Since the great Madiba kicked the bucket not a few eulogy attends the global space from despots & democrats; from haters of due process & lovers of goodness; from looters & sane men; from racists & humanists; from politicians & politricktians; & from sit tight rulers & service driven leaders alike; amazed as I am it underscores the pretense of man.

I have observed with utter bewilderment the messages from rulers who impoverish their people, & I ask, do these men think at all? If we all too well know that it is good to be good ala The Madiba, why do we loot, steal & lead impious lives. Why don’t we emulate Madiba. Why declare public holidays, mourning periods & dedicate services, festivals, prayers et al in honour of Madiba when our lives are but the opposite of his values? Why are we so false?

Madiba started as a Lawyer, became a violent revolutionist was jailed, repudiated violence in jail, became a pacifist & an exemplary epistle of love & forgiveness, led his rainbow nation through reconciliation to inclusive democracy & laid the fundamentals for a new South Africa in one term, yet he had the right to a second term but said NO…Yes that is Madiba in brief.

There are media houses like Channels Tv, AIT & a few others who have made the Mandela story our daily schedule since he passed on BUT they have stopped some progressive voices from gracing their tubes. Before my encounter with govt regarding the NNPC Fire, I was a weekly item on Channels Tv, Superscreen Tv, AIT et al alas through govt directive & for lucre they have stopped having me & some firebrand Activists yet they celebrate Madiba forgetting that Umkonto wi’siz wi (spear of the nation) was Mandela & Oliver Tambo’s creation. How pharaseecal of the Nigerian media, even the Apartheid Press did not shut out Madiba..But for the social media & the online press who knows!!

As 91 Heads of State including Mugabe & Goodluck Jonathan attend Madiba’s Memorial Service in South Africa; as Obasanjo & other former Heads of State file into the Stadium to bid Madiba farewell; & as those who should cover their heads in shame having failed to deliver the promises of democracy in their various countries assemble in South Africa, the only truism is that Mandela’s life remains BUT a questionmark on our collective conscience.

His victory over hate, his service to humanity, his humility, his mysticism, his dedication to Godliness & commitment to humanism remains a huge indictment not only to the hypocrisy & pharaseesm that attends the eulogy that his demise has seen but to those whose lives are lucre & loot driven, & to those whose leadership is colourless & uneventful.

Yesterday I talked about the Nigerian media as hugely hypocritical, today they are on live telecast of Madiba’s moment, same media that allows the National Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) to teleguide & select resource persons for them that govt considers less caustic, temperate & less firebrand. What an irony!

Even the Apartheid Press lived fairer to the ideals of the media as the fourth estate allowing all sides & every-side alas in Nigeria the govt & the highest bidder calls the shot, like their popular refrain they have to ‘pay bills’..Madiba lived for change, he was wealthy in goodwill & rich in the soul, such is my message to John Mommoh of Channels Tv, to Steve Ojo of Galaxy Tv, to Ben Murray-Bruce of Silverbird Tv, to Raymond Dokpesi of AIT, to Chris Oyakhilome of Superscreen Tv, to Dele Alake of Television Continental TVC & to the many others who must learn that true change & freedom is hugely the responsibility of free press.

May we pay true homage to the great Madiba by dedicating & re-dedicating our lives to his ideals.

Like Obasanjo like Mugabe, like Goodluck Jonathan like Joseph Kabila but shamelessly they all hail Madiba, they are tenure elongators and looters cum election riggers, tendencies The Madiba would not condone yet they desecrate his memory with flowering words that mean nothing to them, what an irony!

The CBN has finally told Nigerians how corrupt the GEJ regime is, GEJ, Okonjo-Iweala and Deziani Madueke have superintended over the diversion and disappearance of 8Trillion naira through the NNPC between January 2012 and October 2013 (source of data the CBN), need I talk about the Fuel Subsidy Scam, the many Power/Energy sector scams and the thieving that defines governance across the strata of officialdom yet on Sunday the 8th of December, 2013 these Sadducees, Pharasees, hypocrites and looters assembled in a memorial service in ‘honour’ of a good man who was eccletic, wealthy in goodwill, of an excellent soul and flawless values, how hypocritical! Sad.

Would the Madiba have received their vain accolades had he been here? If your answer is as true as mine then the moment is BUT a huge questionmark on our collective conscience.

We must lead our lives as sane disciples and true lovers of Madiba OR shut our foul mouths. We must tell the hypocrites around that youngmen possessed by the noble spirit that ran the Madiba testament are here and ready for the salvage and God-willing we shall not fail nor falter.

May your great Soul Madiba inspire the CHANGE we so badly desire in Nigeria.

Amen.

Adieu great one.

Continue – The Mandela Eulogy (IV)