CRIME, PERCEPTIONS AND PUNISHMENTS: AN EXAMINATION OF INDIAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND ANTIINDIAN RHETORI

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CRIME, PERCEPTIONS AND PUNISHMENTS AN
EXAMINATION OF INDIAN ENTREPRENEURSHIP AND
ANTI-INDIAN RHETORIC IN THE AGE OF LIBERAL
DEMOCRACY IN NIGERIA

• BY
• DR. ADESINA, OLUTAYO CHARLES
• DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY,
• FACULTY OF ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, NIGERIA
• E-MAIL olutayo27_at_yahoo.com

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1.Introduction

• The adoption of liberal democracy and its vital
  components
• Nature and structure of the Nigerian economy
• Indian engagement with the economy

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2.Indian Corporate Citizenship

• The early Indian groups in Nigeria had also
  obviously taken advantage of the doctrine of free
  trade enunciated by liberal economic thought and
  subscribed to by British colonialism

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3.Indians in Nigeria and Paradigm shift

• The exploit of the Vaswani brothers- Sunil,
  Mahesh and Haresh, promoters of the Stallion
  Group and owners of the Honda Place, who were
  sensationally deported from Nigeria.
• From economics to underground politics
• But as the centre of gravity in their economic
  life shifted, the politics of the period would
  also suck them into the vortex of the political
  cauldron and power-play that characterised
  Nigerias Fourth Republic (since 1999). The
  attempt by Indian entrepreneurs in Nigeria in the
  age of liberal democracy to take advantage of the
  relaxed democratic space has therefore inevitably
  drawn them into a multidimensional crisis- mostly
  political and economic in nature.

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4. Power Play and Court of Public Opinion

• But while the Indians were fighting to return to
  face the law in Nigeria, their competitors were
  also fighting a media war to ensure that the
  Indians remain as they are deported
• the political undercurrents of the deportations

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5. Conclusion

• The conflict inherent in the letters and spirit
  of the Nigerian Constitution and liberal
  democracy in a third world country.
• the Indian deportees did not bargain for the
  role of scapegoat in a brand new Presidents
  determination to reward loyalty and punish
  disloyalty.