President Ramaphosa’s launch of historic South Africa-Nigeria Youth Dialogue

By Bobby Moroe Whenever the two continental giants meet for their bilateral relations to reflect on the milestones of their bilateral cooperation, the entire continent regains hope, and beam with optimism. Their influence, power and economic might inspires Africa and brings a ray of hope in a hopeless era of COVID-19. This is how much South […]

By Bobby Moroe

Whenever the two continental giants meet for their bilateral relations to reflect on the milestones of their bilateral cooperation, the entire continent regains hope, and beam with optimism.

Their influence, power and economic might inspires Africa and brings a ray of hope in a hopeless era of COVID-19.

This is how much South Africa and Nigeria mean to the countries in the continent. President Ramaphosa undertook a State Visit to the Federal Republic of Nigeria on 01 December 2021.

The State Visit was followed by a Bi-National Commission (BNC), a mechanism established by the two nations in 1999 with a view to further strengthen their socio-economic and political cooperation on issues of common interest and mutual benefit.

In 2016, the two nations recognized their strategic importance to each other and elevated their BNC from Vice President/Deputy President to Head of State level.

This mechanism is the highest ever any two nations can achieve in their bilateral cooperation. Accordingly, this engagement on its own, tells us a lot about the place of both countries in their respective foreign policies.

Other events that preceded the State Visit included the working groups on Early Warming Mechanism and the Consular and Political Forum.

One amongst the most important issues in the relations between the two countries lies in migration and consular matters, out of which a lot of contentious issues exist. It was therefore in the best interest of both countries that to establish the Nigeria – South Africa Consular & Political Forum.

It is a firm belief of both countries that this forum ‘will further enhance people to people contact between the two countries and assist in minimizing issues of vexations.

“The Early Warning Mechanism is a platform to proactively identify, forestall, tackle and combat re-occurring incidences of violence, threats, and acts of intimidation against Nigerians living in South Africa as well as reprisal actions against South Africans and their interest in Nigeria’.

The MoU on Early warning will soon be finalised between the two countries, and the Consular and Political Forum agreed to convene in the first quarter of 2022.

On 29 November 2021, the Ministerial meeting, which serves as a pre-cursor to the BNC, was ably led by the Minister of International Relations and Cooperation of South Africa, Dr Naledi Pandor, and Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria.

The highlight of this meeting was the adoption of the report of the senior officials meeting as well as the communiqué, both considered by the two heads of state.

This was a further reaffirmation of cordial working relations between South Africa and Nigeria.

The ministerial meeting recognized the need to accelerate deliverables on the commitments made in the 2019 Ministerial and the impact of COVID-19 on the work of senior officials.

A number of scheduled meetings for March/April 2020 could not take pace due to the COVID-19 protocols.

The State Visit kick started on 01 December 2021, followed by official talks of the BNC and a virtual launch of the South Africa-Nigeria Youth Dialogue.

In his address during the launch, President Ramaphosa stated that, ‘the youth dialogue will provide an opportunity for the youth of our two countries to engage on issues that affect them, but most importantly, engage on how best they can contribute in making our two countries great nations for their own sake, and for the sake of posterity’.

He further said that, ‘our government believes that, with greater youth involvement and participation in the relations between our two countries, our relations will improve further’.

Essentially, the youth dialogue is intended to strengthen capacity of both South African and Nigerian youth in, amongst others, peace building, conflict prevention, and conflict resolution through the promotion intercultural learning, civic education, tolerance, human rights education and democracy, mutual respect for cultural, ethnic and religious diversity.

In my article dated 27 September 2021, titled,’ The youth of continental giants South Africa and Nigeria must collaborate in pooling indigenous knowledge for job creation’, I emphasised that bringing the youth of both countries together will mitigate and circumvent the prevalent social immoralities borne by unemployment. There is a lot that can be done to advance the course of the youth through this dialogue.

Approximately three months after this article was published, and for the first time in the history of South Africa and Nigeria, the youth of both countries were brought together in one virtual platform to witness the launch of their own dialogue, and chat a way forward on what they wish to achieve in this dialogue.

The two countries also made a ground-breaking announcement by ‘expressing their desire to collaborate in areas related to tackle smuggling, poaching, and illegal trading of wildlife’.

Both President Ramaphosa and President Buhari ‘welcomed the inauguration of the Joint Ministerial Advisory Council on Industry, Trade and Investment’

“This very crucial Council is expected to serve as a driving force to facilitate and promote private sector participation in the economies of both countries”.

It is most critical to note that the State Visit coincided with the imposition of travel apartheid by certain countries of the west on South Africa. A shuttle, by the west, between vaccine apartheid to health apartheid is a clear reminder that colonialism still reigns supreme, and that the west still clings to power and domination over Africa.

In a communiqué issued by both leaders, ‘They noted the ravaging impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the public health and economies of the continent and pledged to work collaboratively on vaccine production and distribution on the continent’

South Africa announced the discovery of the Omricon virus in the country, just a few days before the State Visit of President Ramaphosa to Nigeria.

In fact, at the time when this discovery was announced, advance teams from South Africa had already touched down in Nigeria to make the necessary preparations for the State Visit with the local authorities and the South African High Commission in Abuja.

Initially, there was speculation that the visit could collapse – it would either be cancelled or postponed due to the new discovery. Many were preparing themselves to return home, while diplomats started agonising about the likelihood of not being with their families during the festive season, in anticipation of a possible red list by Nigeria.

True to its character of solidarity with South Africa, Nigeria remained steadfast and received President Ramaphosa and his delegation in the Capital – Abuja.

The current victimisation of South Africa due to the Omicron variant seeks to isolate the country from the world in the same way apartheid did.

Nigeria understands that ‘South Africa makes decisions based on science, and not politics, unlike some countries in the west.

South Africa has no regrets, whatsoever, to be the first to announce the prevalence of the Omricon variant, despite its origins, which are also attributed to several countries outside Southern Africa.

The statement issued by the government emphasise that, ‘South Africa is duty bound as a responsible global citizen to report any new variants of concern to the international community.

The country boasts world class scientific expertise and monitoring allows for speedy identification and tracking of the spread of any new variants of concern’.

For such transparency, it is regrettable that South Africa has been punished. This medical apartheid is akin to being incarcerated for reporting a crime – what an oxymoron.

In terms of solidarity between the two countries, perhaps it was not by historical coincidence that President Ramaphosa’ s visit to Nigeria coincided with the 48th Anniversary of the UN resolution, declaring apartheid a crime against humanity. It was Nigeria that was amongst the many countries that sponsored this resolution.

In his opening remarks during the BNC, President Ramaphosa expressed gratitude and appreciation to President Buhari for his firm stance to support South Africa during this very difficult period of global isolation. He commended the government of Nigeria for welcoming him and his delegation when the whole world was stigmatising South Africa.

This was a commendable historic visit between the two countries whose relations are often misunderstood by many as foes and competitors. .

The era of COVID-19 also gave the opportunity for both countries retrace and recall the genesis of their relations and recalibrate them further.

With President Ramaphosa at the helm, we must all look forward, with anticipation, to the return of the golden years between the mighty South Africa in the Southern African region, and Nigerian in the Western African region.

Moroe, the Deputy High Commissioner of South Africa to the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and writes in his personal capacity. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN).