 here on Plus TV Africa. Today in history, we're going back to the year 1994 to share just a little bit about an iconic election. It was one of the most talked about elections in the African continent. In 1994, of course, that brought into presidency one of the most popular faces and persons in African history, Nelson Mandela. It was on this day, the very first elections, all race election took place in South Africa. And of course, elected Nelson Mandela, who had been in prison for 27 years. He was eventually released in the year 1990. Of course, when FW, the clerk, I believe, decided that it was time to reunite and recon South Africa and the rioting and the violence and the agitations was getting too much. And so he released Nelson Mandela in 1990 so that they can start to find ways to reconcile. In 1994, on this day, the elections then did take place and Nelson Mandela was elected with his vice president, Thabo Mbeki. Mandela, who is it? I promise myself I was going to pronounce this. It was a Cosa speaker. Hi. I promise myself I was going to do that. Yes, the elections were the first time in which citizens of all races were allowed to take part in South Africa. And it was also the first held with universal adult suffrage. The election was conducted under the direction of the Independent Electoral Commission, IEC, and marked the combination of the four-year process that ended apathyde. The date 27th of April is now a public holiday in South Africa. Of course, it's declared to be Freedom Day. The new National Assembly's first act at that time, I think it was about 262 that were nominated in the ANC. Their first act was to, of course, elect Nelson Mandela as president, making the country's first black chief executive. The four-year transition period from February 1990 to April 1994 was characterized by political violence between the ANC and the IFP. Mostly after Mandela was released, there continued to be agitations to end apathyde. There continued to be those conversations and pockets of violence here and there that eventually led to the elections in 1994. And after Mandela was elected and won, in the five-year period that he was in government, set up the reconciliation committee to look into crimes against humanity and, of course, racial injustice that had played South Africa at that time and tried his best to reunite the country. He's also one of those people. He definitely was one of those people that played an extremely vital role in trying to reunite South Africa in the time that he was there. A lot of people here of Nelson Mandela think, oh, maybe this is something happening in the 70s. But actually, it was 1994 to 1999. Yeah, it was actually quite recent, yeah. And in 1999, Nigeria was just getting into its own democracy, going back to its democracy. So this is just like here. We're talking of Nelson Mandela. Eventually died in 2013 at the age of 95. But on this day, Freedom Day as it is called in South Africa as a public holiday, the first general elections, all race inclusive general elections were held in South Africa. Yes, April 27th really is a historic day for South Africa. And it should be for the rest of the world, the rest of Africa in particular, because remember how leaders in Africa at the time had gathered and rallied behind South Africa, I mean, a black race calling for the end of apartheid, calling for the end of discrimination. So April 27th in essay is regarded as the day apartheid died, because from a system where you have chairs where black people could sit, chairs where white people could sit, bosses where white people could enter, bosses where black people could enter, schools where black people could go, schools where, and different indoctrination, different education. The black people were thought how to be domestic servants. The white people were taught basically teaching them how to be superior in their mindsets and all of that. But this April 27th in South Africa was a day, it seemed that all of that basically faded away, so to speak, even though we still have xenophobic attacks here and there, but it was the day that, it was even less than five years after the anti-apartheid act was passed in South Africa, and you saw black people, white people coming out to vote together in unity. And I think it's a day that should be celebrated really for the rest of Africa. Sadly, we still talk about racial segregation in South Africa, to date, there's still some of all of those elements, but definitely not as bad as it used to be. And there's a lot of new laws that are in place now that protect blacks a lot more, even if people would argue that there's still so much more needs to be done to ensure that black South Africans fully have the respect and the rights and the justice system that works with them also. But it's an ongoing conversation. We've got to celebrate where they are today, celebrate the life of Nelson Mandela, celebrate the end of apartheid also. Okay, so for today in history, I'm going back to the year 2011, April 27th. Now this day in history actually has a long history coming from as far back as 2008. So in this day in history, Obama released a copy, a long copy of the certificate of his birth due to false accusations about where he came from. So recall that during the run up to the elections in 2008, the US presidential elections, you had conspiracy theories, especially with Hillary Clinton. People usually say Hillary Clinton and her campaign started this controversy in 2008 that Barack Obama is not from the United States, that he was born in Kenya, he did not deserve to run for president. And that same year in 2008 or the next year in 2009, President Donald Trump actually released a copy, a short copy of his birth certificate. But still, Barack Obama. Did I say Donald Trump? Apologies, I mean, I remember. Yes, Donald Trump actually comes into the story somewhere. Yeah, at some point, yeah. Yeah, so up until 2016, oh my God, that man is controversial. So I was about to say Donald Trump again. Barack Obama released a short copy of his birth certificate. But still, that didn't pacify a lot of people. Recall an interview where one was assisting that Barack Obama was an Arab, that he definitely is not from the United States. But recall that Barack Obama had spent years in the United States, his birth certificate proved that he was born in Honolulu, if I got that right, in Hawaii. And people were alleging that he had took up Indonesian citizenship. He's definitely not from the US. They didn't want him to run. They're like, how can a non-senator be running for president of the United States? There was so much opposition on the basis of his birth. But eventually, this same history in 2011, the United States had to basically begin processes that would expedite Hawaii to release the long copy of his birth certificate. It eventually was released. But still, Donald Trump, even after Barack Obama stepped down and Donald Trump became president, he still continued to insist that Barack Obama's certificate was a fraud. Up until 2016, he was until 2016 that he insisted that Barack Obama actually was born in the United States or is a US citizen. So that's basically the whole long and short of this whole. When you're about to run for president, there's lots of people. People tend to dig into your past. It seems justified, right? But he provided evidence. People still were in doubt. Like I said, he requested certificate from the state of Hawaii that eventually was granted. And on this day in history, April 27th, 2011, he released the long version of his birth certificate basically ending in every dispute. The Obama family, one of the things that they appraised for is being able to spend eight years in American politics without criticism that existed from every corner possible, spending eight years without a scandal. It's not very, very easy to go eight years, to go four years even. So it was eight as a black family without a scandal. And it's one of the things that he's always been praised for by the black community, of course, people across the world. But another thing is he was also criticized for the most flimsy things, the most unusual things. But I guess one of the things that you mentioned, one of them that I'll never forget is when he wore a brown looking suit. And for some reason that I can't remember now, he was criticized and it was in papers, it was in Fox News, it was everywhere. Why was he wearing that color of suit on that particular day? He eventually, of course, didn't respond to some of all those things, but eventually when Donald Trump took over, some of the things that he did and didn't even deny were a billion times worse than the things that they dug out to criticize Barack Obama about. And most of all, this week we were silent. So it's pretty much the same thing in Nigeria. Good Lord Jonathan was criticized for a lot of things that he did and didn't do and all of that and those same voices that criticized him a lot back then, don't seem to be saying a lot these days for things that are pretty much similar or maybe even worse, it's part of politics. It's part of playing the game, whatever side that you are on at that time. You would always find a way to either be for or against them. So it's all a part of it generally. And there's no way that the Democrats would have pushed forward a candidate that they weren't 100% confident was born in the United States or had his certificates intact. So it was all just part of a game. That's what we have for you today in history, April 27th. Stay with us. Our first major conversation is coming up next and we're gonna be talking about what's been going on in Nigeria in the last couple of days. 3,000 Nigerians run the way of course fleeing and of course ending up as IDPs when we still have thousands and thousands of them registered as IDPs across Nigeria. There's also been the conversations on insecurity. Boko Haram hoisting their flags in about 50 places in Niger State. We're also hearing about Shiro Room. How bad is it getting? I've also heard people say, oh, they're getting closer to Abuja. They've been in Borno. They've been in all these places all this while. Why wasn't it a problem? You remember one of the first ever attacks, where it was, how it happened in Nigeria. You remember that? Yeah, but my point is why is there Abuja on a problem now? Why is it suddenly, oh, we're scared of getting close to Abuja? So when they were in Borno, wasn't it a problem? So the lives in Borno didn't matter that much now. Oh, they're getting close to Abuja. Abuja lives matter. Please. We have a problem and it needs to be dealt with regardless of what part of the country that they are in. We'll be back after the short break.