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What
is it about South African President Jacob Zuma and statues? Two statues
in one month- generating controversy from the streets of Pretoria to
the streets of Owerri in Nigeria. In the first week of October, a
30-feet monument was unveiled in honour of President Zuma in the North
West region of his country. South Africans had opposed the idea of the
statue since it was first proposed in February 2017. When it was
eventually unveiled, and labeled a monument, the attendant outrage was
bitter and loud because it was actually a glorification of Zuma,
disguised as a tourist project to preserve the site where Zuma and 45
others were arrested by the apartheid police as they travelled out of
the country for military training in 1963.
The
Premier, Supra Mahumapelo who commissioned the statue was accused of
bad governance and insensitivity. The Zuma statue at Groot Marico has a
borehole attached to it, whereas there is no potable water in the city
in which it is located. Aggrieved South Africans recommended that the
Statue should be pulled down, with the Economic Freedom Fighters
(EFF)and the Democratic Alliance (DA) offering to take the lead. Jacob
Zuma is not one of Africa’s most loved leaders despite his having won
election twice and leading one of Africa’s most historic political
parties; the African National Congress. His Presidency has been
scandal-ridden, from allegations of abuse of office to a personal life
characterized by much burlesque. The biggest threat to state
reconstruction in Africa has been the ego and misconduct of African
leaders. Compared to those he succeeded as South African President, it
is hard at this point to imagine Jacob Zuma’s eventual place in South
African history.
This
is the same man that Rochas Anayo Okorocha, the Governor of Imo State
in Nigeria has chosen to honour. In the course of a just concluded
two-day visit to Imo state, Nigeria, Zuma received the state’s highest
honour, a traditional chieftaincy title- Ochiaga (Great Warrior), a
street named Jacob Zuma Road, and wait for it- a life-sizedstatue!
Governor Okorocha may not be able to convince anyone that he is not
aware of the controversy over the Zuma statue in North West South
Africa, and yet another piece of artthat showed Zuma scantily-clad.The
Premier of North West South Africa, actually wanted a life-size statue
of Zuma in bronze, but public objection compelled him to rename the
project a monument, but it remains a statue because the only man it
celebrates is Zuma, whose obelisk is projected skywards over 6 metres.
Okorocha
probably decided to embark on his own project in Nigeria to tell the
anti-Zuma South African crowd that if they do not appreciate Zuma, he
would be celebrated abroad; after all a prophet has no honour in his own
home. The monument in Groot Marico is reportedly a R1.8m bronze
structure; the one in Owerri, Nigeria is a N520 million bronze statue,
both standing at over 25 metres! President Zuma could not get exactly
what he wanted in South Africa, a sculptural piece that was meant to
show him in his full height and majesty. He now has it in Nigeria, even
if the imbecilic artist did a bad job. Standing in front of that
towering Owerri statue, Jacob Zuma must have indeed felt like a giant.
In his mind, he must have like Ozymandias said to himself: “I am a god!
Go and tell them on the streets of South Africa!”
But
his compatriots back in South Africa are not impressed, except may be
the compromised South African Presidency which enthusiastically
celebrated the deification of Jacob Zuma in a corner of Nigeria.
Nigerians and the people of Imo State are unimpressed too. The Owerri
statue has only achieved the effect of focusing attention afresh on the
shortcomings of the two men at the centre of the drama: President Zuma
and Governor Okorocha. “Instead of a statue”, wrote one South African,
“Nigeria can keep the real thing”. Well, we don’t needyour President. We
have our own and nobody has erected a giant statue of his. Another
South African wrote: “It’s only fair that Nigeria built a statue of
Zuma. After all, under his leadership, we took in a million of their
citizens”.
Point
of correction, sir: Governor Okorocha, not Nigeria, built the statue
with public funds. You “took in a million Nigerians?” Or South Africans
killed hundreds of Nigerians due to xenophobia? Your statement is
actually part of the reason Nigerians are angry: why honour a man under
whose watch South Africans are killing Nigerians in South Africa? If you
must know, like your Premier of the North West, Governor Okorocha
hasbeen accused of wasting public funds on a statue of the South African
President when Imo state teachers and pensioners are being owed
salaries and arrears for months. To worsen matters, Governor Okorocha is
setting up in Owerri, the equivalent of a political Jurassic park.
Alongside Zuma’s statue are other statues, draped in national colours of
Nigeria and other African countries. My personal worry is that when
those other statues are unveiled, we may just discover that Governor
Okorocha has included in this emerging park, statues of himself and his
wife! African leaders who erect statues are ever so tempted to erect one
or two of their own. Okorocha may even one of these days have a brain
wave and erect a bronze statue of Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe on Nigerian
soil. You have your Zuma. We have our Okorocha.
He
has tried to justify the present gaffe but his explanations sound
hollow and false:“We in Imo State have chosen to identify with this
great leader who meant well for his people…” We? Which we is Okorocha
referring to, please? Did the state House of Assembly deliberate over
the decision to establish a political Jurassic Park in Owerri? And who
discussed and approvedthe honour’s list? We? Is Mr. Okorocha referring
to his own sycophantic State Executive Council or the local government
staff called traditional rulers who gave Zuma the title of Ochiaga? Many
Nigerians in fact believe that Nelson Mandela’s statue would have been
preferable, especially as Governor Okorocha praised President Zuma as “a
great leader who meant well for his people, who had to toil, struggle
and fight for the liberation of his people, not minding the consequences
thereafter. This to me is courage. This to me is strength of
character…” Who are the brainless speech-writers penning these cliches?
Nelson Mandela is the one whom these words best describe. President Zuma
is the one the South African system is accusing of Constitutional
violations, 783 corruption allegations and wanton abuse of the people.
The
Governor in the long run pretended that there was something positive
out of the entire show. In a press statement, we are told: “President of
South Africa, Mr. Jacob Zuma has said that a South African must not
kill a Nigerian and a Nigerian must not kill a South African, adding
that the relationship between Nigeria and South Africa should be
stronger than any other part, for the sake of the continent of Africa.”
Nobody should kill anybody, Nigerian or South African, in the first
place.Murder is inexcusable. Xenophobia defeats the goals of African
integration. President Zuma is very adept at telling people what they
want to hear. What did he do while South Africans killed Nigerians under
his watch? How many South Africans have been convicted for promoting
xenophobia and taking the laws into their hands? What has President Zuma
done in concrete terms to promote bilateral relations and
people-to-people diplomacy between our two countries? Governor Okorocha
may have been trying to be a good host but to import a bronze statue of
President Zuma, which South Africans rejected, and then physically
implant him on Nigerian soil is an insult and overkill!
Mr.
Okorocha is of course, a master of the overkill. He does everything,
good and bad, with the same level of enthusiasm. When he followed
President Muhammadu Buhari to the United States in 2015, and got a
sideline chance to shake the hands of President Barrack Obama, it became
what seemed like the biggest event of his life. Billboards of him and
the two Presidents suddenly started popping up all over the state
capital with the inscription – “Behold the new faces of change”. How?
Please, how does a mere handshake with Obama translate into change in
Nigeria? In a particular billboard showing Okorocha and President Obama,
he isdescribed as “a true Igbo leader”. The same Okorocha who cannot
even say a kind word about his own brothers who are asking for equity
and justice for all Igbos?He was also once accused of naming a
government building after his own daughter, that daughter’s husband is
reportedly a member of the Imo State cabinet. When the Governor turned
55 recently, 27 women representing the 27 local governments in Imo State
serenaded him with 27 cakes as gifts. Okorocha obviously has enough
cake to last him till he leaves office, but he should be careful because
too much sugar is not good for anybody’s health.
This
same Okorocha -when journalists asked him to publicly account for the
state’s revenue and expenditure since 2011 when he assumed office, he
threatened to deal ruthlessly with the journalists and chase them out of
Imo State. President Zuma and Governor Okorocha obviously have a lot in
common. They both love entertainment. They both think they are smart.
They both don’t like criticism. They consider themselves very good
politicians. They both like to be celebrated too. On this latter score
in an official citation, Okorocha is described hyperbolically as a
“Professor of Philanthropy!”
But
I must pause a little, here, to say this. I don’t have any personal axe
to grind with either President Zuma or Governor Okorocha. I am in fact
aware thatOkorocha has been described byNana Akufo-Addo, President of
Ghana - “Grand Counsellor of Imo State” - as “a gift to humanity”. Of
him President Olusegun Obasanjo, Chairman of the Rochas Foundation,has
also said: “Rochas does not only love education, he has passion for the
education of the underprivileged… I doff my hat for him for his great
strides in education.” President Obasanjo made this statement at the 10th
graduation ceremony of the Rochas Foundation Colleges. In 1998,
Okorocha established the Rochas Foundation to provide free education to
the children of the “poorest of the poor”. President Jacob Zuma has a
similar Foundation known as The Zuma Foundation. This is what brought
the two men together in the first place. President Zuma visited Nigeria
to sign a Memorandum of Understanding between the Zuma Foundation and
the Rochas Foundation. He spoke about the need to support the African
Child.
Between
2011 and now, the Rochas Foundation has established a total of five
colleges – 2 in Imo state, one in Ibadan, one in Jos, and one in Kano.
Tagged Project #55555, this free education programme, targeting orphans
and the displaced, has reached about 15, 000 children from 55 African
countries. The students’ population at the Rochas College in Kano alone
is over 500. In the course of his visit to Nigeria, President Zuma
interacted with Rochas Foundation students. Both men claim that they are
determined to give to the African child, the same privileges and
opportunities that they could not have, in the belief that it is better
to use one’s achievements to raise the underprivileged. Zuma is a man of
little education. Okorocha used to sell second-hand clothes while his
mates attended school. He got to where he is by practically hustling
through life. On the surface of it, both men can be said to mean well.
But
the tragedy of their recent meeting in Nigeria is that nobody believes
the nice statements they both made.Africans no longer trust their
leaders even when they openly profess good faith. They have learnt to
suspect every move that they make. Across Nigeria, it is not surprising
that the question is being asked: what is Okorocha’s next game? In South
Africa, the same question is being asked of President Zuma. The people
are no longer as stupid as African politicians assume. They are tired of
being used as stepping-stones. I put myself in their shoes and I share
their pain. Let Zuma and Okorocha stay away from funny billboards, the
casting of bronze statues and castles of personal glorification. Whenin
doubt, let them read Percy Shelley’s sonnet – Ozymandias. Statues will
crumble, brought down by the opposition or ruined by the vagaries of
weather and the ravages of time. But good deeds will endure and history
will speak.
Credit: LIB
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