In his beautiful song, Taxi Driver, the late ace comedian of Konkani Stage Anthony Mendes in one verse sings thus in Konkani “Handle mojem bhair kaddun, Xit Koddiecho maka fors evun, bhair kaddli tanchi Bakri Dhau”.
The story of the song tells that while Mendes as a Taxi Driver when threatened with physical attack on him by the non-Goans in Bombay thinking that Goans are nothing, Mendes used the car Handle to show his power of Goan "Xit - Koddi" against his opponents’ power of “Bakri - Dall” from Bombay. In this context Mendes said that verse in his song in order to stop the "Dadageri" of the non-Goans against him as a Goan.
This was exactly Goans in Porvorim showed to the rowdy Nigerians who went too far in showing their brute might. It was not these Nigerians only but everybody coming from outside Goa is showing his brute might to Goans and when Goans react to this brute might then they blame Goans. If it was not for the retaliation of Goans at Porvorimg, the Nigerian goons would hijack Goa as a whole and take Goans as hostages demanding huge ransom.
They ought to be taught a very good lesson so that they or for that matter any foreigner does not take liberty of our kindness and softness They are coming in our land and acting with arrogance with Goans? Not acceptable. Would they tolerate such rowdism and “goondaism” created by outsiders in Nigeria? I am sure they would burn alive outsiders doing such rowdism in Nigeria.
In Nigeria our people working there are all disciplined people and majority of them are professionals and as such they live and work there peacefully with due respect for the local laws and tradition. The overwhelming majority of Nigerians living in Goa and who were involved in creating chaos at Parra and Porvorim are illegals and Drug addicts. They are cheats in Goa staying even without proper legal documents as per the available information.
The threats issued by the Nigerian diplomats in India are just empty and fake threats and I am sure they are issued without proper knowledge of Nigerian Foreign Office in Nigeria. I know the quality of Nigerian diplomats because many of them were my colleagues in Kuwait in the Writers Guild Forum.
Up to now there is no authentic threatening statement released by the Nigerian government from Nigeria because for the government in Nigeria this Goa episode is not a big issue that merit serious action from Nigerian government. I am sure Nigerian government knows the real quality of its nationals residing in Goa and who are a shame on Nigeria.
The attitude of Nigerians to take law into their own hands at Parra itself was wrong when they prevented the Police to conduct the Panchanama and take the dead body for Post-mortem. Worst still was the sinful act of displaying the dead body openly on the road at Porvorim in defiance of legal, moral and religious codes. Such defiance deserves highest punishment from the law enforcing authority – human and devine as well.
Meantime, we are eagerly waiting for Parrikar to disclose openly the identities of the former MLA’s from Calangute constituency and others who were involved in collaborating with the Nigerians to carry on with their illicit trade.
A.Veronica Fernandes,
Kuwait.