South African? HIV card, please

First, how did the South African authorities know that the cards those Nigerian travelers were carrying were fake? Hitherto, neither the SA nor the Nigerian officials have provided that information which is vital to an honest appraisal of the situation. But one unofficial Nigerian source told me that all the cards that those deportees were […]

First, how did the South African authorities know that the cards those Nigerian travelers were carrying were fake? Hitherto, neither the SA nor the Nigerian officials have provided that information which is vital to an honest appraisal of the situation. But one unofficial Nigerian source told me that all the cards that those deportees were carrying bore the same serial number, and on account of that the SA Immigration officials rejected the validity of the cards and therefore ordered the 125 travelers to be turned back from the airport. What happened after that was the diplomatic equivalent of mayhem.

The Nigerian media did their work by giving the story the prominence it deserved; then some 118 South Africans were deported back to SA for traveling to Nigeria with (unspecified) improper traveling documents. Thereafter the politicians took over, and, inevitably pushed their reaction beyond the rational frontiers of diplomacy to the edge of crude patriotism.

Given the emotion and violent anger that the South African action has generated, it is necessary to make a a clarification at this point so that no one would misconstrue the views expressed here as unpatriotic or in support of what the SA authorities have done. To turn back a group of travelers that had endured about seven hours in the air, among them possibly children and the sick was cruel, to say the least.  This is because the SA authorities had other options available to it that would have been less provocative and more in line with  the requirement of the African culture of brotherhood and international diplomacy.

For instance, in the past those 125 travelers would have been quarantined, inoculated and then released to continue their travels to their respective destinations inside SA; but then according to one report, new scientific evidence shows that the inoculation against yellow fever does not begin to take effect in the human body until after ten days. Difficult as it may be, ten days is not for ever, and the least the SA authorities could have done was to isolate the travelers, provide them with some basic comfort, and then give them the option of being inoculated and remaining under quarantine for ten days, or to be returned home to be properly inoculated. But turning them back so crudely the way it did, SA certainly didn’t give Nigeria the minimum respect it deserves, especially since, according to Nigerian foreign ministry officials, the issue of yellow card ought to have been settled by the SA embassy in Abuja before a visa is issued.

That said though, the action and reaction of the Nigerian officials were rash and not thought through at all. The patriotic fervor displayed by the Nigerian media and political leadership was quite commendable. But like SA Nigeria could have responded more maturely by first determining whether or not it’s citizens were guilty of traveling with “fake yellow fever cards”. Yes or no, this would have provided Nigeria the gumption to carefully consider it’s own retaliatory measures in accordance with the crudity displayed by SA.

For instance since two wrongs don’t make a right, rather than rashly deporting South Africans for unspecified improper traveling documents, Nigeria could have insisted, without anybody contesting her right to do so since SA is known to have an HIV pandemic, that henceforth South Africans must show evidence of their HIV status as a basic requirement for entry into Nigeria; and then for good measure add that unlike in SA, in Nigeria, a quick shower after unprotected sex (a peculiar prescription of SA President Jacob Zuma) does not prevent one from being infected with the HIV virus.

That would be phase one; phase two (which the South Africans would never allow to happen) would consist of imposing stringent measures for establishing business in Nigeria. Recall that only two years ago Ghana was insisting that to register a business, foreigners would need to deposit $300,000 none refundable even if it’s only a hair dressing saloon business. This being a double edge sword require greater tact. There are so many ‘misdemeanor’ that SA multinationals operating in Nigeria commit and get away with. We all know that Nigerian GSM users are the most abused and most exploited in the world, NCC can then get tougher with companies such as MTN and DSTV (has anybody noticed, for example, that most of the programs that DSTV serves it’s subscribers, including cartoons are outdated and invariably recycled for the past five to ten years?).

These and other more refined and subtler measures would be more effective than the crass reactions some of our political leaders came up with. On it’s part SA has not seriously reciprocated Nigeria’s gesture toward it in it’s time of need. No country in Africa had done more than Nigeria to help bring an end to humanity’s most shameful, regrettable and brutal regime under apartheid.

Beyond all of that however, the SA attitude is just one more reminder that size, money and past glory are nothing without discipline and self respect. In other words, money or huge markets do not buy respect, otherwise China and India wouldn’t have had to wait almost a century before they begin to be reckoned with as global economic players that cannot be ignored. If we want to be respected, first we must learn to respect ourselves. We all know what we need to do, starting with the political leaders that are now bristling with indignation that their citizens had been ill treated. Respect is earned, not bought.

By the way, does Ambassador Ashiru, our foreign affairs minister ever heard of BRICS? it’s an acronym for Brazil, Russia, India, China and (yes!) South Africa. These five countries are already being seen as the  empires of the near future, and at the pace we are going it is unlikely that we would catch up with them in the next 50 years. What that means in plain language is that South Africa can do without Nigeria, but try to imaging Nigeria without MTN (45 million subscribers in Nigeria and which is already in 20 other countries); or without DSTV (which controls the right to air the English Premier League, Nigerians’ third religion after Islam and Christianity) and you would have the shortest cut to an Arab Spring-like revolution in a matter of days.

Not that, in itself, that is particularly a bad thing.