From Okwe Obi, Abuja
The sealing of a Chinese supermarket at Villa 7, Royal Choice Estate, at Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, highway, Lugbe, Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Abuja, by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), over alleged racial slur and discrimination has evoked passion.
FCCPC had disclosed that the outlet which is owned by Cindy Liu Bei, (now at large), was closed for implementing a discriminatory policy against Nigerians from patronising the place.
Upon visitation, FCCPC’s Director for Surveillance and Investigation, Boladale Adeyinka, had said, “the supermarket was sealed and padlocked externally.
“CCTV footage also shows that in the morning, two vehicles departed from these very premises allegedly containing the owner of the supermarket, whom we have been able to identify by name and we have her contact details.”
When Daily Sun visited the premises on thursday, a phalanx of security personnel were sighted manning the area.
Expectedly, the development has divided Nigerians; while some lambasted the move, others questioned the avarice of Nigerians to foreign supermarkets amid plethora of local outlets.
Executive Director of Africa Youth Growth Foundation (AYGF), Dr Salifu Arome, condemned the prejudice.
“To be honest, it is preposterous to imagine that in Nigeria we are having Chinese discriminating against Nigerians.
“It does not add up by any strand of imagination, and I would advocate government to come very hard on the persons responsible for it.
“In a system where we are calling for a non-discriminatory actions against foreigners and protecting the rights of foreigners it should be a paradox to think that foreigners on the other side, are even discriminating against their host.
“I think it should be totally condemned. I strongly recommend that those involved should be punished. Of course the Chinese authorities including the embassy should be informed on the risk and dangers of undermining the rights of Nigerians as their host.
“We are aware of the abuses of Nigerians in China, and I would expect that that should never be extended to their host country in anywhere they find themselves. I think this is a call to duty for the authorities to really arrest and put it to a permanent end.”
When asked if laws should be enacted to streamline the activities of foreigners in Nigeria, he said: “I think we have sufficient laws, already. As a foreigner, you have limited right, in the first instance.
“So, for you to be a foreigner coming into Nigeria, you already have your rights and your rights are limited and clearly stated. How long you are to stay? The kind of businesses you can do, and so on and so forth.
“But having to extend your rights beyond boundaries, including abusing.and undermining the rights of others, it is something that will not be accepted.”
He added: “We are talking about fundamental rights. Both the rights of movement, the substantial rights of, you know, whatever are both available to both foreigners and locals.
“But none should actually abuse the other. It is something that is given. You know, it does not require any legislation. There are many cases of abuses by Chinese in particular.
“It is very common with them. A Chinese man killed his girlfriend in Kano State before he was sentenced to a death. We have preponderance of issues of Chinese people abusing their host communities particularly, in Nigeria.
“So, I think there is a need to engage more with the embassy to conduct proper induction for their foreigners on their new citizens coming into Nigeria.”
Also, National Coordinator of Human Right Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA), Emmanuel Onwubiko, interrogated the perceived silence of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) and the Legal Aid Council in the wave of discrimination and ill-treatment of Nigerians by foreign firms.
“What is totally unacceptable is the fact that you have a store or rather a supermarket operating in Nigeria by foreigners that discriminate against the citizens of this country. That is totally unacceptable.
“And it very unfortunate that the so -called agency of government that ought to protect consumers only shut down the place for 24 hours. What kind of redress have they provided for Nigerians? And the question Nigerians should be asking, particularly the media.
“The media should ask the National Human Rights Commission what it is really doing. The National Human Rights Commission has a very huge budget of over N5 billion every year.
“What do they do with all those money that is budgeted to them? Do they just pay salaries and that is the end of it?”
“What are they doing to advance the human rights of Nigerians? Nigerians are really being brutalised by foreign companies. You are even talking about the discriminatory practices that the Chinese supermarket has reportedly meted against Nigerians,” he said.
Furthermore, Onwubiko extended his probe to the abitrary increase in subscription initiated by a South African company Multichoice without the intervention of the National Assembly, that he claimed benefits from the raise.
“What about Multichoice, the South African TV internet provider that keeps on hiking their service charges every month? And we have a National Assembly that conspire with foreign entities to extort Nigerians and they do nothing.
“It is the role of the National Assembly to make sure that these foreign firms that have businesses in Nigeria do not cheat Nigerians customers. But the government has not done that.
“The media should demand accountability from the Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, the Senate President. What is the National Assembly doing to make sure that these kind of apartheid policies of foreign -owned companies operating in Nigeria are not allowed to continue?
“Not just that supermarket owned by China. What about cases of businesses, construction companies that are owned by foreigners, where you have Nigerian workers, that are exposed to hazards.”
He regretted that Nigerians “work under hazardous conditions. Some of them even lose their limbs and legs while working for these foreign companies. As soon as such things happen, the foreign companies will abandon the Nigerians.”
He questioned the vibrancy of the NBA, “I mean, the Nigerian Bar Association, that will make sure that their members go to court on behalf of those poor Nigerians.
“Also, we have the Legal Aid Council.
What is that agency doing? What is it doing with all the budget given to them every year? You have a lot of Nigerians who are suffering from human rights violations everywhere.
“What are their lawyers doing to make sure that Nigerians who are marginalized or who are discriminated against get legal redress?
“For instance, National Human Rights Commission has offices everywhere in the country, especially in the whole entire six geopolitical zones and in a lot of states.
“Legal Aid Council operates in all the local government area councils in Nigeria. What impact is the Legal Aid Council making to advance the legal rights of Nigerian citizens who are at the receiving end of foreign companies operating in Nigeria without observing the laws?”
He submitted by alleging that “the Minister of Labour does not protect Nigerians.
“There is no policy in place to ensure that foreign companies and even local companies operate with the highest regard for the fundamental rights of their workers, the fundamental rights of their customers, because customers are kings. Why are Nigerian workers being treated as slaves.”
Regardless of the ululation and fuss that trailed the Chinese discrimatory policy, National President, Vanguard for Transparent Leadership and Democracy, Igbini Odafe Emmanuel, lambasted Nigerians for having insatiable desire for foreign things.
Emmanuel said the angst was unnecessary, and contended that it was within the right of the people of China to own a supermarket to serve the needs of residents of “this estates who are Chinese citizens based and working in Abuja.”
He stretched his argument by saying that “the items sold in this supermarket are confirmed to be strictly Chinese consumables and food items, no Nigerian food item, which settle the fact that the supermarket is not meant to serve Nigerians.”
He concluded that “the problem with most of us, Nigerian Elites, is that we make ourselves unnecessarily inferior before other Races.
“We are not proud of ourselves, Who and What we are. As an Organisation that promote national interest, equity and justice of all, we do not find merit in this outrage as over 200 million Nigerians have no interest whatsoever in driving kilometers to this Estate and its private Chinese Supermarket because Nigerians don’t eat Chinese foods.
“Whatever Nigerians eat, they easily find in the numerous Nigerian Supermarkets or Nigerian Open Markets located in every nook and cranny of Abuja.”
