Nigeria's Ambassador to China Aminu Wali says 400 Nigerians are languishing in Chinese jails and that one of them was executed by lethal injection last month.
Wali told a group of Nigerian journalists in Beijing yesterday that most of the convicts were tried for hard drug related offences.
He added that another Nigerian had recently had his death sentence suspended and could finally have it commuted to life imprisonment due to the intervention of the embassy.
"Something is wrong with our value system", he said, adding that he was arranging a stakeholders' meeting with leaders from a geo-political zone in Nigeria where most of the convicts came from.
He lamented that the embassy usually got to know about this group of Nigerians only after they had been arrested.
"As we speak, one of my consular officers is on a prison visit to meet convicted Nigerians or suspects still undergoing trial.
"This embassy was earlier today informed of another arrest and before the end of the day, up to five such letters may be received here," Wali said.
The ambassador said he was visiting Nigerian convicts in Chinese prisons personally on quarterly basis and ensuring that they were fairly comfortable by donating money for their needs.
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Its a bit rich coming from a Nigerian ambassador to say that "something is wrong with our value system", as if this value system he talks about applies only to those who succumb to the temptation to make easy money by risking their lives engaging in narcotics dealing and trafficking.
ReplyDeleteThe faulty "value system" cuts right across the entire societal spectrum and include the leaders themselves, and it is the responsibility of the leadership of any society to take charge of and spearhead any changes in attitudes that may be desired. Its not enough merely to criticise individual citizens, who out of fear a bleak future and out of desperation have succumbed to the allure of easy wealth.
Improving the quality of life for the majority of the Nigerian citizenry is what should be at the forefront of the Nigerian government's agenda. Yet successive governments have persistently failed in this regard, hence the low human development status of the population of a country, which in actuality is a wealthy country. This also partly explains the tendency for a lot of Nigerians to seek their fortune abroad and by whatever means, since their prospects back at home are bleak, or even non-existent.
Well said good sir! Lets put our Faith in Okonjo-Iweala and hope the economic reform she introduces will save the nation from this downward spiral!
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