Nigerian leaders and death wish citizens

By Clem Oluwole

(First published on October 12, 2013).

Nelson Mandela is my hero and role model. I was in my early teens when he was hauled into the calaboose on Robben Island for being in the vanguard of the struggle to eradicate apartheid as a way of life in his South African native country. So concerned was I about the plight of my fellow Africans in the racist enclave that I devoted my Master’s thesis to the struggle against apartheid in that sub-region.

In my sports column which I ran in the Standard Newspaper of Jos between the late 70s and the early 80s, I fought the obnoxious system hammer and tongs. I was a major crusader for the Afro-Arab boycott of the 1976 Montreal Olympics in Montreal, Canada, because of New Zealand’s sporting fraternization with the apartheid South African rugby outfits in violation of sanctions put in place by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The sanctions forbade any member nation to have a sporting intercourse with the racist country.


My joy knew no bounds when Mandela was thrown out of jail in 1990 following the eventual collapse of the inhuman system. He had spent 27 years in the jail house where he was subjected to some of the most terrible treatments ever known to man. His release and the unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC) marked the end of the inglorious and oppressive regime of apartheid. Four years after regaining his freedom, the anti-apartheid icon led the ANC to win the first multi-party, multi-racial election in South Africa.

As president, Nelson Mandela navigated South Africa away from its segregationist past and laid the foundation for a just and egalitarian society where everyone – black or white, can exercise his inalienable rights, thereby dousing the apprehension of the anger of the natives for being subjected to years of oppression which could lead to backlash that would have precipitated the emigration of the whites. But owing to his forgiving spirit, political maturity and adroit handling of the situation, such an eventuality did not occur. Indeed by 1999, when he vacated the presidency at the end of the first term, mutual confidence between the races had deepened and that, in turn, enabled the philosophy of the rainbow nation to take deep and firm roots.

Who wouldn’t struggle to identify with Mandela? After serving out the first term, many had expected him to run for a second stanza and even third. In fact, Mandela was entitled to rule South Africa for the rest of his life. But Madiba, as Mandela is fondly called, shunned the temptation to stay put despite the sacrifice he made to free his people. He was shoved into prison at 45, spent 27 years there and regained his freedom at 72. We had a president who was rescued from prison at about the time Madiba was about to finish his first term and refused to continue because he felt he had laid a solid foundation for the younger, more vigorous generation to build on. But our own ex-convict president learnt nothing from his incarceration, coming out alive. Rather, he misruled us for two terms and even sought for a third term!

Currently, Madiba is in a Pretoria hospital where he has been on admission for a life-threatening lung infection, rooted in the tuberculosis he contracted at the Robben Island calaboose. This is Madiba’s fourth hospitalization in seven months. Each time his health conditions deteriorate, his entire country finds itself on the tenterhooks. At 94, Madiba is stricken with old age. The long years of incarceration is taking its toll on him. But his appreciative countrymen and even kids would not let go of him… the entire world, too. On daily basis, tons of prayers are heaped at the feet of the Almighty God to spare the iconic freedom fighter for them… for many more years.

Worthy of note is the treatment of Madiba in a South African hospital. Were he a Nigerian, he would have been flown to Germany or the United States. After a prolonged apartheid rule, the system has sustained the healthcare institutions it inherited from the racist warlords. Nigerian big men and women, whose country played a significant role in the struggle against the obnoxious system, have made South Africa one of their medical tourism destinations.

Madiba’s health travails and outpouring of prayers from within and outside the country are a contrast to what obtains in this country where majority of its citizens wish death for their leaders facing health challenges. Instances abound especially after the shocking demise of Stella Obasanjo in faraway Spain where she had gone to flatten her big tummy in readiness for her 60th birthday celebration.

Toward the end of last year, Dame Patience Jonathan, the ever gorgeous Fist Lady, hovering between life and death, was ferried to Germany for an undisclosed ailment. The presidency lied desperately to cover up and all manner of “truths and half truths” were cooked up by the curious citizens about her travails. Consequently, her close associates believed the stories they heard. So, rather than pray for her, they wished for her death and went ahead to share some of her property among themselves.

When General Sani Abacha died in 1998, only a few mourned him. Majority perceived him as a maximum dictator and rejoiced over his passage. Maryam Babangida was hospitalized in Los Angeles for ovarian cancer. Weeks before her death in December 2009, the rumour mill ground out the news of her passage. An angry Maryam hit back and cursed that the rumour peddlers would sing their swan song before her. The rumour millers never prayed for her recovery and safe return. The late Yar’Adua suffered the same fate. All those who felt that he stole the 2007 presidential mandate from Gen. Mohammadu Buhari wished him dead. More so that he himself admitted that the election that threw up his presidency was riddled with flaws.

The immediate past deputy governor of Ekiti state, Funmi Olayinka, died a couple of months ago of breast cancer. Like Maryam Babangida, rumour millers prophesied her death a few weeks before her time. She was angry. Rather than pray for her speedy recovery, some folks went over to her boss and sought her replacement. Enugu state governor, Sullivan Chime, who has been in and out of a London hospital for quite sometime now, was rumoured dead several times.

But do you blame Nigerian citizens for their wish of death for their leaders? It is simply because most of them who find their way to leadership positions do not possess the leadership qualities of Madiba. Yet, they insist on staying put in office. So, the masses, in their helpless and hopeless situation, can only wish them dead as a means of getting them out of office. Therefore, our leaders should learn from Madiba’s example. If he were a Nigerian, our armies of prayer warriors would have decreed him out of hospital within hours.