- Chekwas Okorie warns against retaliatory actions against S/African companies
- Tasks FG on jobs, infrastructure to address mass emigration
- Migrants under Vienna Convention for diplomatic protection- Activist
IGNATIUS OKOROCHA, Abuja and PAUL ADUNWOKE
The Pioneer Chairman and Chairman Board of Trustees, All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Chief Chekwas Okorie has blamed successive governments in Nigeria over killings, harassment and humiliating experiences of Nigerians in foreign lands.
Okorie gave the remark while speaking with our correspondent over the continued harassment and subjugation Nigerians are subjected to in South Africa.
He warned that concrete steps must be urgently taken to forestall retaliatory actions against South African companies in the country.
Okorie said, “It is the inability of our past and present governments to provide conducive environment and employment for those who have acquired some skills and unable to utilize their skills to make a living in Nigeria that forced them to travel to other countries of the world to look for greener pastures.
“We can’t say Nigeria is alone in that syndrome. But when it comes to xenophobic attacks in South Africa, I find that it is very disturbing in the sense that Nigeria provided support to South Africans in the past, and Nigerians enjoyed scholarships from South Africa. I had expected the elder statesmen in South Africa to have educated both the government of the day in South Africa and its citizens on the cordial relationship that had existed between the two countries in the past.
“Now, the behaviours of Nigerians in South Africa that are contrary to their rules are not enough to have warranted the current xenophobic attacks on Nigerians and other nationals in South Africa.
Continuing, the APGA chieftain stated, “It is sad and unacceptable to witness the violent attacks being meted on Nigerians by South Africa currently.
“Most of the people that are being attacked are average and low-income Nigerians who went to South Africa to make a living. It’s not a good way to promote unity, and South Africa has immense investments in Nigeria.
“In fact, when you look at the balance of trade between South Africa and Nigeria, it is in favour of South Africa. So, our government has not been proactive enough to deal with this matter at all levels, and that is the failure of the government.”
He added, “I wouldn’t ask our people in South Africa to start coming home. They know when the place is bearable before they leave, and all I ask them is to run for their dear lives if it becomes unbearable.
“Secondly, I would ask the Nigeria government to engage the government of South African on this burning issue. Moreover, the government of South African should not wait for the Nigeria government to either embark on retaliatory or reprisal actions before they are seen to be doing something to protect Nigerians in South Africa.”
Also, a lead legal researcher, Oliver Azi, said Nigerians in South Africa under the Vienna Convention on Consular Relation Under customary international law have the right of diplomatic protection.
He advised Nigeria to espouse the claims of its nationals against South Africa where those nationals have exhausted local remedies and suffered an internationally wrongful act.
He said this is a state-to-state right, not directly enforceable by individuals, but provides the legal basis for Nigeria’s formal diplomatic protests.
He explained the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria and the Nigerian Consulate General in Johannesburg are the primary consular points of contact for Nigerians requiring emergency assistance or repatriation facilitation by the provision of Article 5 (e) of the Vienna Convention on Consular Relations 1963.
The lawyer noted the provision of Article 36 (1) of the Vienna Convention further obligates South African authorities to notify the Nigerian High Commission or Consulate when a Nigerian national is arrested or detained, which is directly relevant where Nigerians are detained by police during or after xenophobic attacks.
It also guarantees the right of Nigerians to freely communicate with their consulate at any time.
He said while the Vienna Convention does not use the word ‘repatriation’ explicitly, the combined reading and operation of Article 5(d), which authorizes issuance of travel documents and Article 5(h) which covers protecting nationals’ interests provides the legal basis for consular-facilitated return of nationals to Nigeria.
In the same vein, emergency travel certificates issued under Article 5(d) are the specific document used to repatriate Nigerians who cannot travel on a regular passport.
Azi said the provision of Article 5(e) which has been cited above provides for the general welfare assistance mandate which covers all forms of practical support necessary to facilitate a Nigerian national’s return home, including coordinating with airlines, liaising with South African immigration authorities, and arranging reception logistics.
He said it is on this note that individual and collective complaints may be submitted to the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights under Articles 55–59 of the Banjul Charter.
Worried by the persistent attacks on Nigerians in South Africa, human rights activist, Omoyele Sowore, on Wednesday 6th May, led irate touths in a protest against telecommunications giant, MTN Nigeria, accusing the company and other network providers of exploitation, poor service delivery, alleged data depletion, and high internet costs in the country.
The protesters, who gathered in front of MTN’s head office in Maitama, Abuja, under the banner of “Occupy MTN,” said the action marked the beginning of a nationwide campaign aimed at demanding affordable and unlimited internet access for Nigerians.
Sowore, a former presidential candidate, alleged that telecom operators in the country were exploiting subscribers through what he described as “unjustified data depletion and poor service quality.”
He accused MTN of failing to provide value for money despite the high cost of data subscriptions, adding that many Nigerians spend huge sums on internet services that are exhausted within a short period.
According to him, “This is just the beginning of the struggle until Nigerians begin to enjoy affordable and unlimited data services. If subscribers pay for a one-day plan, it should last for a whole day. If they pay for a monthly subscription, it should serve them for the entire month.”
The Senate had condemned in strong terms the ongoing xenophobic attacks, persecution and intimidation of Nigerians in South Africa and Ghana, describing the incidents as “barbaric, unlawful and inconsistent with African brotherhood.”
Given the seriousness of the matter the Red Chambers mandated the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio to lead a delegation of National Assembly leadership to meet with the South African parliament to resolve the burning issue.
The sponsor of the motion, Senator Osita Izunasor, (Imo West) who came under matters of urgent national importance during the plenary, expressed deep concern over what he described as “advocacy of fear, humiliation and psychological trauma,” where Nigerians are “increasingly profiled and treated as though being a Nigerian national alone constitutes an offence.”
Contributing to the motion some lawmakers noted that the South African government had publicly acknowledged the situation and promised to restore order, a move the Senate said “confirms the seriousness and contemporary nature of the incidents.”
Recalling Nigeria’s role in the liberation struggle, Senator Victor Umeh, (Anambra central) said, “Nigerian workers, students, civil servants and market women stood at the forefront from the 1960s to the 1990s, sacrificing financial resources and diplomatic goodwill for the liberation and dignity of South Africans.”
Speaking on the issue, Senator Adams Oshiomhole had argued that Nigerian living in South Africa “cannot be intimidated” and saying, “We do not condone any one life being lost. If a crime has been committed under South African law, they have the right to bring any subversive to justice, but to kill our people as if we are helpless, we are not.”
Warning of economic consequences, the lawmaker said, “By the time we turn in the economy hardship, we withdraw MTN licence, we revoke DStv licence. Those workers from South Africa will have good jobs to do. Let South Africa continue with their jobs. Then, when we have this balance of madness, I believe there will be sanity.”
The Senator called for a review of bilateral relations, stating, “I will re-kick our bilateral relationship in a manner that is a win-win. Right now, Nigeria has trade deficits with South Africa. South Africa is the one benefiting.”
Meanwhile, President Bola Tinubu had directed Nigerian missions in South Africa to immediately establish a crisis notifications unit for citizens in danger, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, warned that the ongoing anti-foreigner campaign in the country might be more accurately described as “Afriphobia” than xenophobia.
The directives followed a phone conversation between Odumegwu-Ojukwu and her South African counterpart, Ronald Lamola amid worsening tensions in the southern African nation.
Nigerians in danger were advised to contact South African security authorities whenever dangerous situations arise.
“The President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu, has directed that the Nigerian missions in South Africa set up, with immediate effect, a crisis notifications unit for imperilled citizens who have also been advised first and foremost to contact SA security authorities whenever dangerous situations arise,” the minister said in a statement on Thursday.
Odumegwu-Ojukwu said Lamola expressed concern and misgivings over Nigeria’s evacuation plans during the call, but the minister insisted that the government could not stand by while its nationals were being harassed, humiliated, and killed extrajudicially.
“I maintained that our government cannot stand by and watch the systematic harassment and humiliation of our nationals resident in SA as well as the extra-judicial killings of our people, and that the evacuation of our citizens who want to return home remains our government’s priority at this time,” she said.
She also pressed Lamola to ensure that South Africa’s police and justice systems treated cases of extrajudicial killings of Nigerians with greater seriousness, demanding clear and immediate consequences for perpetrators.
“I also highlighted the need for their police and justice systems to take the cases on ground of extra-judicial killings of Nigerians in South Africa more seriously and that there should be clear and immediate consequences for such acts,” the minister said.
On anti-foreigner political rhetoric, Odumegwu-Ojukwu warned that the violent and indiscriminate actions of South Africa’s anti-foreigner political parties were not only threatening the lives and property of Nigerians and other nationals but could also produce dangerous blowback closer to home.
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