Looks like things are moving in the right direction............I watch with interest.

@JettBlack...so do i with bated breath

@BlackPride
They just ignorant everyone knows Nigerians don't like death we love life too much reason why no one is willing to stake their life in other to turn Nigeria around..explains why those corrupt politicians and military leaders of the past got away with murder....Imagine Nigeria belonging to the Palestines...

Astmartin & jett..you will find this read interesting in todays INDEPENDANT.....'A world of casual racism' exposed at BA - Home News, UK - The Independent


Must give Jack his jacket......Welldone the Nigerian Goverment for bringing the UK to task for its disgusting treatment of its citizens....Jamaican Government please take NOTE!!!!

Yep,I read the whole article K and I dont doubt a word of it.Kudos to the one pilot who did come out and expose.
Like I said I totally support the boycott of BA by Nigerians and i'm glad its not just all talk, that there is now action behind it.

It's painful but not surprising to hear about that culture at BA but I think this thing is across the board in the UK not just this airline.

And it is still hard for me to write BA off because i've had so many pleasant experiences with them,one of which was a conversation with a pilot which i'll tell you about now.
This was pre-9/11 coz sadly this experience cant happen for peeps anymore,anyway this was around 98/99 on my way to New York again anyway it used to be quite a common experience on BA at least that if you wanted to have a look at the cockpit or have a word with the pilot one of the cabin crew would escort you there at some point during the flight and me being both and aerophile and aerophobe at the same time always used to jump at the opportunity.

So there I was in the cockpit,I chatted with the pilot and co pilot for maybe 10-15mins ,the main pilot was a nice guy,white of course about 50 something,who also used to pliot Concorde and he was telling me all about that and how you could see the curvature of the earth because of the height they flew at etc,etc and lots of really interesting things in general,they couldnt have been more pleasant,it didnt seem fake or forced,it was me who wrapped up the conversation and said id better leave now..or i'm sure I could have waffled on for longer.

Who knows maybe they called me all kinds of things once I got back to my seat,nothing would surprise me anymore,all I know is this is one of my highlights of flying with BA,the staff from the ground up have consistently been pleasant and polite to me(unlike Virgin)which is why i've stayed loyal,I told you how they treated me when my Mum passed,also i've been ill a couple of times on flights and they've gone above and beyond sometimes to make me comfortable...so it really does pain me to hear this about my favourite airline.

We know there is institutional racism in the police force,so does that mean now that should I be the victim or witness a crime,not to bother caling the police??(I know some would say yes)

But like I said before maybe one day something will happen to me at he hands of BA then i'll come bitching,I hope not,and I hope BA ****ing fix-up coz i'm not pleased about what im reading.

@ALL

Yar Adua getting involved in this fiasco is the biggest joke of them all to me and on par with the time Obasanjo appeared on the BBC's come dancing.

In the meantime there are at least 46 Nigerians stranded in Barbados, yet no one in the Nigerian Government has thought to order an investigation on them. Then we also have Nigerians stranded, abused, maltreated and even killed in Chinese factories! Nigerian woman are constantly stolen and forced into prostitution in Europe, raped and sometimes killed...where is the investigation? There is none as it appears that Yar Adua is concerned only with the 'Nigerians' who can afford to pay BA fares and who don't know how to behave properly on flights.

Furthermore, Omotade is a British citizen so what? Is The Nigerian government going to try and dictate to the British Government on how to treat their citizens?? Also as I have stated repeatedly, how is he so sure that everyone on board the flight were Nigerian citizens?

Talk about misplaced priorities! Why couldn't Nigeria maintain it's own airline? In the last days of Nigerian airways, which was eventually brought down by corruption, Nigerians were constantly mistreated by staff and traveling with rats on board. Yet there was no investigation. This is a country where a plane crash can happen, yet it will not even make headlines in Nigeria, let alone the rest of the world and they want to investigate another country's airline! lol!

They should get their own houses in order first before issuing bogus investigations. Anyone can see that this investigation is just another excuse more more Nigerian public money to be siphoned off into Swiss bank accounts.

Instead of an investigation to be carried out on why the Deportee in question was so desperate not to go back to Nigeria, instead of the Aviation minister to look in his own backyard and to investigate why so many condemned aircrafts are allowed to operate in Nigerian airspace which have subsequently resulted in the deaths of several hundred Nigerians, instead of an investigation to be carried out on how Nigerians are routinely been beaten and maltreated by the Nigerian police and Government in Nigeria, the Nigerian Government have the nerve to try and dictate to another country about the treatment of Nigerians who ran away from the country because of the state of Nigeria in the first place....as I said, the biggest joke of all!

As the late great Fela said, I sorry for Nigeria.

This a funny article I found on a Nigerian website concerning BA.

In Defence Of Mantu
By Reuben Abati

I was at a dinner on Friday evening (one of the perks of this job is that you get to eat a lot of free food, drink free beer, and grow a massive pot belly in the process) when someone brought up the reported case between Deputy Senate President, Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu and the British Airways. The story as outlined in the Nigerian Tribune of Friday July 2, is as follows: Alhaji Mantu wanted to travel out of Nigeria on a British Airways (BA) flight the other Tuesday, but because he had an unconfirmed First Class ticket, the BA officials could not get him a seat in the First Class category.

They then offered him a Business Class seat which he declined. "The Deputy Senate President caused a stir by delaying the take off of the flight for more than five hours. Angered by this arrogant display of power, British Airways management through the Home Office, petitioned the Presidency demanding for compensation. Nigerian Tribune gathered on Thursday that the Presidency in a bid to get to the root of the matter, summoned the airport commandant, Group Captain A. B. Chizhe to Abuja..."

This was the story that riled some of the persons at dinner that evening. One man thumped the table, protesting that what Mantu has done is a national embarrassment and that he owes all Nigerians an apology. Another fiery commentator opined that Mantu is clearly guilty of "gross misconduct" and as soon as possible, he should be impeached as Deputy Senate President. From another side of the table came the opinion that holding an unconfirmed ticket of any category is as bad as not being on the flight at all, and that the BA officials were even too kind to Mantu to have offered him a Business class seat.

One fellow, who used to have Marxist inclinations before he too began to enjoy the "dividends of democracy" asked a rhetorical question seeking to know why anybody would consider a Business Class seat infra dig. I did not quite express an opinion on that occasion, but I have since taken a second look at the story. My conclusion is that Mantu is not to blame. I propose to defend him against the sadistic protests of those who are trying to politicise what is clearly a straightforward matter.

I think the editor of the Nigerian Tribune put his fingers on the matter by titling his paper's report, with an undisguised opinion: "British Airways maltreats Mantu", even if this does not quite agree with the somewhat ambivalent reference to "arrogant display of power" in the body of the story. What arrogance is British Airways talking about

*One basic principle in business is that a company has to be environment-friendly and this clearly involves an understanding of the culture, habits and values of the people that you are serving. British Airways officials through the British Home Office, are said to have petitioned the Nigerian Presidency. Do these people know who Mantu is

* Please let us not be ridiculous. British Airways is handling this matter inappropriately. Those officials who denied Mantu a First Class seat do not understand Nigeria and they should be given tutorials about the Nigerian way of life.

Mantu is what in Nigeria we call, a "big man". The rule in this country is that a big man gets whatever he wants. He is not bound by rules, conventions or values. His "bigmanism" means that he can open all doors and do as he wishes. And nobody must challenge him, not even the law courts or government. He is a sacred cow. He is above the law. BA officials are complaining that Mantu had an unconfirmed ticket. Well, they need to be told that Mantu is not just a big man, he is Nigeria's No 5 or No 6 citizen. To be No 5 or No 6 in a country of over 120 million people

* Come on, a man like that in the understanding of the average Nigerian does not have to worry himself about confirming tickets before he travels. Once he gets to the airport, he expects any airline at all to obey his commands. By complaining about an unconfirmed ticket, the BA officials were challenging the authority of the Deputy Senate President of Nigeria.

They did not stop at that. They went on to commit the blunder of offering him a business class seat. Even Mantu's dog will not sit in the Business Class cabin. In this country, high office confers certain privileges. The Distinguished Deputy Senate President, the Rt. Honourable Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu to take a business Class seat

* If the British Airways people had done their home work very well, they would have known that such a lawmaker of high repute would not want to mix with business people. They were going to expose him to the risk of sitting next to contractors and all kinds of persons looking for government favours.

He would not have been allowed to enjoy his flight. Business people would have been coming to him with requests. And this is at a time when some banks are floating their shares in the capital market, and others are looking desperately for deposits. What if Mantu runs into one of those types from the banks and he is berated with details that can distract his attention from state business

* I even understand that those who travel in Business Class are always going about with proposals for contracts, and that any important government official who finds himself there could be exposed to a lot of harassment. Besides, Mantu is the Deputy Senate President. Even ordinary Senators do not travel Business Class. Why subject him to the indignity of a Business Class

* We have to understand that Mantu is not alone in this regard. Big men in Nigeria do not joke with that thing called "class". And this extends to their wives, children and countless concubines. They do not do all the things that we, ordinary people do. They always try to differentiate themselves. And the more uppity ones are those who came from very poor backgrounds. They will do everything to forget their own roots. I am not moralizing, but it just occurred to me that Mantu could not have sat in the Business cabin because again, it is too close to the economy class, that section of the aircraft reserved for the poor pretending to be rich and all sorts of wannabes. I am a veteran of the economy section. When you are there, people are coughing, sneezing, and rubbing their bodies off you. In fact, you share the section with all kinds, including deported illegal immigrants from Europe, drug couriers and drunkards. The economy section actually smells, and that is why now and then, the cabin staff fumigate the section with air fresheners.

A big man in Nigeria does not want to stay close to that kind of reality. The First Class cabin takes him far away, putting a distance between him and the people. And this reinforces the myth of his personality. I know that Prime Minister Blair sometimes travels economy with his family. Even the Queen once boarded a commercial flight to Asia. But that is Britain. We are talking about Nigeria, please. In this country, the leaders run away from the people. They keep us at an arms length. Again, asking Mantu to travel Business Class would have amounted to asking him to help the Nigerian Government, which bought the ticket for him in the first place, to save some money. Public officials in Nigeria do not help government to save money. They love to spend. After all, Nigeria is an oil producing country and the cost of crude oil in the international market is rising and the country is having problems determining how best to spend its excess crude oil revenue. So, why blame Mantu

*British Airways is also complaining that Mantu held up the flight for more than five hours. Please, let us be reasonable. There is something in Nigeria called VIP Movement. When a VIP is moving, it does not matter where or in what direction, the standard practice is that everything else is held up. Other human beings are stopped from moving. Their right to freedom of movement is temporarily suspended. I once spent five hours at the local airport because of VIP movement. Our plane could not move because a big man or may be his child or mistress was going to travel on that same flight. When a VIP in Nigeria wants to travel, he simply calls the airport and asks that any available flight to his destination should be delayed. After making this call, he then begins to prepare for the journey. Other passengers are kept waiting until he arrives some four hours later. They don't behave in this manner in neighbouring Ghana. But that is Ghana. This is Nigeria. Whoever wants to do business here should respect our culture. Mantu even did well. He came to the airport. The flight was delayed only because he did not get the seat he wanted. What if he had phoned at take-off time that he was still in the bathroom and the BA flight should be delayed for him

*Would British Airways have defied the Deputy Senate President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

*How should British Airways have handled the situation

* Instead of accusing Mantu of "arrogance" (who is being arrogant here by the way), they should have asked one of those 419 people who also like to travel First Class to give up his or her seat for the Deputy Senate President of Nigeria. This does not require much effort. All they needed to do was to announce specially that the Deputy Senate president of Nigeria would like to travel First Class, would someone be kind enough to give up his seat.......................



Read more at the link below.
Strange ways of the third world. [Archive] - The Nigerian Village Square

@K
Very interesting article indeed....its just not about this we need to get back to basics and let our money to the talking thats the only thing this people understand same thing goes to those trading in our communities giving shoddy service and being rude..when we boycott their azz lets see where they gonna go...enough talk we need action.....there are new forms of covert racism and injustice and we need to adapt and react to this change

@think
since you know so much about the woes of Nigeria why don't you petition the High Commission here in the UK or go run for office you sit on the NET in the UK ranting on and on as i said before you missing the big picture you really are...You need to really research how powerful nations systematically cripple developing countries especially those with resources e.g Congo Angola-Nigeria to name a few...what can you do when they are saboteurs of the West who have siphoned money to their economy suppressing everything positive..you of all people should know that what has happened to the Nigeria Intelligentsia..silenced!!!
By whom?? those who sleep in the same bed with the West..the West would never want to negotiate on the same intellectual level they rather deal with those half-wit sell outs ...as i said you need to do your work...

YT people know how to play innocent meanwhile they put all the mechanics of destruction firmly in place....all you see on BBC and CNN is the the dirty work carried out Africans killing their own people and society..
Brief Analogy... you that gave me the gun to commit murder is just as culpable for the crime
Just the other day the West showed a Chinese fleet trying to get guns into Zimbabwe if they didn't have a beef with China we would have never seen that...now cast your mind back to those years when the West covertly did the same thing...HYPOCRITES!!!
Visit the Politics Board on BNV stimulating debates and counter arguments a plenty... i cannot even get into this now do you own hard work...you are a simpleton and only see things through rosy panes...when you get off seeing all things West do as nice because you enjoy the comforts come back CORRECT!!..

Robert Fisk: It's easy to be snotty with an airline so haughty that it regards its own customers as an inconvenience - Robert Fisk, News - The Independent

Oh, those wretched "disruptive" passengers! Poor British Airways. They can't even ship off a crying man to Nigeria with the boys in blue to keep him quiet without passengers objecting and disrupting and disturbing their lovely aeroplanes. No wonder all the economy-class passengers were chucked off flight BA075 to Lagos on 27 March rather than have them object to the deportation of a crying man. Quite right, too.


Indeed, having long ago abandoned British Airways – arrogant check-in staff and Roxy usherette stewards and stewardesses – I've always thought the airline should be broken up and left with a core institution. Deportation Airlines, for example, or – if that sounds a trifle downmarket – Guantanamo Airlines, or even Rendition Airlines.

FULL STORY-CLICK LINK ABOVE

@Think
The Distinguished Deputy Senate President, the Rt. Honourable Alhaji Ibrahim Mantu

This bears no relevance to what is going on with my cousin he traveled economy and there was no bigmanism about his attitude ....we aren't brought up that way we are hardworking humble self made people

People on this board know my views on corrupt Nigerian politicians at most majority of them are illiterates and the Hausas are the worst a people of marauders cattle rearers at most..his actions are despicable and this are the sort of people that give Nigeria their 'well earned' reputation...in my mind nothing would please me more than some goon wiping off all those politicians apart from say President Yaradua who is swimming amongst sharks and slowly being crippled by all the corruption and slime around him

NBA sues British Airways for maltreatment of Nigerian
By Tony Amokeodo

Published: Tuesday, 29 Apr 2008



The Nigerian Bar Association has dragged the British Airways before the Federal High Court in Lagos, following the maltreatment of its Nigerian passenger, Mr Ayo Omotade.

In a motion ex-parte jointly filed by Omotade, NBA and its President, Mr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN), the plaintiffs are seeking the leave of the court to enforce Omotade‘s human rights against the BA.

Omotade, a Nigerian citizen and an information technology consultant based in Chatham, Kent, United Kingdom, was one of the Nigerian passengers on the BA’s flight.

He was said to have expressed concern in the way a Nigerian deportee, who was handcuffed and screaming in pidgin English — I go die o, was being restrained by the UK police officers.

Omotade, who reportedly pleaded with the officers not to kill the deportee, was said to have been humiliated and handcuffed, just as he was branded as ‘disruptive passenger.‘
The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare that the arrest, detention, humiliation and the persecution of Omotade on March 27 on board the BA‘s flight BA075 from London to Lagos without lawful justification was illegal.


They added that the development was a violation of Omotade‘s rights to personal liberty, freedom of movement and expression, protection against racial and ethnic discrimination and protection from cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.


The plaintiffs are also asking the court to restrain BA and its agents from further arresting, molesting or persecuting Omotade.


Agbakoba also wants the court to hold that as a human rights activist, public interest litigator and president of the NBA, he is competent to initiate the suit on behalf of Nigerian passengers numbering over 100 on the BA‘s flight in the public interest.


NBA further urged the court to declare that as the umbrella association of Nigerian lawyers with a stake in advancing the human rights of Nigerians all over the world, it is competent to join in filing the suit.


The plaintiffs are therefore demanding public apology from the BA, saying that the apology should be published in five major Nigerian dailies.
They are also asking the BA to pay compensatory damages to Omotade for his unlawful arrest and detention.


No date has been fixed for the hearing of the matter

The Punch: NBA sues British Airways for maltreatment of Nigerian


ONLINE PETITION ASKING BA TO APOLOGIZE OR FACE BOYCOTT The Nigerian Village Square - Home