In 1978, SA Ukeje, UJ Nkamuke, and AA Falade were together with the Son of Man (when my name was Castro!). I had no beard, but I was filled with revolutionary fervour and formed the Association of Solidarity with South African Peoples (ASSAP). It was close to ASAP (As Soon As Possible) because of the sense of URGENCY. I was the genuine director general, though we had no account with the CBN, no office at the Federal Secretariat (both then situated in Lagos) and no hefty budgetary support. I had just turned 20. Our key goal was to show solidarity with, and support for, the suffering people of South Africa then under the excruciating grip of the white supremacist apartheid regime. We were then students of economics at the University of Ibadan. By then, Cyril Ramaphosa was studying law at the University of the North and was an active student unionist. He had ‘enjoyed’ detention for 17 months in 1974 and 1976 for his roles in anti-apartheid struggles.
The anti-apartheid struggle was the daily bread of Nigeria and Nigerians and, indeed, all of Black Africa, who saw apartheid as an unacceptable slap on the face of all Blacks in Africa and throughout the world. By then, Nigerian civil servants committed 2% of their salaries, while students forfeited lunch so as to pay the Mandela Tax. ‘Free Mandela’ and ‘NO to Apartheid’ were on the lips of everybody, and no social gathering was complete without those songs and related speeches. You would think that apartheid was being practised against Nigerians. The Nigerian government weighed in economically and diplomatically against South Africa and, under Obasanjo, contributed raw cash to the anti-apartheid struggle, nationalised British Petroleum (on 30/7/79) and refused to sell petroleum to South Africa. It also punished countries and businesses doing business with the apartheid regime. Nigeria roared and the world listened; indeed, there was a country! The cash contribution of Nigeria to the anti-apartheid struggle, according to South African official sources, was $61bn, while we lost up to $40bn by not selling oil to South Africa. We also made Black South Africans honorary Nigerians by issuing them with Nigerian passports, took their students into our schools, and hosted their revolutionaries, including Thabo Mbeki and Nelson Mandela (hosted by the late Mbazulike Amaechi). Nigeria made the highest investment globally in the anti-apartheid cause, and because of our church-mind and Afrocentrism, we did not attach any conditions! The Americans, French and Brits would have tied the assistance in perpetuity to their natural resources.
