WE ARE THIEVES FROM NIGERIA, DRAMA AT LONDON HEATHROW AIRPORT

By Uchendu Precious Onuoha (Special Correspondent Spain)

WE ARE THIEVES FROM NIGERIA, DRAMA AT LONDON HEATHROW AIRPORT

A man sometimes is ensnared by the words of his mouth. Differences in tongues, mispronunciations and misunderstanding of the similarities of certain words have landed people into trouble in the past and continues unto present time. In the Holy book, the mispronunciations of the word “Shibboleth” as “Sibboleth” costed the lives of 42,000 Ephraimites. (Judges 12:6) refer. Not quite long ago, a group of travelers from Nigeria who identified themselves as Tivs from Nigeria at the busy London Heathrow Airport were mistaken as thieves from Nigeria by the Heathrow airport immigration officers. 

The incident which looked like a pelicula started when the passengers who were traveling as a group for an event in London arrived at the immigration control and was asked for identity. The leader of the group responding said, we are Tivs from Nigeria and we are going for an event in London. The immigration officer who was startled asked, you are thieves from Nigeria? And they responded in affirmative. Immediately their travel documents were collected from them and they were taken in for further interrogation.

The immigration officers wasted no time to contact the Nigerian Embassy in London informing them that they have in detention a group of thieves from Nigeria and they should come and take custody of them for appropriate measures to be taken. The embassy officials arrived, but to their amazement discovered that the detained travelers were free and innocent citizens of Nigeria from the Tivi clan of the Northern region of Nigeria. And the British immigration officers were meant to understand at last that they were not thieves but Tivs.

Such drama or incidents may occur due to words classified as, Homophones by linguistic scholars. Homophones are words that have different spellings, different meanings, but the same pronunciation. It is well known that several people, tribe and nations cannot pronounce certain letters. The sound and letter ‘R’ cannot be pronounced the same, but is pronounced as ‘L’ by certain people and that could cause embarrassment or problems especially to some travelers who pass through the eye of the niddle at foreign immigration control points. The group of Tivs from Nigeria was not thieves. But the Holy book says, “For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned”. (Mt.12:37) Refer.