This article is from our friends at urnaija.com. Ordinarily, I would not have commented, but I find it completely distasteful and out of touch, I must say a thing or two.
– Its been 18 years since Nelson Mandela left Robben Island, in that time, a lot has happened to the world and to South Africa. Why must Nigeria be singled out for recognition at this burial. I m more than sure that South Africa has said thank you many times since apartheid fell. Is the writer of the article suggesting that every time the dismantling of apartheid is mentioned, Nigeria’s glorious role in doing that is mentioned. Nigeria and other nations who played a part in supporting the ANC and those who clamoured for the release of Mandela had a moral duty to do so.
– It was probably best that the Nigerian President was not accorded any more respect than he was given. It is my opinion that in terms of security, corruption and preserving the middle class, Mr Jonathan has been more than spineless. To suggest that the Europeans and Americans got more recognition at his demise misses the whole point of Nelson Mandela’s life. Africans are not in competition with the Americans or the Europeans. Or perhaps we should be! The Memorial Service to which the writer alludes to was of the right calibre and tone. Africa’s leaders have failed to learn from Madiba, they have failed to learn that its about the people. Service to humanity should be more than bread and butter, till that happens, the African continent will remain where it is. Irrelevant!
The term ‘jailers’ I find offensive. The writer is making the mistake that every white person is meant to be the enemy. The whole article is rubbish really. I cannot agree with the tone of it.
More later!
Here is the article…. have your say! What do you think? Was Nigeria really airbrushed from Mandela’s history?
It’s amusing to see the same people who jailed Mandela several years ago falling over themselves to eulogise him at his death. This is not only because he showed in his life time
that he was made of better material than all of them put together but also because we Africans allowed them to take centre stage.
Africans always allow Europeans and their American cousins to call the shots. It was Europeans who sent Mandela to jail and the same Europeans released him after he was considered more dangerous locked up than free.
They dismantled apartheid when it became an embarrassment to them.
Now they are the ones telling us Mandela’s life story and all the efforts other African countries, especially Nigeria, played to set him free have been carefully deleted from history.
A wise man once said, “history is merely a piece of fiction written by the Victors”.
When Mandela left prison a wiser and more matured man than when he was thrown into jail he confounded his captors who quickly switched gears and became his best friends.
On the other hand, a disappointed Mandela was hoping to find an independent Africa with progressive leadership but what he discovered was that most African countries were actually in a worse state than they were under colonial leadership when he went to jail.
It was only natural for him to become best friends with the same people who jailed him especially after he discovered that the economies of most African countries were still tied to the apron strings of their former colonial masters.
If Nelson Mandela died with any regrets it’s probably the fact that he was the only African leader that Europeans and Americans had any respect for.
Take for instance his memorial service where America’s president was given centre stage to read an eulogy. President Jonathan was at the same memorial service but no major media organisation acknowledged his presence.
Yeah, nobody acknowledged the presence of Goodluck Jonathan, President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria at Mandela’s memorial.
Nobody remembers that Nigeria spent millions of Dollars to support the African National Congress (ANC) members in exile.
It was Nigeria that led a successful boycott of the 1986 Commonwealth Games in protest against the attitude of the Thatcher led Conservative government to apartheid South Africa.
Nigerian passports were issued to opponents of the apartheid regime so that they could travel around the world and drum support for release of Nelson Mandela and dismantle apartheid when the South African government wouldn’t issue them passports.
For several years, Nigerian Civil Servants were contributing a part of their salaries to support the struggle against apartheid.
What we got paid in return is not appreciation but a complete airbrush from history and it’s not because Mandela and South Africans were ungrateful but because they were too ashamed to associate themselves with our leaders.
Mandela would sooner travel to a country where there is stable power supply and security; make friends with Clinton and Blair, who were held accountable to the people they governed, than hang around those who would treat him like a god while oppressing the people who elected them to office.
Mandela would rather associate himself with a country where a cabinet minister resigned over accusations he insulted Policemen on duty than hang around a President who refused to sack a minister facing legislative probe for spending $1.5 million dollars on bullet-proof luxury cars.
Madiba avoided Africa because the state of affairs in so many African countries reminded him of how black South Africans were treated by white South African only worse because it’s now black Africans oppressing other black Africans.
When the tide turned around for Mandela, the organised western world – the same people who jailed him – made a decision to claim his legacy while his African brothers, who paid a price to get him freed, were busy tearing down the good work they built.
The same way he realised that the way forward for South Africa was forgiveness and reconciliation he also realised that the sensible thing to do was to fraternise with the people who jailed him and not the profligate and corruption ridden African leadership.
We pushed “our” Man
dela back into the arms of his jailers even after he had been set free from a physical prison because he realised that African leaders may be parading themselves around in luxury cars and private jets but they were still ideologically imprisoned.
Since he didn’t want to go back to any kind of prison he aligned himself with those who put him in jail because they did not only set him free from a physical prison they also had the power to set him free from the ideological prison that other African leaders were still trapped in.
They are now the ones re-writing Mandela’s life story and thanks to our leaders our children will probably never know the role we played in setting him free from jail and South Africa from an evil political system.
– See more at: http://www.urnaija.com/nigeria-airbrushed-out-of-mandelas-life-story/#sthash.6T1pHIqx.dpuf
Why did this picture make front page news? This is the picture some have viewed as inappropriate. I dont think so. Nelson Mandela’s death should be celebrated. He died at 95. A ripe age by all standards. So why not have some fun eh? If taking this selfie is part of the celebrations , why not? Politicians are human as well or are they not?
