The Founder School of Politics, Policy and Governance (SPPG) Dr Obiageli Ezekwesili has advised President Bola Tinubu to stop junketing across the globe, to address the recurring killing of Nigerians, with particular concerns on recent attacks on Nigerians in South Africa.
Ezekwesili gave the advice in an open letter written to President Tinubu on Monday and pointed out that travelling outside the country to number of foreign countries is a total absence of leadership
The former Vice President of World Bank (African Region) in the letter added that the recurring killing, harassment, looting and intimidation of Nigerians in South Africa is no longer a matter for routine diplomatic statements.
‘Return Home, Mr President: The Nigerian Government Must Stop Treating the Killing and Attacks on Nigerians in South Africa as Routine Diplomacy. Mr President Tinubu, it is a total absence of leadership to set out on a three-nation junket to France, Kenya, and Rwanda while the bodies of our citizens lay slain in South Africa while the rest hide from a raging mob’, she wrote.
She stressed that it has escalated to a confirmation that the Nigerian State does not value the life and dignity of its citizens whether at home or abroad, arguing that summoning envoys, issuing advisories and asking Nigerians to ‘remain calm’ and evacuating some are not enough.
‘The recurring killing, harassment, looting and intimidation of Nigerians in South Africa is no longer a matter for routine diplomatic statements. It has escalated to a confirmation that the Nigerian State does not value the life and dignity of its citizens whether at home or abroad’.
‘Summoning envoys, issuing advisories and asking Nigerians to “remain calm” and evacuating some are not enough. Nigerians in South Africa at this moment deserve measurable protection, not recycled outrage by our citizens and anodyne diplomacy by our Nigerian Government’, she emphasised.
Ezekwesili called on Nigerian government to immediately demand for and publish a full account of reported attacks, injuries, deaths, destroyed businesses, arrests of suspects made by the Government of South Africa
‘The Federal Government must immediately demand for and publish a full account of reported attacks, injuries, deaths, destroyed businesses, arrests of suspects made by the Government of South Africa – @GovernmentZA, prosecutions commenced, compensation claims, and unresolved cases involving Nigerians in South Africa’, the letter read.
‘We need data from the SA government on all that has happened to Nigerians in their country. Above all, Nigeria must concretely demand from the South African Government @GovernmentZA a time-bound justice framework that clearly addresses investigation, prosecution, restitution and public reporting.
‘Anything less rewards the impunity with which killer-mobs in South Africa are injuring and killing our citizens. It is way past time for our government to strengthen the existing consular protection system in all our Embassies so that every Nigerian abroad knows where to report danger, how to access emergency help, and what action their country will take on their behalf.
She pointed out that the administration that cannot defend the dignity of citizens abroad further weakens its authority and worsens its legitimacy deficit, stressing that both President Tinubu and his South Africa counterpart President Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa should decisively act and end the killings of Nigerians once they can see that Nigeria is ready to deploy everything possible to protect our citizens living in their country.
The two-time Minister recalled that Nigeria did not stand aside during apartheid, adding that through the Southern Africa Relief Fund, ordinary Nigerians – including herself as a secondary school student – gave from meagre incomes to support the liberation struggle.
‘Another key point that I must highlight is that the recurring attacks on Nigerians in South Africa are not isolated incidents. They are a stain on a shared history that once bound our nations in solidarity.
‘Nigeria provided financial, diplomatic, and moral leadership to the African National. Congress and other movements when it mattered most. We bore economic and political costs so that South Africa could be free’, she added.
‘That history cannot be erased. But today, it is being dishonored with the slain body of our citizens killed on the streets of South Africa. President Tinubu, rethink the unnecessary trips, return home and take on your constitutional duties of care to defend and protect your citizens as the Commander-in-Chief of our Armed Forces. Nigerian lives must matter everywhere, at home and abroad and especially now in South Africa’, Ezekwesili stated.
