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.
