Observation
The time has come for us in these beautiful islands of the Caribbean to decide with whom we wish to share our space, and who will comprise our citizenship platform in the future for our children.
Initially, post slavery, the remnants of our colonizers and their mixed children formed the diminished base of non-black citizens It followed soon in Jamaica, Trinidad and Guyana with ‘indentured labourers’ introduced where the injection of East Indians colonized by Britain were exported to the Caribbean.
In Antigua, the early 1900s saw the rapid decline of the white population as the British returned to the UK and the Lebanese began arriving from America as deportees, (by their claims).
In later years later the Syrians arrived through Trinidad and other gateways, and in more recent times we have seen the rapid expansion of the Chinese population, followed by a trickle of East Indians, some of executive rank.
Today, by design or otherwise the new Africans from West Africa have arrived in a series of charters, causing diversion in elections and conversations in the media and political arena.
Looking around the islands, and in particular Antigua, the diversity of internationals comprising the populations of the islands is growing daily, and not by invitation, except in the case of the CIP programs which are commercial in nature.
Which demands the responsibility of Government through Immigration to keep check of the population, so that the indigenous people, and those whose ancestry is bled into the soil, are not outvoted and overlooked by the diverse new nationals.
It is with this in mind, that the urgent matter affecting the future of the West Africans newly arrived on our islands, must begin to take on a more humanitarian role rather than the contempt now rolled into the ‘poor migrant’ settler.
It it important for us in the Caribbean to accept the responsibility of humanitarian expectations, and invite help from the United Nations Humanitarian arm.
First of all the Government, Leadership and Opposition must jointly agree to have all Africans left in Antigua properly scanned for unacceptable persons who must be returned to Nigeria, the country of the aircraft charter origin.
It is preferable for this due diligence be done using the CIP procedure which satisfies the US, UK, Europe & Canada, our main countries re movement of our people.
For international cooperation Antigua must first come to the table with clean hands, and an independent investigation of the entire airlift of the Africans to Antigua.
Clearly the Cameroonians who cannot return home will be entitled to some humanitarian accommodation, similar to the open armed welcome evinced by European neighbors giving to Ukrainians fleeing the war.
This however will depend on their status, mindful of military types who may have been part of the Anglophone separatists escaping reprehensible actions.
Those who are not inclined to accommodate the Africans should look down the years ahead, at our population developing with lots of people who do not look like us, native Antiguans.
Although we object to the Nigerian living here who arbitrarily decided that Antigua was under populated.
He and others acted illegally and immorally in importing the Africans to Antigua and the Caribbean.
This is not unlike John Hawkins, who sailed to the ‘Guinea Coast seized four hundred negroes and made off to the Caribbean with his human cargo!
Are we reversing the Triangular Trade with new rogues?
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It appears that ALP has no boundary with deceiving the nation regarding the Africans presence in Antigua.
Melford Nicholas continously spinning false doctrines about these people immigration status:
Initially ALP brought 1000 of them with the primary intentions to infill them into St Peter constituency with a view that Asot would lose the seat, Chet Green was at the time the Minster for Immigration and Melford was Minster for Communication. It is believed Green refused to falsify paperwork for the Africans, Browne transferred Green from immigration and appoint Melford.
ALP paid Patrick Leigh $32000.00 upfront for housing the Africans. As ALP didn’t win the elections outright, they stopped the payment to Leigh.
ALP is deliberately delaying actions against the Africans because once they are in the country for 90 days they would be entitled to regulate their status.
ALP should be stopped from making further nonsense of our broken immigration services and maybe UPP should consider applying to the courts for an injunction to stop ALP from making decisions without proper debate on the matter.
ALP, nor the Cameroonians has provided substantial evidence to justify the claim for refugee status. There’s no credible evidence to justify that they are genuine refugees. Of course, they will be making that claim once their 90 days in Antigua is maximised.
it is all a scam orchestrated by ALP to cover up their mishandling of the fiasco that they have created when they joined forces with Marvellous Mike and ALP initial plan to oust Asot from his St Peter’s constituency.
Couple of the so called refugees have already engaged in fraudent activities, activities that ALP has endeavoured to explain away that they pooled their money together to hire a charter flight back to Africa, the story is incredulous to say the least.
UPP should take a stand against the deception that ALP is imposing on our nation and apply to the court for an injunction and if that fails take it to the CSC.
The nonsense must be stopped. If ALP succeed with this nonsense it will open a flood gate for others to emulate.
I’ve read alot of stuff online and even alot of stupid rants but what you have taken so much time to write is the dumbest $hit I’ve ever defiled my eyes to read.
I am in agreement with most of this ‘observation’.
It is a scam orchestrated by ALP, Antiguans should not be deceived by the deception designed by ALP. ALP has continued to deliberately apply delay tactics that would ultimately allow the Africans to regulate their status to refugee once they are in Antigua for 90 days.
It appears that ALP has no boundary with deceiving the nation regarding the Africans presence in Antigua.
Melford Nicholas continously spinning false doctrines about these people immigration status:
Initially ALP brought 1000 of them with the primary intentions to infill them into St Peter constituency with a view that Asot would lose the seat, Chet Green was at the time the Minster for Immigration and Melford was Minster for Communication. It is believed Green refused to falsify paperwork for the Africans, Browne transferred Green from immigration and appoint Melford.
It is believed that ALP paid Patrick Leigh $32000.00 upfront for housing the Africans. As ALP didn’t win the elections outright, they stopped the payment to Leigh.
ALP is deliberately delaying actions against the Africans because once they are in the country for 90 days they would be entitled to regulate their status.
ALP should be stopped from making further mockery of our broken immigration services and maybe UPP should consider applying to the courts for an injunction to stop ALP from making decisions without proper debate on the matter.
It is a scandal that should not be allowed to progress further than it has gone. The Nigerian who works at the Ministry of Argiculture stated on Obsever radio that the Africans were brought to Antigua because we are under populated.
At no time during his call in did he mentooned that they were refugees, bearing in mind that the chief of Immigration said that the Nigerian used a government vehicle in the early hours of the morning to pick up a friend that was on the flight.
The comments made by the Nigerian employee within the Ministry of Argiculture should be regarded that he too is part of the scheme to deceive our nation and he too should be further investigated and to establish how he originally got Antigua’s status, his qualification should be throughly checked out and if needs be contact the university in Nigeria to verify his qualifications.
In the two months that they have been in Antigua they have already engaged in fraudulent activities, again, ALP explained it away by suggesting that they were pooling their money to arrange a charter flight, incredulous Jackanory story!
It is purported that one of them was taken to Mount St John’s for treatment following his detention in police custody and he was complaining about the custody accommodation! What cheek!
The gentleman is only too aware that our custody suite is far better than a custody lock up in Nigeria or Cameroon! The CPS was negligent for not pursuing the charges, but it all one massive cover up staged by our legal services and ALP corrupt administration.
It is time that Antiguans to shine their eyes and ignore all the emotive language by ALP, The King’s representative et al and see the situation for what’s, deception on a monumental level.
Additionally, it’s time for UPP to take a robust stance against ALP corruption. The evidence speaks for themselves.
@Antigua4ever. Thank you for your very informative comment. You did not mention whether the “cargo” stories are correct or not? It would appear that you are correct about the “war” in Cameroon, which appears to be about the French and English sides wanting to separate from each other. It is not as if the whole population is massacring each other.
The UPP absolutely need to put a stop to this ABLP “scam” gone wrong and especially in light of the fact that Antigua people are now being scammed and hacked out of their money! GB should be the one to personally pay for the Africans to go back home.
An inquiry is needed, 10,000 signatures are needed to petition the Governor General for an inquiry. Sign the petition, or you could go to PP branch office and sign it there.
…nothing, as in #no #thing
…‘’it’s, the only thing which happens by mistake.
…all others are by #default, #design, #destiny
…as, time is left in its own wake
Who is this boy Olabanjo, and where does he get his power to make a move like this on our little island? As all of us in the black world know our neighbors across the Atlantic in Nigeria are known to be the best in the world in the art of the SCAM! No African anywhere in Africa will be sorry for Antigua, because we should know better, a Nigerian will scam you if you blink, it is the culture of the country. And as Nigerians would say you are responsible for all that happens to you if you fail to protect yourself.
OLABANJO has been looking for a scam for some time now, and this is not his first attempt. He has brought search groups before but failed. This one only stuck because of the election, the money to be moved, and the rich Nigerian woman that backed the deal with the money she is accused of stealing while in her position as Commissioner! OLABANJO needs to be investigated and returned to Nigeria where corruption is almost legal.
Goodmorning mr no name in this world you have people who are thieves all over the world so you dont castigate nigeria alone. Let me tell you a story of your own people who left antigua and went to the unitef states of america and use to stick gun in people ribs and steal their money from in daylight until they annilated his badness to the grave ,so fix your mouth when you want bad mouth people who went to school and earn what they have whether antiguan or who it maybe you need to stop critizising other native people because you never see the air you are breathing and most you will look after by nonnationals when you get sick and old and that is for sure ,and let me remind you ,your own people does not even like themselves or nobody for that matter , the way the treat their parents muchless a stranger so get your act together and your brother for christ sake politics is just like a bucket with avery fine hole that is not decernable at first site ,but as time goes by you realise why the bucket wasn’t keeping the amount of water as it should be, the say politics is smashing up the way we suppose to be living with each other as the bible said that we must treat our foreign brothers and sister well and we are far from that , we came in this world with and we are going out without nothing too dont forget my no name be your brother keeeper monsteratt is a very good example less we forget today for , tomorrow for you
It is very necessary to be candid at times to get a desirable out come.
1 The act is ORGANIZED HUMAN SMUGGLING.
2 Perpetrators must be brought to justice.
3 The victims must be protected. In this case the victim are the citizens of Antigua and Barbuda.
4 All passengers should be denied entry and returned to port of origin.
5 This is an international crime that requires an international response.
It is time for the people of Antigua and Barbuda to stop out sourcing their conscience of morality to degenerate politicians.
I don’t really care who lives here. Immigration is fine, but it must be controlled. E.g. if too many rich persons move in at one time, it can make it harder for other persons to find affordable housing etc. Previously middle income people might be pushed into poverty. If too many poor persons enter all at once, there might be an increase in crime if they can’t quickly find work. At this point Antigua is a multicultural island. We should all just work together to do what’s best for our children – adequate water, healthy food, clothing, housing, education transportation, healthcare, socialization. There’s lots that needs to be fixed and improved. So, plenty of work to do for all. New people should be encouraged to participate in society and make a contribution. If the Africans can find a way to work and contribute here, great. If not, then other larger countries should welcome a few.
@The Earth is the Lord’s…
…while some of your talking points make sense, common sense always knows, that it’s not what you do but how you do it.
We have being bamboozled enough by these crooks and charlatans known as politicians who professes to be lord’s and gods.
Another pathetic, asinine attempt to spin the criminal, underhanded doings of the ALP government. Again. When is ALP not at the center of scandals? “Organized migration?” Sounds
like a nice word to cover crime. Antigua is in no condition to be inundated by migrants. At least, not from Nigeria. We are in debt up to our ears,( God alone knows how deep as this idiot continues to borrow), and it is obvious that the tourist, wealthy Africans, story was completely fraudulent.
Melford Nicholas can continue to spin and lie, this one they will not be able to weasel out of.
However @ Watching, as much as we complain and shout at the rooftops for answerability, the ABLP government stay silent.
And yet, the supporters of this government thinks that this unaccountability is okay. Shameful!
HAVE WE BECOME ACCUSTOMED TO OBSTINATE GOVERNANCE?
SEEMS SO …
You all should not be silly. How many Antiguans are in England, Canada and USA?? have you all asked yourself the day they will permanently return home?? Is there war in Antigua too??
Migration is a right. We all should act like educated people and stop the unnecessary criticism cus we are doing same things in different countries in the world.
Migration is a right if you buy a ticket and go to another country without a government organizing charter flights
I’m as much as I’m not happy with the government I don’t blame the Africans too.. things like this do happen so we should not just look at things in one particular direction. Most of them are very hard working and brilliant and I think their stay will be more beneficial to us. Instead of criticizing, make use of what they’ve got. Learn from them because I tell you I’ve spoken to a couple of them and I discovered they are very educated and talented in so many domains.
Have you ever put any of them to the test? You just gobble up everything that they have thrown your way. Remember who they are; maybe you too, have been duped.
People keep trying to turn this into a migration thing talking about Antiguans live all over the world which is so dumb. Do you see Antiguans or any country chartering flights to the US, Canada, UK or any where and given a free pass. Some people go away and decide to stay and try to make a better life for themselves. Is that what happened with our African brothers and sisters? NO. When I travel, I have to go through immigration, I have to have to state where I will be staying and the length of time I intend on being there and if I require a visa there is no way I could get on a plane without one. Is that not so? Are they diplomats because those are the only persons I know of that do not go through immigration. Why were they treated any different when we were told that they were tourists. Now all of a sudden they are refugees! If they were indeed refugees, provisions would have to had to be made to accommodate them but there were none. So which is it really! While we were sleeping planes were landing with hundreds of people with no idea that they would be stuck here with no where to stay. Antigua was not their intended place of “refuge”. They were scammed and that is what Antiguans have a problem with. We do not have a problem with the Africans. We have a problem with the lies that we were given as pills to swallow. This is more than a political thing. This has nothing to do with party color. This needs a commission of inquiry. Immigration had to be given instructions from someone in authority. Alobanjo could not have done this on his own. He does does not work in civil aviation. He works in agriculture. He can’t say let them in with all the perks that they were given. Just buy your ticket and come, you won’t have to go through immigration, you will be given visa and the list goes on and on. He is a small fries in all of this. Orders had to come from higher up. So who was pulling all those strings. Antiguans need to know.
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