Tola Adenle
South Africa owes an apology to Professor Ladipo Adamolekun THROUGH the government of Nigeria whose help and largesse during apartheid was immeasurable, not the least among which was the education of her young citizens at Nigeria's premier university, the University of Ibadan, during my own college days.
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| Professor Ladipo Adamolekun |
Ladipo Adamolekun, world-renowned scholar, retired Obafemi Awolowo University professor, retired World Bank management specialist, and a Nigerian National Order of Merit (NNOM) laureate, was just denied a South African visa!
In journalism's best practice, first a declaration: Ladipo
is one of my older brothers. It's perhaps unnecessary for most who have
followed my writings from the Western Nigerian-owned Daily Sketch in the 1970s
through Emotan magazine, to The Comet and The Nation On Sunday - and my blog,
Emotanafricana.com - would know I always generally called a spade just that, no
matter to whom my essays were about.
On Tuesday, 18th April, Ladipo WhatsApp-ed me a short
message: "Kaaro. I'm skipping afternoon rest to monitor SA Visa
application..." It was time-stamped 11:37 (at my destination it was 4:37
p.m. Nigerian time).
I was shocked as I had been aware of the application
submission for about three weeks. Two minutes later, 11:39 (time-stamp), when I
got to it after completing a response I had already sent, was this:
"After close of business on April 18th, South Africa Visa
has not been issued to me. Please cancel my S.A. Ticket" (A message to his
son), and this to me:
"Of course, if a delayed visa is granted, I'll
reschedule my visit. Missing the pleasure of spending April 21 with Kole and
his children is a big disappointment. Must accept what you cannot change.
That's life!"
And bits of my response:
"... I take it not as S. Afr.'s complete fault; what
kind of country is Nigeria? America won't take a slight against a basketball
star - or even a less-accomplished citizen ...
"I'm just so-so angry, not as being blood-related but
because Nigeria gets walked over like a door-mat all the time and the
"leadership" class neither ever seem to understand nor care ..."
As I was writing above on my small device, which also has
one of my email addresses, I saw a notification from Ladipo on the iPad; it was
a receipt to show the tracking he just completed. And here is the complete
tracking message:
"Track Application
Web Reference Number Order ID Visa Category Visa Type Status
W04213700052835 5b6cc3ef-1fd5-482e-a48c-0173a4e63a58
Visitors Vacation/Holiday Under Check."
Here is the last bit of my WhatsApp response to this
soul-destroying face slap, not just at Professor Ladipo Adamolekun, but to me,
to all of us Nigerians, including those overfed and self-important supposed
"leaders" - not only from this era but all those from w-a-ay back in
our spiral to the pits of nothing-less-than-hell:
"South Africa? Et tu, Brute? To a distinguished
Nigerian renowned all over the world for your contribution to scholarship? What
in the world is "STILL UNDER CHECK" for a Nigerian, whose only
passport by choice is the Green Document despite the fact that with all the
inconvenience it brings during your many travels, you've refused to take any
other country's Passport?
"South Africa? What an ungrateful wretch ... what a
wasteland it remains, culturally ... regardless of thousands of her new
parvenue class.
"E pele ['ti', Yoruba for of; inflection on last 'e'
calls for this)] Kole, o. I'm just mad as hell!"
Post Script
[Kole - as in Professor Kole Omotoso - let the idiots (not
the masses) in South Africa wrap their collective heads around the name of a
well-educated and experienced professional who has contributed a lot to the
teaching profession at university level when South Africa had very few of his
calibre.
Kole, whose contribution to African literary writings is
world-renowned, not only through his biting fiction but to many literary
non-book publications. One of his three kids is already on his way up in
another arts field, films. Akin Omotoso is an acclaimed movie producer, and one
of his productions was presented at the annual Cannes Film Festival some years
ago, and the other two are no slouches, either: an architect and already
prize-wining novelist, and an engineer.
Professor Omotoso's family and very close friends (he and
Adamolekun date back to Akure's Oyemekun Grammar School) plan to be with him -
though ailing now - but South Africa seems unyielding as Adamolekun's last
tracking returned the same information which I've just received:
"Good evening. I've just done another tracking of my
South Africa Visa Application @17h40 Nigerian time, which is after SA
government business closing time. The "Status" remains unchanged:
"Under Check". Since the departure date in my Visa Application is
Wednesday, April 19th 2023, it would be correct to interpret today's
"Under Check" Status as a technical DENIAL of SA Visa ..."
There we have it: A SHOCKING SOUTH AFRICA VISA DENIAL for
Professor Adamolekun!
Finally, I have to mention this to the
"leadership" in South Africa: at 80, Professor Adamolekun is not, nor
would any Nigerian his age and even less his achievements, be interested in a
job, ANY job, trading or physical labour like mining, what-have-you in S.A.
Born and raised in Iju, Akure North WHERE HE HAS MADE HIS
HOME SINCE RETIREMENT, except for travels which see him out of Nigeria for
three to four months annually, his most cherished accomplishment - as anyone
close to him would tend to read - is becoming a NNOM laureate, the country's
highest prize for academic and intellectual attainment. It would be equivalent
to the American Presidential Medal of Freedom in prestige and cache. They are
both awarded by the Presidents of the two countries.
South Africa owes an apology to Professor Ladipo Adamolekun
THROUGH the government of Nigeria whose help and largesse during apartheid was
immeasurable, not the least among which was the education of her young citizens
at Nigeria's premier university, the University of Ibadan, during my own
college days.
The slap on Adamolekun is a huge one on Nigeria.
Tola Adenle is a veteran Nigerian journalist.