the Nigerian trouble at dollar city of Tirupur

Infiltration and trouble from a foreign country occurs in border areas – more pronounced in North East or so one thought…   may not be of such high proportions but still troublesome is what one reads from our heartland. 

Sure you know of the dollar city, the textile kingdom on the banks of Noyyal river – Tirupur, part of Kongu Nadu, a textile hub providing employment to thousands of unskilled workers.  Saw a newsitem in local TV of Nigerians causing trouble – the TV news showed groups of Nigerians as causing trouble to the womenfolk, threatening traders and taking away material at will without making any payment.  

A couple of years ago, Police went on a fresh enumeration of Nigerians staying in Tirupur knitwear cluster following  arrest of Michael Odinnaka alias Michael Okke, a Nigerian national, on the charges of sending heroin through a courier office at Erode.  In 2009, it was reported that there were only four registered Nigerians (i.e. those staying legally on business visas)  in the entire district. There was another news of a Nigerian national punching a police 53 year old sub-inspector.  Following the incident few Nigerians were picked up from the Kadar Pettai retail market  which is known to sell inferior quality goods.   At that time 9 Nigerians were arrested  for illegal stay in the country.  Police officials stated that they were arrested under Foreigners’ Act 1946.

The TV report showed many Nigerians on screen, playing football, reported the hoodlums as pilfering,  asking for money by threat and taking away goods unauthorisedly without paying for. Sure such events need to be curbed in the bud and rule of law established. 

The Federal Republic of Nigeria  comprising 36 states has Abuja as its capita.  The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in the north. Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa, the seventh most populous country in the world, and the most populous country in the world in which the majority of the population is black. In terms of religion Nigeria is roughly split half and half between Muslims in the North and Christians in the South; a very small minority practice traditional religion. Since 2002 there have been a spate of clashes, particularly in the North of the country, between government forces and the Islamists Boko Haram, militant jihadists who seek to establish sharia law.  

According to BBC, the  Nigerian city of Jos has become synonymous for the bloody violence which occasionally breaks out between its Christian and Muslim communities.   In Jos and the surrounding Plateau State, the bombings threaten to reignite a long-running conflict that has left thousands dead in recent decades.  Abubakar Shekau is the leader of the militant Islamist group Boko Haram, which has carried out a series of deadly attacks across northern Nigeria. The leader of the group Boko Haram is said to be a fearless loner, a complex, paradoxical man - part intellectual, part gangster.   BBC further reports that  Nigeria's mainstream Muslim clerics do not regard Mr Shekau as a scholar and question his understanding of Islam - and regularly condemn the bombings and drive-by shootings committed by his followers against anyone who disagrees with them.

Nigeria should be Africa's powerhouse - it is the continent's biggest oil producer and most populous country. But after decades of poor governance, most of its 160 million people are still mired in poverty. They are also divided along many lines - ethnic, religious, economic and political - and sometimes these tensions boil over into violence.

While the turmoil in Nigeria is only a news to us, the news of such lawless behaviour of Nigerians at Tirupur in Tamilnadu should be of grave concern to us

With regards – S. Sampathkumar.