OPINION

XENOPHOBIC ATTACK; THE DILEMMA OF A NIGERIAN YOUTH

The current xenophobic attack going on in South Africa is no longer news reserved for the newspaper addicts, as every dick and harry has come to know about or even has been affected by it either directly or indirectly. Videos of the attack have metastasized into every social media platform like an adenocarcinoma.

The attack has gone on for days while the appropriate lips that should talk about the matter has either gone dumb or is suffering from stomatitis. The South African government officials who managed to speak decided not to leave the disease at hand but rather to treat symptomatically. They howled, “All foreigners should leave our country, 75% of our population are foreigners”. Reading their scornful handwriting, every man who uses his frontal lobe for its purpose can see clearly that the South African government is directly or indirectly supporting the atrocities meted by her citizens unto innocent foreigners as no Law Enforcement Agency has been seen in any of these ugly scenes. But I keep asking myself “is it only Nigerians that are foreigners in South Africa? What about foreigners from USA, Germany, etc, is it that they don’t have properties in South Africa or their body is so oedematous that it can’t burn when set ablaze like the Nigerian body?

On the other hand, we have a country, we have leaders that we voted for, that we painstakingly trekked to Abuja for their swearing-in ceremonies, to champion our course and represent our interest. Leaders and commanders-in-chief of our Arm Forces who are to protect the sovereign state of Nigeria and her citizens; one would ask, what have our own Government done or even said concerning this unfortunate situation? Our leaders are neither talking to the SA government nor are they talking to us, the citizens (either within or in diaspora). Perhaps, who knows their own level of stomatitis? In this issue, it is of no doubt that our leaders have failed copiously and extensively, in fact, an average Nigerian would be tempted to regret voting for them when he could have used his precious time to do better things, like playing tennis or ayo olopon. A country that does not have any blueprints or strong foundations to put into use the vast natural resources God has blessed her with, nor have any plan to harness her teaming workforce to expand its economy; little wonders our native intellectuals, computer gurus, scientists, medical practitioners are either in one foreign country or the other.

Like the adage says, “when two elephants fight, the grasses suffer” the erudite and ready-to-work Nigerian youth who was still planning to leave this country for greener pastures is caught in this dilemma, “should we move to the right where nothing is left or move to the left where nothing is right?