What gains from Zuma’s visit?

President Muhammadu Buhari will tomorrow, host his South African counterpart, Jacob Zuma, who is embarking on a two-day state visit to Nigeria.  The visit is coming at a time relations between sub-Saharan Africa’s two biggest and most powerful states are hardly at the best level of cordiality. The political and economic relations between Nigeria and […]

President Muhammadu Buhari will tomorrow, host his South African counterpart, Jacob Zuma, who is embarking on a two-day state visit to Nigeria. 
The visit is coming at a time relations between sub-Saharan Africa’s two biggest and most powerful states are hardly at the best level of cordiality.
The political and economic relations between Nigeria and South Africa are based on deep historical ties, dating back to the years of liberation struggles.
After ending the apartheid regime in 1994, the new democratic regime, the Government of National Unity (GNU) led by late President Nelson Mandela, established bilateral relations with Nigeria. 
The move was in recognition of Nigeria’s role in the struggle for liberation of apartheid South Africa, which accorded it a status of a frontline state.
After the signing of bilateral agreements on trade and investment and the establishment of Nigeria-South Africa Bi-national Commission in October 1999, bilateral relations between both countries improved significantly with the increase of South African companies operating in Nigeria from four prior to 1999 to over 100.
South Africa’s corporate presence is visible in the Nigerian economy, especially in areas such as telecommunications, engineering, banking, property, tourism, aviation, among others; enhancing their fortunes through potentials of the Nigerian large market.
However, after the administrations of former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo and Thabo Mbeki, relations between both countries deteriorated.
The diplomatic relations became defined by rivalry for a permanent seat at the United Nations Security Council.
Also, South Africa’s maltreatment of Nigerians in that country, which has continued unabated, further fuelled the frosty relations.
During his state visit on Tuesday and Wednesday, Zuma is expected to address the Joint Session of the National Assembly of Nigeria and will together with President Buhari, address the South Africa-Nigeria Business Forum.
This visit, experts say, is expected to offer an opportunity to usher in an era of warmer diplomatic relations between Africa’s two biggest economies. They say the NCC-MTN saga could be among the subjects of discourse during meeting between the two leaders.
The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) had slammed South African mobile phone operator MTN a fine of N1.04 trillion last October for failure to disconnect 5.1 million improperly registered lines within the prescribed deadline.
The fine was later adjusted by 25% to N780bn by the federal government, and MTN has paid a provisional N50 billion toward a settlement even as negotiations continue.
Foreign Affairs analyst, Omooba Abd. Rasheed Adesokan, says if the Nigerian government could marshal out all the things it wants from South African corporate bodies operating in Nigeria, it would be of great benefit to both countries.
According to him, South Africa owes Nigeria what the international system calls a moral debt, which he said, is not payable.
The moral debt, he says, does not mean that Nigeria should suffocate South Africa and that Nigerians should enter the country illegally, commit all sorts of crime and dominate certain trades the South African government reserves for its citizens.
However, he says MTN, DSTV and many other South African establishments in Nigeria are doing in the country what they could not do elsewhere.
"I am not saying they shouldn’t do business in Nigeria but it should be done in such a way as to benefit both parties. You make your profit not at the detriment of the people," he said.
Former Nigerian Ambassador to Argentina, Mr Chive Kaave, said Nigeria remains South Africa’s largest trading partner on the continent, but there exist some diplomatic hitches between them.
"South Africa is slightly over 20 years as an independent country but its average citizens’ mind-set don’t seem to have significantly changed as it were when apartheid was in place.
"They see Nigerians who come to the country with just a briefcase and later operating big businesses, as a threat and that’s generating a lot of anger and envy among them," he said.
Kaave urged the government of South Africa to work to minimise the xenophobia not only against Nigerians but also their fellow brothers in the Southern African region.
He said the state visit of president Zuma to Nigeria would not only settle the little areas of friction that seem to be simmering between the two countries but also strengthen their bilateral relations.
The federal government yesterday pledged to use the Zuma visit to address the myriad of challenges Nigerians are facing in South Africa.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr Geoffrey Onyeama, made the pledge when the Nigeria Union, South Africa (NUSA), the umbrella body for all Nigerians in South Africa, paid him a visit in Abuja.
The union’s president Ikechukwu Anyene said they came with a tale of woes and difficulties they were experiencing in South Africa, but the minister assured them of the federal government’s commitment to protect Nigerians abroad.