How Foreign Investors Are Treating Nigerians Like Slaves In Their Own Country

The level of violence meted out by expatriate
business people in Nigeria to their staff has
become worrisome and needs urgent government
intervention.
Recently, 40-year old Adeleke Owolabi, a newly
recruited marketer of a PVC-producing Chinese
firm based in Sagamu, Ogun State, western
Nigeria was brutalised by his Chinese boss, Mike
Jackson, and his cousin, Tony Jackson for a
flimsy offence.
The graduate of Mass Communication from
Olabisi Onabanjo University was supposed to
travel to Kano with the goods for sale and until
4pm, his boss continued to give excuses thus
delaying him. An attempt to make Mike realise
that travelling at night could be risky earned the
father of two a kick in his private part and a slap
while Tony smashed a bottle on his head. They
both beat him up until he fainted.
On 12 December, 2013, 34-year-old Mrs.
Alexandra Ossai, a Supervisor with a Lebanese-
owned firm, Toppan Printing Company in Lagos,
lost her seven-month old pregnancy and suffered
serious complication after her Lebanese boss,
Kaveh Noine, kicked her violently in the stomach.
She had to undergo a surgery to save her life as
the placenta was damaged.
According to the woman who said she had been
slapped many times before, anytime Noine was
annoyed, he would beat the staff that provoked
him. Sometimes, he would throw whatever he can
lay his hands on at the person.
Sometime ago, Maaji Meriga, a 62-year old
casual worker with the China Civil Engineering
Construction Corporation, CCECC, working to
construct railway tracks in Abuja, Nigeria’s
capital, lost his testicles after allegedly receiving
slaps and a kick on his private part by the
company’s transport manager, Marcho Chin,
popularly called ‘old soldier.’
Many more of such inhuman treatment against
Nigerians by foreigners who come into the
country, many without valid documents abound in
almost all companies owned by them.
These companies often pay their casual staff
peanuts as salaries and wages and leave the staff
prone to accidents many of which are bloody and
the victims are maimed for life. This is aside
cases of rape against some of the women who
work with them abound.
It is even more frustrating to hear the victims
complain of inability to secure justice from either
the Nigerian Police or any other agency that could
assist as they must have soiled their hands with
bribes from these foreigners.
The Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, and the
Trade Union Congress, TUC, are two bodies that
have also failed in the fight to ensure proper work
environments for the Nigerian workers in
companies owned by foreigners in the country.
Many times, they have been accused of only
visiting the companies to line their pockets by
these aliens, some of whom are prisoners sent to
Nigeria by their countries to complete their jail
terms.
We call on all relevant government authorities,
including the National Assembly, to ensure that
Nigerians in these firms are not treated like slaves
in their own country.
There must be serious sanctions against
foreigners who treating Nigerians like animals.
[First Published On The News on February 6th,
2014]