Respect Nigerians Now

3 Responses to “Updates”

1. 1 Sade Oshun
   May 14th, 2008 at 12:29 pm

   Dear Fellow aggrieved,
   The boycott commences tomorrow.Picketing BA tomorrow wont be a bad idea so long as it can compel Mr Willie Walsh to step down from his ” lofty perch” to salvage the “image” of BA or whatever is left of it. I have personally sent him an e-mail though, telling him what I think of him and the rest of the misbegotten crew at BA.

   I think it is not enough for BA to publicly apologize and sack one or two fall guys to indicate their remorse. While BA is walking around with egg on its face, Willie Walsh has to go home too and right away. I wish him a miserable life in retirement- in advance.

   Since their cross-eyed greed will not let them leave Nigeria alone, inspite of our failed roads, incompetent government, poverty and disease, we need to re-negotiate our terms of doing business with BA- Open up the Lagos-London route to saner players and get BA to sweat for its money like every one else and investigate every single proven case of racist treatment to ensure that adequate compensation is paid.

   Let’s come closer home now. My Brothers, My Sisters,we would not be where we are now, licking our wounds if we had all taken the pains to find out how we all impact on the image of our dear country as individuals and collectively as a people. It is a loud and clear wake-up for us that the task of nation-building belongs to all of us. Nigeria is the land of the hard-working, the proud and free. This nation will be a great nation- beginning from tomorrow! Vote for positive action against BA- Now!

2. 2 VOR
   Jun 24th, 2008 at 4:17 pm

   BA Lies Grounded
   Written by Respect Nigerians Coalition
   Wednesday, 18 June 2008
   BA LIES GROUNDED!

   Ladies and Gentlemen of the Press, on May 1, 2008, British Airways issued a Statement supposedly in defence of the action it took on March 27, 2008 over what it considers to be the unacceptable conduct of its Nigerian customers aboard the BA75 flight from London Heathrow to Lagos. Ordinarily, making such a statement should have been accepted as a responsible approach to dealing with the issues at stake, except that the Statement is far from responsible. Worse still, it is a wicked insult on the integrity of its fare-paying Nigerian customers.

   When people who run an airline of the calibre of British Airways make the peddling of lies against customers an instrument of corporate policy, they not only demean themselves and the otherwise great institution they represent, they also abuse the trust of society. It is therefore incumbent upon decent people everywhere to expose them for what they are – little-minded people invested in prejudice and suffocating folly.

   The British Airways Statement began by saying they “regret the upset that the events onboard the BA75 to Lagos on 27th March have caused in Nigeria”, yet the very next statements that followed this indicate that the last thing they’re feeling is regret. They repeatedly state that “the decision to offload passengers was made in consultation with and on the advice of the UK police, and the sole aim of this decision was to ensure the safety of our passengers, aircraft and crew”. But if this indeed was the case, why were these same passengers thoughtlessly offloaded from the plane just because a few of them dared protest the unjust treatment meted out to one of them? Was this the best course of action in the circumstances, considering that BA precipitated the protest by inviting the police and making false statements to them about Mr Ayodeji Omotade who was subsequently manhandled, arrested, stopped from travelling for his brother’s wedding, banned, had his money confiscated and his luggage damaged and held up for over a week?

   However, the worst of BA’s lies was the claim that their crew were subjected to physical assault. It is instructive that throughout the coverage of this affair in the British media, BA had ample opportunity to state this (if it was indeed the case), but never did. Of course, they never did, because it never happened! The police who attended the scene never received a report to this effect and never took any statement from any member of staff supposedly physically assaulted. The police arrested only one man, Mr Ayodeji Omotade and his arrest was not based on assault of anybody. He was arrested on the presumptive ground of affray, but up till now, over two months after, he’s yet to be charged for any offence. Yet, curiously, after over a month, BA suddenly realized that their staff had been physically assaulted and felt convinced enough about this to make it into a press statement in faraway Nigeria a day after the ultimatum given to them by our organization, Respect Nigerians Coalition (RNC) expired!

   BA obviously sought to undercut our resolve to make the airline see the benefit of being a good corporate citizen by cooking up this terrible lie! How was it possible that in a place supposedly under “very serious” disturbance by passengers and which needed about twenty to twenty-five police officers to restore peace only one man was arrested? How was it possible that in an enclosure like a plane, with cameras, crew and security operatives watching, only one man was arrested and not for physical assault on anybody? We have challenged British Airways in a face to face meeting with its Executives (which included Mr Adrian Mcloy, the BA Country Representative) at their Lagos headquarters to name the member(s) of staff supposed to have been physically assaulted, but they couldn’t!

   We also want to use this opportunity to correct certain erroneous impressions presently making the rounds in the public space. The first concerns the idea that British Airways had made an apology to Nigerians. This apparently emanated from the report in the Nigerian Daily Independent newspaper of Friday, 2 May, 2008 which carried the story of their press release titled “British Airways Apologises to Nigeria“. We are hereby attaching a copy of that press release to let you see that there was nothing indicating an apology anywhere in that Statement. The fact that they claim to express regret does not indicate they’ve apologized. As shown above, the Statement is an exercise in contradiction, obfuscation, subterfuge and outright fabrication. It is indeed an insult on the collective intelligence of Nigerians! However, we note that even in criticizing British Airways, the Nigerian Attorney General and Minister of Justice, Chief Michael Aondoakaa accepted this erroneous impression that the British Airways has apologized. They haven’t, and we need to clarify this.

   Secondly, we note the intervention of the British High Commissioner, Mr Robert Dewar. The Nigerian Guardian newspaper of Wednesday, June 4, 2008 reported him as apologizing to the Federal Government of Nigeria over the incident in question when he paid a courtesy visit to the Nigerian Minister of Information and Communications, Mr John Odey. We find this a curious diversion, not only because we have no issue with the British government, but also because Mr Dewar only went on to restate the lies peddled by the airline in the guise of apology! At any rate, we do not think the issue concerns the British government. British Airways may be a British company, but it’s not owned by the British government. It is owned by shareholders, some of whom are Nigerians. We assume that all of these shareholders have a social conscience and would not want to be associated with a company steeped in discriminatory and racist practices - a company too vain to apologize for a wrong inflicted on its Nigerian customers.

   Crucially, we want to use this opportunity to thank millions of Nigerians and well-wishers who have heeded our call to boycott British Airways goods and services since Thursday, May 15, 2008. They have made us very proud and strengthened our belief in the rightness of our action. The feelers we are getting right now are that British Airways is being hit by the action and they are running from pillar to post seeking ways to stop the bleeding. Of course, they know what to do based on our five demands; but they wouldn’t do so, because it is not in their nature to apologize to Nigerians, even though they’ve done so in the past when it concerns other people. We are deepening this campaign with more actions. At this point we can only ask people to continue supporting these actions once they’re announced. You can always get information on details of the campaign from http://www.respectnigerians.com and http://www.nigeriavillagesquare.com, two flagship websites that we employ for this campaign. Please, watch this space, because we are not giving up until BA does what is right by Nigerians and our common humanity.

   Finally, we thank you, the Press. We thank you for your unstinting support throughout this campaign. Without you, Nigerians and well-wishers would not have been able to heed this call. Without you they wouldn’t have been able to understand the issues. Without you we wouldn’t be here. Without you British Airways would have ran roughshod over us with their well-oiled public relations machine, silencing the voice of a nation and all decent people worldwide. You know what this fight is about. You know it is not just about Ayodeji Omotade and the 135 passengers on that flight. You know it is about human dignity and national respect.

   Please, keep the flag flying! We appreciate all you do. You make us proud, very proud!

   Signed:

   Tosin Awotesu
   Ebi Bozimo
   Ishola Taiwo

   (For and on behalf of Respect Nigerians Coalition)

   ——————————————————————–

   Below is the full text of the British Airways Press Statement of Thursday, 1 May, 2008:

   We regret the upset that the events onboard the BA75 to Lagos on 27th March have caused in Nigeria . We have made it clear that the decision to offload passengers was made in consultation with and on the advice of the UK police, and the sole aim of this decision was to ensure the safety of our passengers, aircraft and crew. Offloading passengers is not a decision that is taken lightly and is a rare occurrence. However the disturbance on board the BA75 service to Lagos on Thursday 27th March was a very serious incident which required the presence of 20 uniformed police officers to regain control of the situation. Given the level of disruption on board the plane as it was preparing to depart, it was not possible to pinpoint which passengers were the most involved. In addition our crew were subjected to both verbal abuse and physical assault which, in the confined space of an aircraft, can be a particularly serious issue. Hence the police decided, with the agreement of the Captain, that it would be unwise to let all the passengers travel on the aircraft as their behaviour could pose a safety risk. Of the 133 passengers offloaded following the disturbance 64 re-boarded the flight before take-off. Those offloaded were of various nationalities including British & American passengers. There was also a mix of nationalities among those who flew including Nigerian passengers. The arrest and detention of one of the passengers involved was a police decision and is not something that British Airways can comment on. The remaining offloaded passengers were offered overnight accommodation where appropriate and were rebooked on alternative flights. British Airways has a long and proud history of serving Nigeria and its people. For over 70 years the Airline has flown from the UK to Nigeria , connecting the country to the rest of the world. We are working with the Nigerian government to ensure we continue to provide our Nigerian passengers with the high standard of customer service British Airways is renowned for.

3. 3 WaleAkin
   Sep 6th, 2008 at 4:55 pm

   September 2, 2008

   RESPECT NIGERIANS COALITION (RNC) TO HOLD A PEACEFUL PROTEST AT THE BRITISH AIRWAYS CORPORATE HEADQUATERS, HARMONDSWORTH ON WEDNESDAY, 17 SEPTEMBER, 2008

   Fellow Nigerians and well-wishers of Nigeria,

   This is to inform you of our intention to hold a peaceful demonstration at the Waterside Corporate Headquarters of British Airway Plc at Harmondsworth, London following the airline’s persistent refusal to do what is right by Ayodeji Omotade and the Nigerian passengers whom its officials treated in a disrespectful, discriminatory, dehumanizing and racist manner on March 27, 2008 aboard Flight BA 075 from London Heathrow to Lagos, Nigeria. You are all aware of what happened on that day and you are all aware of the position we have adopted since Tuesday, April 15, 2008 when we made certain demands of BA, including following up with a declaration of a worldwide boycott of the airline’s goods and services by Nigerians and well-wishers of Nigeria since May 15, 2008 when they refused to heed those demands.

   Despite our attempt to let British Airways see reason, including holding a peaceful protest at their Lagos headquarters, discussing with their Executives in Nigeria, writing to their shareholders here in London and meeting and discussing with some of them at the venue of their AGM, the company insists on playing dumb. Indeed, several attempts by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Mr Umaru Musa Yar’Adua and some ministers of his government to let British Airways see reason, has equally fallen on deaf ears.

   We have therefore decided to take our Protest to their world headquarters with the hope that those at the very top of the organisation will understand better our demands and address them. We shall be there on Wednesday, September 17, 2008 (12.00 midday) to hold that peaceful protest outside the company’s headquarters. The address is:

   British Airways Plc
   Waterside (HAA3)
   Harmondsworth
   UB7 0GB

   The following day, Thursday, September 18, 2008, we shall also be at the Uxbridge Magistrates Court where the trial of Ayodeji Omotade is to resume at 10.00 a.m. on that day. We are using this opportunity to invite you and well-wishers to come give support to Mr Omotade who, as you know, is being unfairly and wrongly prosecuted. The address of the Court is:

   Uxbridge Magistrates Court
   The Court House, Harefield Road
   Uxbridge UB8 1PQ

   For the avoidance of doubt, our demands on British Airways remain that they:

   - tender a clear and well-worded apology to all passengers affected by their discriminatory and intimidatory conduct aboard flight BA075 on 27 March, 2008 in a Nigerian national newspaper;

   - tender a clear and well-worded written apology and appropriate compensation to Mr Ayodeji Omotade for financial and emotional losses suffered as a result of the conduct of British Airways and its agents on the day;

   - withdraw all adverse statements made to the police about Mr. Ayodeji Omotade over this incident;

   - lift the ban imposed on Mr Ayodeji Omotade, even as he would still retain his right to decide whether or not to fly British Airways in the future, and

   - issue an undertaking that British Airways shall improve its customer care culture and desist from such practices that give the impression that the airline is arrogant, uncaring and discriminatory.

   Nigerian passengers will be treated with respect within and outside Nigeria. Until British Airways addresses our demands, we shall continue with the Boycott British Airways Campaign which has been on since Thursday, May 15, 2008. It is our strong belief that British Airways must be made to behave like a good corporate citizen. We condemn the attitude of those who run its affairs so far and call on all decent people everywhere to continue to join and sustain the Boycott British Airways Campaign until they address our demands and learn to treat customers with dignity and respect.

   The purpose of this note is to invite Nigerians and well-wishers of Nigeria based in the United Kingdom, especially the London area for this Protest. We need the numbers to prove that Nigerians indeed strongly condemn the untoward attitude of British Airways. If you can also make the court the next day, that will be nice; but at least make sure you come for one of the programmes indicated. If you are interested, please indicate so on this page. We need an indication of how many people to expect so as to make the necessary arrangements with the police on the day. You can indicate if you are coming for both or one of the programmes. Please, just let us know. Invite as many people as possible that you think will be interested. Just direct them to come and sign up here.

   Thank you and God bless!

   Signed:
   Nosa Olotu
   Tosin Awotesu
   Michael Egbejumi-David
   (For and on behalf of Respect Nigerians Coalition)

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