A bond that must never be broken (5), By Femi Fani-Kayode

Whatever our challenges and our concerns about one another may be we will sit down, work them out and stay together all for the sake of our respective nations and the benefit of Mother Africa… As High Commissioner of Nigeria to South Africa it is my primary duty to strengthen ties between our two great nations and ensure that our relationship remains strong, respectful, mutually beneficial and cordial… In addition to that I have a duty to protect the interests of every Nigerian in South Africa who is properly documented and that abides by the law.

To buttress the point, permit me to share the words of Mr Kio Amachree, a Stockholm-based Nigerian writer.

On 13th July, he wrote the following on X:

“I do not know a Nigerian who would sell his soul the way the anti-immigrant mobs of South Africa have done this past month. Every unreconstructed apartheid nostalgist is laughing behind his locked gates at how easily these movements were turned against their fellow Africans, doing the dirty work of division for free and making the power grab of others so much easier.”

He added:

“Ask the obvious question. Who is writing the cheques? March and March charters buses across provinces, prints shirts by the thousand, stages press conferences and floods social media with coordinated campaigns, yet its own public crowdfunding raised barely thirteen thousand rand. Researchers at Wits University say plainly that this is not a grassroots movement of the unemployed, that there is external funding. A Stellenbosch professor calls the movement inorganic, coordinated and amplified by people with a political agenda, with money moving in ways no one can trace. Former President Thabo Mbeki calls it what it is, a funded counter-revolutionary project that does not come from the people. Somebody with deep pockets is bankrolling the spectacle of Black South Africans hunting fellow Africans, and every day the financiers stay hidden, the beneficiaries of a divided, burning South Africa sleep more peacefully behind their locked gates. Follow the money and you will find the true authors of this shame.”

He added:

“The movement is led by Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma, a former radio presenter enjoying her fifteen minutes of fame, flanked by Zulu regiments and regional agitators like Mthokozisi Gumede in KwaZulu-Natal. This is not patriotism. It is a political project wearing the stolen clothes of liberation. Stockholm Syndrome is too weak a term for what ails this movement. Its foot soldiers appear to have been taught to hate themselves, and they have no regard for the sacrifice of the thousands of freedom fighters, many sheltered and armed by the very African nations they now terrorize, who gave them the right to breathe as free men and women.”

He concluded with the following:

“Meanwhile those who dreamt of the good old days of white rule watch Black South Africans do to fellow Africans what apartheid once did to them, and they could not have scripted it better themselves. Every burnt shop, every checkpoint, every whip raised against a Zimbabwean domestic worker or a Nigerian trader is a gift to those who always said Africans could not govern themselves. The freedom fighters who died from Sharpeville to Soweto did not die for this. South Africans deserve to know whose money is buying their liberation back from them, rand by rand.”

Amachree is right.

South African Minister of Justice, Mamoloko Kubayi hit the nail on the head when she said, “foreign entities are stoking unrest in South Africa.”

The truth is that we do not have to dig too deep to know just who those foreign entities are when we consider the words of an essay written by Israeli columnist Grant Arthur Gotchin that was published on 2nd January in the Times of Israel in which he argued that, “Africa must fragment and South Africa must be the first to fragment.”

The objective is clear.

It is an imperialistic and neo-colonialist design and construct whose purpose is to destroy, divide and rule us ALL.

Outside of that, permit me to ask Minister Ntshaveni and those that think like her the following questions.

Are the majority of Nigerians in South Africa not properly documented, hard working, responsible, decent people who have major investments there?

Is it fair for you to suggest that the majority of Nigerians in South Africa are undocumented and illegal immigrants, drug dealers and criminals who “live in shacks,” when you know very well that this is not the case?

Is it Nigerians who bring drugs into your country through your ports and borders?

Is it Nigerians who manufacture drugs there?

Is it Nigerians who make up your police force, customs and law enforcement agencies that collude with the dealers to bring drugs in and sell them?

Is it Nigerians who consume drugs in your country or force others to consume them?

Are Nigerians the only ones who are involved in the drug trade in South Africa?

Are 98 per cent of the people in your prisons South Africans or Nigerians?

Is it not a fact that as South African Minister of Correctional Services, Dr Pieter Groenewald recently confirmed that there are only 28,000 foreign prisoners in South Africa, and that less than 300 of them are Nigerians?

Did the South African Ministers that treated Ireti Bakare Yusuf with such contempt and accused her of being rude and disrespectful simply because she asked Minister Ntshaveni whether she thought she ought to apologise to Nigerians for suggesting that we were all drug dealers do the right thing?… Was treating a female journalist who asked a legitimate question in that way and even subjecting her to threats of being thrown out of the hall and being manhandled by aggressive and hostile security officers not unacceptable?

Does this not torpedo the absurd notion that all Nigerians who reside in South Africa are criminals, scammers and drug dealers?

Have any Nigerian been implicated or accused in the ongoing Madlanga Commission of Inquiry, which is probing the allegations of corruption and drug related crimes or is it only South Africans, including South African law enforcement and government officials?

There was a R2 billion ($120 million) drug bust in South Africa recently, which involved South Africans and nationals of a South American country. There were no Nigerian involved.

The two former Heads of the South African Police that were prosecuted for drug trafficking and the suspended head of the South African Police that is under investigation for drug trafficking and corruption today are NOT Nigerians but South Africans.

All these events and facts speak volumes and clearly point to the fact that the commission of crimes in South Africa and elsewhere are not the exclusive preserve of Nigerian nationals.

There is no doubt that there is a drug and crime problem in South Africa, in which some Nigerians are involved, and we hold as much contempt and disdain for them as you do for indulging in such heinous crimes that brings so much misery to South African families.

We urge you to deal with such criminals decisively within the confines of your laws and we will assist you in this in any way that we can.

To however allege or imply that ALL Nigerians and ONLY Nigerians are involved in such criminality is disingenuous and false.

Was a South African woman who was carrying her three year old child not arrested at the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos in early July for smuggling large amounts of cocaine into our country?

Was another South African not caught smuggling 7.5 kilograms of heroine in Thailand a few days later?

Does this mean that all South Africans are drug dealers?

Surely not!

Did the South African Ministers that treated Ireti Bakare Yusuf with such contempt and accused her of being rude and disrespectful simply because she asked Minister Ntshaveni whether she thought she ought to apologise to Nigerians for suggesting that we were all drug dealers do the right thing?

Was treating a female journalist who asked a legitimate question in that way and even subjecting her to threats of being thrown out of the hall and being manhandled by aggressive and hostile security officers not unacceptable?

Is this the way to build bridges between our two countries and does this attitude and behaviour towards a respected Nigerian journalist reflect the fact that many in South Africa, including some in government, view our people as nothing but criminals?

There are thousands of documented Nigerians in your country who are lawfully doing great jobs in numerous responsible professions and spheres of human endeavour, who are adding immense value to your community, who are employing and providing essential legal, medical and academic services to your people, and who are hardworking, proud and law-abiding citizens.

Many have even married South African nationals and are raising their children in your country.

They are indeed your guests and we expect you to treat them as such, and not set them up for persecution and vilification by referring to them as drug dealers and criminals.

I take strong objection to this mischaracterisation of our citizens and it is indeed painful that a country of 250 million people that contributed so much to your liberation struggle and that has opened its markets and borders to your companies and nationals for so many years, can be referred to and treated in this way.

I call for caution and restraint.

Permit me to add the following.

Thankfully for every repugnant expression of racism, arrogance, ignorance and hate from the likes of Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma and others, we have expressions of fraternity, understanding, appreciation and Pan-African solidarity from seasoned and experienced South African leaders and diplomats like Minister Firoz Chachalia and Mr Zane Dongor, and therein lies the hope for the future.

Some have tried to frame the hostility, violence, challenges and insults that black African foreign nationals, including Nigerians, are facing in South Africa as a consequence of a “migration problem.”

I respectfully disagree.

According to census figures, the number of documented and undocumented foreigners living in South Africa is three million.

Three million out of a population of 64 million can hardly be described as a migration crisis.

The problem that South Africa has is one of wealth creation and distribution, and not migration.

The migrants are simply the scapegoats for what is essentially the failure of the state to effectively fight poverty and better the lives of its citizens.

The sooner the poverty problem is solved, the sooner Afrophobia and the murderous hate and violence that goes with it will cease.

That should be the focus and objective of South African Government officials and the South people, and not the demonisation and mischaracterisation of Nigerian nationals, or any other African nationals, who reside in their country.

We want to have a productive and mutually respectful relationship with South Africa which will enhance trade and strong strategic relations with our country and not one of disrespect and recriminations.

As a Nigerian who has immense respect and profound admiration for the struggles and sacrifices of your heroes past like Nelson Mandela, Oliver Thambo, Walter Sisulu, Steve Biko, Chris Hani, Thabo Mbeki, Govan Mbeki,
FW De Klerk, Desmond Tutu, Alan Boesak, Tokyo Sexwale, Joe Slovo, Winnie Mandela, Jessie Duarte and so many others, I sincerely hope and pray that we can achieve this.

Wisdom and diplomacy insists that sovereign nations must treat one another with respect in order to strengthen and build strong bilateral relations.

This is especially so when there is so much at stake.

Thankfully for every repugnant expression of racism, arrogance, ignorance and hate from the likes of Jacinta Ngobese-Zuma and others, we have expressions of fraternity, understanding, appreciation and Pan-African solidarity from seasoned and experienced South African leaders and diplomats like Minister Firoz Chachalia and Mr Zane Dongor, and therein lies the hope for the future.

Extremists and racists that are working for a foreign power and that have a hidden agenda from both sides of the divide shall not prevail and shall not set us apart.

Whatever our challenges and our concerns about one another may be we will sit down, work them out and stay together all for the sake of our respective nations and the benefit of Mother Africa.

As High Commissioner of Nigeria to South Africa it is my primary duty to strengthen ties between our two great nations and ensure that our relationship remains strong, respectful, mutually beneficial and cordial.

In addition to that I have a duty to protect the interests of every Nigerian in South Africa who is properly documented and that abides by the law.

I shall not fail in these duties or be found wanting.

Responsible diplomacy and law enforcement is the way out of the challenges that South Africa are facing with illegal migration and drug related crimes and not the blanket villification of a fellow African nation.

This is especially so given the fact that that African nation offers nothing but support and good tidings for the Government and people of South Africa, a country we have loved and respected for many years.

Femi Fani-Kayode is a former Minister of Culture and Tourism, a former Minister of Aviation and the Ambassador-Designate of Nigeria to South Africa.