[Soul Sista]

What happened to Fr. Kukah is a crying shame; the ultimate humiliation. Imagine, they let him go because he is studying at Harvard? Well, it is incidents like this that make me very annoyned with OBJOKE and past Presidents like IBB. Why do we insist on carrying on our whole Big Brother of Africa charade when these countries do not care about us? Why is OBJOKE spending our money on propping up the AU? Why is he sending our young men to die in different crises in parts Africa? After the number of our guys that died in Liberia and for Liberia, don't be shocked if the Liberians too start treating us like nationals of a pariah nation in very short order. I am not saying that these countries may not have their reasons for their actions, after all, a murderer too will often profer a reason for killing another human being. What I don't understand, what absolutely gets my goat, what sickens me to the pit of my stomach is the charitable attitude from the Nigerian Government in the face of this type of treatment. OBJOKE is so intent on sustaining his profile as "the man we can deal with in Africa" that he forgets that he is using our money in the process. What a wasteful investment.

I am particularly pained by the treatment of Nigerians in South Africa and the frontline states. As a child, I recall my parents, particularly my mother, were involved in some local efforts to help the anti-apartheid/independence/liberation movements in those countries. I recall my parents hosting South African academics etc for short periods on their way elsewhere, probably out to exile. I was too young to fully understand. I recall helping my mother to collect clothes for the children in Soweto. I recall watching her sell rafle tickets for something or the other to raise money for some cause or the other. I recall my mother encouraging all her friends and acquaintances to go and watch Ipi Tombi when they came to Nigeria in the 70s because "these are our brothers and sisters." I still recall a very spirited discussion amongst my parents and their friends, all of them so excited, when Obasanjo nationalized British Petroleum in the 70s. I did not understand what was going on really. I just knew it was good for South Africa but I did not know the implications. So, now, my parents will be treated like criminals because they want to visit South Africa? Is that the liberation that their, admittedly, very small efforts worked in aid of? Now, they will get to the airport in Jo-Burg and be treated worse than Soyinka while those whose Governments propped up and supported those regimes will be treated like royalty. Those who refused to impose sanctions because it would hurt (but were quick to impose the same on Mugabe's Zimbabwe) are now the beautiful brides. Okay o!

Thank God, I have never bought into the whole African brotherhood, we are all one fiction. I treat people on a one on one basis. I don't assume that because you are Kenyan, therefore, you are my brother. Indeed, one of my worst experiences in school here was with a Ugandan student who was always so nasty to me from day one. Even three of the Muzungus in our TA section noticed his hostile attitude and asked me about it. Brotherhood ko, Sisterbottom ni.

Soul Sista a/k/a Soul Sizzling