Takeaways for Nigeria from The Inauguration of President Cyril Ramaphosa into Office
Earlier on June 19, I came across posts on social media insinuating that President Ramaphosa ignored President Tinubu while greeting other world leaders. Of course, I did not think it happened (and it didn’t by the way), but out of curiousity to see where the silly rumour was coming from, I decided to watch the whole event over. I thought to share some things that caught my attention. I had seen a moment or two during the live broadcast, but watching the whole event, I saw a few things worthy of learning.
ORDERLINESS — I saw orderliness and remembered how on May 29, 2023, at the inauguration of President Tinubu, men of different security agencies were having altercations at the VIP sitting entrance area. In Pretoria, the protocol arrangements were top notch, VIPs were not crowded by retinue of aides, there were no body guards, Aide-de-Camp (ADC), no personal photographers. Walkways were not crowded, no fierce looking, rifle wielding security personnel all over the place, giving you the impression that if you coughed too loud, you might be GONE. Each VIP (presidents and the likes), were brought in by a vehicle in order and directed to their seats. Government events in Nigeria display too much rowdiness possibly stemming from unnecessary display of activities by too many aides, all wanting to be seen as doing something. Movements no motion. We can learn from our churches. There are many denominations and churches where you’d see top notch orderliness. They are Nigerians too and so, it means it can happen. The orderliness at the Sandstone amphitheatre was displayed at the beginning and at the end. Each VIP was called one after the order to leave the venue, no rushing out like the exit would vanish as Nigerians do. Eagle Square always became rowdy once event is over.
STATE RECOGNITION OF DIVERSITY OF FAITH — In Nigeria, at official events, prayers are said in line with two faiths only. At President Ramaphosa’s inauguration, About 5 or 6 prayers were said including one from indigenous faith. Islamic prayers were said too by the way. This was a demonstration of liberalism which promotes unity. If diversity is suppressed, unity becomes more difficult and if there are no complaints, it’s just a graveyard silence being maintained. There are things to be said, but no one is saying it.
INSTITUTIONS ABOVE SYCOPHACY — The part of the video where many people suggested President Tinubu was ignored was when President Ramaphosa breached protocol and had started greeting his guests when it was not yet the time for greeting. He was just one person away from Tinubu when the programme compere directed him to stop greeting guests and go back to his seat for the national anthem. He obeyed the instruction, he went back, but he later came back to greet the guests and of course greeted president Tinubu. My point here is that the compere was confident that she owned the programme and would run it the correct way. The president also recognised that the instruction from the owner must be obeyed. This is how strong institutions are built. No one should be looking at the body language of the president or governor or whoever, before doing what they should do.
NATIONAL ANTHEM — The national anthem was sang two times during the event, the first did not signify the arrival of the president neither did the second signify his exit. Invariably, the anthem is not about the “most important” person at the venue, which is what we do. Immediately the governor/president arrives, we sing the anthem, then when they’re done, we sing it again and then they depart. I am yet to get old of a copy of the National Anthem Act 2024, but I have in the past read a bit about our anthem protocols. There are occasions when we should actually sing it. Everyone is to rise while our anthem is being sung, with hands staying still by the side, not on the chest. Law enforcement personnel (in uniforms) that are of officer grades are to salute, others stay still like regular civilians.
MILITARY PARADE AND MARCH PAST — The armed forces of Nigeria deserve their flowers here, they are the king of parade, king of march past and king of dressing. I did not include the Nigerian Police force please. They need to start from uniformity of uniform first. The parade and march past I saw in Pretoria were laggard, no energy, no banging of the foot, legs not lifted with passion. No parade commander at the top of their voice dishing out commands and banging feet following in unison.
MILITARY DISPLAY OF AIR ASSETS — There was nice display of air assets by the South Africa military and it was nice to see, even though the voice narration accompany it wasn’t so energetic. It felt like a football commentary from the English Premiership. Nigeria too used to, but since a mishap during rehearsals a few years ago, we have been very minimal in air assets funfair. I suspect it is because “we fear the world.” The quoted is a literal statement from Yoruba language. It appears we fear things might go wrong and then avoid doing it at all. Those are the fun that inspire people to love their military, we should resume.
BROADCAST AND MEDIA ORGANISATION — The typical scene at Nigerian official events is the rostrum filled with a dozen microphones from different media outlets. Then more annoying is that you find somebody coming to adjust their own organisations microphone stand, and in the process disrupting the positioning of others. In the end, the audience gets distracted. Followed is presence of tens of video cameras from different organisations, then you have photographers scattered everywhere, with no boundaries. Ugly scene. At Mr. Ramaphosa’s inauguration, the video coverage appears to be centrally coordinated into a single feed and then every organisation hooked to it. There was not need for cameras and cameramen unnecessarily populating the event. Nigeria used to do this in the 80’s and even 90’s. NTA would cover the event and other stations would feed from NTA. The moment private stations began to enter the scene from mid-90’s, rowdiness of live coverage started. We may want to excuse this with poor quality from NTA, but that is the exact reason we should fix NTA. At least for orderliness.
BONUS — South Africa had its first of its kind parliamentary election result in 2024. After the election, there was no clear direction on what would happen. In the end there was political solution and that was how Cyril Ramaphosa became president for a 2nd term. South Africans do not elect their president, they elect legislators and then the party with at least 51% of the legislative seats produces the president. The African National Congress (ANC) for the first time since 1994 could not produce 51% of the seats. They entered into an alliance with four other political parties to form Government of National Unity and together they have a combined 68% of the seats. Basically, political offices would have to be distributed amongst all the parties. I foresee arguments and conflicts down the road, but that’s exactly the bedrock of democracy — conflicts and resolution when they happen.
