“Nigeria Must Go!” has become the global anthem -By J. Ezike

Only by a brutally honest submission of what is happening in South Africa can we finally achieve full realization of where Nigeria stands, currently, on World Stage. The xenophobic inclinations of the indigenous South Africans and the black-on-black violence is not the main tragedy. We hear this from some people who say that South Africans are ungrateful bastards. And in top honesty, I do not actually disagree with the conclusion to that premise; however I wish to say that absolute irrelevance is deadlier than cancer itself.

The argument I want to overthrow is the belief that Nigerians and Nigeria deserves better. This gospel is the real fraud which seems to have gone viral. It is that fraud that brings to light the main tragedy that looks at us with a mummed face, as if to reflect the dumb misfortune that accompanies the murderous fate of Nigerians. And the truth is that, Nigerians are not ready to hear the Truth. They will rather dance around it or find a botanical name to conceal the real meaning behind the disease they intend to romance.

Both the tragedy of patriotism and the Sunday service commercials that continue to advertise sugar-coated prophecies of a prosperous Nigeria are as dangerous as the Nigerian feeling of entitlement. It is that dirty ego or premier mentality that promises the delusion of being the first, the best and the ultimate when in fact, it is the dumbest, the shameless and filthiest of all.

I was hardly moved when the news of the recent bloody hostilities on Nigerians resident in South Africa displayed another dramatic side to the untiring xenophobic war of attrition. I watched, through the eyes of the internet, the protesting videos that spat soul-wracking images of charred commercial buildings and human bodies and the quick-pace lynching that did set on the heads of industrious Nigerians who were mostly of the Southern region of the country. And I mused with an anger that was bored of trying to scarce the living hope for a better tomorrow in Nigeria, of looking to drown whatever lies that left Nigerians rather waiting for the “Utopian Nigeria” they have been seduced to flirt with.

The uniformed commandoes who are marching around the streets of Biafra, parading their war tanks in the theater of civil disobedience, firing multiple rounds of bullets on escaping bodies clutching on flags, rioting from above the Deep Blue Sky to instruct law and order through terror, proscribing dissent groups and throwing civilians in jails and dudgeons and now on the mission of using gunboats to annex water resources within River Niger and Benue through the “Water Bill Initiative,” did not deem it fit to export their overbearing arrogance, their herd mentality, their thuggish aggression on the murderers of Nigerian citizens in South Africa. But it really doesn’t matter to them when all they are concerned about is protecting the doctrine of Usman Danfodio and the hegemonic interest of the Sokoto Caliphate. It really doesn’t matter to them if tomorrow the death toll of Nigerians in Diaspora hits a Guinness World Record.  The only thing they can do in this case is to issue toothless press statements and task Nigerians to go down on their already prostrated knees and pray to God. And for over 100 years, Nigerians have been prostrated in a thoroughly dehumanizing degree while the assault on their citizenship, their commonwealth, their original identities and their destinies continue to rise at even greater pathetic height.

Rarely has Nigerians faced their tragedies with bold truth. And I must add that as I observed the silent reaction from the Sokoto Caliphate in wake of the mass slaughter and destruction of lives and properties of mostly Southern Nigerians in South Africa, the Truth came pouring, so that the silence of Northern Nigeria can speak contrary to what had been sold in the headlines and front pages of compromised Newspapers. And the message in this genocide, in this xenophobic pandemia, as I understand it, is that Nigeria and indeed Nigerians regardless of their ethnic backgrounds do not deserve to exist in this planet, in this time and space. What they truly deserve is to be sealed with the Hell from which they came from, to be reunited with their demons or suffer the grave consequences of Foreign Deaths. Perhaps it is this gruesome reality that may finally wash the specks off their eyes, slap them out of their denial and do much to illuminate the argument of self-determination for all the entrapped constituents.

That some miscreants chose to reject the humanity of Nigeria, regardless of whatever eye-service it played during Mandela’s Apartheid should not come as rude awakening to anyone. The music is universal, like MTN, all we hear everywhere we go is: “Nigeria Must Go!” Perhaps the ghost of “Ghana Must Go” has found an escape route from its decayed past and is now haunting the living day light out of the fallen face of the Giant of Africa, bringing it to the near-certainty of a violent end.

Also, it is obvious that Nigerians are clearly of no value to their leaders except during elections. By and by, it is inescapable that the country, the only place that commands their deepest emotional connections is the most dreaded and the least profitable enclave to survive. No wonder the Diaspora heaves of their desperate faces that reveals more about suffering than smiling. Those fortunate enough to be issued the accursed green passport carry their last bet to Cotonou. It is that bad!

Honestly speaking, there is not a single convincing reason to be a proud Nigerian, except if one is a politician or benefits from the spoils of corruption.

Some people prescribe war against South Africa as response to these killings. And I ask them – which war? With whom? Why would certain groups or persons punctuate their delusions and midnight fantasy by believing in a broad day light, bearing the heat of 41 degrees of Sokoto weather, that Nigeria stands a chance of defeating South Africa in war of any kind? Such persons need to get off the crack pipe!

The persistent xenophobic war of attrition against Nigerians by misguided, uneducated, uncultured, historically amnesic youths of South Africa does not call for war. And I will never be on the list of any African revolutionary that pursues a civil war with another African country. The only war, I believe, that fulfills all righteousness is the war between the Northern Nigeria versus The Southern Nigeria and the Middle Belt Nigeria. It is a war of survival; it is a war of no interest in its glory but the salvation of the entrapped. It is a war that will remedy the global hate on the entrapped constituents. It is not a war that will conjure a “New Nigeria” which is the dubious twin of “One Nigeria” rather I am referring to the war that puts an end to the mass persecution of Nigerians Worldwide. And when I say war, I am leaving options on the table; I am creating rooms and avenues for gentleman discussions with the Sokoto Caliphate, Aso Rock and the Nigerian people, as demonstrated by the democratic conversations between Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey and the British People.

Inasmuch as I sympathize with the bereaved and mourn the loss of ‘Nigerian’ lives in South Africa, I will not be doomed by the seduction of vengeance on South Africa. If there are any groups or persons deserving of the wrath of the people, the Nigerian leaders are the items on that exclusive list.

Reason with me: if you’re house was stolen by a thief armed with a cutlass and you’re forced to run into exile and find shelter in the home of an unwelcoming stranger armed with cutlass, who between the two characters deserve your aggression? Who between the two aggressors deserve to be stoned to death?

Nigerians, both local and international, must understand that THEY HAVE NO HOME, NO COUNTRY!  They are merely seen as wandering aliens and specimens of a shithole. Isn’t shameful that Ghana of yesterday can now pass for a greener pasture, whilst Nigeria continues to battle with all kinds of economic demons? Even those with American, Canadian, Japanese or European Citizenship are not spared either. It has, perhaps, never been more difficult bearing the identity of a Nigerian than it is now in the 21^st century. The world knows this Truth but my greatest problem in selling this Truth is that Nigerians in Nigeria, who have never felt what it really means to be black, to be “Nigerian” will never grasp my language.

It is difficult for me to shed tears when a proud Nigerian is slaughtered in South Africa. It is difficult for me to shed tears when a proud Nigerian is executed in Saudi Arabia. It is difficult for me to shed tears when a proud Nigerian is imprisoned in America. We may blame them for daring to make fast money through an outmoded criminal culture and forget quickly that it takes only a Nigerian Politician to become Bill Gates within a second, without a magic lamp or the servitude of a genie. All that the Nigerian politician needs is to apply the same “outmoded criminal culture” of its citizens whose actions are motivated by the extreme hardship that animates their land and the pressure to respond to the gripping financial demands from impoverished relatives.

Therefore, I submit, that the fate of the citizens in the Diaspora should also be the fate of the politicians in Nigeria. They should also be lynched in the streets, executed in the public and imprisoned for life!

You cannot lead a monstrosity and expect not to make monsters out of your citizens!

The persistent attacks of Nigerians in the Diaspora, especially in South Africa are telling symptoms of the One Nigeria tragedy. It is the Truth about its absolute irrelevance, a confirmation that no country in the world truly wishes to become like us or accommodate the products from that society. Still, some people seem to buy excuses to exonerate the vermin that have sworn to devour them from inside. Though it may be difficult to read the underlining messages but there it is, staring at us in the face. “Nigeria Must Go!” has become the global anthem.

The questions now are: how long will Nigerians continue to believe in One Nigeria? How long will they be consoled in this long and depressing union of death? How long will they hold proudly the badge of slavery while the oppressors continue to grow fat from their bloods? When will it finally dawn on them that they are STATELESS and without a place they can proudly call their homes? If they agree that Nigeria is unbearable, inhabitable, if they agree that they deserve better as human beings then why are they not exercising their civil duties, their democratic anger like the British people who demanded an exit from Europe? Why are they not angry about their living conditions in Nigeria and their sad fates abroad?

Those who benefit from the One Nigerian project, in one way or the other cannot speak against the system. They may whisper in their five-star bedrooms or gossip with a friend from the comfort of a luxurious condo, or mope from the blood-scarred mansions that grants them meaningful lives but in the end they will never talk about the tragic lives of the REAL NIGERIANS. And it is up to these real Nigerians on the receiving end of the sword to gather courage and face their real enemies with the brutal truth!

In conclusion, I certainly do not endorse a life of crime, both home and abroad. And inasmuch as I condemn the xenophobic killings of Nigerians, most especially those of the Southern region of the country, I beg to be excused from the revolution against South Africa. Our Revolution, I believe, should be focused on Sokoto Caliphate. Indeed, the world is tired of Nigeria as much as we are. And if we can be brutally honest, we will all agree that those countries singing “Nigeria Must Go!’’ are in the right!