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The United States has placed a candy ban on some Nigerian officials. Atiku Abubakar took to twitter to celebrate: One child jubilating that an uncle has denied other children candy.
I know Atiku Abubakar has been looking for his stolen mandate. I am worried he may have lost some sense of shame. Atiku Abubakar is our former vice president . Atiku Abubakar had for a dozen years been prohibited from entering the United States. He had said he didnt know why America refused him entry visa. I had felt pity for him. He couldn’t muster the courage to tell America to go to hell then. Some lamented that he was being treated like a thief. They cried that if he had committed any offense then he should have been prosecuted before being punished. Obasanjo taunted him .
So you would think that any former vice president of any country who suffered such an indignity would loath the haughtiness and presumptuousness of the Western countries and their visa bans. But our politicians forget easily.
Atiku Abubakar has forgotten that it cost a forgiving Obasanjo a bucket of hyssop, some half truths and many somersaults to have him cleansed in Ota. It was after that cleansing that Atiku Abubakar found the guts to go to the United States with Senator Saraki to show himself to the Rabbis in the American congress and declare his wholeness to the Nigerian people. So you would think that if no one else does, that Atiku Abubakar, after 12 years in that wilderness, would understand the imperialism that such American visa bans connote.
But we must own the blame.
If we hadn’t had a succession of leaders who come to governance with the frivolity of children our country would have been a major tourist destination. And a visa ban by America would have been utterly ineffectual, laughable. But our leaders have not only the attitude but the appetite of children.
Our leaders are fascinated with the West and its lollipops. They get into government and fatten themselves and acquire properties in America and Europe. They leave the schools here decrepit and rotten , and send their children to ivy league schools abroad. They leave the roads here filled with pot holes and allow the railways remain antediluvian , and spend their holidays in the West where roads and rails are smooth and swift. When they have headaches, they travel to foreign hospitals to see American and European doctors. Our leaders are addicted to the West. And the West knows.
So Visa bans as ridiculous as they seem will hurt them.
And they will hurt their wives and girl friends who cant live without shopping sprees in the West. And since these folks are often full of impunity and reside beyond the reach of the weak arms of the law here, we may not mind to see them suffer pain occasionally. It wouldn’t matter so much their pain comes at the cost of collective indignity and shame to all Nigerians.
Countries, big and small, relate on the basis of some measure of diplomatic equality. When one country treats another as if it were its houseboy, the maligned country should take offense and demand respect. But perhaps that will happen if the despised country is not a ‘shit hole’ country
When a foreign country wakes up one morning and punishes our leaders, we should feel humiliated. Ordinarily that ban is presumptuous. It assumes that the officials that will be denied visas are desirous of visiting the united states; that the United States is somewhere worth visiting. Ordinarily that ban is contemptuous. Because Nigeria would not contemplate banning American officials from visiting Nigeria because some officials undermined the electoral process in the United States. Both countries are supposed to be sovereign equals. If Nigeria had tried placing such a ban on those were suspected to have colluded with Russians to undermine the electoral process in the United States, it would have been mocked by the whole world. That ban therefore undermines the principle of reciprocity in international relations.
But whom do we blame?
The other day there was a fracas at the National Assembly. The DSS went rogue and sent masked men to seal off the parliament. A senator went on air to announce that he was compiling names of government officials undoing democracy. He promised to send the list to his friends in America and Europe . He bragged that they would all be punished with long visa bans. It sounded like a joke. But that senator was making common sense.
That is exactly where we are. We are surrounded by childishness. We cant govern ourselves.
Nigeria is supposed to be irritated by the meddlesomeness of a foreign country in its internal affairs. The visa ban isn’t just an indictment of the electoral process , it is a negative statement on the criminal justice process in this country. A foreign country arrogates to itself the right to punish officials of a foreign country for yet unsubstantiated actions they took gain advantage in the electoral contest in their own country. The visa ban should be deemed humiliating.
But it has been welcomed: It has been welcomed by the poor masses whose freedom to choose during elections have been shackled by the growing menace of thuggery and ballot box snatching fostered by hirelings of big politicians; It has been welcomed by the opposition party and its leader who think their mandate was stolen and that the visa ban vindicated them; It has been welcomed by the government who is keen to be seen as supportive of any attempt to bolster democracy in the country by foreign powers even if those attempts come with a few insults.
Our uncle has come and taken away his candy. Some of our leaders behaved badly. Our leaders cant live without our uncle’s candy. So they are crying. The other leaders whose candies have not been seized are jubilating. We are happy like children, because our leaders bully us. Our uncle knows that our gluttonous leaders cant live without his candies. So our uncle treats our leaders like children.
I know Atiku Abubakar has been looking for his stolen mandate. I am worried he may have lost some sense of shame. Atiku Abubakar is our former vice president . Atiku Abubakar had for a dozen years been prohibited from entering the United States. He had said he didnt know why America refused him entry visa. I had felt pity for him. He couldn’t muster the courage to tell America to go to hell then. Some lamented that he was being treated like a thief. They cried that if he had committed any offense then he should have been prosecuted before being punished. Obasanjo taunted him .
So you would think that any former vice president of any country who suffered such an indignity would loath the haughtiness and presumptuousness of the Western countries and their visa bans. But our politicians forget easily.
Atiku Abubakar has forgotten that it cost a forgiving Obasanjo a bucket of hyssop, some half truths and many somersaults to have him cleansed in Ota. It was after that cleansing that Atiku Abubakar found the guts to go to the United States with Senator Saraki to show himself to the Rabbis in the American congress and declare his wholeness to the Nigerian people. So you would think that if no one else does, that Atiku Abubakar, after 12 years in that wilderness, would understand the imperialism that such American visa bans connote.
But we must own the blame.
If we hadn’t had a succession of leaders who come to governance with the frivolity of children our country would have been a major tourist destination. And a visa ban by America would have been utterly ineffectual, laughable. But our leaders have not only the attitude but the appetite of children.
Our leaders are fascinated with the West and its lollipops. They get into government and fatten themselves and acquire properties in America and Europe. They leave the schools here decrepit and rotten , and send their children to ivy league schools abroad. They leave the roads here filled with pot holes and allow the railways remain antediluvian , and spend their holidays in the West where roads and rails are smooth and swift. When they have headaches, they travel to foreign hospitals to see American and European doctors. Our leaders are addicted to the West. And the West knows.
So Visa bans as ridiculous as they seem will hurt them.
And they will hurt their wives and girl friends who cant live without shopping sprees in the West. And since these folks are often full of impunity and reside beyond the reach of the weak arms of the law here, we may not mind to see them suffer pain occasionally. It wouldn’t matter so much their pain comes at the cost of collective indignity and shame to all Nigerians.
Countries, big and small, relate on the basis of some measure of diplomatic equality. When one country treats another as if it were its houseboy, the maligned country should take offense and demand respect. But perhaps that will happen if the despised country is not a ‘shit hole’ country
When a foreign country wakes up one morning and punishes our leaders, we should feel humiliated. Ordinarily that ban is presumptuous. It assumes that the officials that will be denied visas are desirous of visiting the united states; that the United States is somewhere worth visiting. Ordinarily that ban is contemptuous. Because Nigeria would not contemplate banning American officials from visiting Nigeria because some officials undermined the electoral process in the United States. Both countries are supposed to be sovereign equals. If Nigeria had tried placing such a ban on those were suspected to have colluded with Russians to undermine the electoral process in the United States, it would have been mocked by the whole world. That ban therefore undermines the principle of reciprocity in international relations.
But whom do we blame?
The other day there was a fracas at the National Assembly. The DSS went rogue and sent masked men to seal off the parliament. A senator went on air to announce that he was compiling names of government officials undoing democracy. He promised to send the list to his friends in America and Europe . He bragged that they would all be punished with long visa bans. It sounded like a joke. But that senator was making common sense.
That is exactly where we are. We are surrounded by childishness. We cant govern ourselves.
Nigeria is supposed to be irritated by the meddlesomeness of a foreign country in its internal affairs. The visa ban isn’t just an indictment of the electoral process , it is a negative statement on the criminal justice process in this country. A foreign country arrogates to itself the right to punish officials of a foreign country for yet unsubstantiated actions they took gain advantage in the electoral contest in their own country. The visa ban should be deemed humiliating.
But it has been welcomed: It has been welcomed by the poor masses whose freedom to choose during elections have been shackled by the growing menace of thuggery and ballot box snatching fostered by hirelings of big politicians; It has been welcomed by the opposition party and its leader who think their mandate was stolen and that the visa ban vindicated them; It has been welcomed by the government who is keen to be seen as supportive of any attempt to bolster democracy in the country by foreign powers even if those attempts come with a few insults.
Our uncle has come and taken away his candy. Some of our leaders behaved badly. Our leaders cant live without our uncle’s candy. So they are crying. The other leaders whose candies have not been seized are jubilating. We are happy like children, because our leaders bully us. Our uncle knows that our gluttonous leaders cant live without his candies. So our uncle treats our leaders like children.
*Written By Dr. Ugoji Egbujo
