Ambassador Monaisa Mokgethi has had an interesting four years in Nigeria. At the farewell reception held in his honour at the Prince of Anthony Hotel on the Lagos Mainland, he shared the enduring memories he will be taking with him in this interview with Assistant Life Editor, TERH AGBEDEH.
Ambassador, you have been here for four years and you must be leaving with a lot of memories. Do you want to share some of them?
It was a very fulfilling four years, but it was short. When you go for the first time to a country, you think four years is too long, only to find out that by the time that four years comes to an end, you realise that it was very short. My experience is that I have learnt a lot in Nigeria. Before you come to a country, it is well-known that there are certain perceptions; perceptions of Nigerians in South Africa and perceptions of South Africans in Nigeria. But I must say that sometimes these perceptions are made from what you see at a particular time. We, South Africans, are not so well travelled and, therefore, we learn from how the few people that are in South Africa are sometimes, how they live about their country. When I came here, I was knocked off my feet by the rich culture you find in the country, the people who are friendly with open arms who receive everybody. You could see that Nigerians are well-travelled and they know people. There are a few things that I am taking home with me. For the four years that I have been here, I can easily say I was in a university campus, everyday learning something new. But there are a few things that are of note: Nigerians celebrate their heroes. That is number one. Number two, Nigerians will never say anything negative about their country and about their leadership outside of Nigeria. That is a sign of patriotism. Nigerians love their country; it doesn’t matter whether you are Yoruba, Igbo or Hausa. They all embrace their culture and each one respects the other one’s culture. Nigeria has been independent since 1960, but the people never threw away their culture. That is one rich thing that I take away. Nigerians are very religious, it doesn’t matter whether you are Muslim or Christian. Everything they achieve they accredit it to the Almighty and everything that they would like to have, they will always pray first. It doesn’t matter what happens, whatever falls on their lap is by the grace of God. That is very important; they don’t take God for granted.
When an elderly person has passed on, the family celebrates him. You don’t easily find people crying, hitting walls; (rather) they are out there inviting everybody to come and celebrate the life of their parent.
You have learnt quite a great deal from what you are saying; would you have wished for more time, would you like to come back?
I would love that if the president one day says, ‘look’, maybe after a year or so, ‘I think you must go back to Nigeria’. I would love that because I know that coming here I will learn a lot more.
Did you experience any of our delicacies and which do you particularly like?
Well, I have watched. When it comes to food, let me not say I am very particular, maybe for health reasons. But one thing I have taken is that Nigerians, unlike many people elsewhere in the world, don’t indulge in fast foods; what we in South Africa will call junk food. They indulge in organic foods; that is why they are very healthy. Nigerian soil is very rich and Nigeria is not far from the equator, which means it enjoys moisture right through; that is why all around it is green. Therefore, the food that is produced here is very natural and very rich. One thing I love best is fruits. I eat fruits and vegetables like nobody else. But I love the pineapple here; it is very sweet, very juicy. That is what I love most. And that tells you that the soil from which this pineapple is produced is not adulterated by a lot of chemicals; so it is very natural. It is just a pity that you are in a region where you don’t produce a lot of citrus. We, being far away from the equator, are able to produce a lot of citrus.
We actually do. Much of the oranges come from Benue, North Central part of Nigeria.
I was about to mention that. At least, I have seen oranges; but I haven’t seen apples for instance.
What are you going to miss most about the Nigerian culture?
I will miss the hospitality of the people of Nigeria. They love; Nigerians are oozing with love. It is very rare to find Nigerians at each other’s throats. That is one thing I have seen. Look at traffic; the traffic jams and the way they drive as though there were no traffic rules; but you will never see anybody pointing a finger at the other – meaning that there is no road rage. Nobody wants to give anyone a chance; they all go there and if you put your nose first, nobody is going to hit you. That is very good. It shows that as much as we don’t want to give each other a chance, but the one who gets out first is the winner.
What is the state of the people-to-people relationship of the South African government in Nigeria?
Let me tell you first the history of my coming here. We usually had a High Commission only, which was based in Abuja. And then we had a satellite office in Lagos. But the High Commission promotes relations at the higher level; that is, government to government. So the small office mostly catered for people who want passports, visas and so on. But then, in 2011, the government realised that the volume of trade between these two countries is increasing tremendously and you have a lot of South Africans who are specifically in Lagos and a lot of South African businesses that are investing in Nigeria. When the government then decided to upgrade its presence in Lagos, and as such decided to found a mission, a totally, full-fledged mission, which is a Consulate-General. Then I was still in Madagascar and I was about to retire. Then I was called, ‘Ambassador, we know you are retiring, but we would like to have you in Nigeria, specifically to Lagos, to establish a Consulate-General. A Consular-General’s mandate is to promote that people-to-people relationship; to promote business-to-business relationship; to promote investment; bring investments into the country and create missions to South Africa; if possible, also culture-to-culture. Therefore, the question is; what is happening to people-to-people relationship? I must say it has been very strong; today, in Nigeria, there are so many South Africans and most of them feel very much at home. Then you look at the number of Nigerians who go to South Africa; every day there are two flights going that way. Our office here in Lagos used to handle 300 to 500 applications for visas per day. When we realised that we had a lot of backlog, we had to reduce the daily intake, so that the staff at the mission could cope. We then instructed VSF to receive only 200 applications per day, and the mission in Abuja instructed the VSF there to receive only 150 per day. That is 350 per day, and that is just a fraction of the number of people that want to go to South Africa every day because sometimes they reach 200 here around 10 o’clock. By 11 o’clock people who are queuing there are told ‘we are sorry, we can’t take anymore’. That tells you that people-to-people is not the figment of imagination; it is for real. That you have many Nigerians going to South Africa every day tells you a lot.
The business-to-business must be working too, considering the volume of South African wines in the Nigerian market.
Oh yes, that is true. Wine has been produced in South Africa for centuries now. The people who started the wine industry came to South Africa; it is the French Huguenots who came to South Africa in the 1700s. This was just after the French Revolution. When they arrived, they started cultivating grapes to produce wine. One of the best wine-producing countries in the world after France is South Africa. Nigerians may not know that because you drink more champagne and beer here.
At this year’s MUSON Festival when you featured in the ‘My Kind of Music’ segment, your choice of music didn’t include any Nigerian music. Why is that?
It was mostly South African. It says ‘My Kind of Music’.
After four years in Nigeria, you should like at least one indigenous song.
During my first year here, one radio station asked me ‘do you love music’ and I said yes, I love music. Then they said, any particular song that you love from Nigeria, and I mentioned the song. I must tell you, that was one song that was played most at my farewell function in South Africa when I was coming here. They told me that they were not supposed to play that song.
That must be Femi Kuti’s ‘Bang Bang Bang’?
I think so. So you see, from there I had to tread carefully. I might go to the MUSON Centre and say this is my kind of music and then they would say ‘we can’t play that song’. But truly speaking, yes, we love the rhythms of Nigeria. My wife is, in fact, trying to collect CDs of Nigerian music that will really remind us more of Nigeria.
Nelson Mandela said no to hate, forgave those who incarcerated him for 27 years; how do you remember him?
Nelson Mandela is our great father in South Africa. Without him, I don’t know where we would have been. When he stepped out of jail, he was not bearing any grudge, not harbouring any hatred or any revenge and preaching reconciliation. He reminded everyone that South Africa belongs to all those who live there. As a leader of a new nation, he had to show the way. He had to say ‘we are all subjects of this country; white, black, yellow’. When you look at the demographics of South Africa, that is why they call us the Rainbow Nation.