Dwindling Nigeria-South Africa relations, fresh facts emerge
– Prosecution of killers of Nigerian in South Africa always stalled
– Union of Nigerians in South Africa protests to Senate as Zuma departs Nigeria
As President Jacob Zuma of South Africa concludes his two-day official visit to Nigeria, Some Nigerians in South Africa have again decried the ill treatments Nigerians receive in South Africa.
The South Africa-based Nigerians under the auspices of Nigeria Union South Africa decried that unlike the open hands and respect with which Nigerians treat South Africans, Nigerians in South Africa as well as their businesses are under attack on a daily basis.
The group while protesting to the Chairman, Senate Committee on Diaspora Rose Okoh demanded that Nigerians in South Africa be treated with reciprocity and accorded due respect.
READ ALSO: Buhari host Zuma to banquet
The group expressed grave displeasure at how Nigerians were killed extra judiciously and no prosecutions made in spite of a record 92 per cent prosecution rate in South Africa.
The President of the Union Ike Anyene said that while South Africans in Nigeria and their businesses were treated with respect and acceptance, Nigerians in South Africa were treated with disdain.
The group therefore urged the committee to do whatever was within its power to ensure that adequate pressure was mounted on the South African government to curtail the discrimination.
He said that there was a great disconnect between the leadership in South Africa which seem to acknowledge the contributions of Nigeria in liberating the country and the citizen that fight Nigerians.
He added that even the media in south Africa only portrayed with much embellishment the negative activities of some Nigerians and completely leaving out their giants strides.
“South Africans in Nigeria are treated with respect but that is not how they treat us there: Nigerians in South Africa want reciprocity: we are tired of intimidation and victimization,” he said.
READ ALSO: We will return Nigeria’s confiscated fund – Zuma
Shedding more light, the director of policy and operations of the union Mr Matthew Okafor said that attacks on Nigerians and their businesses had started even before 1999.
He said that even he was denied due promotion twice in a government establishment in South Africa because he was a Nigerian while South African not as qualified as him were promoted.
“A good Nigerian doctor was sacked, arrested and jailed, when he took the government to court, the intimidations began.
“At a particular time, a Nigerian nursing students who wrote exams were failed twice for no just cause.
“It is only in South Africa that Nigerian students are made to come back to Nigeria every year to renew their Visa.
“South Africa has a record 92 per cent prosecution rate but in spite of this, no prosecution involving the murder of a Nigerian has been completed,” he said.
Okafor said although it was not all South Africans that disliked Nigerians but stressed that the dislike had eaten deep into the police who always harass, intimidate and extort Nigerians.
In her remark, the chairman of the committee Rose Okoh promised to use all machinery of the Senate and in collaboration with the foreign affairs ministry, encourage government to wade in.
She said it was time Nigeria applied diplomatic pressure on the government of South Africa to end all the intimidation.
She corroborated that there should be reciprocity stressing that South Africans must take cognizance of the good treatment they receive in Nigeria and change their attitude.
Recall that President Jacob Zuma of South Africa was on a two day working visit to Nigeria where he pledged to strengthen the bilateral ties between the two countries.
He also admonished youths in South Africa never to forget the huge contribution of Nigeria to liberating South Africa from Apartheid.
The post Dwindling Nigeria-South Africa relations, fresh facts emerge appeared first on Nigeria News today & Breaking news | Read on NAIJ.COM.