Xenophobic attacks: Buhari to address nation on envoy’s return

…Orders police to stop vandalism of shops

President Muhammadu Buhari will address the nation on the return of the special envoy to President Cyril Ramaphosa, to register his displeasure over the killing of Nigerians in South Africa.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama, who confirmed the recall of  Nigerian High Commissioner, to  South Africa, Amb. Kabiru Bala, however said he will return alongside the special envoy, at the end of his assignment.

Onyeama said: “The envoy will be back by the end of this week. Ideally, Mr. President will decide how he will communicate to the nation whether through live address or a written statement. But we feel that it will be better for him to do so once he has all the elements. We feel it will be better, let the special envoy come back and when we have everything that we need then he will address the nation on that.”

Asked to disclose the identity of the envoy and measures being taken to protect Nigerians, Onyeama said: “the identity of the special envoy will be revealed in due course. There are certain reasons why we don’t want to do so immediately.

“On measures being taken, of course the security agencies are fully aware of the threats now existing to various businesses in Nigeria at the moment and they are fully mobilised to address that.”

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On why the Nigerian High commissioner has been recalled when the envoy was on his way to South Africa, he said: “No. it is one of the options we are considering. He will need to come back but we feel he should come back after the envoy has gone there, so that Mr. President will have the benefits of the full and comprehensive brief from all the individuals who are in the position to have seen things at a close range.”

The Foreign Affairs minister  stated that Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo was delegated by Buhari to attend the summit, but explained that the President later asked him to step down, following the xenophobic attacks.

“The Vice President as you know was scheduled to go to South Africa tomorrow (Thursday) to attend the World Economic Forum, clearly with this climate, he and Mr. President have agreed that he should not go to the World Economic Forum in Cape town and we are looking at other measures to take,” he said.

Onyeama cited the examples of Congo, Rwanda and Malawi, who leaders had also withdrawn their participation.

The minister also said information available to government so far indicated that not a single Nigerian had been killed so far.

However, he admitted that their property were vandalised, a reason the government demanded compensation payments.

According to him: “Of course a lot of things have been circulating on the social media which have not helped matters. Some of them have really distorted the situation and because of that have impacted on our response.

“So, number one is that the information we have from the High Commission, from the Consul General in South Africa is that no Nigerian life has been lost during this crisis. And I think that is very important because on social media, there is a lot of stories going around of Nigerians being killed, jumping off buildings and being burnt. This is not the case.

“What we know is that premises, shops of Nigerians have been looted and property destroyed.”

Onyeama said President Buhari also condemned vandalization of Nigerian businesses that are subsidiaries of South African companies, saying Nigerians were the real losers.

The minister said: “Mr. President is particularly distraught at the act of vandalism that has taken place here in Nigeria, in retaliation of what is happening in South Africa.

The government believes that we have to take the moral high ground on this matter. We are victims here and have made that position clear to the international community and to the South African government. We in Nigeria must not fall into the temptation of also resorting to the acts that we are condemning in others.

“So, Mr. President has pleaded and he is likely to make a statement on this, addressing the Nigerian people to please desist from acts of vandalism and aggression, destroying properties.

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“Now, these businesses- Shoprite, MTN and others, yes there are South African but these are subsidiaries in Nigeria owned by Nigerians. So, as attacks are made against Shoprite and other such institutions, it is actually the property owned by Nigerians within Nigeria and the people working there are Nigerians.

“So the people that will suffer from those acts of vandalism and aggression are not South Africans or anyone else but Nigerians. But morally, it is wrong not even because of who will suffer and not suffer.

“Mr. President is appealing to Nigerians, the  government is acting, we cannot state everything out in public domain with regards to what we are doing obviously, but we want to assure all Nigerians that this government is determined that the redline has been drawn and we will not give in on this occasion and that the South African government has to assumed its responsibilities and do the right thing. Protect Nigerians and other Africans I might say, in South Africa and we have to hold them to count.

“Full compensation has to be paid because as we have discovered from previous experience, a lot of these Nigerians loss their property and it is a long drawn out process and very often are not compensated for it.  But on this occasion, the Nigerian government is going to fight for full compensation and hold the government of South Africa to count. And we are going to consider other options to ensure that the message gets across to the government of South Africa.

“It is not a question of weakness or anything of the sort but we have to move decisively and that is precisely what the government is going to do.  We have all the options on the table and on the return of the special envoy, we will all sit down and look at all the options and assess the report.

“And there is no measure that we consider to be appropriate that we will shrink from taking. We will take whatever and all measures necessary to ensure that never again are we going back to this whole issue of Nigerians being attacked and properties destroyed and in some cases killed in South Africa.

“It is an ongoing story, we will keep you informed but the important message is that Mr. President is fully engaged in this process, he is being briefed on an hourly basis and we are not going to shrink from taking all the necessary steps to make it the last time this kind of thing will happen.”

Onyeama who assured that Nigerians will be kept abreast of development said: “We have made it clear that what has happened in South Africa is totally unacceptable. We will not accept it and as I said earlier, enough is enough and we are not going to come back to this, we are going to address it once and for all. So this  is the position of government that we are going to draw a redline here. Whatever measures that needs to be taken to ensure the safety of Nigerians in South Africa, we will take.

“We have been in touch with the South African government at the very highest level with the President of South Africa as to what we want to achieve. The special envoy has very clear directives about the commitment and the guarantees that we expect from the South African Government”