, destructive, and try never to pay any rent. Ethiopians, on the other hand, are known for being descent and easygoing people. Why is it that Mr. Alibi has chosen to attack them the way he did? Could it perhaps, be that he is secretly ashamed of being a Nigerian, and wishes he was an Ethiopian, instead? I never meet anyone who would like to pass as a Nigerian.

When I came to the USA, I found out that the notoriety of Nigerians is even worse here than in the UK. Nigerians are known for every form of scam artistry: from credit card swindle to life insurance and car insurance fraud, to money laundering, to... you name it. The most common these days being the circulating of defrauding letters, where they ask the gullible people to deposit a few thousand dollars in this or that account with a promise to cash in on millions of dollars that President Ogun or Obolafe, Obuty, Gowan, Nugugi, Shagari, or whoever, left in Swiss banks. When will these Nigerians learn to earn decent bread and move out of swindling? In fact, swindling reached such unbearable levels that some five years ago, the then Nigerian Government along with some banks, took out a front page ad in the New York Times to tell the world of their denouncement of these activities by Nigerian crooks, and to dissociate themselves, so as not to incur any liabilities.

Poverty and famine are not something to be ashamed of. Bad character is. I, as a black man, have always felt ashamed of one thing African, - this crooked and evil trait among Nigerians, but never about African poverty. Poverty is not unique to Africa. There have been famines in many countries of the world, even in Europe and Asia. After all, African poverty is caused and engineered by the west, but that is another subject, which Mr. Alibi may never grasp. Why even waste my precious ink? The likes of Mr. Alibi would instead, blame the victim, rather than the perpetrator of poverty in Africa. While African wealth is being systematically siphoned by the west, Mr. Alibi is busy blaming the poor victims. If Mr. Alibi had eyes that could see, and a mind that could discern African poverty and its root causes, there is plenty of it in Nigerian ghettos and slums, even in the very shadow of the oil refineries of Shell, Chevron, Exxon, Texaco, and BP, to name a few.

And what can I say as a Muslim? Due to the recent events, Nigeria has become an embarrassment to me, and all Africans. But that is not all. It has also become an embarrassment to all Muslims the world over. What does Mr. Alibi have to say about that? What was the justification for some two hundred people to be killed in mob violence, and for several millions of dollars worth of property to be burnt in riots? Is our prophet, may his name be blessed, honored with such shameful activity?

Now, Mr. Alibi, if you would like to correspond with me, I would welcome it. But, why don't you first start by washing your own dirty linen piled up sky high, and waiting at your own backyard, Nigeria, before you throw stones across your neighbors' fence? Follow that with a letter of apology to all Ethiopians and other readers worldwide. But that may not be likely to come from Mr. Alibi. In fact, these types of 'attacks on the innocent' are very typical of many Nigerians, and myself and most African students in the UK used to avoid having anything to do with Nigerian students for that very reason. Someday, I hope to read from a Nigerian writer on practical ideas and suggestion of how to rid Nigeria in particular, and Africa in general, from the corrupting malady of greed and avarice currently raging uncontrollably there, reducing the common Nigerian to a grinding destitution and poverty, while these corrupt officials accumulate wealth in Europe and the USA.

Mustapha El-Sabhi
Bronx, New York.