Beyond browbeating South Africa

It was not the first time Nigerians would meet with shame in South Africa. Rages spurred by unemployment rate once led to violence in that country, and Nigerians had been victims. That was in 2008. The second leg took place in 2009. There have been news of indecent treatment of Nigerian travelers to that part […]

It was not the first time Nigerians would meet with shame in South Africa. Rages spurred by unemployment rate once led to violence in that country, and Nigerians had been victims. That was in 2008. The second leg took place in 2009.

There have been news of indecent treatment of Nigerian travelers to that part of the continent for a long while. When the South African airport officials sent home two plane loads of Nigerians over the weekend, officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs would not raise a finger until Monday.  In this information age, Nigeria’s foreign affairs ministry allows some three days to pass over after a slap that was delivered on the nation’s cheek. Even those who received the slap on Nigeria’s behalf had wiped their cheeks, went their different ways, and accepted it as just one more to what officials in this nation makes them go thorough. Is it truly possible that at this point in the nation’s life, in an age when technological possibilities are limitless, concerned officials are not so linked such that prompt action is taken? May some foreign soldiers not roll armoured tanks across the border overnight. Half of the nation would have gone behind the enemy line before officials got their acts together.

Didn’t it say something? That what sounded like the first concrete reaction from the nation’s diplomatic corner came when foreign affairs officials appeared before the House of Representatives Committee o Foreign Affairs. Her voice was more than that of a man that time, Nnena Ijeoma-Ukeje, at the time she said concerned officials hadn’t done enough on the matter. Her colleagues in the House had since praised her efforts on the issue. It might be a good thing Speaker Aminu Tambuwal chose Ijeoma-Ukeje for that seat when he did after all. But the Committee Chairman too had once helped Tambuwal into his seat. She did support his emergence, and she also pulled the exalted chair for the Speaker to sit after he took his oath of office. Nigerians saw all of that. Now, everyone who listened as ministry officials made their presentation before the Committee would agree with Ijeoma-Ukeje that she made the right observation about Nigerian officials not doing enough on the matter at hand. Some of the things the officials said called for deep thinking though, and that, after a long round of laughter.

The South African ambassador whose officers embarrassed Nigerians has been called and briefed, Ministry officials told Nigerians at the hearing. That’s one. South Africans whose papers were not in order have been deported in retaliation. That’s two. The Nigerian ambassador in South Africa has been instructed to covey the nation’s displeasure to the South African government and demand for an apology. Three. And the bilateral commission of the two countries would sit and jaw-jaw, too. Four. From here, things moved to the ridiculous. It was said that South African officials, meaning former ANC leaders who collected Nigeria’s fund during the campaign against apartheid did not tell South Africans the roll Nigeria played in the struggled for the liberation of their nation. In what age do some officials think they are operating? Eighteenth century? What has successive Nigerian ambassadors to that country been doing, apart from using every opportunity to remind South Africans of the role Nigeria played in the liberation of South Africa through public speeches, songs and dramas within the confines of cultural exchanges? A High Commissioner like Prof. Iyorwuese Hagher did that well in Canada. That’s one man who knows that others don’t blow a man’s trumpet for him.

Trust the Yankees in Nigeria, for instance. They promote everything America to the extent that they feed Nigerian children with their brand. Nigerians who grew up on a diet of Sesame Street, an educational cartoon for children, can take note that the same has been repackaged and called Sesame Square, and made in Nigeria for Nigerian children. The current American ambassador was there the day that Nigerian edition was launched in Abuja, with fanfare, and with the head of television station that boasts the largest network in attendance.

Nigerian edition, but still with eighty percent American content! Smart diplomats. Now that is something close to a diplomacy that is proactive, a diplomacy that also catches the mind young, which is a foundation for better understanding of America tomorrow. Americans do it wherever they go, and with panache, like the last time their ambassador here and his embassy staff stooped and helped serve Muslims akamu and kose during the breaking of Ramadan fast. In the same era, Nigerian diplomats say South Africans didn’t do the job they should have been doing since that country became independent in 1994. And they said it beating their chests in front of TV camera, in front of Nigerians!

Now, this South Africa matter is treated as if it is not one straight line from some the most irresponsible acts of leadership that Nigeria has ever witnessed, and with the attendant images that accompanies all of this in the mind of other nations. But this is not an isolated case. Leaders here overlook their contribution to the treatment Nigerians are given wherever they show up, and that is largely responsible for the treatment Nigerians receive wherever they go. A nation gets as much respect as its leadership commands, as much as the impressions others have of those in its corridors of power. At a time that one goggle-wearing military officer was in power here, and the likes of activists such as Ken Saro Wiwa were killed, the revered Mandiba, Nelson Mandela, led the campaign that ensured Nigeria was suspended from the Commonwealth. South Africans like Mandiba, they have dim view of anyone and any country for which he has no respect.

One former governor was acquitted of stealing public funds here, but he has since admitted to a court in London that he actually stole, and that he got to public office on false pretences. Till date many who should match to prisons for selling government assets, and using the proceeds to buy government companies are being congratulated on their birthdays on the pages of newspapers by a president and a former president.  And there was the case of the rigged election of 2007 that brought a past leadership to power. Nations that took that leadership serious were mostly on this continent.

All of that was one straight path to the time a South African movie maker made the notorious lead character in a gangster film bear the name of a former Nigerian president who, South Africans believed, presided over the worst election in Nigeria’s history. These are images about Nigeria’s leadership in the media, and add that to the way the system is organized such that young Nigerians have to flee to places like South Africa in search of greener pasture. Nigeria is one destination where every government official is buyable, all the way from the ports to government offices. Maybe there is a lesson to learn from South Africa’s port watchers in this case, rather than calling for them to be punished for carrying out to the letter what their government instructed.

The South African government has since apologized to Nigeria over the deportation saga. And the country too has accepted the apology. But it is obvious that, generally, other nations take advantages of lapses that officials here leave unattended. It is countries that don’t sit up but react to events as they happen that are treated shoddily. Countries without a dynamic and clear foreign policy, and which leadership has no sense of what is decent in the area of public accountability and responsibility cannot expect to be taken serious or respected. Respect is earned based on both past and present performances, not demanded as those in the corridor of power in Abuja are doing at the moment.

Ajibade wrote this piece from Abuja  [email protected]