TheCable

What an effrontery on the part of South Africa to poke fun at Nigeria about the missing chibok girls and reference to the tragedy at the synagogue church in response to Nigeria recall of Nigerian high commissioner following xenophobia attacks against black foreigners in that country?Moroco disrespected Nigeria when the king of that declining desert kingdom claimed he shunned president goodluck Jonathan during the recent presidential campaign.Given the events in the past few weeks after GMB became the president-elect and the Moroccan ambassador was one of the first to visit GMB,the information that denigrated Jonathan and by extension Nigeria was obviously leaked to the press by an APC stalwart who is now a senator and other facilitators of the Moroccan ambassador’s early courtesy visit to GMB.Those engaging in such act of sabotage of their country should not forget that GMB would become president of Nigeria on May 29th and not republic of Songhai or any other name that would be different from the Nigerian brand. So compromising the Nigerian brand or national integrity for cheap political gains in my view is unpatrotic. South Africa is perhaps copying the morroccan strategy of aligning with opposition party to embarrass the ruling party hence it’s rapid comment .If the in-coming govt of GMB encourages that sort of in dignifying attitude towards Nigeria by acquiescing with Nigeria’s irreverent neigbours and rivals, in the long run, it would amount to digging the grave of this country because other countries will soon start copying the concept of getting involved in local Nigerian politics and Nigeria will loose its high esteem. Going by GMB’s love for Nigeria which was exhibited in the past when he drove away foreign soldiers who made incursions into Nigeria when he was GOC, l have no doubt that he would.not tolerate such disrespect by foreign countries fir our sovereignty by not meddling in our internal politics.Those aligning with foreign countries to denigrate Nigeria for short term benefits should not forget that one day GMB and APC like PDP and Jonathan will also loose control of govt at the centre, if democracy is allowed to thrive and Nigeria would have been diminished in stature due to the parochial self interest of a few over zealous power mongers,when similar undermining tactics are applied by those who would take over.There is no basis of comparison between what happened in synagogue church to South African xenophobia as the South Africa spokesman did. It’s very cheeky for South Africa to be reminding Nigeria of the unfortunate situation of the chibok girls kidnapped by terrorists and yet to be brought back to their grieving families more so because of the ignoble role South Africa played in seizing the funds deployed by Nigeria to acquire the badly needed arms and ammunitions to fight Boko haram terrorists.Unlike South Africa other African countries like Niger Republic and Cameroon amongst others have helped to repel the Boko haram insurgency through Trans border cooperation which Nigeria now enjoys had which she had extended in the past in other aspects such as fighting rinderpest disease etc.Besides that, Nigeria has also been in the forefront of fighting on behalf of other African countries such as the liberation of Rhodesia which later became Zimbabwe from white supremacist rule. Perhaps, the South African spokesman has forgotten so easily that his country was able to unshaclkle itself from apartheid through Nigeria’s effort at a very great cost to Nigeria financially and diplomatically. Under OBJ , Nigeria took on almighty USA and UK by nationalizing their assets when those countries continued to back white minority leaders .The very powerful, Secretary of State of the USA ,Henry Kissinger was denied permit to stop over in Nigeria to dialogue with OBJ as a protest against western pro apartheid stance.A conspiracy theory ascribes the sudden fcrash of international oil price subsequently to an all time low was a ploy by the western powers led by USA and Uk to teach Nigeria a lesson because it was believed that high price of crude oil which was Nigeria’s strength and power to be the leader of africa, needed to be manipulated to undermine her economy and cut her to size, so to speak. Nigerian economy indeed was brought down by the conspiracy of the western powers that Nigeria offended while defending blacks in South Africa by fighting for the majority rule the blacks and end of apartheid. During the reign of Shehu Shagari , the sudden drastic drop of oil price led to the infamous container amada in nigerian ports,; subsequent austerity measures and the toppling of a democratically elected govt by the military owing to the hardship that was visited on the masses as a fall out of the western powers action which is incidentally not different from the current situation in the oil market whereby the supper powers are manipulating the supply and hence massive price drop by over 50% to punish Russian for its unwholesome practices against Ukraine which it invaded claiming territories illegally and also as an instrument meant to compel Iran to a negotiating table over its nuclear program.
Inadvertently, Nigerian democracy which could have been over thirty years old by now was suspendend in 1983 through a coup d’état until it was graciously reistored by Gen Abfulsalam in 1999 following the death of Gen Sanni Abscha, the dictator who died in office.Incidentally,the beneficiaries of Nigeria’s suspended democracy was South Africa when apartheid was eradicated owing to pressure mounted by Nigeria amongst others and South Africa thus became the first major African country to embrace democracy at that critical time and earned all the respect and investment opportunities that could have accrued to Nigeria if it had continued on the democratic path it had charted when OBJ handed over to Shagari in 1978.
Already, USA and UK have against normal diplomatic practice tried to dabble into Nigeria’s interval affairs when foreign secretary john Kerry of USA and Hammond of USA issues joint statements about Nigeria’s general elections while votes were being collated and that was in addition to Kerry’s earlier ‘shuttle diplomacy’ visit to the leading candidates during the run up to the elections. Since diplomats watch actions of one another and reactions, the tendency fir more of such diplomatic disrespect to continue is high because govt seem to be condoning it . In my considered opinion,had the USA and uk affront been rebuffed, morocco might not have adopted similar strategy, neither would South Africa be indulging in it now. Recall the consequences of USA meddling in interval politics in Lebanon, Egypt,and Libya. Hamas gained popularity in Lebanon over FATAH because of resistance to more liberal PLO that was adjudged by the people as surrogates of USA. Ditto for Egypt and voting into office of the radical Muslim brotherhood but it was later ousted in a coup d’état. How about Libya and the sad situation that led to the unfortunate death of the USA ambassador to Libya? When the Republican Party in the USA conspired to remove a Democratic Party president through the infamous scandal which saw USA security agencies compromising themselves by leaking information that led to the botching of evacuation of American hostages to facilitate victory at the polls for the Republican Party , the USA paid dearly for it over a period of time even though the republicans succeeded in removing jimmy carter from office and replacing him with their own Ronald Reagan due to the failure of the Democratic Party president, carter to bring back the hostages safely following the alleged security compromise said to have been facilitated by a CIA boss who later became the president after Reagan.The recent Israeli president Benjamin nathayahu’s address at the Republican Party led parliament without the consent of the Democratic Party led presidency is example of such diplomatic faux pax which more often than not eventually hunt govts so GMB should beware.
GMB will do well not to fall into such a trap no matter how alluring the prospects look now. No matter the prism from which it is considered ,South Africa remains our biggest rival on the continent of Africa.nigeria’s economy just nearly doubled theirs after the recent rebasement exercise.It could triple it if we remain on course as we have so far by engaging in a peaceful general election and the unfolding peaceful transition from GEJ of PDP to GMB of APC to the chagrin of doomsday prophets who had predicted Nigeria’s conflagration following conflicts arising from election results dispute.. GMB must not play to the gallery and allow foreigners set local political parties against each for their selfish gains. While l don’t support the proposed action of some aggrieved Nigerians to boycott South African owned businesses in Nigeria, l was appalled by a recent comment by south Africans that if Mtn or dstv is shut down as a result, over 6000 jobs or so will be lost. That in my view is hogwash. Vodacom of the uk that missed the train when Nigeria was selling gsm licenses can’t wait to fill the void that will be created just as Glo, Etisalat and Airtel have to render same service much the same way that Comcast of USA can come to replace dstv where startimes, a Chinese and NTA partnership is already making inroads.
South Africa should put in more efforts into making her largely primitive populace as result of prolonged practice of apartheid, whereby they were denied access to education and wealth by their white oppressors,become more broad minded .l align with the irrepressible president of Zimbabwe,Robert Mugabe who was recently quoted as saying , he can’t understand why an average South African who is too afraid to even kick the statute of a while man can be killing his fellow black brother for no other reason than the allegation that he is denying him of job opportunities.
Had OBJ entered into agreements with Zimbabwe and South Africa on the condition upon which Nigeria could help liberate them from white supremacist regime just like the USA does with the MONROE doctrine which stipulates that the USA recovers all her investments put into in helping a country fight insurgents or repel invaders just like they did by arranging to have the military cost of her helping Kuwait drive away lraq’s invaders of that country which led to the first gulf war,South Africans would have remembered exactly what Nigeria did to liberate them and be grateful but OBJ expended Nigeria’s wealth and goodwill and got nothing in return but envy and disrespect . I was amazed when on a visit to Zimbabwe and South Africa , l discovered that no monument, not even a street is named after OBJ or Nigeria in Zimbabwe or South Africa in recognition of the monumental effort and sacrifice that Nigeria made to liberate those countries from white colonialists through her adoption of Africa as centre piece of her foreign policy. Instead ,there were squares.and streets named after Sam Nuyoma,Samora Machel etc .This was perhaps because the ruling white South Africans shielded the average black South African from knowing the role Nigeria played in their redemption. In my view ,such critical information about their liberation from apartheid which in my view is equivalent to slave trade which we suffered in Africa and are taught in schools to remind us of our past should have been taught in schools as civics course in South African too.Perhaps the South African spokes man who was credited with the insulting statements would have known better. Although, the white minority rulers may be culpable in the attempt to deny southern African region countries of history of their past, leaders like the late venerable president , Nelson Mandela and highly respected Bishop Desmond Tutu who are privy to Nigeria’s effort , having benefited directly,should have done better by correcting the mistake.Similar mistakes were made when Nigeria intervened in Liberia and Serre-leone at colossal human and capital costs without arrangements to recoup our investments through proceeds from the diamond mines and rubber tyre factory in those countries as the USA did in Kuwait where their cost of prosecuting the first gulf war was recouped through proceeds from crude oil.
With the dynamic cabinet that GMB is believed to be planning to put together to help him run the country, l’m optimistic that mistakes if the oar won’t be repeated by acting on parochial self interests as opposed to the overbidding interest of the larger society and entity , Nigeria.

the SA commentary may be unfortunate in the sense that they taunted this admin but the truth is they have a valid point. when over 80 something of their citizens died in Nigeria and the inquest by the coronary of the nigerian govt failed its attempts, SA did not resort to this means. Instead of the GEJ admin to make provisions to remove their citizens from the country like others did our forign minister said our people should lock themselves inside their houses. its amusing how this admin chooses to react to issues

Magnus Onyobe has said it all. I salute you sir.