THE MANDELA IN ASO ROCK

For the first time in the anal of international politicking a man was celebrated by the world as a community. Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela was no more a human being than the collection of our past and present Presidents and Heads of State. One factor that stood him out of the rest was his ability to live his life for the sole good of humanity. From him many of our leaders, those who lived within the life span of the African icon, saw that leadership is not a selfish venture but an enterprise to building up the enviable blocks of love and unity for a decaying world. Here he lived an exemplary life.

However the troubling question in the minds of concerned Nigerians is who among our leaders, ex or present puts the fundamental theories of life taught by the late South African into practice? What are the lessons our self imposed, appointed or elected leaders or rulers has imbibed in their daily living, lecture of truth gotten from the classroom of the Madiba? Of more importance is, could there ever be a Mandela in Aso Rock?

That we may never be embellished by the rare presence of another Mandela again in the near future is no debate. What has become more of reality is that Nigerian leaders will never learn the trade to becoming another Madiba. They would not change their tactics of misgoverning the supposed blessed nation. Their antics are all geared toward milking to death the most populous black nation on mother earth, which is most pitiable!

Maybe the last Madiba we could have had are dead now; from the likes of Tafarwa Balewa, Obafemi Awolowo to Nnamdi Azikiwe and Muritala Mohammed.

Of the living, could we have had a Mandela in Babagangida, Abdulsalam, Obasanjo or the late Yar`dua? We cannot tell. Or can we insert Goodluck Jonathan to the list? If so, add and subtract, and see what the answer would be: Pity!

Nigerians die everyday like insects with none to account for them. This is a nation where so long as you are around the corridor of power, legal or illegal, be it Aso Rock or Alausa, you are a demi god. We live in a home of plenty for the so-call rich and absolutely nothing for the ill fated poor. Our leaders` eyes have become blind that they cannot see the man sleeping or dying by the streets. They do not know that there are no jobs anywhere, that electricity supply has dwindled, that the only place you get pipe borne water is the middle of the road or inside the dirty gutters where broken pipes abound. They are oblivious of the fact that our schools are mere glorified cubicles and corruption has become the order of the day were millions no longer interest the “Thieves” in public offices but billions and trillions of Dollars. That is the jungle our leaders build for us, their puppies. Yet it is not the idea of the Lion of South Africa, the one who came, saw all and conquers till death. It is their game not our life. We know soon, another will come, another Rolihlahla. But not to the Aso Rock but to us.