Xenophobia: What Buhari Told Ramaphosa In South Africa (Full Text)

President Muhammadu Buhari’s Speech At A State Banquet In His Honour By South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa

Your Excellency, Cyril Ramaphosa, President of the Republic of South Africa,

Your Excellency, David Mabuza, Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa,

Honourable Ministers,

Senior Government officials,

Distinguished Ladies and Gentlemen.

It is a great pleasure for me to address you tonight.

2. I would like, first of all, to thank you, my Brother, President Ramaphosa, for inviting me and my delegation to your beautiful country. We have been overwhelmed by the warm hospitality of the South African people since our arrival. Thank you very much also for this very generous and sumptuous banquet in our honour.

A Warning For Foreign Minister And People Of South Africa

By Femi Fani-Kayode​

"I would appreciate them in helping us as well to address the belief our people have and the reality that there are many persons from Nigeria dealing in drugs in our country" – Dr. Grace Naledi Mandisa Pandor, South African Minister of International Relations.

Is this the sort of thing that ought to be said by the South African government when we are still in mourning and when we have not even buried our compatriots that were cruelly slain, bludgeoned to death and cut to pieces in the streets of South Africa?

* Femi Fani-Kayode

At a time when this irresponsible, insensitive, shameless, conflicted, self-hating, pitiful and mendacious creature that has been described as the foreign minister of South Africa should be apologizing to the Nigerian people for the mindless savagery and barbarity of her blood-crazed compatriots, she is pointing accusing fingers at their victims and the objects of their collective hate and seeking to demonise them. What have we done to deserve this? First, you kill us then you seek to justify it and demonize us!

Nigerians And The Xenophobes

By Paul Onomukpokpo

If William Shakespeare lived in the 21st century, Shylock might not have made the foil to Antonio. After all, with the prodigious inroads of the Jews into every realm of human endeavour- ranging from the arts to the sciences and high-profile businesses – the respect they have earned would have served as an impregnable bulwark against any fecund imagination desirous of casting them in the mould of the greediest and despicably and mercilessly shrewdest species of the human race. 

Not even those segments of humanity that Donald Trump considers irredeemably reprobate and terroristic and thus places under his travel ban would sufficiently embody the vices that Shakespeare would have associated with that foil. But if Shakespeare had looked at Nigeria, he might have successfully ended his quest. 

Rochas Okorocha, The Man Whose Vision Drives Crazy

By Ikechukwu Amaechi

When Imo State governor, Owelle Rochas Okorocha, told TELL magazine that “my vision drives me crazy,” many people did not take his words literally.

In November 2016, he tweaked the statement a little, this time saying his love for Imo State keeps him from sleeping. “I find it difficult to sleep now because I want to change the entire face of Imo,” he said.

*President Zuma and Gov Okorocha 

Noble sentiments expected of a leader who means well for his people. But more than six years on the saddle, many Imolites are beginning to wonder whether their governor was speaking metaphorically or literally because his vision for the state (whatever it is) is not only warped, twisted and crazy, but can only be conjured by a mind that is not attuned to reality. It is tunnel vision.

The latest manifestation of such crazy vision is Okorocha’s deification of South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma in Owerri, Imo State capital, last weekend, when he unveiled a gigantic statue in his honour.

Zuma, who flew into the country on Friday, October 13, on what was a “private visit,” was on the same day conferred with a traditional chieftaincy title – Ochiagha Imo (Great Warrior) – by Eze Samuel Ohiri, chairman of the state council of traditional rulers. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo issued the title certificate.

The Scourge Of South Africa’s Ingratitude

By Ayo Oyoze Baje  

The recurring ugly decimal of premeditated brutalisation of Nigerians, by South Africans in their country has become a handshake beyond the elbow, calling for a vicious wrestling combat. That, in itself is a most unfortunate development. What with Nigeria’s famed Big Brother role in the African continental politics and economy? What about spearheading the struggle to free the country from the iron-grip of the blood-letting and asphyxiating Apartheid policy that claimed some 21,000 innocent lives, going by statistics from International Human Rights Organisation (IHRO)?

*Jacob Zuma and Muhammadu Buhari

It therefore, smirks of gross ingratitude, quite antithetical to the African Union Charter and the much-cherished African traditional ethos of hospitality that Nigerians should be at the receiving end of the transferred aggression of the same South Africans! According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Mr. Ikechukwu Anyene, President, Nigeria Union, in a telephone call from Pretoria confirmed attacks on members and looting of Nigerian-owned businesses in Pretoria West on Saturday.

In his words: “As we speak, five buildings with Nigerian businesses, including a church have been looted and burned by South Africans. One of the buildings is a mechanic garage with 28 cars under repairs, with other vital documents, were burned during the attack. The attack in Pretoria West is purely xenophobic and criminal because they loot the shops and homes before burning them. Also, the pastor of the church was wounded and is in the hospital receiving treatment.” He said that the union had reported the incident to the Nigeria mission and South African police. 

Nigerians And Xenophobic South Africans

By Paul Onomuakpokpo

What eminently captures the tragedy of contemporary Nigeria is that its citizens who lack a huge helping from the national treasury are vulnerable to being haunted at home and abroad. Overwhelmed by the hostility of their home country sired by decades of the monumental failure of government, they go overseas with the hope of finding succour. But here a bleaker fate awaits them as their supposed host becomes their haunter.

Nigerians could bear their tragic lot if there were no expectations of warm reception in the first place. And these expectations were by no means misplaced. In the case of Nigerians in South Africa they justifiably expected to be treated well. Clearly, Nigerians who are in South Africa have only gone to reap where their country has sown. The resources of Nigeria were used to secure South Africans freedom from the apartheid stranglehold.

Notwithstanding, Nigerians have not asked to be allowed to enjoy the benefits of staying in South Africa without bringing their own contributions to the development of the society. Most of the Nigerians who are being harassed are effectively contributing to the economy of their host country. They are running their legitimate businesses. It is these businesses and the lives of Nigerians that often come under attacks. If there were some Nigerians who violated the laws of South Africa, these should be punished and every Nigerian should not be treated as a villain. But we should be alert to the possibility that these recurring attacks are being provoked by South Africans’ envy of the success of their guests. Or why do these South Africans often target Nigerians’ shops for looting? 

The South Africans who do not know how to use their post-apartheid freedom over two decades after blacks took the reins of governance should be humble enough to ask enterprising Nigerians in their midst to teach them how to be successful in their own country. South Africans should not blame Nigerians if their lack of competitiveness makes the latter to take over their jobs. If these attack-obsessed South Africans were profitably engaged, they would not have the time to trouble Nigerians. So instead of being befuddled by the allegations of Nigerians being criminals, prostitutes and drug dealers, the South African government should find ways to profitably engage its citizens.

 Optimism about an easy resolution of this crisis would not have been out of place if it were only the younger generation who do not know their history that are responsible for the xenophobic attacks. But apparently, these young people are perpetrating these attacks with tacit official approval. This explains why when these attacks occur, the police do not come to the rescue of Nigerians. Apparently, the police see these attacks as a fulfillment of their wish that Nigerians be subjected to such brutalities. This is because the South African police have on several occasions brutalised Nigerians to death.