Nigeria hassle with South Africa
South Africa’s unfortunate action, probably taken by some overzealous low level immigration handy man, has given rise to a whirlpool of diplomatic and other activities, with Nigeria foreign ministry summoning South Africa’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Kingsley Mambolo to come and explain his country’s actions. Similarly, National Assembly, on its part invited the foreign […]
South Africa’s unfortunate action, probably taken by some overzealous low level immigration handy man, has given rise to a whirlpool of diplomatic and other activities, with Nigeria foreign ministry summoning South Africa’s High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Kingsley Mambolo to come and explain his country’s actions. Similarly, National Assembly, on its part invited the foreign affairs minister, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, ostensibly for briefing on the matter. At the foreign ministry, Kingsley Mambolo saw the permanent secretary, Ambassador Martin Uhomoibhi who, as it turned out, was not convinced with Mambolo’s defence of his country which gave rise to the request that South Africa had to apologise for its unwarranted action. Happily, good sense has prevailed and South Africa has duly apologized.
Now, however much one would want to hide behind the dictum ‘’right or wrong, my country first,’’ it would be well nigh difficult to defend a situation where a plane –load of Nigerians travelled with fake yellow fever certificates. Government should do well to look into how Nigerian travellers procure these documents because it would not be appropriate to be supporting an illegality perpetrated by its people. Still, it could very well be that since yellow fever is not prevalent in Nigeria, and the World Health organization (WHO) has said nothing to the contrary, most travelers merely get the certificates without undergoing any inoculation and the South African authorities having got wind of this practice, has decided to cynically exploit it to embarrass Nigeria. If the aim is not to embarrass, why didn’t South Africa use the multiple channels available to it to apprise the Nigeria government on the issue and urge it to warn its citizens to desist from using fake certificates before deciding to act in the manner it did?
As Ambassador Martin Uhomoibhi noted South Africa should have done away with the requirement of Nigerian travelers showing yellow fever certificates, since Nigeria immigration department has not been insisting that South Africans travelling to Nigeria must show evidence of yellow fever vaccination; neither has it insisted they should be free of tuberculosis or HIV/AIDS, the dreaded afflictions for which South Africa remains the number one sufferers on the continent. Had Nigeria wanted to behave scornfully as South Africa has always done, it could use the HIV/AIDS pandemic to stigmatise it, and bar its citizens from Nigeria.
The yellow fever fake certificates brouhaha is mere tip of the ice berg; it is following in a long line of South Africa’s penchant to humiliate Nigerians living in its midst or seeking to enter South Africa. Since South Africa emerged from under apartheid rule, it has become a Mecca of sort for Nigerians in their perpetual search for business opportunities. It also offers Nigerian parents seeking good and quality education for their children and wards. Similarly, scores of Nigerian leisure seekers also frequent the place to luxuriate in the well developed tourist industry in South Africa, a pastime that allows them to let their hairs down, even if it requires “burning” a few dollars in the process. South Africa’s official attitude indicates that it resents this virtual overrun of its public space by Nigerians and periodically it has used the strong arm tactic to underscore it.
Nigeria foot -loose petty traders, artisans and self- employed small scale businessmen and women in their midst have faced the brunt of their anger the most, as they have been subjected to regular raids by policemen who throw them into jail on trumped up charges most times. At other times they are simply rounded up and charged for undertaking many of the criminal activities that occur daily in South Africa. Those not under the boots of vicious policemen, suffer in the hands of drug crazed, unemployed South Africans who take their frustration on these Nigerians for merely living amongst them. South Africa is simply about the most violent country on the continent—a throwback to the bitterness of the apartheid period.
Nigerians, to be sure, are not the only ones being treated this way however. Other citizens of African countries have also been made to suffer similar fate. Two years ago, it all came to a head when South African youths went wild beating up anyone not from South Africa, killing many people in the process. Naturally, it created a backlash, as these other Africans fought back to repel the molestation. The gravity of situation portrayed South Africa as an intensely xenophobic country that resents foreigners, particularly other African citizens.
To be sure, South Africa is not the only country subjecting Nigerians to periodic indignities. They suffer similar ordeals in many other places, including closer neighbours on the West African sub-region. Camerounian gendarmes regularly shoot at their Nigerian neighbours in Cross River State for daring to cross the border. Togolese authorities delight in locking up Nigerian peripatetic traders merely passing through the immigration check point in Afflao and Ghanaian authorities impose discriminating business requirements on Nigerians seeking to establish business in Ghana. In times of social and political crises, Nigerians are the first to suffer violence in the hands of the feuding combatants.
The Nigerian untoward attitude, of course, has a lot to do with the anger their presence generates amongst like hosts, but constraint of space would not permit going into it now. The latest diplomatic flak between Nigeria and South Africa is nothing if not distasteful and un- dignifying; it negates the age old African custom of avoiding a public brawl if it can be helped. The immediate cause may be attributable to fake yellow fever certificates, but one does not need a crystal ball to see that there is a seething undercurrent of antipathy in official circles between the two countries which observers has put down to the fact that South Africa is increasingly being isolated internationally, as witnessed by its ill-fated support for the late Muammar Ghadaffi and the inability of its candidate, a former wife of President Jacob Zuma to win the post of the President of the Africa Union’s Commission during the last AU meeting. Nigeria took the exact opposite stand on Libya with its support for the TNC- the group now ruling Libya. South Africa blames Nigeria for the loss of the presidency of the AU commission.
It surely isn’t in the interest of the two countries and neither is it that of the continent at large for two of its prime movers to engage in messy bust-up like the one being witnessed. For this reason a quick mending of fences is of utmost imperative.