CHIDIMMA ADETSHINA: PLAY BY THE RULES

Beauty queen Chidimma Adetshina is digging in her heels in South Africa.

She is the slender spike spearing the dead conscience of some jobless South African criminals who have turned xenophobia to employment.

The abuse has been torrential. In no uncertain terms, the xenophobes have asked her to go home.

The attacks got physical when a few of them attempted to assault her as she left court in a  deportation case that has drawn global attention.

The optics doom South Africa.

A glorious symbol of resistance to prejudice turned hotbed of discrimination. The immortal fathers of the anti-apartheid struggle must be turning in their graves over what a handful of defiant criminals are doing.

No one is playing by the rules.

Not the South African government; not the rampaging xenophobes.

The rules of the game matter little to Chidimma Adetshina. Other Africans have been forced to flee the country, but she remains.

 She refuses to let hate win.

When her citizenship was questioned before a global contest, she did not waver.

She tapped into her Nigerian roots, contested and finished as runner up thereby taking her dreams and story to a global audience.

This drama has gone global.

It is the unfamiliar tragedy of a global face and a constructive statelessness.

The criminals did not notice Adetshina until she stood on the brink of global recognition victory. Then they struck and are digging in.

The irony should not be lost.

A beauty queen attacked outside of court by criminals who should be in the dock.

They organized and orchestrated a physical attack meant to demoralize her and deter the law and thereafter they walked free.

It indicts the government.

The South African government has failed to stand up to the criminals.

It is a case of state sponsored cowardice at the worst possible time with the government caught between its varying obligations.

Some debts are unpayable.

What South Africa owes the rest of Africa can never be truly quantified.

In its darkest days when the stygian darkness of apartheid threatened to abort the future of the country, Africa provided the lone bright light.

It is not about migration.

While illegal migration remains a problem, there are ways to manage it.

What has failed in South Africa is the humanity of South Africans and the courage of a government which refuses to act decisively.

It is a brewing moral crisis.

Those who have long questioned African solidarity now have their answers. It barely exists and only in breach.

They ask Adetshina to leave.

What she must not do is to make it easy for them. The world is now a global village.

There are rules to the game and the power to choose who enters or leaves any country can certainly not be wielded by jobless criminals.

The authorities should act fast.

It is not enough to send diplomatic delegations to paper over the cracks.

Every victim of xenophobia deserves justice. This means prosecuting those responsible and making restitutions to those robbed in anyway.

Adetshina will not leave.

She is as South African as Mr. Cyril Ramaphosa himself and deserves her full rights.

If the criminals championing xenophobia are tired of seeing her in South Africa, they may as well leave. As long as they remain, they must lie low.

Kene Obiezu is a lawyer and writer