The Scourge Of South Africa’s Ingratitude

By Ayo Oyoze Baje  

The recurring ugly decimal of premeditated brutalisation of Nigerians, by South Africans in their country has become a handshake beyond the elbow, calling for a vicious wrestling combat. That, in itself is a most unfortunate development. What with Nigeria’s famed Big Brother role in the African continental politics and economy? What about spearheading the struggle to free the country from the iron-grip of the blood-letting and asphyxiating Apartheid policy that claimed some 21,000 innocent lives, going by statistics from International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO)?

*Jacob Zuma and Muhammadu Buhari

It therefore, smirks of gross ingratitude, quite antithetical to the African Union Charter and the much-cherished African traditional ethos of hospitality that Nigerians should be at the receiving end of the transferred aggression of the same South Africans! According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr. Ikechukwu Anyene, President, Nigeria Union, in a telephone call from Pretoria confirmed attacks on members and looting of Nigerian-owned businesses in Pretoria West on Saturday.

In his words: “As we speak, five buildings with Nigerian businesses, including a church have been looted and burned by South Africans. One of the buildings is a mechanic garage with 28 cars under repairs, with other vital documents, were burned during the attack. The attack in Pretoria West is purely xenophobic and criminal because they loot the shops and homes before burning them. Also, the pastor of the church was wounded and is in the hospital receiving treatment.” He said that the union had reported the incident to the Nigeria mission and South African police. 

One Year After: Beyond The Blame Game

By Ayo Oyoze Baje  

Anyone still blaming the former President Goodluck Jonathan-led administration for all our current socio-economic woes, one year after leaving office, must be wallowing in self-deceit or simply living in fool’s paradise. Government is a continuum. Furthermore, when a leader takes over an institution, be it public or private, he inherits both the assets and liabilities. As he builds on the assets, he seeks ways to mitigate the pains inflicted on the people by the liabilities.

*Buhari 

One sweet victory leads to a new set of challenges. It is never a stroll in the park, nor a picnic in paradise. The top of the ladder, as the wise ones say, is not meant for dancing, or dithering to take decisive actions. Successful leaders find the reasons to succeed, not giving excuses for failure.

It would, therefore, do the spokespersons of our president a world of good to henceforth stop looking over the shoulder and laying all the blames of the failure of the Buhari-led government to frontally tackle and reverse the country’s dwindling economic fortunes, on the previous administration. Political campaigns, couched with sleazy slogans should have ended over a year ago. Now is the time for those who the electorate invested their trust and goodwill on to roll up their sleeves and get down to brass tasks.

After all, what is leadership all about? It is about having the vision to identify the led majority’s most pressing challenges and mustering the Capacity, the Character, the Courage and the Commitment to finding lasting solutions to them. It is about engendering team spirit; working with the best of hands and brain to deliver the so called ‘dividends of democracy’ to the good people of Nigeria. It is not about any individual, no matter how knowledgeable, to exhibit a philosopher-king mentality, pretending to know it all and foisting his views, sometimes puerile and out of sync with modern governance practices on his people.

Truth is, this administration needs all the assistance it could get. One of such is an economic think-tank, made of top technocrats who could read the next direction the global productive pendulum would swing and internalise it to proffer solutions to existing challenges. Such a group would have informed the president on the need to focus more energy, time and resources on revamping the tottering economy, soon after he took over the reins of governance. But one year after, there is no crystal clear direction where the ship of the economy is heading to.