The Blow At Mandela’s Funeral.

Nigerians are mad that President Goodluck Jonathan didn’t get a chance to speak at Mandela’s memorial service on Tuesday. Of the 37 African heads of state at the event, only President Hifikepunye Pohamba of Namibia got a chance to pay tribute to Nelson Mandela, one of the greatest inspirational leaders of the ages.

It’s not that Nigerians who have complained loudly and bitterly love to weep more than the bereaved. Or that they think that each of the over 90 world leaders present at the event should have been permitted to mount the podium. They feel gutted and betrayed that, on a day when South Africa should show gratitude for all that Nigeria had done, all we got was a nameplate on the dais and a mention that Goodluck Jonathan was in the crowd. 

This is not just pointless whining. The angsters have a point. OK, between the 1980s and 1994, Namibia contributed an estimated $61billion to the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. But that’s mere change compared to Nigeria’s contribution in cash, minus the financial losses that followed the nationalisation of British Petroleum and Barclays Bank by the Murtala/Obasanjo administration. Not a single one of the eight frontline states could match Nigeria’s financial contribution to the liberation struggle. Beyond cash, Nigeria provided military training and support and offered temporary shelter to leaders of the African National Congress, including former president Thabo Mbeki.

We took the battle as our own – and indeed it was. Nigeria led the boycott of the 1986 Commonwealth Games, while leading artistes like Fela and Sunny Okosuns chewed the apartheid regime in their hit songs. In the words of Mandela contained in a recent article by Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, “Nigeria stood by us (South Africa) more than any other nation.” 

It was quite ironic that the United States took the centre stage at the funeral; this was the same US, which under President Ronald Reagan, turned a blind eye to apartheid and even listed ANC as a terrorist organisation! Reagan vetoed the US Congress bill imposing economic sanctions on the apartheid government, because it was obviously more important to US strategic interest to keep a Cold War ally onside than it was to end the injustice of apartheid.

Margaret Thatcher of Britain was not different. She vigorously opposed sports sanctions against the apartheid regime in a display of craven indulgence. She was on the wrong side of history, yet Thatcher being Thatcher was not ashamed of it. According to Geoffrey Howe, described as one of Thatcher’s closest allies, she regarded ANC as a “typical terrorist organisation”.

But whose fault is it that Nigeria is getting shabby treatment? In our relationship with South Africa – and with a significantly growing number of African countries – we have fallen from the place of respect and honour. Nigeria has come from a position where its citizen got a near-free pass into South Africa to one where we now have to line up at the high commission for weeks to get three-month visas, with yellow fever certificates, to enter Johannesburg.

How is that South Africa’s fault? While the same US which produced Reagan has also produced Clinton and Obama, two of the most inspiring leaders on the world stage today, and Britain has produced David Cameron, we have produced some of the worst human beings as leaders in the last two decades.

What would Jonathan have said at Mandela’s funeral that would not be a damnation of his own presidency in the last three years? From the ratings on standard of living to those on security, corruption, good governance and longevity, Nigeria has consistently come short under Jonathan. How could he have said anything to inspire a crowd that knows that but for South Africa (Nigeria’s junior brother), we would still be helpless about Henry Okah, a self-confessed terror gang leader?

I don’t have any patriotic mush about what happened on Tuesday. It might have been good for our testosterone to have Jonathan stand there and pretend to be saying a few nice things about Mandela. But I’d rather the task was given to Robert Mugabe who is confident in his own madness than to a man without a mind of his own. I became even more convinced that excluding Jonathan from the speakers’ list was a good thing after reading Baba-Ahmed’s piece entitled “Why Mandela was angry with Nigeria”.

In that article, he quoted Mandela as saying, “Your country used to be respected. After your suspension from the Commonwealth, many western countries approached me to help in isolating Nigeria so that it will be easier to bring down your military dictators. I consulted many African leaders and all were unanimous in their advice. They told me to steer clear of Nigeria, that you would fix your problems. You have done it before. ‘But,’ he shook his head, ‘you have not. Not this time.’ The world will not respect Africa until Nigeria earns that respect.” Even though this was said six years ago, when Olusegun Obasanjo was president, things have gotten worse since.

We should be grateful to the organising committee on Mandela’s burial for leaving Jonathan out of the speakers’ list. It was a mockumentary we didn’t need.

Obasanjo Bombs Jonathan (OBJ) 

If I could, I would hang former president Olusegun Obasanjo by the next pole. He is as guilty as hell of a number of the things he shamelessly accused President Goodluck Jonathan of in his Wednesday letter bomb. He brought Jonathan upon us.

But as the Yoruba say, even a bad man has his own day. You can accuse Obasanjo of anything, but certainly not a lack of courage to call a spade by its name, when it matters most. There has not been any head of state since Shehu Shagari who received Obasanjo’s vitriolic letters and survived long afterwards.

Shagari didn’t. Muhammadu Buhari didn’t. Ibrahim Babangida became a lame duck after Obasanjo’s famous “human face” letter. Abacha preempted him by jailing him, but he had the last laugh. And when Obasanjo opened fire on Umaru Yar’Adua, the man was too far gone to even respond. Jonathan has just had it. Obasanjo Bombs Jonathan (OBJ). C’est finis