A News Analysis by Fortune Abang, News Agency of Nigeria (NAN)
“The recent acts of xenophobic attacks on our compatriots and other Africans in South Africa are shocking to me, Nigerians, and indeed Africa. It was an embarrassment to the continent,” Buhari told a town hall meeting with Nigerians living in South Africa, on Oct. 4.
President Buhari was in that country on a three-day state visit following xenophobic attacks in September on foreigners living in the southern African country.
The attacks in September left many foreigners dead and their businesses destroyed.
South Africa and Nigeria are the continent’s biggest powers. Each maintains a stranglehold on the sub-regional bloc it belongs to and yet both remain locked in a long-running rivalry over political and economic supremacy in the continent, with the rivalry sometimes going beyond political and economic spheres onto the soccer field.
Reacting to the xenophobic attacks on foreigners in September, Nigeria’s foreign minister, Geoffrey Onyeama said, “Enough is enough,” adding: “We will address this once and for all this time.”
Next, Nigeria dispatched a special envoy to South Africa to “share our deep concern” about the security and property of its nationals.
It further pulled out of the World Economic Forum on Africa that held in the South African port city of Cape Town.
Nigeria’s high commissioner to South Africa was also recalled and South Africa’s high commissioner to Nigeria summoned for a briefing.
Influential Nigerian artists rebuked the South African rioters and denounced the anti-immigrant attacks. Nigerian Afrobeats star Tiwa Savage withdrew from a concert in South Africa. Local commercial airline AirPeace then offered free flights to Nigerian nationals who wished to return home.
Nobody captured the palpable tension better than Adams Oshiomhole, the national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress.
Oshiomhole asked Nigeria’s federal government to nationalise some South African-owned businesses, including MTN, and called for a boycott of South African goods and services to send “a very strong message to South African authorities and the South African people.”
He asked that the landing rights of South African Airways be revoked until the problems were addressed.
Angry demonstrations on the streets of Nigeria’s largest city Lagos, the Nigerian capital Abuja, and a few other cities across the country forced South African-owned grocer Shoprite and telecommunications giant MTN to suspend operations the week following the attacks on Nigerians in that country.
Protesters marched to their premises, sometimes threatening to retaliate.
It was against this background and at the invitation of the President Ramaphosa that President Buhari paid a State Visit to that country where he also attended the inaugural
session of the elevated Bi-National Commission (BNC). The BNC was part of continuing bilateral engagements aimed at strengthening and deepening cooperation between South Africa and Nigeria.
While in South Africa, President Buhari met with his South African counterpart after which he said: “As a government, we are quite disturbed by these very unfortunate events and have taken actions and measures to address this issue and prevent their reoccurrence with the South African government.”
Both Presidents issued a joint communiqué in Pretoria in which they strongly condemned the attacks against foreign nationals including Nigerians in South Africa and the reprisal actions
against South Africans and their interests in Nigeria.
They expressed a strong commitment to take all necessary measures to stop a recurrence of the attacks which they said undermined the vision of a strong and prosperous Africa that the two countries have for the
continent.
The two leaders reviewed a wide range of bilateral, continental and global issues of common interest and acknowledged the historical and strategic relations that exist between the two
countries, and the need to further strengthen the ties of friendship and cooperation.
Among many other things, the two Presidents appreciated the vast nature of the two countries’ bilateral cooperation which covers, amongst others; Trade and Investment, Energy, Mining, Defence and Security issues, Justice, Police, Immigration, Tourism, Environment, Education, transport as well as Science and Technology.
In this regard, the two Presidents took note of the thirty-two (32) signed Agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs), and committed themselves to ensuring that those which are in force are fully implemented while those which are not yet in force are revived for implementation.
They welcomed the important role of the Business Forum, which took place on the margins of the State Visit. The two leaders further welcomed the decision to establish a Joint Ministerial Advisory Council on Industry, Trade, and Investment.
The inaugural meeting of the Council would be held not later than April 2020, in Abuja. The Council is expected to serve as a critical vehicle in facilitating and promoting private sector participation in the economies of both countries.
A political analyst, Prof. Jonah Onuoha, Head of the Political Science Department, University of Nigeria Nsukka decried the xenophobic attacks in South Africa.
Onuoha said that the South Africans carried out the attacks because they had failed to recognize that “Africa is for Africans’’.
The don said that the attacks by South Africans were capable of generating hate, hunger, and poverty in the continent.
He, however, said: “Trade between Nigeria and South Africa has become huge; therefore President Buhari’s state visit to South Africa is apt in terms of restoring relations between the two countries.
“However, if there is no compensation, the xenophobic attack on Nigerians in South Africa will not just strain the relationship between Nigeria and South Africa, but with other countries.
Amb. Bobby Moroe, South Africa’s Acting High Commissioner to Nigeria, extolled the BNC, saying that it yielded positive outcomes on issues of common interest and mutual benefit to both countries.
He said that the maiden state visit by President Buhari gave impetus to taking the cordial relations between Nigeria and South Africa to the next level.
“It is our responsibility to strengthen our economic relations so that the two countries can lead industrialisation processes in the continent.
“The roles played by both countries are not only to themselves but also to other countries of the continent.
“Our belief is that BNC serves as reaffirmation and reassurance to other parts of the continent that we are heading toward development.
“For the leadership of both countries to agree it shows that we can advance the African agenda,” Moroe said.
On its part, the Nigerian Citizens Association in South Africa (NICASA) said that President Buhari’s state visit had allayed the fears of those of them still living outside their home country.
Speaking with NAN, President of NICASA, Mr Ben Okoli said that members of the association were very happy with President Buhari’s visit and were looking forward to positive developments.
“We believe President Buhari’s state visit to South Africa has helped to reduce the suffering Nigerians go through in South Africa.
“A number of Nigerians affected by the xenophobic attacks are still traumatized.
“Those ones still need to go back to Nigeria to start a new life because of the trauma. Some of them have lost their businesses and they now live in fear,” Okoli said.
Without doubt, a commitment to the implementation of the Early Warning Mechanism by both parties will go a long way toward strengthening the relations between the government and people of both countries.
This will also portray both powerhouses as true leaders in the continent that are worth emulating. (NANFeatures)
