There have been attacks by South Africans on fellow Africans in what sounded like a replay of what foreigners faced in Ghana in the hands of Prime Minister Kofi Busia in 1969. As it is today in South Africa, Nigerians fell the most victims in Ghana that year. Whoever did not have the necessary immigration permit was asked to leave. Nigerians left with very little of their belongings, battered like war victims. Nigeria retaliated in 1983. Just as it surprised leaders across the continent and Pan-Africanists as well as activists of the era that Dr. Kofi Busia of all people, Oxford educated and an academic in power, could kick his fellow Africans out of Ghana, so did it surprise most Nigerians especially Kwame Nkrumah’s disciples and admirers that it was gentleman Shehu Shagari who could send Ghanaians away from our shores and frontiers. The Ghanaians were artisans renowned for competence in diverse professional fields. Their abrupt departure left some vacuum in areas of work they were high fliers.
Many also saw Dr. Busia’s action as a grave negation of all that Dr. Nkrumah fought and lived for all his life: A continental Government for Africa. He was a frontline advocate and fighter for the formation of the Organisation of African Union today rechristened simply African Union.
The quit order by Ghana was thus seen as an unfortunate irony. The greater irony lies in the xenophobic attacks unleashed on fellow Africans by South Africans, causing extensive damage to property. Many were also killed. Nigeria’s anti-apartheid struggle, the battle against White minority rule was such that Nigeria far in West Africa became a member of what was then known as Frontline States.
On assuming office as Nigeria’s Head of State, General Murtala Mohammed packed a great deal of heat, indeed, combustibleness into the struggle to liberate South Africa that it was clear the collapse of apartheid South Africa was only a matter of time. The first blow was the nationalization of the British Petroleum (BP). General Olusegun Obasanjo upon succeeding General Mohammed kept up the heat. It was when General Ibrahim Babangida came into the saddle that Apartheid fell and the leader and brightest star of the struggle, Nelson Mandela, stepped out into freedom from 27 years imprisonment.
The emancipation clarion campaign through music of Mariam Makeba exiled as a result of the struggle, as is in the nature and power of music, reached every ear. And it was enthusiastically promoted in Nigeria. Makeba, fondly called Mama Africa, was herself in Nigeria in 1977, staging her concert at Tafawa Balewa Square. The concert was attended by the then Head of State, Olusegun Obasanjo. The Nigerian media followed keenly the police harassment Winnie Mandela was going through in the cause of the battle. The likes of Bishop Desmond Tutu were regarded as heroes. Nigeria poured resources, human and material, into the struggle not in search of credit, but for the liberation, freedom and the restoration of the dignity of the Blackman anywhere on the globe.
After the fall of apartheid, some Nigerians saw South Africa as a land of opportunities and a place to settle. That was to be expected given the spirit of enterprise and adventure for which Nigerians can be justifiably proud of themselves. Armed with these testimonials, many Nigerians developed a sense of entitlement to the possible goodies derivable from the liberated land of opportunities.
The South Africans were alarmed and got irritated. Resentment started to develop. And tension began to build up. Attacks on Nigerians started in 1998. Another occurred in 2018. The scale of the violence was incredible. Nigerians lost their lives and businesses at Hillbrow, Johannesburg. The violent protests repeated themselves the following year and reports say that in fact since 2019, no fewer than 120 Nigerians have been killed in the xenophobic move against Nigerians.
People are known for decades to leave their homeland largely in search of the proverbial greener pastures. However, from the last decade till today, more than ever many youths flee the land to Europe and the Americas to market their professional skills. These are nurses, doctors, engineers, accountants and academics. In the 50s, 60s, 70s and early years of 80s Nigerians went to these places for higher education attainments and to acquire skills. Within Africa at the time, Nigerians went out mostly to do business. The flights in not too far past have been driven by the longing to fight free of poverty entrapment.
The Punch newspaper said in an editorial not long ago: ‘Nigeria was once highly respected internationally, but this has shifted largely due to a loss of diplomatic focus. In 2016, former British Prime Minister David Cameron condescendingly described Nigeria as “fantastically corrupt”’.
‘Meanwhile, millions are forced to endure hunger, poor educational and health facilities, terrible roads and erratic power supply while government officials indulge in luxury, and waste scarce resources on frivolous ventures.
‘Many Nigerians have immigrated abroad to escape these existential problems at home. Regrettably, some of them have difficulties living in an organised society as they neither respect the laws of Nigeria nor those of their countries of abode, deepening perceptions about the country’.
The United Arab Emirates (UAE) slammed visa bans on Nigeria and 19 other African countries in 2022, accusing them of criminal activities. The ban was withdrawn after nearly two years in 2024.
Apart from the hostilities Nigerians faced in Ghana during Kofi Busia era, there have been intermittent harassments. In 2019 for example, Ghana Union of Traders shut down about 1,000 shops belonging to Nigerians. Similarly, in 2020, many Nigerian businesses were closed down by the Ghanaian authorities over charges of failing to pay a $1 million Ghana Investment Promotion Council registration fee. But the more serious that sparked widespread protests was the decision of a self-promoted Eze Ndigbo (name withheld) who said he had acquired 50 acres of land to establish an Igbo village in Ghana. There was a video to this effect last year which sparked protests and the determination to vehemently resist the building of a village by foreigners in their country. It was during the latter protests that it came to light that the Eze announced his plan in 2013 and it had been abandoned since then.
The latest series of attacks in South Africa were triggered by the coronation of an Eze. The destruction of lives and property led Senator Oshiomhole to press for a reprisal action such as the nationalization of the companies with particular reference to MTN which, if accepted, would have echoed the retaliatory actions Nigerian youths took in 2019. That year Nigerian youths attacked South African businesses, mainly MTN mobile phone enterprises and Shoprite super markets. This led to a serious diplomatic row between Nigeria and South Africa with the latter shutting down its High Commission in Nigeria and the former, that is Nigeria, recalling home its own High commissioner from South Africa. Nigeria also boycotted the World Economic Forum held there that year.
From the foregoing it can be seen that man cannot repay evil with evil. It would amount to an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth which would amount to a grave violation of the Law of Creation, the perfect and immutable Law of Nature. In the words of Dr. Stephen Lampe in his work, Building Future Societies: The Laws of Creation derive their eternal validity from the fact of God’s perfection. Are we not told in Deuteronomy 32: 35 therefore: ‘To me belongeth vengeance, and recompense?’ Dakes Annotated Reference Bible. And God ‘demands striving towards spiritual perfection from mankind’. He wishes to have in Creation human spirits ‘… who are alive and conscious of their personal responsibility such as lies in the Primordial Law of Creation!’ That everyone must personally and fully account for everything he thinks, speaks and does…’ Dr. Lampe goes on to add: ‘Solutions to all problems of life and existence can and will be found only through conscious, correct and consistent applications of these immutable laws’.
It is scarcely realised that the most Eze, Igwe chieftaincy titles over which holders expend so much energy were derived from Warrant Chiefs system foisted on the South Easterners by the British colonial government who thought that every African society must be ruled by kings and chiefs. The Igbos are by nature Republicans. Exhibiting his republican spirit till today if you mention an Igwe as having said this or that, an average Igboman will retort: Does he feed me? Because the British colonial government had difficulty in incorporating Igbo communities into the imperialist system of indirect rule, the British set up a system in which Igbo communities elected one of their members as a ‘Warrant Chief’, who would be given a ‘warrant’ to act as a representative of the colonial administration under what historians call the ‘native court system, including the responsibility of collecting tax.
The revered historians such as Professor Adiele Afigbo, Onwumechili, Agu, Isichei, Ohadike and Falola were convinced as demonstrated in their various scholarly papers that the Igbo had a superior governmental system than what the British foisted on them. Indeed, it was the abuse of office by warrant chiefs system alien to the Igbo system of government that led to the famous Aba Riots of 1929. Following the riots, the warrant chiefs were removed and replaced with Native Authority Councils which still met the objective of British indirect rule. The structure led to organized ones which featured a council of elders and an elite leading the community. After the exit of the British at independence, many of the leaders and their descendants looking across the window to the West and the North simply sought traditional legitimisation which led to their changing the official title of ‘Chief to Igwe and Eze to have the root of their new status firmly grounded in tradition. Otherwise, there were no royal houses as such except in Anioma, Onitsha and Oguta.
Before the British foisted the Warrant Chiefs system on the South East people, democratic and republican spirit characterised Igbo societies everywhere. Decisions were reached through a series of consultations among elders of the community. According to Afigbo and his colleagues, when a decision affecting an Igbo community is to be made, several groups and organisations concern themselves with the issue and within each organization near unanimity must be reached before discussion can be closed. Participation was on such a broad scale that most traditional meetings hardly had, if at all, chairman, or central direction, took no votes and most times with no agenda. Discussion went on for long periods. A decision reached by one organization within a community that is not acceptable to another organization would usually not be implemented. (Smock 1968).
According to Ohadike, the British changed the traditional administrative Igbo systems ‘because they failed to comprehend the working of the Igbo political systems. The Igbo political systems were inconsistent with the British notion of governance and anything that did not meet European standards had to be destroyed, not developed’. Not only did the British approach overturn the political system but also the dynamics of local control, placing the exercise of public office above the community, thus creating gaps of uncontrollable abuses and corruption’.
According to Isichei: ‘Justice in the case of settling disputes became a commodity to be sold to the highest bidders. They imprisoned innocent people and others forfeited their properties’. Afigbo: ‘The Warrant Chiefs grew rich illegally’. One of the points he made was that the extensive corruption, extortion and oppression caught up with nearly all the Warrant Chiefs. Ali Mazrui said there scarcely existed any demarcation between the office and office holder. It was extreme privatisation of public office.
I have gone this length to show that obscene coronation can only remind us of how the system that served a people well according to their nature, in this, republicanism, was overturned and replaced with an offensive one by the colonialists. However, a people can have their own ways of life, and display their own culture without assailing the sensibility of their host countries or communities. There must be boundaries otherwise there will be incessant problems—violent protests bordering on destruction and even leading to deaths.
Ohanaeze did well by descending heavily on the organisers of the loud and disturbing coronation. Was the loud coronation to suggest intention of setting up a rival kingship in alien society that is their host which even already have their own traditional monarch? Having a leadership that can easily be reached by the rightful leadership of the host community is reasonable and could be warranted. It makes for ease of communication and forging of understanding. It should never be a signal or threat that the hosts will be squeezed out of their land. This was what led to the riots in Ghana and what repeated itself in South Africa. Each people are sent to different places, lands and country they need for the furtherance of their spiritual development.
All they need for the development are provided such as the radiations of the soil, the plants, the rays of the sun, the radiations of the wind and air, of the rain and the radiations of the water. To squeeze host communities out of their lands is usually stiffly resisted as each people are connected to the soil of their native land. Where else are they to get the nutrients for their wellbeing and herbs to heal their ailing bodies? The land touches their very life and what they need for the fulfilment of their lives according to the Will of God.
Dr. Stephen Lampe further states: ‘The motive force behind racial and ethnic consciousness is the Law of Homogeneity. Members of the same race or ethnic group have a natural affinity and a sense of oneness, particularly when they see themselves in relation to other races and ethnic groups’.
We read from In the Light of Truth: ‘Bestir yourself at last with all your strength in that sphere which the Creator has given you so that you will lead it to purest beauty, making it into a Garden of God similar to Paradise; a garden resembling a prayer of gratitude that has taken on form in which everything arises jubilantly to the steps of God’s Throne in order through the deed humbly to praise the Creator of all things for His bountiful mercies’.
