From the mail bag

Your piece on the unfortunate immigration row between South Africa and Nigeria barely touched the real issues. Though you made the point that Nigerians reaction would seem as if it was encouraging illegality as it concerned the yellow fever vaccination requirement by South Africa. Pray, what is difficult in Nigerians obeying a simple requirement-if you […]

Your piece on the unfortunate immigration row between South Africa and Nigeria barely touched the real issues. Though you made the point that Nigerians reaction would seem as if it was encouraging illegality as it concerned the yellow fever vaccination requirement by South Africa. Pray, what is difficult in Nigerians obeying a simple requirement-if you want to go to South Africa get a genuine yellow fever vaccination, a medical procedure that can be done easily and virtually by any hospital. Flagrantly flouting a simple medical requirement by a ‘’plane load’’ of Nigerians is indefensible and no matter the amount of rhetorical flourish you employ to express your anger against South Africa would not wish away that fact, which is that Nigerians are habitual rule breakers. If they get away with it in Nigeria where authorities usually look the other way rather enforce the rules, they should not carry such outlaw behaviours to other places.

 

Mrs Phillia Muhammed –Kaduna

Sir,

In your column on Nigeria’s retaliation against South Africa for the expulsion of Nigerians going to South Africa without valid yellow fever vaccination, you listed the reasons why many Nigerians are going to South Africa to include parents seeking better education for their children and wards and those going there for tourism.  It is beyond me how anyone seeking the goodwill of another country would want to do as he pleases, in this case act contrary to the dictates of the country in which they have taken their children to be educated.

I felt bad that Nigeria’s Foreign Affairs minister – Olugbenga Ashiru could try to blackmail the South Africans by asking them to do away with their yellow fever requirement for Nigerian visitors. I felt scandalized. How on earth can anyone tell the South Africans to wave for Nigerians what nationals of other countries are subjected to? If Nigerians must be foot loose, as you put it, then they should learn to obey the laws of the countries they are travelling to, so as to avoid being humiliated. My information is that many of those you characterized as businessmen and women and tourists who go there to ‘’luxuriate’ in the well developed tourism industry are not what you think they are. Many of them have been thrown into jail for dubious activities like drug peddling and gun running. And periodically turning Nigerians back is South Africa’s way of beating back the onslaught of drug pushers and die- hard criminals that have overrun South Africa.

Collins Obaseki –Abuja

Sir, I agree with you that the public dramatization of the tiff between South Africa and Nigeria was uncalled for, and the more I read about the accounts of the face- off the more embarrassed I become. What is diplomacy about if not for settling disputes such as the yellow fever controversy?   Proper diplomatic channels should have been explored for ironing out the differences before the public show of indignation exhibited by the two countries.  Next time the two countries should exhibit some decorum in handling matters of this nature.

Jummai Ibrahim—Apapa, Lagos

Re: The equivalent of war

I read your piece-The equivalent of war 2- which made interesting reading and was not bemused by your prescription of a technocrat government as a replacement for the rapacious politicians that we have. Didn’t Olusegun Obasanjo jettison his cabinet and advisers for a few technocrats during his second tenure? The likes of  Oby Ezekwesilie, Nasiru el Rufai, Ngozi Okonjo Iweala et al. He did introduce reforms in government to cut waste in public sector, unfortunately there wasn’t a commensurate interest in that line in the political sector.

Besides, didn’t we all agree that democracy was the best form of government? Methinks that replacing politicians with technocrats will not save us from the inevitable cataclysm that is lying in wait? What we need is selfless, patriotic and visionary leadership. We may do with the Mexican or even the Venezuelan experience but albeit without the drug cartel.

Usman Jimada –Abuja, 18/1/2012

Sir ‘

The fact that the European Union has steam rollered and blackmailed both Italy and Greece into replacing duly elected governments with unelected ones manned by reputable technocrats does not mean the indebtedness and economic morass of these two countries would disappear soon. It is all very well that Scivio Bellusconi has been forced out, he can now go on philandering with women fit to be his daughters to his hearts content. But it will take some time before Italy comes out of the woods, as it were, even under the watch of Mario Monti, the new prime minister. He would need more than the straight- laced attitude of an economic professor, who before now had only to teach his students and write papers.

Now Mario Monti’s regime of reforms and austerity policies enunciated would be put to test against the patience of the Italian people. They had better start yielding dividends otherwise he could find himself back in the classroom quicker than he thought. The rough and tumble of politicking would not make a person of the caliber of Mario Monti –better trained to handle the delicate economic challenges of the times– join politics. How sad!

Ibironke Sulaimon –Abuja

Re: Kuffour’s spinal cord

Sir,

You made a mountain out the mole-hill of the issue of former President of Ghana opting to get treated at the Korle –Bu Teaching Hospital, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra. He elected for an option that was fraught with a lot of risks. The spinal cord is like a pillar in a house, any damage to it and the whole edifice would come crashing. So if one is afflicted he had better look for an expert to handle the treatment. Kuffour must have known what he was doing though. As for me whenever I need to be taken care of, no matter what it is, I would rather prefer to be taken care of by world renown experts, if I can afford it. It is my life and there is no duplicate for it, so even if I have to go to the end of the world to get health if I can afford it, so be it. Your pious sentiment about looking inwards is well taken. So also is the implication for developing our infrastructure. But as I said I will beat any path to whoever can better solve my health problem, even if he lives at the cold polar region of the world and I have to braze the bitterest cold to get there.

Nwosu Ngodinga

Makurdi