Chris McGreal
THE world has got Nelson Mandela all wrong. You may think of him as the epitome of decency and statesmanship providing a beacon of hope on an unsettled continent. The truth is, he is a bumbling, sex-starved old fool secretly in the pay of the white man. Or, he simply does not know what it is like to struggle against a brutal and murderous regime. Just ask a
Nelson Mandela’s political judgment has more than once been questioned, but the Nigerians are the first to impugn his integrity.
Kabiru Offi runs a filling station in Lagos where periodic fuel shortages are a peculiarity of one of the world’s major oil exporters. Ignoring the threats and insults by agitated drivers jostling to reach the pumps, Offi blames the petrol shortage on corruption and military rule. So you might think he would welcome Mandela’s effort to unseat General Sani Abacha. Not at all.
In attacking Mandela, Nigerians have a tendency to attribute to him the qualities of their own leaders. Offi thinks he has been bought off, or “settled”, for large amounts of cash. “Mandela’s body may be free but his mind is still chained by the white man … It is stupid to call for sanctions because we are the ones who will suffer not the military men,” he said. “Why doesn’t Mandela forget about Nigeria and concentrate on finding his wife again?”
One of the waiting drivers waves a newspaper in Offi’s face and reads it aloud. The problem, it seems, is not sexual frustration but Mandela’s
“Old age is taking its toll on him. That is why he has been going round making unnecessary press conferences,” the newspaper states. “We want to know, who owns Nigeria? Is it the South Africans or Nigerians? If Nigeria is governed by Nigerians why then is that confused old prisoner Mandela interfering in our internal