“Mourning” Madiba, as Nigeria expires..

  They were there aplenty, former supporters of apartheid and supplies of arms and ammunition to fuel the many wars in Africa. Cynics who daily create what we know as reality, who play God on earth to the billions. They are perhaps members of some powerful cult or the other. Tough luck to them.
Then there are those who don’t understand anything about what Mandela stood for, save for what they’ve seen on TV. To these people it’s just another ‘come and chop’ kind of arrangement. Another “owambe”. At best, an old man is dead. Let’s just weep for him. The world displayed at Mandela’s funeral, and with all the empty platitudes gushing from the mouths of criminals and saints alike, that most of us would abandon the ideals of our “loved ones”, even abandon them at their death beds, only to throw huge parties when they are dead.  
No Nigerian ‘leader’ should have gone to his funeral.  For he died heartbroken at what Nigerian leaders have done to Nigeria and Africa, and what the so-called international community and western leaders – and the cults they belong to – have done to the world
For me, I wouldn’t have even bothered to write anything on this issue. Until I met Smart a few minutes ago.
Smart is a young Nigerian from the Port Harcourt Area, who escaped into the UAE some years back and hoped to further his studies and work at the same time.  He ended up in the only job available for guys like him – as a security man.  But he did the job with so much pomp and grace, you couldn’t help but notice him.  He now works as a concierge in a large mall. Standing with him for about 40 minutes this evening, I was amazed the way he did his work with a smile on his face and the efficiency of a machine. He now even speaks passable Arabic.  
I would have greeted him and left, as one would a ‘brother’ in a foreign land. But he now asked “Bros, how Naija?”.. “Naija dey o, we dey there dey hustle… you, you don lost here” I ventured.  “Noo bros, i go Naija for September – As Salam. Shukran… Yala Yala…” he answered me amidst doing his job and interacting with visitors. I could tell though from his body language he didn’t want me to go, so I just stepped aside a bit for him to attend to people making enquiries. “My oga, that our country is finished o. Na from airport dem begin embarrass me when i go”. “Wetin happen?”I asked.
Smart got more agitated. “Oga, we are perishing!!” He said. “If you see the way Nigerians are embarrassing themselves here you will weep. Nobody wants to rent them houses anymore. The government does not want to give them visas anymore, and very few companies are offering them employment. I went somewhere to look for decent house, and despite telling them I work for this large company, they told me that Nigeria is a ‘stain’ on my name. You don’t have Ugandans, Kenyans, Zimbabweans behaving the way we do. You rent a house to Nigerian, they will ‘finish’ that house in no time!” “Finish how?”. “ They will dirty the place, and they are always fighting. The house I used to stay at Al Nakheel, these people (UAE Police) brought a whole truck and loaded all the Nigerians there away one day. They warned the landlord never to give such people houses again. Last week three crimes happened in Dubai involving Nigerians. Some people beat up a CID officer. Some guys robbed someone of 80,000 Dirhams, and some black guys waylaid a bus carrying money for a bank”
“My oga, we are perishing. After this Dubai where else? Any Nigerian that cannot get a job in Dubai can never get a job anywhere else. Yet we are destroying ourselves. Where i used to work, I could introduce newly-arrived Nigerians to be employed. But they stopped employing niigerians, because some guys there, when they assist their friends, they charge them 2,000 dirhams, and the management got to know of this illegal transaction.  I have an idea, but I know it will never work. Nigerian embassy here should please give newly arrived Nigerians some orientation training…”
By then, the energy in me had been sapped. I managed to peel myself off his counter and slouch to the taxi rank. I told Smart of the case of the Nigerian lynched in India a few weeks back, and how the Indian State Governor called Nigerians “cancers, wild animals pumped high on drugs”, how they also refuse to rent houses to Nigerians. Later on that day, another guy told me 8,000 Nigerians – mostly men – have disappeared in the UAE after their visas expired. Yet they tell us at home that all is well; that the economy is growing in leaps and bounds! Shame on them all, they’ve destroyed this country!
I felt I had failed my children.  Just like our ancestors looked on and hoped for the best, we are also hoping and praying for the best, and doing exactly nothing.
Well, this is what Mandela himself had to say about Nigeria and Nigerians, in a 2007 interview:
“You know I am not very happy with Nigeria. I have made that very clear on many occasions. Yes, Nigeria stood by us more than any nation, but you let yourselves down, and Africa and the black race very badly. Your leaders have no respect for their people. They believe that their personal interests are the interests of the people. They take people’s resources and turn it into personal wealth. There is a level of poverty in Nigeria that should be unacceptable. I cannot understand why Nigerians are not more angry than they are.”…
“…What about the corruption and the crimes? Your elections are like wars. Now we hear that you cannot be president in Nigeria unless you are Muslim or Christian. Some people tell me your country may break up. Please don’t let it happen.” “Let me tell you what I think you need to do. You should encourage leaders to emerge who will not confuse public office with sources of making personal wealth. Corrupt people do not make good leaders. Then you have to spend a lot of your resources for education. Educate children of the poor, so that they can get out of poverty.
Poverty does not breed confidence. Only confident people can bring changes. Poor, uneducated people can also bring change, but it will be hijacked by the educated and the wealthy…give young Nigerians good education. Teach them the value of hard work and sacrifice, and discourage them from crimes which are destroying your image as a good people.”
 (Excepts taken from a 2007 interview with Mandela held by Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed.)
Shame on those deceivers, especially from Nigeria, who tried to turn his funeral into a charade.  Nigerians are in total disarray. Our image is worse than ever. Our other name is ‘embarrassment’. Well, President Obasanjo, one of the chief creators of the madness in the land, put it better than I could. Let him mop up the insult from the tigers he manufactured.  Let all who want to bury their heads in the sand continue. This is a land of shame, not of honour.