•National Assembly complex, Abuja
Likely retaliatory measures to be taken by Nigeria against South Africa over anti-migrant actions fall within the remit of the National Assembly, the federal government said last night.
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, said so far, the executive arm is actively engaging South African authorities through diplomatic channels and broader actions.
According to her, the Senate and House of Representatives have a constitutional role to play in determining Nigeria’s response should diplomatic engagements fail to halt the attacks on Nigerians and their businesses.
“The lawmakers have a role to play in this”, she said.
In an interview on TVC, Ambassador Odumegwu-Ojukwu also spoke on the move to bring back 98 Nigerians in Ethiopian prisons to complete their jail terms at home.
Asked what retaliatory measures are available to Nigeria, as she indicated in a June 8 comment at Aso Villa, she said: “When it comes to situations like this, of course, it is necessary to be temperate and exercise caution.
“But when your citizens are being harassed, when your citizens are people who have spent years there, and mind you, some of them are married to South Africans and have children who have known no other home but South Africa, then it becomes a serious concern.
“Now, under these circumstances, they are asking not just Nigerians, but also their South African spouses and their children, to leave South Africa.
“As I indicated before, there are these huge conglomerates. By the way, there are over 120 South African companies operating in Nigeria.
“Nobody is asking them to provide proof of identity. Nobody is asking South African staff working there whether they are South Africans or Nigerians, and nobody is taking over their shops or businesses.
“But this is happening to Nigerians in South Africa. So, I think that at some point, we really have to review the options available to us.
“We have MTN, MultiChoice, Stanbic, Protea and many other South African brands spanning multiple sectors.
“It (xenophobic action) is causing reputational damage, and that is quite sad because the late Madiba, Nelson Mandela – God rest his soul – worked so hard to project South Africa as a bastion of Pan-Africanism.
“And in one fell swoop, these anti-migrant vigilante groups have destroyed what this man sacrificed 28 years in prison for. So, it is causing reputational damage.
“Even within South Africa itself, people are cancelling concerts, and conferences are being called off.
“South Africa has been stained with the stigma of being a xenophobic country. This is not something I think they will be comfortable with in the long run.”
She chided the approach of the South African government to the Xenophobic attacks on black Africans in that country, which has led to countries such as Ghana, Malawi, Zimbabwe and Nigeria evacuating their citizens.
The current wave of xenophobic attacks in the rainbow nation has not spared any national of any black nation.
Vigilantes are going around cities fishing out migrants, looting their shops, breaking into their houses and generally humiliating them. Some were killed by mobs.
The police and other security agencies have done so little either to protect foreigners or prevent the vigilantes from attacking the people and asking them to leave their country.
The government’s response has been tepid; instead, it is claiming that millions of migrants living in South Africa are undocumented.
On the prisoners in Ethiopia, Mrs Odumegwu-Ojukwu, who visited the prisons, said criminality had no ethnicity or tribe, adding that the 98 Nigerians come from Southeast, Southsouth and Southwest.
According to a bilateral agreement between Nigeria and Ethiopia, the prisoners are due back in Nigeria to complete their jail terms.
