Whites-only accommodation in Abuja
This ad appeared on the Abuja expats (yahoo group) today:
WUSE II
3 bedroom flat for white expatriates only (serviced)- 2.5m
payable 2 years service charge 500,000 p.a
This is the company that advertised the property and is complicit in an apartheid rental system in town.
Posts
31 comments:
This is awful! I'm sure Nigeria must have some laws regarding public accommodations -- these people need to be sued...
lol the ad sounds like something off the casual sex pages of Gumtree.com. I hope they end up with some Jerry Springer rejects... : - )
Er...???! To say I'm shocked is an understatement...is this a Nigerian company? If so, are we to assume that black Nigerians are advocating some kind of apartheid madness? Must be a lie from the pit hell!
Only in Nigeria.
i think it was a mistake...I think they meant to say for "blacks only"
an error i'm very sure
Ijebuman,
I have no idea why you would find this post even remotely amusing. I don't judge anyone by the colour of their skin and i expect the same respect from everyone, especially in my own country. Such apartheid should not, and will not be tolerated and i for one do not find it even remotely funny. To this end, i have sent the link to as many relevant people that i can and to all my media contacts. I will not rest until such companies are named and shamed, and put out of business if need be. I don't care if it is run by white, black, blue or yellow people, we won't tolerate it on our own soil.
I don't know what the noise is all about. Is this first time people are seeing this kind of stuff? Most of the estate agents are Nigerian owned. What about when they say they only want married women and no single mother. The sooner we realise it the better - we are a self-hating nation. Even employment practices favour white expats and then Nigerian repats (irrespective of having been manager of burger flipping!!)
This is the way of our country. but lets see what you can about this Kody. It would be interesting to hear from Jeremy the expats respoonse to this.
Kody, take it easy you'll soon have a heart attack lol, some of us deal with the 'tragicomedy' that is naija with a dose of humour..abi if you can't cry, you have to laugh..
It's always a shame to read stories like this, considering the way we are treated over here..what makes it worse, is that most of these so called "white expatriates" have absolutely no respect for Nigeria/Nigerians, you need to visit OyibosOnline - http://www.oyibosonline.com/sm2/index.php and read some of the opinions they have about Naija.
There have a few outraged expat responses, and to be fair, the agent has apologised and admitted he has only advertised what the landlord expressly requested.
Ijebuman, its not about choosing to laugh instead of cry - you can do that for things that are beyond your control. This is certainly something that you can do something about.
To many it may be no big deal but I honestly can never take such a thing lightly. I don't care about oyibosonline.com, its a free world, people are entitled to their own opinions and besides there are lots of things to complain about when living in Nigeria and some of their opinions may be valid.
What people think is borne out of experience, prejudice or ignorance. The action they take is what has an impact on society at large.
I have not gotten to the bottom of it yet, but i will not be surprised to find it is a black man who gave the instruction in the first place and that just goes to show how ignorant and backward people can be. If you let blatant apartheid, however small, seep into your society, you or your children will in the end pay for it.
Ours is a consumer nation. The only thing we respect is money so when there is an ideal or principle at stake (even to our detriment on the longer term) we still go for the short term transactional benefit. I am sure there is no ideology or even consideration of the discriminatory effect, the only focus is the financial opportunity that an expat can bring. The same is true in terms of employment especially when there are small networks of white expats who meet in exclusive clubs and share out business opportunities from Multilateral and Multinational organisation. Of course there is self loathing and the responses on this page are the very reflection of the fashionable cynicism that pervades our society. If Nigeria is a tragicomedy why try to put anything right? If our situation is so desperate why not just do anything that benefits your pocket? The outrageous thing is that in spite of individual excellence we aggregate to less than the sum of our parts because we are so lost in living our nightmares that we cannot even allow the space to dream anymore. Then we wonder why others do not respect us. Go figure!
jeremy - the agent apologised and said he only did what he was told? And that makes it alright? I am surprised that having raised the issue you are letting it go so easily? So unlike you.
Would the seedandoak.com have the audacity to advertise such a thing in their home coutries? I seriously doubt it. But then after all this is Nigeria. Anything goes right?
Kody,
Let us know if anybody was able to do anything.
Jeremy,
I can't get over the bluntness.Not only what he's doing is despicable but what makes it worse is that he's doing it in an ad because it implies that the law lets him get away with it and in a way condones it.
Take care.
Sandrine
In the great scheme of things, this is the least of our worries, there is blatant discrimination happening in our country every single day, from Landlords who will not rent to people from other ethnic groups, religion and even sex (many landlords will not rent to single women), this agent was obviously stupid enough to put the Landlord's actual preference for "white people" in the ad, but at the end of the day the Landlord will still rent out his flat to a "white expatriate".
We can all be outraged at this “apartheid policy” happening in our own country but the bottom line is, has the agent broken any law?? No
The same thing used to happen in the UK back in the 60s before the race discrimination act came out, back then it used to be "No Dogs, No Irish, No Blacks" in the property ads.
Until the government brings out (and implements) specific laws banning all types of discrimination (sex, religion, ethnicity, state of origin etc) it will continue to happen.
We only make noise when things ‘affect’ us directly, I doubt if people will react the same way if the ad was discriminating against gays, for instance…
"If Nigeria is a tragicomedy why try to put anything right?"
@onibudo
We all have to choose our battles, so please don't assume anything, this case for instance is what i would want to use my energy to change, so i'm sorry if i don't feel any sense of outrage at this event....
What I can't stand about Nigerians is the way they open their mouths in wonder and shake their heads in disbelief when confronted by things like the white-only ad. Can they not see that the Nigerian landscape is set up for shit like that?
The state treats you like shit. Teachers, who are being fucked by the state, beat kids like mindless cows. Parents, frustrated to their wit's end target their children and take them to pastors who beat the living witch out of the them.
Is it in the country where all these absurdities are the norm that you stand there, mouth agape, that there are white-only ads?
Besides, I don't care. After all, the housing discrimination is a problem of the rich, who continue to act like the poor does not exist. Any white man can come and drag my concentration-camp-like tenement room with me.
Anonymous 12:20,you talk am well jare.
Lost at the End, it is the 'Nigeria is xxxed up, so no point wasting your energy' attitude that helps ensure that we make no progress in Nigeria.
You too have something in common with the rich-they share your same attitude towards the poor, the state shares your attitude towards its citizens,
Teachers to students, parents to kids.......
@Kody
"You too have something in common with the rich-they share your same attitude towards the poor, the state shares your attitude towards its citizens"
Kody, word man! This goes to show how miopic a lot of Nigerians are, the indifference with which a lot of us treat serious issues that are designed and geared towards marginalising and reducing our human value and worth to nothing.
Ijebuman & anonymous, with all due respect, I don't know if you guys have ever come across the expression: "You are either part of the problem or part of the solution"
The fact that the Nigerian environment seem to allow all sorts of absurdities does not make this right! Kapisch? And the fact that some of you express the: not-in-my-backyard attitude, should not restrain others from stading up against this blatant act of racism! I am sure you guys will agree with me that racism is one of the worst crimes against humanity, so why condone/accept it?
Yawn.
What of job adverts specifically for "born again, spirit filled christians" or "expartriates only"?
Nothing new.
Yawn
"Nigeria is xxxed up, so no point wasting your energy' attitude that helps ensure that we make no progress in Nigeria."
I would rather be defeatist than play pretend that there's something remotely perplexing about a white-only ad in Nigeria.
The truth, though, is that I am not being defeatist. The so-called "white peril" that everyone is fussing about is a chimera that merely serves the purpose of distracting the rich (who mind you revel in distraction) from the far more disturbing reality that Nigeria's problems run fearfully deep into unknown places.
My point is that there are far more interesting and dire issues of human right violations that need our creative attention. Not the phantom scare of a white peril violating our supposedly virginal country.
Why the grievances...I don't think any law has been broken or is there any Act/legislation in existence/force against discrimination on racial grounds i.e. colour, race, ethnic group etc...
If there is then whoever is aggrieved should proceed to the law courts for enforcement of their legal rights. Simple as that...
Naijablog thanks for sharing...
Note from Western Hemisphere...
I worked for a short project in Mexico City a couple of years ago.
After staying a month in hotel, a couple of my co-workers and I decided to look for rental properties.
So, we hired a rental agent to help us find a rental property. One Saturday, we decided to check out the properties with the agent.
While checking out one apartment, the agent tells us- the owner has a special requirement "no mexicans- are your other co-workers mexicans?" I just started laughing hard thinking it was joke. The agent laughed also but after that she told us she was serious. Coming from United States and experiencing so form of subtle racism or discrimination in the past- I just walked out the apartment. To this day, I can't understand why a property owner in capital of mexico, would have a policy of not renting his or her property to Mexicans? I am sure people could come up with any excuse- but I don't think it makes it right.
can you post the link?
can't find it.
They are complicit. It's not enough to say that's what the landlord wanted.
and there is a law against it- It is called the Constitution. AND it is the grundnorm.
There is an express disqualification of discrimination on the basis of race.
You cannot decide to have only a particular race, sex, of persons of religious inclination in your house even if it belongs to you.
Jeremy please send me the link (for the ad)- I need to be very sure.
TY
kody. thanks for saying what's important. to back that up, i don't think the issue is 'oh my god, discrimination happens' - of course we all know that, and to be honest we all could probably find that we practise it ourselves in some form or another, no-one's free from prejudice. The issue is that someone feels comfortable in publicly advertising their discrimination against black people in the world's largest black nation 48 years after independence, and it's shocking to me that some people will just say 'so what'?.
This is only possible because of a deep lack of self-respect ingrained in places that matter, and shrugging things like this off are a part of that.
Prove me wrong by showing me this vendor getting sued, or strung up in the press or slapped down by government.
Maybe that landlord has in the past had experiences with Nigerian tenants that he does not wish to live through again? Please let us examine ourselves first and stop blaming oyinbos for being preferable as tenants. It surely can't be the fault of the "whites" when many Nigerians are bad tenants. By the way, I'd rather have an oyinbo as a tenant than a Nigerian .. So get over it!
Una sef sabi talk, this is nothing new. Open up any newspaper and look at the housing section when you see "expats only" do you think they mean Nigerians?. This has been ongoing especially in Lagos. And when the landlord refuses to rent to single women, is it any different from renting to "expats only? when you don't get hired for a govt job in Enugu state because you are not an "indigene" is it any different from renting to "whites only? When you go to Apapa or any area in Lagos where you only have lebanese, Indians or whites and no Nigerians living in that area, what do you think happened? They rent to "whites only" my friends.
@ Anonymous 1:01pm
"Prove me wrong by showing me this vendor getting sued, or strung up in the press or slapped down by government."
Sue ke. Which legal system? The one that you run? You don't get it, do you?
In a Nigeria where there is no child labor, where the housegirl is not exploited by her employers, there will be no white-only ads.
White-only ads are merely symptomatic.
If you can dare look into the Nigerian abyss, you will find the real causes.
OMG!!this has got u guys going on and on.....
the truth is, i'm not so shocked. i just copied the post to a pal on messenger and he didnt see anything wrong with the ad i went further & pointed out "white only"but all i got was a sad "so? nothing wrong with that. sounds okay" ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!! can u believe that?
Anyway, my opinion is the society and all its ****ed up systems and leaders allow for these and worse things to happen so much so that people like my pal think its ok.
I AM TIRED OF WAITING FOR NIGERIA TO SNAP OUT OF IT ALL. SO, I'VE DECIDED TO SAY IT AS IT IS REGARDLESS OF WETHER MY DAD OR BROTHER OR MOTHER INLAW OR MY SELF GETS FIRED FROM THAT OH SO LUCRATIVE PUBLIC OFFICE.
TO HELL WITH IT ALL PEOPLE, VOICE OUT UR OPINIONS WHEREVER, WENEVER.... THATS THE ONLY WAY OUT.
Thanx,
Miss F
are some of those expats South African? I won't be surprised
nah, it is full of a joke to me. we people of all races should be treated equally.
All you people saying "apartheid" like you actually know what it means. The apartment is probably made for ex-pat's tastes. If you haven't experience apartheid or aren't even from the country that used it, rather shut the fuck up.
Who are you to say "are some of those ex-pats south african?" you don't know anything about what went on there besides what you heard in the news or have read. It has been over for almost 20 years, and not all white people were involved just for your information. Rather check your facts next time. You think south africa was the only country where apartheid took place? look at australia, america, even britain. Think before you comment.
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