“As of now, the situation has not warranted such drastic actions like recalling our envoys in the South African country. We are big brothers of Africa. We cannot retaliate by recalling our envoys because it will send wrong signals which could affect their economy.
“Even countries whose citizens were killed and got their shops looted, had not taken such action.”
Those were the submissions made the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Wali, the minister of state for Foreign Affairs, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro and the Nigerian envoys in South Africa, Messrs Uche Ajulu- Okeke, and Martin Cobham, on Tuesday, when they pleaded with Nigerians to forgive the South Africans over their recent Xenophobic attacks against foreigners living in their country.
Ambassador wali explained that what happened in South Africa was not targeted at Nigerians and that the incident had negatively affected few Nigerians.
“On the Zulu king, the South African Human Rights Commission is already investigating his roles, hence we need to wait for the outcome of the investigation so that we don’t assume holier than thou status.
“What we need to do now is to make sure that there is support from our government to make sure that Nigerians affected are well taken care of.”
He said.
From the statement, it was raveled that two Nigerians were wounded and hospitalized; Five shops looted; Two families which included six women and eight children were also displaced. A total of N84m which was estimated as damages done to Nigerians had been calculated and being processed on behalf of the victims, as compensation.
“We cannot rely on the Xenophobic postings on the social media because they were not authorized by the authorities. Already, certain sites were being blocked in order not to incite the citizenry against the foreigners.”
“Any further negative actions taken against them will adversely affect them. We should not allow this particular incident to destroy our past efforts in South Africa which Nigerians contributed immensely to assist in getting out of the apartheid.” He concluded.
On his part Senator Obanikoro added, “since kings in Africa don’t admit mistakes or offer apology publicly, for Zulu to have done this, means it’s his own way of offering an apology.” he said.
“We will ensure that compensation is paid to all the affected victims and their envoy in Nigeria had not given us any cause to doubt this.” he said.
