Memories.
Miriam Makeba will always be my shero. Admired her from childhood in Sophiatown. She aptly once noted that we celebrated her the most on the #FeliciaShow. This show was with Ambassadors from different countries that she called home, when she was banned in South Africa.
Let me respond to you calmly, with dignity because nginobuntu, and with the weight of truth you have clearly never been taught. You are a journalist, tweeting from the United States, yet you claim to speak for Nigeria. You call for South African leaders to speak out against "hatred," yet you remain silent on the tribalism that is tearing your own country apart, that has been tearing your country for 65 years!. Let me educate you🤔
Nigeria is a country of over 250 ethnic groups. The three largest Hausa-Fulani, Yoruba, and Igbo have been locked in a perpetual struggle for power, resources, and influence. This tribalism is not a relic of the past. It is alive and destructive. In the North, Boko Haram and banditry have killed thousands. In the South-East, separatist movements like IPOB clash with federal forces. In the South-South, militancy over oil resources continues unabated. These are not random conflicts. They are rooted in ethnic identity, regional exclusion, and the failure of your leaders to build a united nation.
Since independence, Nigeria has been plagued by ethnic violence, military coups, and a civil war that claimed over a million lives all because your people could not agree to be one nation. And what has changed? Today, your leaders still allocate resources along ethnic lines. Your police force is accused of ethnic profiling. Your politicians campaign on regional identity rather than national unity. This is the reality you refuse to confront.
Yet here you are, tweeting from America, lecturing South Africa about "hatred." You are a journalist, but you are not honest. You are a Nigerian, but you are not brave. You ran away from your country, you sit in comfort abroad, and you demand that South Africans be better than your own people have ever been.
Let me tell you where South Africans stand. We are not perfect. We have our divisions, racial, economic, political. But we do not kill each other over tribe. We do not flee our country in droves. We stay and confront our realities and we are currently doing that, we fight, we build. And when we see our leaders fail, we protest , not run to America or other countries to tweet about others.
You want Julius Malema to speak out? He does. Every day. He speaks about land, about economic freedom, about sovereignty. But he is not responsible for your country. He does not speak for Nigerians in Nigeria. Not once have I ever heard him reprimand African leaders for their crimes against poor people in their countries in they way they lead and govern, not once has he spoken about how unconstitutional your countries are, and guess what, he’s been quiet about the children that were abducted by militant groups in your country, he has been quiet about the abuse of political and economical power by useless African leaders. Your leaders are and should be responsible for their own people. We cannot justify incompetence! And you are responsible for holding them accountable.
So sit down. Look and dive deep into Africa and you will realise we are not your enemy, you are. Stop lecturing South Africa from your American sofa. Go home. Fight your tribalism. Unite your people. Demand accountability from your leaders. Then and only then can you talk to us about hatred, about unity, about the continent.
Until then, you are not a journalist. You are a propagandist. Not a truth-teller. A coward. And we have heard enough. Now be quiet. And stay quiet.
Let me educate you not with anger, but with truth. You assume South Africans lack exposure. You assume we believe other African countries are poor and undeveloped. That is not the case. We know the reality. We know Nigeria has oil. We know Ghana has gold. We know Kenya has tech. We know Botswana has diamonds. We know Zambia has copper. We know Zimbabwe has platinum and lithium. We know the DRC sits on $24 trillion in minerals. We know Africa is rich.
But here is what you do not understand, wealth beneath the ground does not translate to prosperity above it. You can have all the minerals in the world but if your leaders steal, your constitutions hostile towards humans rights, if your institutions are corrupt, if your people are divided by tribe, if your healthcare collapses, if your schools crumble, if your youth flee then you are poor. Not in resources. In governance. In accountability. In dignity.
We do not look down on Africa. We look at the mirror Africa refuses to face. We see our own flaws corruption, unemployment, crime and we fight them. We protest. We vote. We demand better. That is what makes us different. We do not run. We stay. We build. We hold our leaders accountable, even when it hurts.
You say we lack exposure. But we see you. We see your leaders flying overseas to get treated, some in our country to get medical treatment, while your children starve. We see your ports exporting raw minerals while your people have no jobs. We are not blind. We are not ignorant. We are honest.
The difference between South Africa and many other African countries is not wealth. It is the willingness to confront failure. We own ours. You run from yours. That is not a lack of exposure. That is a lack of accountability. And until you fix that, no mineral, no resource, no tweet will save you. Go home. Fix your house. Then talk to us about exposure.
@dfolusegun@AfricanHub_ Great point respect of the our immigration laws, our sovereignty as well as the citizens at large.
What we are fighting for/marching for is the disrespect we endure on all these fronts by our fellow African people.
If respect was served we would not be having such conversations.
@AdvoBarryRoux What ? She should be making those demands in her home country?So our tax money must pay her grant. If she is a refugee why did she not seek refuge in the nearest country to Somalia? Why is she not in a refugee camp in Kenya or Ethiopia ?
@Phonomobile1@dammiedammie35 They travel to those countries legally and get working Visas. You cannot compare oranges and bananas. We dont to other countries and overstay with incorrect visas and commit crimes . We do every thing by the book and abide by the laws of the hosting country.
@ewnreporter immigration was suppose to part of the delegation and SAPS. He is being disrespectful because he believes that no one can enforce any type of law against him. So these type of raid require no negotiations but law enforcement period. You cant negotiate with lawlessness.
@MartinMtandi @Patricia_Bantom Thank you for pointing this out. when we were in Zim in April there was about 100 km of this gravel road left to be done.