BBC's QUEST TO MORTIFY IGBO, NIGERIA AND CHUKA UMUNNA

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has been floating a false, disparaging and disastrous news piece that claimed that human flesh was served in a restaurant in Awaka, Anambra State of Nigeria. It was a sensational and slanderous story that permeated many other news networks around the world including some Nigerian newspapers.

News papers that published the article did it because of their hatred and spike for anything to do with Africa in general and Nigeria in particular. As for Nigerian news papers that followed suit; they did the publication out of ignorance and inferiority complex. When it comes to western media, the prevailing norm in Nigeria and Africa: whatever emanates from BBC is nothing but the truth. Colonial mentality and inferiority complex are well and alive in the hearts of the former colonies.

The BBC reported a claimed that “A priest who ate at the restaurant was alarmed when presented with a bill of 700 Naira, or roughly $3.50 (Tens of millions of people in Nigeria subsist on less than $1 a day). “The attendant noticed my reaction and told me it was the small piece of meat I had eaten that made the bill scale that high,” he said. “I did not know I had been served with human meat, and that it was that expensive.”

The piece did a good job in convincing the readers by concocting an allegory that buttressed and equipped that “In addition to the illegal meat, authorities discovered automatic weapons, grenades, and cell phones. Ten people were arrested in conjunction with the crimes. One resident said, “Every time I went to the market, I observed strange activities going on in the hotel. People who were never cleanly dressed and who looked a bit strange made their way in and out of the hotel, making me very suspicious of their activities. I am not surprised at the shocking revelation.”

After the right thinking people of the world question BBC on the veracity of the news piece, BBC gave up and offered a weak apology, saying: “The story about the Nigerian restaurant which we published here was a mistake and we apologise. It was incorrect and published without the proper BBC checks. We have removed the story and have launched an urgent investigation into how this happened.

The BBC Swahili service's reputation for accuracy and balance remains of paramount importance to us and we are taking the appropriate steps to insure that mistakes like this do not happen again.”

BBC in the so-called apology never revealed who authored the piece and the picture that was used in the piece as an evidence to drive home their point. Their unbecoming as they claimed was sin of omission and intellectual lassitude. The sophisticated and propaganda driven BBC is no child in doing damage to their targeted entities and individuals. BBC has an agenda and this well financed news giant chose their targets and point views to accomplish an outlined objective.

This time around with the rise of Nigerian British politicians in the corridors of power in United Kingdom, especially Chuka Umunna who was vying for leadership position in Labour Party , oppositions came from every nook and corner including from the media community in Britain. Therefore with false and dishonesty piece they are trying to show that the heritage of these rising stars especially Chuka Umunna are painted with uncivilized characteristics and savagery tendencies.

That is why BBC picked on Awaka in Anambra State, the ancestral homeland of the father of Chuka Umunna. The false and make-a-believe story was also an attack on his Igbo heritage, Ndi-Igbo and Nigeria in particular that has become a bunching bag to those that despised globalized Nigerians ambitions and sensibilities.

***Emeka Chiakwelu, Principal Policy Strategist at AFRIPOL. His works have appeared in Wall Street Journal, Huffington Post, Forbes and many other important journals around the world.