An older friend told me a story about how Nigerian students (on FG scholarship) occupied the Nigerian Embassy in Bucharest, winter of 1979 and a female student held the Ambassador at gun point because the man refused to disburse their allowances to them.
According to him, it was a really cold winter and a lot of the students didn’t have any money, the FG had already released money for them, but the ambassador cornered the money. They wrote letters, pleaded and nothing happened.
They went to the African student body and the student body told them to do whatever was necessary, they would support them. The executives of the Nigerian student body, went to a small town by the sea, held a low-key meeting and decided to take action.
They bought a small pistol, and delegated three women and a man to first go into to the embassy and get them access into the place. Two of the women were Igbo and one was Yoruba. One of the Igbo women was given the pistol.
When they got to the embassy gate, the women started talking to the Romanian police men at the embassy gate, and somehow gained entrance into the place. The young lady with the pistol went straight to the ambassador’s office and held him hostage.
The other woman and man walked into the embassy while one of the ladies remained at the gate, created a scene and wedged the gate with her body so they couldn’t close the gate.
When the Nigerian students waiting around got clearance that the embassy was ready for taking, they came out from everywhere and rushed in to secure the place. They quickly whisked the woman with the gun and the one who wedged the gate away, to a different city.
The students were in the embassy for days, the FG then insisted that the Ambassador pay the students their allowances and afterwards he was sacked.
Their university at the time got wind of their activities and expelled about 15 of the students excos. The students came back to Nigeria, took the FG to court and won. However, they could only continue their scholarship in Nigeria.
The rest of the students finished in Bucharest. The young girl with the gun is now a Professor.
For those asking I didn’t get the name of the Ambassador but he was from the North, and this happened during Shagari’s regime. Shagari really dealt with the man very well. The person who told me this story told me Shagari was very nice to them and he was a good man.
For those asking, the narrator said the Romanian authorities could not do anything to the students at that time or intervene in the situation cos everything happened in the embassy (a Nigerian territory). Please if you’re parents were involved, ask them and share more.
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