By: Raheem Hammed Gbolahan
I am sure you would agree with me, that the President of Nigeria is swift at responding to issues within and outside the country. There’s one thing I don’t like about you Nigerians: you paint Baba as though he’s one-sided, when in fact he made it clear to you all that he belonged to everybody and belonged to nobody.
At least it took him some two weeks or more to condemn the attack in Benue state that year, and few hours to secure the release of one Zainab involved in a drug saga in Saudi Arabia. That’s not even our major concern in today’s report. The recent attacks targeted at Nigerians living and making something meaningful for themselves in South Africa by South Africans is alarming. Recall that I brought it to the attention of Mr. President the last time? Maybe the message didn’t get to him and stopped at the desk of the chief of staff, or it got to him but, due to one reason or the other, he skipped reading it.
I am pleased to announce to you that as part of efforts to bring the diplomatic relations between the GIANT OF AFRICA and the xenophobic South Africa to a very low ebb, the federal government of Nigeria under the leadership of Muhammadu Buhari has vowed that the activities of Nigeria Air, Africa’s best and largest air transport company, to South Africa will be suspended totally. We cannot joke any longer with the lives of our people as we did during the 16 years of PDP misrule.
Although the date of the commencement of this suspension is not known yet, the foreign affairs minister will soon shed more light on that. It is rumoured that the government may also be considering deporting the millions of South Africans in Nigeria for a better life or seize exporting the many life-changing technology and products we currently send to the SA.
The South African high commissioner to Nigeria said categorically that no Nigerian was killed, and I was tempted to ask our minister if he has the exact figure of Nigerians in South Africa. Another minister in the cabinet of Ramaphosa claimed Nigerians came to their country and took their jobs. Like how? Nigerians? Your jobs? We don’t have an unemployment problem in my country now. The Buhari-led FG kept to their promise and provided jobs for graduates. During the last recruitment into the CBN, were you not employed? NNPC, didn’t they employ you? What about the Federal Civil Service? Just name it, the government has created millions of jobs for the lazy youth.
I heard there are basic amenities in South Africa for their citizens, who told these people we don’t have access to these amenities too in Nigeria? A fresh graduate in my country is entitled to an apartment by the government, enjoys good roads, pipe-borne water, constant power supply and so on. Why then are we in South Africa? The same reason my president will frequent UK hospitals at the expense of the sophisticated world-class hospital we have in the country.
Air Peace has volunteered to bring other Nigerians that escaped death in South Africa back to Nigeria. After all, it’s more honourable for a man to die in his land than die in a foreign land. It would be a shame if our government folds its arm and allow foreign governments kill its citizens. Come back home and enjoy life in the hands of Fulani herdsmen, SARS, Boko Haram, Kidnappers, Ritualists, (un)biased Judiciary, (in)efficient legislators and so on.
Although Buhari is to travel to South Africa by October, this is to get firsthand information of the whole issue since the special envoy he sent may not have done the needful. It also presents an opportunity for him to think of further stringent measures to be taken in order to deal with them.
