Madiba’s emotional call for action on poverty (2)

Aliyu Musa

When Mandela and his compatriots confronted apartheid they knew it was a fight against a very formidable enemy and forged a united force. They had their challenges, which were less to do with ethnicity or religion. For example Joe Slovo, a white South African of Jewish background was a leading member of the ANC and went to jail several times on account of his anti-apartheid campaign. His wife, Ruth First who was also Jewish was slain by the apartheid security police in 1982.

At a time of great difficulties partly fuelled by suspicion Muslim leaders did not waver in their opposition to the injustice apartheid typified. In the run up to the multiracial elections of 1994 a growing number of Muslims expressed discomfort with the posture ANC took on certain issues, including the manner of people the party associated with. ANC did not hesitate to reassure Muslims in the country that their concerns were already being addressed. The late Imam Gassan Solomon and Ebrahim Rasool, who became the Premier of Western Cape province and later the South African ambassador to the US, were notable Muslims who stood by the party to bridge the gap.

The Most Reverend Desmond Tutu, a retired Anglican bishop and the first black Archbishop of Cape Town, was a prominent figure in the struggle. For the huge success that transformed South Africa to be achieved no one was left out. And at a time negotiations to end apartheid were nearly stalled it was Joe Slovo’s suggestion of an inclusive formula, which meant ANC making concessions to the other stakeholders, that led to a breakthrough; a patriotic move it was.

In total contrast, our return to civil rule in 1999 only heralded a journey to more suffering for the people. In the run up to the elections the same people that immensely contributed to much of the problem congregated again to form a platform on which they assigned themselves roles and swooped on the country with the sole aim of milking it dry. The sort of looting seen since then is simply unprecedented. It shows how heartless people really are.

Poverty in Nigeria today has multiplied several hundred times compared to when the military left power in 1999. The politicians that took over have mindlessly continued to perpetuate a regime of reckless banditry that has catapulted just a few into the society’s superrich regardless of whether the mass majority live or die.

For this few patriotism means nothing and the rate at which the country slides to the abyss does not in any way tingle their conscience. Unlike the world leaders Mandela persuaded by his call to, at least, pretend to be doing something about poverty Nigerian leaders see poverty as conjectural. They can afford to spend millions of dollars on bulletproof cars, private jets or even grandiose artifacts, but they find it unacceptable to properly fund public schools, colleges and universities. They spend millions of dollars attending international jamborees to show off, but they don’t consider fixing roads, hospitals or other essentials necessary.

Just last week two of my students drew my attention to a half a page advert in The Times newspaper in which a picture of an extravagantly dressed Dezeini Allison Madueke, Nigeria’s oil minister was published. There was a message that had been clearly eclipsed by her picture but I did not have the patience to read it. A half a page advert in The Times costs £13, 125 upwards, depending on the colour and page it is published. Multiply that amount by 262, which is the rate at which the British Pound Sterling exchanges to Naira at the minute, you will arrive at an approximate amount spent on that meaningless advert. This could just be one of many.

This sort of nonsense happens because the people have over the years come to accept poverty as a way of life. They see nothing abnormal in people using public offices or other furtive means to amass wealth; in fact it is only in Nigeria that anyone could turn rich overnight and no one, not even clerics who should be the society’s conscience, ever questions the source of their sudden wealth. And because it is now a culture, young people- the country’s future - work hard to emulate crooks.

Why would our leaders act on poverty when they know full well that the more disempowered the people are the less time they would have to hold them to account? Poverty has palpably impacted on our people, turning them into cold-blooded murderers.

(To be continued)