by Jerry Uwah

The Republic of South Africa is the continent’s indisputable economic power house. Judging from its annual gross domestic product (GDP), the country’s economic power is not contested by any country in black Africa .

Equally indisputable is the country’s industrial power base. In the days of apartheid when its cruel rulers treated even the tiny mountainous monarchies it encircles with grave suspicion, South Africa stealthily joined the prestigious nuclear club, though it never acknowledged that status until Nelson Mandela became the first black president of a democratic South Africa and dismantled the nuclear weapons.

Even in its determined efforts to acquire nuclear arms in its heyday as the seat of terrorism on the continent, Libya with all its wealth never came close to testing a nuclear device. South Africa is clearly an industrial and economic giant on the continent. Many Nigerians therefore wonder why Africa’s economic and industrial power house would be searching for science teachers in a country as technologically backward as Nigeria. The reason is obvious.

Africa’s industrial giant also has, perhaps, the highest rate of crime on the continent. At least one woman is raped every minute in South Africa . Besides, the literacy rate among its black majority is atrociously low. The root of the equally unrivalled crime rate could be traced to decades of minority rule under the cruel apartheid system.

The white rulers under the apartheid system laboured to ensure that blacks who constitute about three quarters of the population of South Africa were kept in perpetual slavery. The education system only encouraged the few blacks who could afford tertiary education to study the arts while science and engineering courses were the exclusive preserve of the minority whites. Most black South Africans who pursued tertiary education in those days had to sneak out of the apartheid enclave to do so. Nigeria was a major haven for black South Africans seeking tertiary education.

Today, South Africa is an enviable democracy with black majority rule. However, the political power may be in the hands of the black majority, but the essential ingredient of that political power, the economic base of the country, is firmly in the hands of the white minority. Even the civil service which the black majority rulers need to execute policies is firmly in the hands of the white minority.

The reason is obvious: the whites, no matter how few they are, have the technology. And in an era of advanced technology, population has paled into insignificance. Israel has, in the last 60 years, proved without an iota of doubt that one man with the required technology could imprison millions for years without anyone lifting a finger in protest.

That is why it could be said that the black majority reigns but the white minority rules in South Africa. That factor is responsible for the escalating crime rate in South Africa. At least 99.99 per cent of the rapes and robberies in that country are committed by jobless blacks. Most of the criminals lack basic skills.

Except for a few cursory changes in terms of relaxing the rules which barred blacks from holding certain positions in the country’s civil service and political arena, the situation in the economic terrain remains the same. Blacks lack the skill to wrest economic power from whites. In fact they cannot even level up in the next 20 years. Everything remains the way they are because Thabo Mbeki as president of South Africa sought to please the white supremacists who control the economy. He did little to change the status quo in terms of empowering blacks.

That is the background from which one could assess the decision by Jacob Zuma, South Africa ’s new president, to call on Nigeria to recruit science teachers for his country. My assessment of Zuma’s call is that, for the first time in the history of that country, a black ruler is determined to challenge white minority control of the country’s economic and technological power.

Zuma’s decision to call in Nigerian science teachers to the rescue is probably informed by two key factors. The first is that South African whites who command monopoly of science and technology expertise are too few to impart science knowledge to the teeming black populace. Besides, even if there were many of them willing to do what had all along been regarded as an odd job among the white supremacists, the present crop of black political rulers may not be willing to gamble with the idea of entrusting the future of the country into the hands of those whose main task in the last 80 years was to restrict black education to that of acquiring the ability to read and write Afrikaans.

The other factor that might have informed Zuma’s decision is that, since the job cannot be done by insiders, the only outsiders qualified to handle it are Nigerians. Just like our neighbours in the ECOWAS sub-region, the average black South African hates Nigerians, not primarily for their propensity for sharp practices, but more for their adventurous nature. Nigerians may not have the industrial and technological strength of white South Africans, but they are the only blacks on the continent that have registered a foothold in South Africa’s small entrepreneurship.

The Nigerian economy is grossly mismanaged by its corrupt political rulers but even the South African white supremacists know that, from what Nigerians in the Diaspora have been able to accomplish, it is just a matter of time and South Africa would be contesting economic strength with the world’s most populous black nation.

It therefore follows that Nigerians are adjudged by Zuma and his advisers as the only ones on the continent to call the white South African bluff. It is therefore not only an act of honour but a show of comradeship for the Federal Ministry of Education to run to South Africa’s aid at this crucial moment in its ongoing fight against white domination.

The press is up in arms against the federal government’s decision to honour this clarion call from a country that has not only despised Nigerians despite the country’s contribution to the campaign that eventually brought down apartheid, but has done everything to ensure that no Nigerian business thrives in the former apartheid enclave. Some of the editorial comments that canvassed the cancellation of the recruitment drive for South Africa cited perceived dearth of science teachers in Nigeria and the tumbling standard of education to support their position. Some even wondered why further resources should be committed to South Africa when we have nothing to show for the invaluable human and material sacrifices used to end the fratricidal wars in Liberia, Sierra Leone and recently Darfur in the Sudan. Yet others complained that the quality of Nigerian teachers has tumbled drastically and wondered how such teachers as those who failed the aptitude test meant for primary school pupils in Kwara State could be sent to a country as civilised as South Africa . The government of South Africa is aware of this fact, so why is the Nigerian press crying louder than the family of the deceased?

One thing that those opposed to the idea of sending Nigerian teachers to South Africa should note is that Nigeria remains a potential giant of Africa, and that the call from Zuma at a time when South Africa is a key contender for the continent’s slot as permanent member of the UN Security Council is a tacit admission of Nigeria’s leading role on the continent.

No country worth its salt ever sacrifices such privilege on the altar of self-sufficiency. I enjoin the Federal Ministry of Education to go ahead with its planned recruitment drive. However, the background of those recruited for the slot should be thoroughly screened to ensure that no one with criminal records is sent to South Africa to inflict more damage on the country’s murky image.