Xenophobia: Onyeama exonerates South African government on attacks against Nigerians

 

BY KAZIE UKO

Former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mr. Geoffrey Onyeama, has exonerated the South African government of being complicit in the various xenophobic attacks against Nigerians resident in South Africa.

Onyeama who appeared before the Senate Monday for screening, as a nominee of President Muhammadu Buhari for a ministerial position, blamed the xenophobic attacks against Nigerians which often led to loss of lives and property on loss of confidence between the South African police and Nigerians living in that country.

“Your Excellency, the MOU we wanted to sign has not yet been signed, but one thing I can say is that the South African government itself is not in any way complicit in some of the attacks suffered by Nigerians in South Africa and they are ready to cooperate to address this,” Onyeama told the Senate President while making his presentation before the Committee of Whole of the Senate.

The returning minister buttressed further: “With regard to South Africa, because of the situation there I went personally to South Africa, met with the Minister of Foreign Affairs there, met with the Nigerian union of South Africa, went to view some of the places that had been burnt at that time during the last xenophobic attack, met with the High Commissioner there and met with the Consul General.

“What I saw immediately, your Excellencies, is that there was a trust deficit between the South African police and Nigerians and the Nigerian Union of South Africa also explained to me that this was a big challenge.

“So, in the meeting that we had, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs with the head of the police and their Ministry of Interior, I propose to them that we have an early warning mechanism that we should set up and this will essentially be a confidence building to have a regular meeting where the head of the police of South Africa and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of South Africa and major government office holders of South Africa will meet regularly with the Nigerian Union of South Africa, as well as the High Commission and the Controller General.”

Onyeama told the Senators that the idea of the early warning mechanism was to build confidence and to ensure that Nigerians in South Africa can talk directly with the highest levels of government in South Africa, including the police, to build confidence and to start to address whatever issue that may arise.

The memorandum of understanding (MOU) that was supposed to come out of this proposal was not documented before President Buhari’s first tenure ended and the cabinet dissolved with Onyeama naturally losing his job as foreign minister.

On what he would do differently if given the opportunity to serve again as foreign minister, Onyeama who obviously enjoyed the confidence of the Senators reiterated his earlier proposal of early warning mechanism and also added direct contact between the two ministers of foreign affairs of Nigeria and South Africa.

“Whoever Mr. President (Buhari) nominates as Foreign Minister, I think an additional mechanism that can be put in place is a hot-line between the Minister of Nigeria of Foreign Affairs and Minister of South Africa (Ministers of Foreign Affairs of Nigeria and South Africa) to be able to react immediately to any crisis, attacks or whatever in South Africa and this is absolutely important for speed of action and also for the South African police to know that there’s an oversight regarding how they engage with Nigerians in South Africa,” he proposed.