*Emmanuel Odafe And His Shameful Defense Of Chinese Apartheid And Racism in our Land* (Dr. Ope Banwo, President of Naija Lives Matter Organization Responds To Emmanuel Odafe of VATLAD on His Press Release On The Chinese Apartheid In Nigeria)

With all non-due respect to the Chinese and their Nigerian defender, Emmanuel Odafe, president of the Vanguard for Transparent Leadership and Democracy (VATLAD), the press release Mr Odafe just issued defending the discriminatory actions of the Chinese against Nigerians in an Abuja supermarket is a most insensitive one to the sensibilities of the people of Nigeria I have ever read in a long time. Nigerians remain outraged that Chinese, who are guests in our land, boldly decided to implement high-tech apartheid and racism in Abuja at a supermarket and estate built on Nigerian land. Yet, Mr. Odafe had the temerity to label such strong reactions as a sign of our inferiority complex as Nigerians?

*We at Naija Lives Matter Organization are outraged by the actions of the Chinese in our Land and the Press Release of VATLAD to justify it, and here is why:*

Firstly, Mr. Odafe and his Chinese apartheid-minded friends forgot that the Abuja estate in question is NOT the Chinese embassy and does not enjoy exclusive Chinese sovereignty. So, the issue of even conceiving, much less implementing a policy in an estate and supermarket that makes it ‘exclusive to the Chinese’ is wrong, asinine, and gaslighting to Nigerians. You can have amenities exclusive to residents of an estate, and that’s normal anywhere, but to say the amenities like the supermarket or housing are exclusive to a certain race called ‘Chinese’ in our land is blatant apartheid, modern-day racism, and pure disregard for Nigerians as their hosts.

*Truth be told, Can Nigerians build an estate or supermarket in China, and then say ONLY NIGERIANS are permitted to live there or only NIGERIANS can shop in the supermarket but then use Chinese people as their security guards, clerks, and other lowly jobs in those same structures located inside China?* Is that not the very definition of apartheid and racism? Would Chinese have stood for that? Even in USA where they have Chinaland, they cannot say Americans can’t shop in their supermarket or live there. These individuals must think we are all idiots in Nigeria.

*Secondly,* some Nigerians obviously live in that estate because the Press Release even admits that not everyone there is a Chinese man. Nigerians also WORK in that restaurant because we heard them confirming that their bosses gave them instructions to not allow Nigerians to enter or shop there (not that they cannot allow nonresidents to enter or shop which makes a big difference).

*So, it is not just a slap on us as Nigerians for some Chinese economic refugees in our land to now say they have a store that is exclusive to Chinese people in an estate that has Nigerian residents and Nigerian workers, but a very annoying gesture for another Nigerian to now come out and defend that action as okay as Mr. Odafe just did.* What a shame.

Of course you can always have a store or restaurant or business that only exclusive Chinese menu, but you can’t say only Chinese can come and buy it. How do they know some Nigerians don’t like to eat frogs or dogs or whatever strange things they sell in there? Or are the Chinese now going to tell us in Nigeria what we can eat or not eat?

*Thirdly* , the Chinese, through their Nigerian defenders like Mr. Odafe, just told us to our face that they are practicing racism and apartheid right on our land, and to our face, with the  self-contradictory press release from VATLAD. T *hey claimed they have an exclusive Chinese restaurant for exclusive Chinese customers, but they employ Nigerians to work there as clerks, cashiers, and guards. Why? If it’s all exclusive to Chinese, why do you have Nigerians in your estate or as your labor force? Is that not slavery and apartheid?* In other words, these Chinese are saying Nigerians can work at menial jobs in a place they can’t shop in or live in? Damn!

I thought this stuff only used to happen in the USA in the 50s and 60s where blacks can work in a neighborhood or  restaurant that they are not allowed to eat in, and work in a building where they can’t even use the toilet as blacks? Even the Americans have moved beyond this kind of Neanderthal thinking, but these Chinese want to start it afresh in Nigeria? The South Africans took decades to fight off Apartheid that is structured exactly like this and God forbid the Chinese transplanting that Nazi concept here. We will not allow it and *Mr. Odafe was out of line to stand up for them and sell out his own brothers and sisters to the Chinese under the guise of doing Transparency and Leadership. What’s transparent or leadership-like in an Apartheid throw-back policy?*

*Fourthly* , it is even more annoying and gaslighting for a full-blooded Nigerian, in the person of Mr. Igbini Odafe Emmanuel, President of the Vanguard for Transparent Leadership and Democracy (VATLAD), to allow himself and his organization to be used or manipulated to defend this unacceptable racism by these modern-day Chinese slave-masters and imperialists. *We are very offended that he would say in his annoying press release, while trying to justify this apartheid policy in 2024, that “the problem with most of us, Nigerian Elites, is that we make ourselves unnecessarily inferior before other Races. We are not proud of ourselves, Who and What we are,” WHAAAT! So, we are suffering from inferiority complex now, just because Nigerians are demanding equal access to a property on our land and in our midst?.*

We don’t know the kind of elite person Mr. Odafe is, but the real elites and even non-elite Nigerians we know are very proud people about their race and color, and that is why they are not allowing this very clear apartheid and racism to stand in their land. *Seriously, unless you are blinded by the need to defend the indefensible, how can you think insisting on access to a supermarket located in Nigeria by Nigerians is being inferior to the Chinese? Only a confused man will try to spin our outrage at being discriminated against in our own country as evidence that we think we are inferior to Chinese of all people. Inferior to Chinese? Seriously? Give me a break!*

As an organization commiting to better life for all Nigerians, and for which every Nigerian life matters, We are embarrassed at the extent some Nigerians will go to sell out their own people to modern-day Chinese imperialists by outrightly turning logic and common sense on its head in a bid to justify the unjustifiable for their friends. This Nigerian man, Emmanuel Odafe, as president of VATLAD, has obviously crossed over from being an advocate for Transparency and Leadership  to becoming a colluding participant in regrettable racial profiling of his own people and its just a crying shame.

In conclusion, we say without any reservations that we are fully in support of the Nigerian government swiftly shutting down this genesis of an apartheid policy in our land by the Chinese who keep abusing our hospitality as Nigerians on several issues they will never tolerate in their own land.

My name is Ope Banwo, and on behalf of Naija Lives Matter Organization and the citizens of ‘Nigerian Fadeyi’, say we stand strongly against this new Chinese plot to establish apartheid right under our noses. We the citizens of Fadeyi also will NOT AGREE for any Chinese man on this issue. That policy of excluding people from an estate or supermarket, not just because of residency in the estate, but because of the color of their skin and nationality as Nigerians, as we can all see, cannot stand.