At law, a parent company INDEMNIFIES its FRANCHISE owners. If Nigerians own those franchises, then South Africa feels the pain.

That is a general rule, of course, and let us hope that those Nigerian owners were smart to include an indemnification clause in their contracts.

While violence cannot resolve these problems, emotions are running high, making passionate people to act in a way that will get the attention of their leaders; after all, Nigerian government only take affirmative steps when they hear GBAS, GBOS, GBAS (think of Sowore; when he was yelling “Take it back,” they didn’t arrest him; once he invoked the word REVOLUTION, they picked him up).

I won’t start blaming those protesting, even though some nefarious people are using that to loot (call that collateral damages).

You have to pay attention to the street, not just the same cliché about the fear of the unknown.

In America, during Hurricane Katrina, thousands of people, abandoned by their government, did some awful things, including looting and ransacking stores. It is currently happening in Hong Kong, too. I am not justifying those actions, but I am trying to make you understand that things are foggy, so you can reasonably expect unpleasant things to happen.

We must focus on the big picture, though: something triggered this whole mess—xenophobic attacks against our people, leading to some of them being butchered like dogs on the street (even that poor dog wanted to help our fellow brother that was burned to death by South Africans).

Nigeria is not an organized country, so you have to understand that orderliness doesn’t always work. Your pontification on Facebook did not change our leaders’ minds; they realized that the situation was getting out of control, and they are beginning to take this matter seriously.

Like I said earlier, you can’t always predict how certain variables will play out, particularly in this type of a volatile situation – things are really foggy. Let people take kinetic actions, understanding that there will always be collateral damages. I can live with that.

And our people, as seen in some of the videos that I have watched, are beginning to defend themselves. Nobody wants this matter to escalate, but we can’t continue business as usual with South Africa. Something has to change. And it has to change NOW. Enough is enough!

I am done pontificating.

Akintunde F. Adeyemo (JD)