I like the fact that the Nigerian government is pretending to care about its people. It took the South African deportation of 125 Nigerians on the untenable excuse that they were carrying fake yellow cards (vaccination against yellow fever). These people could have been quarantined and allowed to stay in South Africa but obviously the South Africans though were carrying out a shameful act against the Nigerian citizens; the Nigerians actually suffer more from their own government back home.
You do not just wake up one morning and expect that a child you maltreat at will will be well treated by your friends. It is the value you attach to whatever belongs to you others will attach to it. Over the years, the worst inhuman treatments Nigerians have gotten from any quarter is from their government. It is why a government would despite not being able to secure lives and property, ask its citizens to pay one of the world’s highest prices for petrol. The same government who has barely provided anything in form of infrastructure unleashed new number plates on the people and added new driver license regimes to boot. Electricity tariffs have been raised to supersonic heights and Nigerians appear helpless. It is not about the raise in the case of the electricity tariffs, it is about the fact that Nigerians are being asked to pay more for nothing, to pay more for darkness.
It is not as much about these actions and treatments in themselves but about the way they are being carried out. Take the fuel subsidy scam for instance. It has been proven that the government itself willingly doled out some N2 trillion to fake business men under the pretense of petrol importation. The same importation process that cost us N640 billion at its most expensive is now running close to N2.4 trillion. You would expect everyone from the supervising minister, her cohorts and all the rogues in the importation process to be brought to book but instead Nigerians were the ones brought to pains and ridicule as the government sought to transfer the burden of the corrupt it cultured directly to the people.
Treat just one American shabbily and wait for the wrath of Uncle Sam. That time proven act by America is not a sham or a one-off, it is an age long culture that has seen every American treated with dignity by their governments at home.
Nigeria must seek redress in this South African show of disrespect to our citizens but our ministers and their boss should stop acting like they do not know the book the South African disrespect came from. It came from the same book written and made a best seller by our government. The book is titled “TREAT NIGERIANS ANYHOW” ( an International Best Seller) and last January, it sold several million copies as a government that had barely gotten anything right forced new petrol taxes on a people still reeling from the pains of bomb blasts on the very first day of the New Year. The world as usual was watching and South Africa only took a cue from our government’s lead.
NB: Apparently, a Nigerian Senator was part of the deportees. Now you know Nigeria’s noise has little to do with the other Nigerians deported.
This is @omojuwa
