Pretoria must insist on full compensation for lives lost in Lagos, writes Peter Fabricius.
Johannesburg - In its eagerness to avoid looking like Africa’s Big Brother, South Africa has eaten lavish helpings of humble pie dished out by other African governments over the years.
Think, for example, of President Robert Mugabe calling President Jacob Zuma’s international affairs adviser a “street woman” just before last year’s elections.
Pretoria said nothing.
Relations with Zimbabwe were too important for Pretoria to take public offence, apparently.
Similarly with Rwanda.
It took the murder of a former Rwandan military intelligence chief in a Sandton hotel and a third attempt on the life of a former army chief before Pretoria expelled three Rwandan diplomats.
Will we see a similar response to the disastrous collapse of the guest house of the Synagogue Church of All Nations (Scoan) in Lagos on September 12?
This whole episode reeks of corruption, incompetence, dishonesty, irresponsibility, influence peddling, fatal national pride and arrogance. One could say more.
The head of Scoan, “Prophet” TB Joshua, is still sticking to his ridiculous theory that a mysterious aircraft flattened the six-storey building, killing an estimated 84 South African churchgoers and an uncertain number of others.
The much more likely explanation, of course, is that Scoan was adding two more storeys to an existing four-storey structure, without reinforcing the foundations.
Worse still, Scoan officials and followers actively obstructed rescue efforts, according to Ibrahim Farinloye, head of the Nigerian Emergency Management Agency (Neam).
This delay in the vital first hours after the accident very likely cost many lives.
Scoan officials evidently also obstructed South African relief workers from meeting survivors in hospital.
Though the Nigerian government has sub-contracted the blame to Scoan, there are many questions to be asked about its own response.
Why did it take so long for information about the accident to reach South African authorities?
Why did Abuja not accept the offer of Search and Rescue South Africa – which Pretoria had put on standby – to go in quickly to try to save lives?
The company said it was crucial to get there within 24 hours and it was widely known that this was the only outfit in sub-Saharan Africa capable of handling a disaster of that size.
Was it national pride that stopped Nigeria? Did it not want to look incapable? Especially by accepting help from its chief continental rival?
Abuja’s diplomatic response was also tardy to the point of offensiveness. It took President Goodluck Jonathan nearly a week to call Zuma to express his condolences. No public statement was issued.
Some relatives of the dead and injured also complained that they were battling to get visas to travel to Nigeria.
Above all, why was Scoan allowed to behave with such arrogant impunity?
Why did building inspectors allow it to undertake apparently illegal construction?
Why did Nema not immediately call in law enforcement officials or the military to insist that it get fast access to the collapsed building?
Why was Scoan allowed to dictate access to its premises and even to hospitals by relief workers and journalists?
Who’s in charge in Lagos?
The answer, Nigeria watchers suggest, is that the very wealthy TB Joshua dishes out lots of that money he earns from the millions of very gullible believers in his miraculous healing powers to influential politicians, particularly the ruling PDP.
Last week, a Nigerian journalist posted on the internet an audio file which, if authentic, records Joshua paying the equivalent of about R3 000 each to several journalists to ensure favourable disaster coverage.
Will he similarly make the official inquiry go away?
Pretoria must insist on full accountability and compensation for the loss of lives.
One of those Nigeria watchers remarked this past week: “Imagine if the tables had been turned and 84 Nigerians had died in this way in South Africa. There would have been a major diplomatic incident.
“The South African government has been remarkably restrained.”
Too restrained, so far.
* Peter Fabricius is Independent Newspapers’ foreign editor.