In 1948, Apartheid became and official policy of the Republic of South Africa. For over 40 years, this policy was pursued with virgo and determination. The original Africans made up of Zulu, Xhosa, and even the Coloureds wouldn’t allow the official Government of South Africa any peace for the policy.
The African National Party was birthed as a result. Africans were maimed, jailed and even executed by the Government of South Africa just to sustain this policy of racial dominance of the White South Africans.
The Caucasians in South Africa prospered but the country was inherently weak despite her vast riches; the non-White South Africans wouldn’t settle for less than absolute equality and a constitution that would guarantee same!
The Battle lines were drawn on both sides…
Much as the Apartheid government tried, they could not suppress the Spirit of Freedom of the African!
In 1989, P.W. Botha (the then president) fell ill and was succeeded by F.W. de Klerk. That was a turning point.
President F.W. de Klerk commissioned a think-tank group to scientifically analyse the gains of apartheid over the past decades and to simulate the future. The report was damning!
The president came on air addressed not just the White and Black South Africans but the whole world:
“This model we adopted several decades ago is no longer sustainable, this structure we have saddled ourselves with renders us weak, fractured and has made us a laughing stock in the international community. It has come to a time that we must acknowledge that the model has failed woefully and we either backtrack now, listen to the voices of the majority, or remain adamant and watch the Republic of South Africa degenerate into uncontrollable violence and the collapse of the nation”.
That was in 1990. I listened to that speech live with my late father; he pretended not to be emotional when it was obvious he was trying to keep the tears off…
Several White South Africans disagreed with President de Klerk and tried to thwart the process. Several more whites were in support and agreed that apartheid was a failed project and inherently silly!
Mr. Mandela was released from the Robben Island prisons after 27 years. The nations of South Africa were invited to make submissions and discuss the South African nationality…whether they wanted to be or not. The nations made their presentations and a series of negotiations over a 3 year period brought about a new national constitution.
In 1993, President de Klerk apologized for the unfortunate policy of apartheid.
The Rainbow Coalition was born. South Africa is essentially a confederation. And she’s the envy of other African countries till date.
Now a trip back to a country named Nigeria…
It is clear to the blind and audible to the deaf that the model forced upon Nigeria since 1966 is untenable! The model is wrong, fractious, divisive, unholy, manipulative, silly and patently stupid. Millions of people have rightly identified the model to be almost a replica of the Apartheid model but in a far more insidious and sinister form as the oppressors share almost the same skin color with the oppressed. The model has made Nigeria weak, divided, and totally impossible for the country to achieve “country-hood”. The model has impoverished the people, the country, and utterly destroyed the fabrics of sanity, justice and development. Rather than for the Nigerian State to critically and dispassionately analyse the model, question the (non)sense of it and arrive at the conclusion that the country is headed towards a massive crash, they refuse to do so. Rather, they voice empty platitudes of nationhood, patriotism and spew all sorts of garbage to justify this calamity!
They organize prestaged elections, depend on injustice to (mis)manage a country, do the same thing for over half a century, then wonder why nothing is working and Nigeria is dying! Yet, they refuse to acknowledge the obvious and keep wasting time, lives and money in the attempt to make an impossible structure work! Jeez!
No, I’ve got no iota of respect for those that sustain this atrocious model…I’ve got no regards for those that pretend that it would work if leadership were right or corruption defeated. I’ve got no single respect for the legion of politicians and their minions that have renounced the use of reason and keep preaching the existence of unicorns!
The current model of Nigeria is unsustainable…and the fault lines even though foundational, have been made into huge canyons by a most cruel and criminal constitution! And just as President de Klerk observed in 1990 South Africa, if this model were not dissolved and the true ownership of the country reverted to the constituent nations with a People Constitution, Nigeria shall DEFINITELY collapse and that collapse shall be spectacular! You may take this to the bank!
Nigeria as constituted, is a collosal tragedy.
Baron Roy
