Oprah 'must say sorry, Nigeria'

2007-09-19 10:51

Waldimar Pelser

Johannesburg - Chat show queen Oprah Winfrey ought to be summoned before a traditional Nigerian queen to explain why she dedicated an entire episode of the Oprah Winfrey Show to Nigerian internet fraudsters.

That's what 56 Nigerian Human Rights groups are demanding in a letter handed over last week in the federal state of Niger, to the sole remaining female monarch in northern Nigeria.

Queen Kumbuda, according to legend and the author of the letter, is a descendant of a female monarch who ruled northern Nigeria by military might in the 1500s.

The letter follows the transmission of a programme entitled "Cunning Cons" earlier this year.

In it, Winfrey interviewed an expert in web fraud on the well-known scam of requesting donations for the destitute family members of former African presidents.

Underhand requests

In his research Brian Ross, an investigative journalist with ABC in the United States, found that Nigerian confidence tricksters not only targeted people with email addresses in their scams, they had already sent more than six million postal requests from Nigeria to the US with similar underhand requests.

All the letters were personally addressed, in particular to Christian churchgoers.

"They're told: 'There's $30m available in Nigeria to help small churches in the US. All we need is a small amount to get the money out of Nigeria,'" Ross told Winfrey.

The programme had bloggers in Nigeria up in arms and Oprah was accused of branding all Nigerians as crooks.

Nasir Abbas, the letter-writer and chairperson of Human Rights Front, a respected human rights organisation in Kaduna, Nigeria told Beeld on Tuesday: "We expect an apology from Oprah."

'Dragged reputation through mud'

According to the letter Winfrey had "dragged the reputation and integrity of our 140 million people through the mud, in front of the whole world".

"If it were not for the historical crime of slavery Oprah herself would be summoned before you (the queen) to defend her action.

"If all Nigerians were as corrupt as Oprah wants the world to believe they are, and Nigeria is the most populated black country in the world, then all blacks or all Africans are corrupt, including the diaspora, and the Oprahs of the world who have their roots in Africa."

Winfrey supporters also defend her on the blogs, pointing out that she'd never said all Nigerians were corrupt.

"The truth can be bitter," said one Femi Sobowale on www.nigeriavillagesquare.com.

'Expose the scammers'

"Rather than trying to defend the indefensible, we ought to focus on exposing the scammers."

Abbas said internet fraud was a matter for concern, but Oprah should say openly "Nigerians are not all like that."

Beeld newspaper has sent a copy of the letter to Winfrey, but had not received a reply by Tuesday.

- Beeld