NIGERIA VS SOUTH AFRICA; THE CONTROVERSIAL ARMS DEAL

  A wise adage says; “raise crows and they´ll gouge out your eyes”, the tensed situation between Nigeria and South Africa lately has taken my mind back to the era of Apartheid in South Africa and the colossal part Nigeria had to play in the eventual destruction of that unjust and inhuman government that had the original citizens of south Africa treated worst than animals on their soil by the white supremacist government.

  Today, both South Africa and Nigeria are on the verge to emerging into the privileged world economic League of Nations as they are undoubtedly the two greatest African economies. What is unfortunate though is that even now that the government of South Africa is led by a Black man, Jacob Zuma after centuries of white domination and the unquantifiable economic and human developmental assistance Nigeria rendered to her in all this period; South Africa appears to be fallen out with Nigeria, the same South Africa whose companies and investments are generating a huge turnover from the Nigerian market yearly.

  Now the row is about an arms deal which the Nigerian government claimed was legitimately effected but which the South African authorities argue was illegally carried out for which reason the South African authorities have seized almost $15m belonging to the federal government of Nigeria on the pretence that the money was not declared at the point of entry and as such contravenes the monetary policy of the South African government. Yes, it is possible that the federal government of Nigeria, whose government has come out to confirm that it was really behind the arms deal and that it was not just some Nigerian individuals or any Nigerian terror group wanting to acquire arms for some illegal operations, committed some blunders in its modus operandi, but then where is the mutual brotherly relationship that had existed between both countries since immemorial times, that caused the Late Nelson Mandela to choose Nigeria as one of his first port of call after being released from Prison after 27 years incarceration by the apartheid regime.

  But for unknown reasons, the South African authorities are beginning to be very draconian, not only with the Nigerian government and the Nigerian citizens, residents in South Africa but other African citizens in South Africa as well but most especially Nigerians and Zimbabweans. A video report by Sahara Reporters recently, showed how Nigerian immigrants were treated viciously by the South African authorities on the queue in front of the South African home office as they try to regularize their immigrants status. Nigerians are constantly being tagged as criminals by the South Africans and seen as rivals in the few black jobs for grabs in South Africa, they are also discriminately deported without due deportation procedures.

  I must say that I am not very impressed with the kind of opposition that the main opposition party the APC is pulling in on this issue of the seizure by the South African authorities of close to $15m belonging to the Nigerian government. There are times when a nation has to show its dedication and patriotism especially in issues of this nature, that is not to say that consequently an investigation should not be carried out at home to clarify whatever doubts and above all seek to find out if any wrong doing or anybody could have acted unlawfully in the course of the arms deal and as such indict such persons, but the idea of publicly condemning and sentencing the government without first recovering our money, shows a blatant irresponsibility on the part of the opposition.

  We have been on our government´s neck for a long time, condemning and ridiculing the government for its inefficiency and incapability to resolve the Boko Haram problem and now that we are seeing that our military are beginning to be on top of the situation we would dare support an ungrateful country like South Africa that has been treating our nation and our citizens bad for some time now. I think it is time we began to love our country above all other frivolous reasons and issues. If the south African authority were to act in good faith as a brotherly nation, they would return the money to our government and probably open up some diplomatic consultations since the federal government of Nigeria has owned up out rightly to being behind the arms deal. We should not allow any nation to degrade our nation, much less South Africa.