Nigerian celebrated columnist and University teacher, Professor Okey Ndibe narrated how he was wrongly accused of being a bank robber less than two weeks of his arrival in United States of America in December, 1988.
But permit me to talk about the tragic story of ‘Citizen Abiodun Ibrahim’ before coming back to the issue of our dear Compatriot Okey Ndibe often dubbed Poverty Pauperised Professor (PPP), a man that is so pathologically allergic to corruption that he turned down 120 million naira bribe from his State Governor.
The first Nigerian man that first reminded me of allegation of being a bank robber while living in America was Mr. Abiodun Ibrahim who preferred to be called ‘Citizen Abiodun’. He should be in his early 50s right now.
We met for the first time in mid-1999 in front of US embassy,Eleke Crescent in Victoria Island, Lagos. I was at the embassy with a good friend to enquire more about the visa requirements to enter the ‘Dreamland’. I was moved to tears by his plight in his ramshackle make-shift tent and his only form of mobility was through a rickety wheelchair decorated with anti-America placards while both Nigerian and US flags were also displayed from the roof of the tent.
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Most Nigerian visa applicants often ignored him, thinking associating with him would bring bad luck and influence negatively their visa outcome, some even labelled him as a troublemaker, a deranged personality while some actually believed he was indeed a bank robber that deserved no sympathy and compensation.
He explained to me graphically in a polished American accent how he was wrongly arrested, unlawfully detained, and jailed for bank robbery because he was a ‘mirror-image’ of leader of the bank robbery gang that happened few weeks earlier.
He narrated to me how he was tortured while in jail for over four years for offence not committed which eventually crippled him beyond medical repairs; to suffer in vain for sins not committed, hellish experience indeed.
Citizen Abiodun was on a one-man ‘self-denial’ protest in front of US embassy, Lagos .He strongly discouraged me from travelling to America based on his own personal experience which could be traced to prejudice still harboured against the dark-skinned creatures of God. He told me stories about Revd Leon Sullivan and American civil rights history which I still remember till date.
He told me of several eviction notices served to him in his country of birth because he was regarded as a ‘public nuisance number one’ and a ‘leftist destitute’ fighting a lost battle that was similar to flogging a dead horse!
He further informed me that Nigerian lawmakers of Abuja and notable human rights lawyers were fully aware of his ‘miscarriage of justice’ in Uncle Sam’s country and efforts to seek for compensation on his behalf as urgent as possible for him to stop the siege.(that was 1999 not 2009!)
This defiant but friendly man later became my good friend, and anytime at Victoria Island, he was my first port of call to ask after his welfare and progress.
Let me go back to Professor Okey Ndibe’s ordeal which is the main theme of this article (apology for taking you through Citizen Abiodun’s story; quite relevant and interesting anyway!)
Professor Ndibe travelled to America for the first time on December 10, 1988 after a distinguished career as a magazine editor in Nigeria to be the founding editor of ‘African Commentary’, an award-winning and widely-acclaimed magazine published by the foremost African novelist, Chinua Achebe.
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He successfully arrived in America on one of the coldest days of 1988 winter without any jacket, he stepped out of the arrival hall of the airport after waiting for his host to pick him up to be greeted with an unbearable gust of cold that was better imagined than experienced and he declared to himself, ‘America has just given me a cold reception instead of a warm welcome.’
Before coming to North America, Ndibe’s knowledge of Uncle Sam’s country was through watching Cowboys movies, reading James Hadley Chase novels and evergreen words of his uncle about the Americans;: ‘If you’re talking to any American, please don’t look at the person in the face since majority of them are in possession of guns and staring at them would be considered as an act of rudeness and aggression, punishable by gunshot.’
On one fateful day of December, 1988 when Ndibe was going to see the world-class Scientist /erudite robotics engineer Professor Barth Nnaji in his office. He was standing at the bus stop waiting for his bus when one police vehicle was passing by and by ‘error of judgement’, his eyes accidentally captured the face of a uniformed officer in contradiction to his uncle’s admonition never to look at American in the face not to even talk of looking at a police officer in the face.
He quickly moved away from the bus stop to avoid any further ‘eye-contact’ with the police officer and as he was about to heave a sigh of relief; one gentle hand appeared from the moon to tap him from the back; it was a police officer!
‘Sir, would you mind if I frisk you and do you have any identification at all?’
‘I am new in the country, and not carrying my passport all over the streets and I am also in hurry for an appointment to meet someone’ Ndibe explained, thinking that would set him free from further questioning but he was wrong.
Prof Ndibe was shocked beyond words and he got no choice than to submit himself to further scrutiny; this was a devastating culture shock for him.
The police now requested him to jump into the Cruiser to accompany him to his apartment to see his passport and possible search, he also agreed to that option.
On getting to the apartment, two of Achebe’s kids were in the house for Christmas holiday and Ndibe quickly spoke in Igbo language that he was under arrest for ‘bank robbery’ and police were just around to check his passport and search the apartment; this sad news was later passed to Chinua Achebe.
The policeman glanced through the passport, and radioed his office for confirmation and later declared that Ndibe was not a ‘prime suspect’ in the recent bank raids and the event was a mistaken identity.
‘I have a request sir, I would like you to return me to the bus stop in order to continue my trip and also for people that witnessed my arrest to see that I was never a criminal that you portrayed me to be.’ Ndibe’s offer was accepted by the police officer.
News travelled all over that Ndibe was arrested for bank robbery, Prof Nnaji and Chinua Achebe combed all the nearest police stations and neighbouring cities to confirm the arrest but no record of the arrest was lodged.
‘After more than two hours, later met Prof Nnaji and I explained the whole drama to him and the rest is now history’.
Prof Okey Ndibe asserted that this sad story of ‘bank robbery’ is his favourite story for friends and students alike and on one particular day, a white female student insisted that he must tell the whole class about his ‘bank robbery’ story but he postponed the narration to another day but this student continued to pester Ndibe to explain his role in the alleged ‘bank robbery’ and if Ndibe was not ready to tell the whole truth, he could be reported to the school management for further investigation.
‘I told my Mom that my lecturer was a former ‘bank robber’ and she informed me to ask him about details of how he became a university teacher.’ the lady concluded.
The whole class exploded in laughter because their lecturer was never a ‘bank robber’, it was just an issue of wrong identification or appearing at the right place but at the wrong time.
Okey Ndibe must for ever count himself extremely lucky that he was never tortured, crippled and jailed for resembling a wanted person like my good friend ‘Citizen Abiodun Ibrahim’ and as the saying goes: ‘bad things can still happen to good people anytime any day.’
Postscript: Okey Ndibe narrated his stories and readings from his first novel (Arrows of Rain) to friends and well-wishers in London on July 30/31, 2009. Special Appreciation to Lady Josephine Olusola Amuwo of Account3 in Bethnal Green, London for organising the memorable event.
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