Suddenly, our universe lost a messiah. No prophet could claim to get it right. Though we had waited with baited breath for years that the inevitable would happen. It did. The man died. The man who embodied this century’s moral courage, austere living, genuine reconciliation, racial harmony and passion for probity. That is the man Dr. Nelson Mandela, the first black President of South Africa. If you are a Nigerian, Mandela dies in you from the moment of birth until death. I laughed at the delusional assemblage of President Goodluck Jonathan’s entourage to the funeral of a man who made both the African and the world very proud.
In Nigeria, our leaders love to hate a personality like Mandela. It would be unheard of for a man to shoulder the bondage of his people and later ruled the country and had nothing to show for it. That is the crux of the matter. That is the inexplicable differences between the power of Mandela over his material comfort and the progress of his people. In Nigeria, Mandela would have been accused of acting like a saint in a nation of sinners. That audacity to achieve a canonical stature would be used to torture his life big time. Here are the reasons why our leaders hate Mandela.
Mandela had no diamond or gold block in South Africa. In Nigeria virtually all past head of state and their cronies had oil block. In Nigeria, it is nothing ethical to use your office to corner public resources and live to flaunt the wealth to pursue political vendetta. Mandela had no private estate or houses built with public money. He had no billion dollar mansions in Jo’burg, Sandston, Cape town or Soweto. Except Muhammadu Buhari, Nigerian leaders are fantastically opulent. Senators, legislators, judges, army, naval and police bosses live like Hollywood stars and in stupendous opulent.
Mandela had no houses in UK, Atlanta and Dubai. In Nigeria, our leaders have row of empty houses in UK, US, Dubai and South Africa purchased with money illegally obtained through corruption. Our military and political class are forever in the race to own prime estates from the Atlantic marshes of Banana Island to Belize as status symbol. Mandela when he was with us, had never been flown out of his country for medical attention in Europe or America. As I write, our leaders are packing airport terminals to foreign hospitals to check up delusional headache, backache, toothache, sleep disorder, whip lash and mosquito bite.
Mandela had no foreign account holding in Switzerland, Dubai or America. Recently, in a fit of reckless braggadocio, our legislators passed a law that would encourage them to own and operate a foreign bank accounts. The argument that this would lead to money laundering and corruption fell on predictable deaf ears. Mandela did not exploit his office to create business empires all over the world. David Mark, leader of Nigerian Senate is a business mogul and runs offshore businesses in Belize, Guinea, Sao Tome and many other countries. Obasanjo stole and diverted Nigeria’s money to build his Ota chicken farm. Virtually all our leaders are into oil and gas business. Meanwhile, I never heard that Mandela was into gold and diamond business in South Africa.
Mandela had no fleet of vintage bullet proof cars to cruise around Cape town or Soweto. In Nigeria, Governor Raji Fashola bought bullet proof cars for himself and Tinubu. Many of our leaders are customers of Coscharis, where state money are deposited for the passing leisure of owning prestige cars in the midst of suffering masses. Mandela had no private jets. In Nigeria, our leaders are polluting our airspaces almost hourly with shiny flying birds purchased with corrupt money. In Nigeria, we are saddled with men and women with astonishing appetite for the putrid brand of living large. Mandela had never been known to break the law of his nation. From common special adviser to the president of Nigeria, laws are not meant for them. They disobey simple traffic light. They behave contemptuously toward court order as we are witnessing in Rivers State. Mandela had never used South African police to pursue the political ambition of his wife, Graca Machel. In
Rivers State, the State Commissioner of Police, Mbu Joseph Mbu, is a ready tool in the hands of Patience Jonathan to commit anarchy and break down of law and order.
Mandela had been know to waste state money on jamborees, endless foreign junkets and ill advised social parties all over South Africa. In Nigeria, Jonathan is permanently in the air while Nigeria burns in the hands of Boko Haram. State fund are poured into conferences, probes and endless champagne-fuelled parties all over Abuja.
Mandela had never been known to be divisive. Indeed, his glowing power rested in his ability to build bridges in a nation as racially complex as South Africa. Goodluck Jonathan is a man that could not hide his kindred spirit with his Ijaw kinsmen and women. Before you say Jack, he is crying on the shoulders of ageing Edwin Clarke and Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor, who are leaders of his clan. Mandela had never built a private church for his people in his birth town of sleepy Mvezo or the place of his adolescent years, Qunu. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo built a cathedral in Owu. Otunba Gbenga Daniel also retaliated with his own private church. Worse, Goodluck Jonathan, not to be outdone, built his own basilica in Otueke.
Mandela never built private universities with state fund. In Nigeria, our leaders are competing with the erection and ownership of private universities while state universities are left to rot. Mandela was never known to be an ambitious political monkey. In Nigeria, all leaders want to die in office. Ibrahim Babangida was forced to step aside. He later morphed into a civilian presidential candidate. Musa Yar’ Adua died in office. Mohammadu Buhari is staging a comeback. Olusegun Obasanjo was disgraced and thrown off his surfing board of third term agenda. Goodluck Jonathan would be hating Mandela for committing political suicide for not throwing his country into political turmoil in pursuit of fleeting power. Mandela had a chance to exploit all the exploitable, but thank goodness he was not a Nigerian. Goodluck Jonathan as I write is alleged to be hiding $48.9b oil wealth meant for you and I to pursue an inordinate ambition that may lead us to civil war
if he wins.
Mandela lived with a vision of service to his people. In Nigeria, we accommodate arrogant overlords and demigods who see Nigeria and its resources as private enterprises. Mandela was not known to be involved in over-inflating contracts and engaging in creative accounting. Bode George, a PDP chieftain was fingered for creative accounting and was jailed for two years by Obasanjo. Bode would not live with the tag of ex-convict for long. Our Supreme Court has cleared him of his criminal record badge of dishonour. He now has a chance to disrupt election in Lagos in 2015. He has to remember that Buhari has warned that riggers -dogs and baboons – would be drench in blood if the next election is manipulated.
Mandela would never tell a poor widow eking out a living by the way side to go and die. Yes, Edo State Governor, Comrade Adams Aliu Oshiomhole, unravelled from the stench of his manhole weeks ago when he told a poor woman to go and die. In the West, he would have gone into the dark night of political oblivion. Later, he used state money to make atonement for his sin. Would a Mandela tell a widow to go and die? Someone he was elected to protect and care for? Nah!
Since Mandela’s saintly disposition would mean a political and social hubris for most of our leaders, he would be hated, despised, ignored and possibly reduced to a nobody in a nation that has lost its moral compass, compassion, vision, fairness, equity and the ability to unite a disparage humanity of different tribes. Thank God, Mandela was born and bred in South Africa. Again, if you are a Nigerian, Mandela dies in you from the joyous moment of birth until death. It is this lack of Nigerian Mandela that our nation has continued to grope in darkness for most of our independence existence.
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