@TweetJuwon on #Synagoguegate: South Africa has shown to be more of a giant than Nigeria

by Anjuwon Oluwole

The guest house of Synagogue Church of All Nations’ building came down like a pack of cards, with so many conspiracy theories emerging from different directions. The most famous of these theories is the video footages from the church’s Closed Circuit Television, CCTV, provided by the General Overseer of SCOAN, Pastor T.B Joshua, showing a strange aircraft flying multiple times over the building, before it collapsed. Based on this, he claimed it was a terror attack on his church.

Typical of Nigerians, many believed Pastor Joshua’s story, but many more see it as a ploy by the televangelist to evade prosecution by throwing a wet blanket on the issue, so  that various regulatory bodies would back out from the possibility that the building itself hadn’t been certified fit by Lagos State Building Control Agency.

The international dimension to this incident, due to the death of many South African showcased Nigeria as a nation known to brag about being the giant of Africa, but never acting as one, despite the attributes of being a giant. Some would say that our giant is sleeping. This giant must wake up; else we would keep embarrassing ourselves.

Another dimension showcased itself as the Governor of Lagos State, Babatunde Fashola (SAN) visited the site of the collapsed building, but stylish evaded addressing journalists about what he observed and how the state government would deal with the situation. This annoyed many Nigerians as they see the action of Governor Fashola as an ulterior way of absolving the church from erecting a building without regulatory approval. The visit of President Goodluck Jonathan was similar, save for the promise that the government would look into the details of the cause of the building collapse.

The death toll from the building collapse has risen to more than a hundred, with South Africa nationals being the most affected.  As expected, emergency workers didn’t arrive very early to the scene, but what baffles most people was the awkward manner the congregation of SCOAN denied the emergency workers from assessing the collapse building to help evacuate their fellow congregants, after they had arrived.  What would have caused their action?

The international dimension to this incident, due to the death of many South African showcased Nigeria as a nation known to brag about being the giant of Africa, but never acting as one, despite the attributes of being a giant. Some would say that our giant is sleeping. This giant must wake up; else we would keep embarrassing ourselves.

South Africa as a country has shown it’s more of a giant than Nigeria. If the reverse had been the case, would we have shown great courage like the South African government? Would our government be proactive in dealing with the situation?  Would we have sent experts in search, rescue and body identification to any affected country/countries to save and help Nigerians?

The South African authorities brought in an air ambulance to pick up her citizens from our hospitals, due to the fact that the standard of our hospitals is not good enough for her injured citizens. Would our government have done the same? Would injured Nigerians allow the Nigeria government fly them home to receive treatment in Nigerian hospitals, if they were injured abroad. The time has come for our political leaders to sit up and help wake our sleeping giant, as our giant has been sleeping for too long.

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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.

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