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Aidoghie Paulinus, Abuja
The Nelson Mandela International Day, otherwise known as Mandela Day, is celebrated on every July 18. But the celebration took a different dimension this year. It was the 10th anniversary since the official declaration of July 18 as Nelson Mandela Day by the United Nations in New York, United States of America.
To bring the celebration of one of Africa’s greatest leaders home, the High Commission of South Africa in Nigeria, in collaboration with the University of Abuja (UNIABUJA), planned a befitting event in honour of Madiba to remind the university community, the international community and Africans in particular, of the ideals of the late Mandela.
Dignitaries at the event were the Senate Chief Whip, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu, who was also a guest speaker; former Deputy Governor of Nassarawa State, Silas Ali Agara; members of the diplomatic corps, students and staff of UNIABUJA who filled the Library Hall of the university to the brim.
Aside cultural display by the university community, the event also witnessed the planting of a tree at the Nelson Mandela Square within the university campus.
Head of the Department of Political Science and International Relations, UNIABUJA, Prof James Nda Jacob, said: “His (Mandala) death reminds us of his life of exemplary service to South Africans and to humanity in general. He spent 95 fruitful years. Out of these years, 27 were spent in the prison, five were spent as the President of the Republic of South Africa and the rest were spent to serve others as the voice of the voiceless.
“The life Mandela lived was a life unparalleled for its bravery, conviction, and devotion to a just cause, and to the liberation of his fellow men and women. It was a life in which he struggled against the might of the apartheid state and sacrificed his own liberty so that all South Africans could enjoy dignity, prosperity, and freedom. Even though Madiba was a South African, his service to humanity in fighting injustice (of man’s inhumanity to man) won him global accolade and acceptance.”
For Kalu, a two-term Governor of Abia State, Mandela, a Nobel Prize winner who became the first democratically elected President of the Republic of South Africa at the age of 77, retired after only a single tenure in office in 1999, setting a challenging example to other depraved African leaders who turned their offices into imperial bastions of maladministration, oppression of their own people and corruption.
He said Madiba’s quest for comprehensive emancipation that encompassed political, mental, economic and physical dimensions led him to embark on charitable engagements, raising stupendous sums of money for schools, hospitals, and sporting activities for the benefit of the desperately deprived black communities of South Africa:
“His hunger for the freedom of South Africa, somehow, became the hunger for the freedom of all irrespective of their tribe, colour and religion. He took on a campaign that set the leadership bar for African leaders and Africa’s leadership.
“I am a beneficiary of Mandela’s mentorship. I would say that God specially created the great man to tutor and shape me into responsible, industrious and disciplined man with a commitment to the welfare of my people and to humanity in general.”
Head of the Department of History and Diplomatic Studies, UNIABUJA, Dr Phillip Afaha, said the on-going xenophobic attacks in South Africa are an evil spirit that the late Mandela would never have consented to the killing of Nigerians and other Africans on the streets of South Africa.
Afaha said: “My concluding message is directed to South Africa itself, and I want Ambassador Moroe to relay it home. Xenophobia is an evil spirit. If Pretoria does not exorcise xenophobia now, it will transform into self-slaughter in the future when the foreign targets are no more or are difficult to hit. Mandela wouldn’t have consented to killings of Nigerians and other Africans on the streets of South Africa. South Africans must remember their history and rise above this barbarism. More than anyone else, South Africa must reflect the Mandela nature in their national psyche. Indeed, the sage himself instructed: ‘And if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love.’”
Iyemeake Sunday of Collective Reliance Associates, Auchi, Edo State, emphasised the essence of forgiveness, saying that all individuals have their respective bitter past in terms of betrayal and back-stabbing from those they trusted and thought could take a bullet for them.
Speaking from the point of view of the life the late Mandela lived, Iyemeake said it was high time people let go of the past and don’t stay in guilt and blame game, take a deep breath, pick up the pieces of their lives and move on:
“As we celebrate Madiba today, I urge you all to let the grudge go. Let the hatred and bitterness of your past go and forge ahead. Dr Orji Uzor Kalu brought some people to power and expected them to continue his legacies. Upon assuming office, they turned against him and against everything he believed in and thought they will stand for.
“They fought him, pushed him out of the platform he gave to them to run. He felt betrayed, back-stabbed. But he didn’t stop there. He picked up the pieces of what was left, moved on to another platform and today, he is a sitting Senator and the Chief Whip of the 9th Senate. Few weeks ago I saw a photograph of him online with those people and in a comment, he said, ‘I have forgiven them.’”
Acting South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Bobby Moroe, said what made the 10th anniversary very exciting was that the event was very thematic as it focussed on poverty alleviation, sanitation, food, shelter, vegetation, et cetera.
Moroe said: “Those are the very essence of the key focus areas of the United Nations. So, we are all challenged to play our role and give back. It is important that we make everyday a Nelson Mandela Day.”
Vice Chancellor of UNIABUJA, Prof Abdul Rasheed Na’Allah, said the event was to celebrate Mandela, celebrate Africa and also celebrate the world: “We are celebrating excellence and it is the pride of our university to be at the forefront of this celebration.”
