Thread by @Chxta

Some Nigerians have been arrested in the US for fraud, and have been promptly thrown under the bus by a Nigerian government representative. Is that right? bit.ly/2Nsurze

Back in the days when Roman legions marched across the earth and imposed the will of the Emperor on one and all, a concept emerged, first mooted by the prolific consul, Cicero. The concept was simple, “Civis Romanus sum.”

I am a Roman citizen.

It was that idea that was used by apostle Paul a century. He was arrested in Jerusalem for preaching heresy (yes, Christianity was once a heresy).

Paul spoke to the commander of the garrison, introduced himself as a Jew born in Tarsus and crucially said, “Civis Romanus sum.”

Paul, was a birthright citizen of Rome, and as a result, if that crowd had killed him, the Roman garrison in Jerusalem would have been obliged to kill a few of them in return.

Paul had a right to get his case heard by the Emperor. He would eventually stand trial before Nero.

A few millennia later, Rome was no longer in charge of the earth, it was an island, Great Britain, that now ruled the waves.

In 1847, a Jewish man, David Pacifico, was attacked by an anti-Semitic mob in Athens, Greece.

The police did nothing and instead arrested the victim.

But Pacifico had an ace in the hole. He wrote to the Foreign Office as a British citizen. That fact, swung the British into action, and it no longer mattered that Pacifico had offended local Greek customs leading to the attack, what mattered was that he was British.

Lord Palmerston, the British Foreign Secretary sent a demand to the Greeks asking compensation for Pacifico. The sum demanded was more than the value of the Greek Royal Palace, and the Greeks replied that this was a judicial affair, and that there was a separation of powers.

2 years later, still no compensation for Pacifico, so Palmerston ordered the Royal Navy to blockade the port of Athens (ever heard of gunboat diplomacy?).

The blockade lasted 2 months, and a humiliated Greece compensated Pacifico with £500, a prince’s ransom in those days.

In sending the Royal Navy to punish the Greeks, Palmerston quoted Cicero’s “Civis Romanus sum”, and paraphrased it with “An injury to one is an injury to all,” setting the tone for the passport system in use in international relations till this day.

When a British (or insert serious country here) passport holder is detained in another country, it matters what not he has done, the diplomats of his home country are duty-bound to defend his interests.

If he is convicted and sent to prison, a diplomatic official is sure to take on the role of visiting him in prison, on a regular basis, until he is set free.

About this letter, I think it is ill-timed. Individual Nigerians have every right to wring their hands about how those people have brought shame on us, BUT, the Nigerian state has an obligation, to provide services for all Nigerian passport holders, even those accused of murder.

Last I checked, #Nigeria has three diplomatic missions in the US, Washington, Atlanta and New York.

Has anyone of them made any effort to reach out to these people?

A nation ought to be way beyond claiming the glory of its citizens and descendants when they shine. A nation as a sovereign has a duty to shield its citizens even when they are wrong.

Such as how Britain reacted when some British girls were accused of drug trafficking in Peru.

Sometimes, you may find that one person among the arrested, that is actually innocent. By throwing the accused under the bus so quickly and so publicly, the Nigerian state has told every one of us that it will not be there when we need it.

So that you guys will understand that innocent people may be caught up in this.

But as an irresponsible country, we will not provide them consular services, instead our officials will be asking them to "go and clear themselves."

This life na turn by turn sha...