- MTN, Shoprite, Rand Merchant Bank chosen as targets
- South Africa pleads for stay of action
- Nigerians not willing to be evacuated, says ambassador
- NEMA on the alert
Senator Iroegbu, Damilola Oyedele and Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja
Peeved by the continuous and repeated attacks on Nigerians living and doing business in South Africa, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) has issued a seven-day ultimatum to the South African government to bring to a halt the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa or risk the closure of prominent South African investments like the telecoms giant, MTN, Shoprite, Rand Merchant Bank etc., which are operating in the country.
The students' body in a statement signed by its Public Relations Officer, Mr. Nwankwo Ezekiel, on Sunday in Abuja gave the warning to the South African government where it condemned the attacks.
The warning came as the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Ambassador Lulu Mguni, pleaded that Nigerians should neither carry out reprisals nor boycott South African companies and services operating in Nigeria, especially as the attackers in South Africa are already being arrested for prosecution and punishment.
In an exclusive interview with THISDAY weekend, Ambassador Mguni argued that since the economy of both countries are interlinked, any attack could have mutual effect on the countries.
THISDAY gathered that there are between 800,000 and one million Nigerians in different parts of South Africa.
The attacks are said to have cost Nigerians some 1.2 million Rand (about N21 million) since the outbreak of the xenophobic offensives.
NANS "condemns the sudden mysterious death of our own father, mother, brother, sister and loss of their properties in South Africa as a result of xenophobic attacks leaving behind their love ones."
"It is with a sense of brotherhood that we are mandating the South African government to ensure an urgent solution to bring to an end this killing of our own citizens within the next seven days or it will leave us with no alternative than to go against all the South Africa investments in our noble country Nigeria and will not stop at this but furthermore, make all South Africa citizen uncomfortable in our country," it added.
However, Mguni, who expressed sadness at the destruction of lives and properties of foreigners in his country, blamed the attacks on criminal elements exploiting the anger of the poor masses in South Africa.
He reasoned that boycotting the South African-related companies, goods and services like MTN, Shoprite or Rand Merchant Bank amongst others, would not be in the interest of both countries since their economies are interlinked.
According to him, the boycott would only hurt the majority of peace-loving South Africans who are opposed to the xenophobic attacks and not the criminal elements perpetrating the evil against fellow Africans.
The South African government has been chided for not doing enough to prevent reoccurring xenophobic attacks on other Africans, one of which claimed 62 lives in May 2008.
"Nigerians who feel that way cannot be blamed and you cannot control the way they will respond to the situations...but we appeal to them that we are handling the situation and that doing this (boycott) will not hurt those criminals who have been attacking other Africans.
"You can't say you are hurting only the South Africans because by doing this you are also hurting your own economy. So I appeal let us work together, let us not come to a level where we start hurting each other. We appeal that we should not take that line of action and allow these criminal elements to define our relationships," he said.
Mguni assured Nigerians that the relationship between Nigeria and South Africa would continue to be mutually beneficial and that the current challenge would be overcome.
"We developed a diplomatic relationship, which was established by Nigerians during the struggle against the apartheid regime. This is because Nigeria has leaders who have foresight to see the future and they could see that supporting South Africa will be beneficial to us, to Africans," he noted.
He further stated that all efforts were being mobilised to bring normalcy to the two troubled provinces, as well as ensure the safety of the lives and properties of foreigners including Nigerians.
To ensure that justice is being served, the Ambassador also promised that the perpetrators of the dastardly acts would be apprehended and brought to book.
According to him, "The police were assigned to quell the violence and to bring the situation under control and directed to work round the clock to protect both fellow Africans and citizens and to arrest looters and those committing acts of violence.
"Additional law enforcement officers have been mobilised from around the country and deployed to the affected areas to enforce the law and prevent further attacks".
Meanwhile, there are indications that Nigerians in South Africa, in spite of the attacks are not willing to be evacuated to Nigeria because of their jobs, businesses and the fact that many of them are married to South African.
The Nigerian Acting High Commissioner in Pretoria, Ambassador Martin Cobhams, confirmed this in a telephone interview with THISDAY.
Cobhams, who said he is currently in Durban to meet with Nigerians in the city, and participate in a meeting of African Ambassadors with Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini at 10.00am today, disclosed that the situation is now calm.
He explained that the Nigerian community in South Africa is not willing to be evacuated as many of them have fully invested in South Africa, with some even married to South African spouses.
“I cannot say evacuate, if the community is not willing, then we would be working at cross purposes. It would be difficult to gather our people who from their body language are not willing to depart, some would rather fight back. So we cannot panic, rather we have to work with the host authority to ensure calm,” he said.
He added that it is easier for Mozambique and Zimbabwe to evacuate their citizens because they could simply deploy luxurious buses to move their citizens,
“We would have to use planes, and if the people are not willing, then the planes would go back empty…We must stand in solidarity with the government of South Africa whose efforts have now led to the return of calmness. It is not state sponsored violence, but mob action by some criminally-minded and ignorant people who do not even know the efforts of other countries to get them where they are,” Cobhams added.
The envoy disclosed that he had met with the Nigerian family whose business was looted and had been assured that there is no threat to their lives. He added that there are ongoing talks with the local authority, so that Nigerians can teach their people how to trade and run small medium enterprises.
Another Nigerian diplomat, who spoke with THISDAY off record, said Nigerians, except where they find themselves in very hostile situations, would hardly agree to be evacuated.
“It is not like the situation in Libya, Central African Republic, Syria and Saudi Arabia, where they had no choice but to be evacuated. Even at that time, some of them chose to be evacuated by agencies of international organisations to refugee camps in other countries.
"When hostilities broke out in South Sudan when their president had a problem with his deputy, we were going to evacuate, and had those who indicated interest gathered. When we commenced the processes, and they saw we were serious, they all ran away,” he said.
THISDAY gathered however that even though there seems not to be an immediate need, processes are already ongoing to evacuate those who desire to return.
Talks are already ongoing between officials of Nigeria’s Foreign Ministry and the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), which is in charge of evacuations. The Nigerian Air Force may also be included in evacuation efforts, if the attacks escalate.
The Foreign Ministry remains engaged over the developments and a high level meeting was held for several hours on Friday. It is expected to come up with details and recommendations on the way forward.
In this regard, the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria may be summoned to the Ministry anytime soon, to register Nigeria’s protest over the re-occuring attacks, as other nations on the continent have already done.
A diplomat from one of the African nations, whose country has already commenced evacuation, suggested that African countries should continuously table the issue during discussions surrounding bilateral agreements, and let “South Africa realise that if other Africans are not welcome to do business in their country, then South African businesses cannot stay in other parts of Africa too.”
Nigeria and South Africa have a Bi-National Commission, which would provide avenue for Nigeria to demand that South Africa puts a stop to the attacks.
