NIGERIAN DWARFS COMPLAINED OF MARGINALIZATION
Mobolaji E. Aluko
Segun:
Methinks Kasirim Nwuke is a chartered member of ADiN-A.
Bolaji
On 23 Feb 1999, Segun Toyin DAWODU MD wrote:
> Monday, February 22, 1999
> We want to be president
>
> By David Ogah, Staff Reporter
>
> SOME strange visitors stormed Alausa, the seat of the government of Lagos
> State, at the weekend on a common mission - to fight against what they
> called their marginalisation.
> To many, it was a strange sight - a group of dwarfs who insisted on seeing
> the Administrator, Col. Mohammed Buba Marwa. They did not succeed - for
> security reasons - but they made their point.
> "We have formed an association to fight marginalisation. We don't have any
> position in Nigeria. I want to be the president of this country too. Our
> members have ambitions. They want to be police commissioners, to be lawyers.
>
> What tall people can do, we short people can also do, even better. People
> look down on us too much," Chief Israel Oludiji Akiode, a member of the
> group, said.
> He said they came to the secretariat on "an appointment with the
> Administrator."
> "We want to tell him and the people that we are human beings, we too are in
> town. They should remember us. They should try us by giving us positions of
> trust and power and see if we will not perform," he added.
> As soon as the men emerged from the main entrance to the secretariat, all
> eyes were turned towards them. Workers lost concentration.
> Their spokesman, Mr. Idowu Adebisi, alias {Baba Giga} of Osogbo, told of how
>
> they came from various towns to form the Association of Dwarfs in Nigeria,
> aimed at ameliorating the problems of the dwarf people.
> Adebisi said: "There is nothing God cannot do. There is nothing God has done
>
> for the tall people that he has not done for us. We have our brain and we
> don't want to beg or steal but members of the public don't know we have our
> own gifts from God, despite our stature."
> Most of them are artistes, whose faces are common in home videos. Some of
> them claimed to have been with the late theatre legend, Chief Hubert Ogunde.
>
> Adebisi added: "We have acted and produced, along tall people, films that
> are moving fast in the market. For instance, I was with Baba Ogunde before I
>
> formed this association. But you will be surprised to hear from me that the
> tall artistes usually discriminate against us. They don't like engaging us,
> except when it is necessary for them to do so. That is why we have come
> together to form a theatre group and be in a position to employ the tall
> ones to come and act with us.
> "We have produced one film already. The title is {Ndakobas}. What the tall
> people can do, we can also do. You can see when we entered the secretariat,
> we formed an object of entertainment. Everybody wanted to have a glimpse of
> us. People who think we cannot do anything are getting surprised because our
>
> film is selling fast in the market. We just want to use our brain as we
> don't want to beg and steal."
> A woman in the group, Miss Aina Olawoyin, also spoke of unfavourable public
> attitude towards dwarfs. "People often look down on us," she said, adding:
> "I am always happy because I am not blind and I am very healthy. What tall
> persons can do, I can do also. I am, particularly, happy that I am like
> this. If I am not like this, people will not look at me."
> Miss Olawoyin is a single mother of two children.
> Mr. Ojo Adebayo, who is also known as Ikeregbe, is an artiste. According to
> him, he needs money to be well-established.
> "We want help from people or the government. As we are now, we cannot steal
> and we cannot beg, but acting is our profession - to make people happy, to
> make them more sensible.
> "Our film, {Ndakobas}, is selling well. We want to thank Uche Gordian Onuoha
>
> for his huge financial assistance." He spoke of a film he said he had
> made."I have a film in the making and I want to use about 50 dwarfs,"Adebayo
>
> said.
> Although he agrees that the public attitude toward dwarfs is hostile, he is
> not annoyed. "If they like, they should continue to make mockery of me
> because I am a dwarf. I am not my own creator. Unless they can recreate me,
> I will continue to ignore them," Adebayo said.
> Chief Israel Oludiji Akiode, his face wreathed in smiles, spoke of his worst
>
> experience as a dwarf. He was pupil at Agba Odeda High School,
> Odeda-Abeokuta.
> "Then, my mates would use me for shelling - carrying me and throwing me up
> and down. Even, up till now, people always cheat me. At bus stops, they
> often park me aside in any attempt to rush for a bus. If I go to any office
> to see an Oga, those who come after me wound first be asked to see the Oga,
> leaving me behind. All these are happening to me because I am a dwarf."
> The group left the secretariat in disappointment; it was unable to penetrate
>
> the tight security at the Administrator's Office. They were first directed
> to the Home Affairs Department of the Administrator's Office from where the
> dwarfs were dismissed by civil servants who told them that the administrator
>
> was "not on seat."
>
> Segun Toyin DAWODU, MD
> NEW YORK, USA
>
> http://members.tripod.com/~segun_dawodu/index.html
>
> ____________________________________________________________________
> Get free e-mail and a permanent address at http://www.amexmail.com/?A=1
>
Segun Toyin DAWODU MD
DRTO...@aol.com
Your comments are petty are ridiculous.
Tonia.
Mobolaji E. Aluko
Tonia:
It was a joke, Tonia. Take a humor pill, and relax.
Bolaji
Ekenlor Idi
Una dey see me trobl oh. If I belong to this group, na wich one
Bolaji go belong? I know say I short but I know too say I tall pass
Bolaji.
Of interest though is the fact that General Obasanjo is claiming
Gbenga Aluko's victory as his. Obasanjo sure will look out for Gbenga
as he will be the only PDP Senator from the South-west.
okn
---
---"Mobolaji E. Aluko" <mal...@scs.howard.edu> wrote:
>
>
> Segun:
>
> Methinks Kasirim Nwuke is a chartered member of ADiN-A.
>
> Bolaji
>
>
> On 23 Feb 1999, Segun Toyin DAWODU MD wrote:
>
==
okn
------
"Truth is the daughter of tomorrow; Tomorrow is the mother
of truth."
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Mobolaji E. Aluko
Kasirim:
Don't mind Obasanjo; he is trying to ride on the coat-tails of my kid
brother. That chap needs caning, my brother!
Anyway, Obasanjo forgets that AD won 2 SENATE SEATS in Enugu and 1 SENATE
SEAT in Bayelsa. Previously AD won no LG chair seats in Enugu or Bayelsa,
4 and 1 Councillor seats in those states respectively and no state
assembly seats in Enugu (don't know about Bayelsa.) So if Ekiti-North
shows Obasanjo's rising fortune in South-West, the results in Enugu and
Bayelsa more than compensate for AD in the SS and SE.
And this election will be determined by the amount of rigging (and/or
prevention thereof) in the SE and SS. Just watch.
Bolaji
PS1: Who said anything about height? What about IQ? :-) No argument,
eh?
PS2: For those who don't speak Yoruba, "Baba Giga" means "Tall Papa"!