UN Permanent Security Council Seat is Far, Far Away From Republic of South Africa: Why the Nation Cannot Aspire to Lead the Continent

UN Permanent Security Council Seat is Far, Far Away From Republic of South Africa: Why the Nation Cannot Aspire to Lead the Continent

Nigerians suddenly woke up in the dying weeks of May 2008 to start gaining the acquisition of the newest word ‘Xenophobia’ or ‘xenophobic attack’ hitherto strange to them but the uninteresting thing about this exercise is that it had to do with the killings of Nigerians in South Africa. Maybe we have a right to extend it to several of the judicial or extra judicial executions or murders in other countries of the world.

The world reported how Nigerians were gruesomely killed and this particular one describes it thus:

“The killing of Zimbabweans, Mozambicans, Nigerians and other Africans by machete-wielding gangs of South Africans has been greeted with horror and outrage in states which once welcomed South African fugitives from racial persecution” (Pascal Fletcher, Oman Observer)

Yet our Government in its usual characteristic manner back home continues to reiterated that no Nigerian lost his life in the killings which raged on for weeks and were targeted on mostly unsuspecting Nigerians living in that country. Well the government may be right having worked with the information gathered from its international or foreign agencies.

Never have Nigerians been susceptible to attacks like we are seeing in recent times. Never have Nigerians been so desperate to travel out of the country as much as we are beginning to observe now and never have Nigerians ever thought of moving into some countries with greater risks just to eat and survive as humans equally created with those of other counties.

The situation is that execrable and despicable and I warn that worse fate await Nigerians trooping out in years to come if the economy of the country is not re-directed to accommodate the yearnings of her people and if the governmental people of that country do not make improvement in governances.

These two factors listed above have been responsible for the mass trooping out of Nigerians into other countries in search of greener pastures not minding whether such countries are safe or not for stay.

Wikipedia, the free online encyclopedia defines xenophobia as “the fear or contempt of that which is foreign or unknown, especially of strangers or foreign people” Etymologically, the word is derived thus (xenos), meaning "foreigner," "stranger," and ????? (phobos), meaning "fear. Anyone conversant with this development need not again ask whether South Aficans have come to hate Nigerians or not rather what needs to be asked here is when the people of South African began to manifestly harbour hatred for Nigerians and what warranted this hatred.

Xenobia is not new to south African though for anyone adequately schooled in the history of the country even before the apartheid years will not fail to easily understand that South Africa ranks along side Germany, Japan, Palestinian National authority, cyprus, Iraq, Israel (all of the Middle East Countries) Dominican Republic and others alike. In Germany, the regime of Adolph Hitler enthroned xenobia, while in the Middle Belt religion is known to be the major factor responsible for this development.

The baffling aspect of all these is that Nigerians remain the target of judicial and extra judicial killings executions or call it killings in other nations. This has come to the stage that even Nigerians at home and abroad have come to become accustomed to this development to the extent that it rarely bothers on the good people of the country and one only has to read it on the pages of the newspapers and go to sleep unbothered.

It is understood that Nigerians are not only the targets in this particular one which occurred in South Africa since Zimbabweans, Mozambiqans and others are joined in the ‘death for others cries of the South Africans’.

The attacks is further described thus by the Dakar-based Pan-African human rights organization RADDHO:

 "It is difficult to understand how the country which amply enjoyed the support of all African peoples in its fight against apartheid and which hosted the World Conference against Racism and Xenophobia in 2001 can be the place where such events are taking place,"

The Zimbabwean government also has this for South Africa:

"The government of Zimbabwe urges those responsible for the xenophobic violence to appreciate that we in the SADC (Southern African Development Community) region share a common history, a culture and destiny,"

The South African people are further reminded of the times when Zimbabwe, Mozambique and other frontline states accommodated the ANC members in exile which resulted in the targets of military raids by the White apartheid regime of South Africa leading to the loss of lives and properties in these frontline states. Zimbabwe readily agreed that hundreds of Africans including her citizens were killed in the attacks and condemned the anti-migrant attacks in South Africa in strong terms.

We make no mistake when we categorize Nigeria as Africa’s biggest market with a population of nearly 150 million people. It is wrong to assume that South Africans have forgotten that its outfit, MTN could pass fro the largest telecommunication firm in Nigeria at the moment with 30 million subscribers. Many South Africa firms and investors are still investing in Nigeria.

We may readily conclude that South Africa is not socially and economically prepared or conducive yet to deserve the permanent seat of the UN Security Country, and to aspire to lead the continent is a woe for the country because as things have clearly pointed, the nationals of that country cannot live side by side with fellow Blacks much less people of other races. Again, we entertain fears on whether the country can successfully host the forth-coming world soccer tournament come 2010 (George Pambason, Director, Cape town-based Alliance for refugees)

On the part of Nigeria, the killings in South Africa must re-awaken the government of that country to the realities on ground. We fearfully imagine the future of Nigerians around the globe as they live close to one form of killings or the other. It is either a Nigerian living outside is either about to be killed or has just been killed in any part of the world. The reason behind this is not far fetched, inside of the Nigerian environment is lacking of everything good for the existence of man. No power supply, no good road, violence in the Niger Delta, high cost of living, news of corruption of government officials, electoral trials with removal of one governor or the other, high school fees in institutions of learning, lack of employment, fallen standard of living just name it. All of which have contributed to the citizens risking their lives if only to escape the ugly environment and do something meaningful with their lives.  

This morning we were greeted with the news of government’s readiness to make clemencies on behalf of 66 Nigerians on death row in Indonesia and other countries. As usual the government attributes so much difficulty in achieving this but stated that pleas would be made. According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Chief Ojo Maduekwe “Britain holds 1,461 in their prisons; India, 391; Libya has 1500; Togo, 120; Nepal, 15; Niger, 40 and Japan 14”. (The Nigerian Punch Newspaper, Wednesday, June 11, 2008)

The government was to appeal to Nigerians to make sure that their traveling documents are complete before leaving Nigeria, “Warning on the dangers of irregular migration, flouting the immigration laws of other countries, engaging in criminal activities, which could land them in jails abroad, the minister said people should desist from perpetrating illegalities with the belief that government would intervene on their behalf”. (The Sun newspaper, Wednesday, June 11, 2008) see also The Guardian, Wednesday, June 11, 2008

But what the Minister precisely needed to have told us rather than how clemencies are sought for and obtained is how Nigeria’s myriad problems can be solved or reduced to the barest minimum since it is a known fact that economic suitability of any country reduces emigration of the citizens into other countries and even attracts immigration into same country since it is natural for any man to seek to better his own life.

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Emeka Esogbue hails from Ibusa, Delta State, Nigeria. He is is a History and International Relations graduates with lots of tremendous published and unpublished works



emekaesogbue@yahoo.com