Tears over Nigeria
Until there is real justice, equity and freedom, so would we be ridiculed by other nations. Until we begin to vote the best of us into power, we will never earn the respect of others.
" By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea we wept when we remember Zion. ( Nigeria)
We hanged our harps upon the willows in the midst therefore.
For there they that carried us away captive required us a song; and they that wasted us required us of mirth, saying sing us one of the songs of Zion.
How shall we sing the LORD'S song in a strange land?
If I forget thee O Jerusalem ( Nigeria), let my right forget her cunning.
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I prefer not Jerusalem (Nigeria) above my chief joy.
Remember, O LORD, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem ( Nigeria) , who said, Raise it, raise it even to the foundation thereof.
O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that reward thee as thou hast served us.
Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones". ( Ps 137:1-9)
Two video clips are currently trending on the net. They speak to the fall of Nigeria. They evidence stinking tribalism which the enemies of Nigeria, the very politicans that are pretending to lead us, employ to divide and rule us for their own selfish ends and have thus ruined us accordingly bringing us almost to a despicable end. Both are about President Bola Tinubu's and ex- President Olusegun Obasanjo's visit to the inaguration of President Cyril Ramaphosa as second term president of South Africa. The first video showed a very rude treatment of the visiting Nigerian President, Bola Tinubu. He was put on the second row and while Ramaphosa was greeting those who sat on the first row who were also black persons he choose to neglect Tinubu, I think deliberately. While he greeted, you could see Bola Tinubu beholding him, even trying to force a smile but Ramaphosa looked the other way, pretending to concentrate on what he was doing. An obvious Igbo voice was heard at the background showing that the original upload of the video is Igbo. So it was branded an Igbo propaganda. Before long, a second video clip followed showing President Bola Tinubu in a crowd of people some black and white men, being greeted by Cyril Ramaphosa. In my opinion it was not a hearty greeting and it left much to be desired.
Very soon an explanation of the incident surfaced on the net. In one by Cable, an online newspaper based in Abuja, quoted O'tega Ogra, Senior Special Assistant to the president on digital media as saying that the first video where Ramaphosa snubbed Tinubu was not time for greeting but that indeed those who Ramaphosa greeted were the royalties of South Africa. O'tega Ogra said the second video was the time for greeting and Ramaphosa greeted everybody including Tinubu. O'tega Ogra in the usual uncouth attitude of Nigerian public officials who have to earn their pay blamed Aishat Yesufu, a rights activist for the first video accusing her of hatred for the president and for Nigeria. But discerning Nigerians cannot be fooled, why Tinubu was beholding Ramaphosa even from the second row where he was is not explained by O'tega Ogra. We would have loved him to tell us if his principal, Tinubu knew when the time for greeting would be. If Tinubu knew he would not have been espying Ramaphosa. I doubt if Ramaphosa were to visit Nigeria in a similar case he would be put on the second row as they did our Bola Tinubu. He would definitely be on the front row. Putting our president on the second row demonstrates the disdain with which South Africa holds Nigeria of 2024 and it must evoke not a feeling of tribalism or personal disgrace for President Bola Tinubu as it is being subjected to. Bola Tinubu, no doubt has his image problem in the international community as one who became our president in 2023 with a baggage of controversies over his certificate, his correct name, his nativity, his morality and his business.
Of course, the highest court in Nigeria, our Supreme Court gave Tinubu a clean bill of health and made him the president, the international community obviously knows the truth of the activities of our judges. It is not a secret to them that justice goes to the highest bidder in Nigeria. Person-to-person response can show a very high degree of internal configuration of the persons involved in the interaction. How does Ramaphosa see President Bola Tinubu? How does President Bola Tinubu see Ramaphosa? Does Ramaphosa see Tinubu as somebody inferior to him? Does Tinubu see Ramaphosa as somebody superior to him? What is the superiority or inferiority rating of the two leaders? How would any South African president rate a Nigerian president in the immediate years following South Africa’s independence, considering the pivotal role Nigeria played in the independence of South Africa. Nigeria under Murtala Mohammed/ Obasanjo regime nationalized the British Petroleum and in just one day it became African Petroleum because Britain supported the racist South African apartheid government.
I remember vividly that many student activists from South Africa were admitted into the University of Lagos where I was also a student in those days. They were well-taken care of. Thabo Mbeki himself, president of South Africa after Nelson Mandela, was the ANC Representative in Nigeria between 1976 and 1978. In his own time he did not treat the Nigerian president with such indignity as done to President Bola Tinubu on the inuaguration of President Ramaphosa for a second term. Even, Nelson Mandela ran to Nigeria in 1962 for cover when the apartheid government in South Africa was looking to arrest him. Nigeria kept him away from the prying eyes of South Africa's apartheid security. The Minister of Aviation in the first republic, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi had told Vanguard how he hid the foremost South African nationalist and former president of South Africa, Chief Nelson Mandela for six months in Nigeria to evade his arrest by officials of the apartheid regime in that country. Mandela didn't scorn any Nigerian president, even though he was aware of our problem with corruption and indeed told an ex-governor of an oil-rich state in the south-south region who was alleged to have emptied the state's treasury and later used part of the money to build a gigantic hospital in South Africa that he would have rather built that hospital in Nigeria which needs it and not in South Africa. Nelson Mandela gave Nigeria her due regard and considered till he died that economic freedom of Africa depends on what happens to Nigeria. Nelson Mandela as popular as he was all over the world never held any Nigeria president in contempt.
Cyril Ramaphosa, the man Bola Tinubu went to celebrate his inaguration is a major shareholder in MTN, the communications company that is making huge money from Nigeria repartriating 20 percent of its profit to South Africa. What happened to Cyril Ramaphosa that he thought the best way to treat Nigeria was to snub its president? Is there a personal animosity between the two leaders that is not known to the citizens of Nigeria? It is not patriotic to colour the issue in tribalism or to see it with the prism of politics. No. It is not President Tinubu alone that was involved in the disgrace, it is the 200 million Nigerians.
When a few years ago South Africans slaughtered Nigerians in a xenophobic attack, it was former President Muhammadu Buhari who had reduced Nigeria to a Fulani colony, who ran to South Africa to beg, it was not Cyril Ramaphosa that ran here to apologize for the mass killings of Nigerians. It was Air Peace owned by a Nigerian businessman and philanthropist, Allen Onyeama who ferried Nigerians home. The only explanation of Cyril Ramaphosa was that South Africans were angry because Nigerians took over their petty trades. That South African companies are doing very well in Nigeria meant nothing to him and most South Africans. Despite the pleadings of Buhari and the return of many Nigerians home from South Africa because of the inhuman treatment they received in the country, the xenophobic killing continues.
However, in what analysts believe to be damage control, later President Tinubu met President Ramaphosa for diplomatic, economic and bilateral talks. Interestingly, the host President visited the Nigerian leader in his hotel.
Still, there are few patriotic Nigerians. According to Obafemi Awolowo, the Yoruba iconic politician, there are two factors involved in how a nation is viewed in the international community; the sagacity of its leaders, their academic and moral standing and the financial prosperity of that nation. By these parameters, how would nations view Nigeria. Not much on Awolowo's scale of evaluation. Nigeria is very low, almost at the nadir of the scale. Umaru Musa Yaradua was the first university graduate to lead Nigeria and yet his communication and charisma were lacklustre. He exhibited low self-esteem when he visited the United States of America, and was so slavish in his attitude that he considered it an opportunity of a lifetime to be a guest of the America president. Loquatious President Donald Trump had no kind words for Muhammadu Buhari when he went on a jamboree to America immediately he was elected as if it was Americans that voted him to power. To Trump, Buhari was uninspiring. He was lifeless. Buhari was another non-university graduate that ruled Nigeria. His school certificate was in contention until the West African Examination Council ( WAEC ) arranged a certified true copy for him.
The North has an attitude of pushing its worst forward to be president despite the many intellectually sound persons in that part of country. The reason is that they always want somebody they could push around who will not stop their penchant for corruption. Shehu Shagari, a grade-two teacher training graduate was their choice in 1979 when the military government of Olusegun Obasanjo was to return the nation to democracy. Shagari was not interested in the presidency, he only wanted to be a senator, yet the office was thrusted on him. Someone said Shagari was only good with his benson and hedges cigarette. He had no intellectual capacity to cope with the demand of the office of president of a huge and complex Nigeria. He had no charisma and so he failed. In four years he had brought the economy of the nation down. Ditto for Muhammadu Buhari who was timid and mean-spirtited at the same time. He was parochial in outlook and told a visiting World Bank president to only concentrate investments in the North, where Buhari hails from. How can a nation be built by such a seriously narcissistic person whose view is so narrow and an ethnic irredentist to boot. Chief Awolowo contested with Shagari but was told "the best man may not win" and he didn't win, because the departing military had decided who it was going to handover to just as Britain decided who it would handover to in 1960. And so how can we have a nation in a country of over 500 ethnic groups? How can we be respected by other nations who are putting their best forward as leaders.
I doubt if we have a nation at all. When Awolowo said Nigeria is only a geographical contraption, he was derided but those who did are now in the trenches fighting to disengage from the country. What befell President Bola Tinubu in South Africa befell all Nigerians and it must be bemoaned by all Nigerians. It is in part an outcome of our tribalism. Like it happened to the Jews when Babylon captured them, it is the highest height of disaster that brought us very low, an indication that the nation may be on the extinction journey. When we had petro-dollar, we deceptively thought we were a nation. Not that our leaders did not have programmes for unity since unity was not in their hearts, but how they would steal for their narrow families and friends, hence nationhood continue to elude Nigeria. Until Nigeria attains nationhood, no nation will respect her. We speak with 500 voices of deceit, and more than 200 ethnic nationalities occupy the Nigerian space. The worst of us rule over the best of us. Until there is real justice, equity and freedom, so would we be ridiculed by other nations. Until we begin to vote the best of us into power, we will never earn the respect of others. How come that former Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo who had displayed flashes of brilliance as substantive president each time he acted when Buhari went on his medical tourism to Britain lost his party’s nomination to Bola Tinubu whose baggage of wrongdoings are well-known?
Nigerians are not ready for solutions to our problems yet. I think the current Tinubunomics which has fostered the worst economic pain on Nigerians is very good for us. Perhaps it is what we need to overcome our docility that is falsely called resilience and our tribalism. It may deliver us from justifying our lethargy by always alluding to: "It happens in other countries too." In South Africa recently, Nigeria fell, Nigeria was held captive by Babylon, Nigeria was dealt with a slap in her face. We must refuse to sing, we must hold our heads down in shame and we must determine to offload our bad leadership and learn to vote right. We must weep.
Tunde Akande is both a journalist and pastor. He earned a Master's degree in Mass Communication from the University of Lagos