My terrifying Nightmare in India

It was a good start to the beginning of a brand

new month, I just finished having fun

celebrating the Diwali festival with my

colleagues at the office and I was given two

days off work which I was really grateful

because it has been a pretty hectic October. I

and six other friends (all foreigners) of mine

decided to embark on a 12 hours bus trip from

Mumbai to Goa. I never knew I was going to

have a nightmare experience there.

We arrived at Goa the next day (2 nd

November), we settled in our hotel and rested

for a few hours before stepping on to the

beach. I met a young 15 year old bartender, he

asked me where I am from and after I told him,

he asked if I knew about the fight between the

locals, the Police and Nigerians which I said

no.

He brought me a page of the newspaper

(Herald Goa) where the story was covered. He

informed me that I was the only Nigerian

around and there was a police search on-going

for Nigerians. I was pretty uncomfortable and a

bit scared but I was there already so I hoped

for the best.

Later that night, my friends and I all went out

to an open bar. I felt so uncomfortable because

everyone was staring from the outside but I felt

a little bit better when I saw a black guy with

dreadlocks. I noticed he was not so bothered

and he was well known.

So that made me the only unknown black man

on the street with over 3000 Indians plus

foreigners. A few minutes later, the two

policemen came on a motor bike and started

talking to people in the bar. The bartender

came up to me and asked me where I was

from. I didn’t understand why he was asking

(so as all Nigerians do) I replied him with a

question; I asked him why he was asking. He

said that the policemen asked everyone around.

I just ignored him because I could not claim

being from another country.

I guess the policemen couldn’t come to me

because I was surrounded by foreigners so

maybe they thought I was not a Nigerian.

But my tension increased so much when a man

walked up to me while I was standing outside

the bar with my Greek friend. He said: Yeah

man, what’s up? (Stretching out his hand to

shake me), then he came very close to me and

said: with all due respect, a black guy like me

was killed yesterday (i.e. illustrating the

situation to me by touching my neck with his

fingers folded like a gun).

Then, he started begging me for drugs and he

was mentioning on sort of names; like “do I

know this guy, do I know this guy”. So I told

him that not every black guy you see, sell or do

drugs. Immediately, I told my friends that the

environment was not safe for me again.

We were about leaving Goa, and then we took a

taxi to Mapusa Bus Park. Unfortunately for me,

I was standing 20 metres away from a banner

with inscription – Say no to Nigerian, Say no

to drugs, in the midst of over 1000 Indians; all

eyes were on me.

Luckily, I wasn’t alone so nobody came to me;

after waiting for about two hours, we finally got

on the bus heading to Mumbai. After traveling

for 50km, suddenly, the bus driver stopped the

bus at the Police Checkpoint in Patradevi (i.e.

Goa’s border).

Immediately, the three armed policemen came

in and told me to get out; they came in to bus

to look for me because I guessed someone had

tipped them. Even without asking where I am

from, they just started harassing me. What

surprised me was that, they didn’t ask the other

foreigners for their passports or where they are

from. They asked me if I had been arrested

before. Fortunately for me, my boss who is

Indian and my friends who are foreigners came

to my rescue. I would have been victimized or

even jailed because I am a Nigerian.

From this experience and from many more, it is

now obvious more than ever before that the

discrimination against Nigerians is getting too

much especially in some parts of the world and

things are going out of hands.

I am calling on those in authority to intervene

with a view to stop this ugly trend. Let me also

use this medium to reach out to my fellow

Nigerians in diaspora to imbibe good culture of

behaving themselves properly wherever they

find themselves.

Odundun writes from India