Panaji: In what may trigger a fresh controversy, former Goa chief minister Ravi S Naik on Tuesday demanded the Centre to ban the Nigerians from entering India while alleging that they indulge in illegal activities.
“The Nigerians come here in Delhi, in Bengaluru and do ‘dadagiri’ in the entire country. The Nigerians should be asked to leave India, we don’t want Nigerian tourists. The Government of India should ban Nigerians from entering India,” Naik told ANI.
He further stated that if the Nigerians come to India to study then the state government and the police should keep a strict watch on them.
“If they have come to study here, a watch should be kept on them to see whether they really study and go to colleges. They don’t study, rather they indulge in illegal activities,” he added.
Referring to the Nigerians with the pejorative ‘Negroes’, the senior Congress leader also said that the Nigerians have been causing ‘problems’ in Goa as well other metropolitan cities.
The Congress leader’s remark comes just days after Goa Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar sought stringent laws to deport Nigerians and Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar said that the people of the state are specifically not happy with them.
Parulekar had said that the Nigerians create problems in Goa and sell drugs while just days after Parsekar said on 30 May that Goans were not happy with the attitude and lifestyle of the Nigerians living in the coastal state.
The Goa Home Ministry had in 2014 during the monsoon session of the assembly referred to the Africans as ‘Negroes’, an error for which then chief minister Manohar Parrikar had to tender an apology after an outcry.
