Ex-Goa CM wants ban on Nigerians, calls them 'negroes'

Panaji, June 7: The Central government should ban Nigerians from entering India, former Goa Chief Minister Ravi Naik has demanded, adding that the state does not need Nigerian tourists.

Referring to Nigerians with the pejorative "negroes", the senior Congress leader also told reporters that Nigerians have been causing "problems" in Goa as well other metros.

"The government of India should ban them. They should be probed. It should be checked whether they are here to study or for picnic or to sell drugs," said Naik, a former home minister in the erstwhile Congress-led coalition government.

"Nigerians come here and do 'dadagriri', in Delhi, Bengaluru and the entire country. We should chase the Nigerians out of here. Have they come here to study? Are they really studying? Are they really going to college, schools? Are they really going to bogus schools or bogus typing schools, this has to be probed. It is very important," Naik said, adding that even Aam Aami Party leaders had a fight with Nigerians in the past.

"They create problems everywhere... We do not want Nigerian tourists," Naik said, demanding a probe into the activities of Nigerians in Goa, who he alleged masquerade as students.

Naik's comments come a few days after Goa Chief Minister Laxmikant Parsekar on May 30 said that Goans were unhappy with the attitude and the lifestyle of Nigerians living in the coastal state.

On the same day, Goa's Tourism Minister Dilip Parulekar also said that Nigerians create problems in Goa and sell drugs.

In 2014, during the monsoon session of the Goa assembly, the state home ministry referred to Africans as 'Nigros', an error for which then Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar had to tender an apology after an outcry.

IANS