The latest incident of the lynching of a Nigerian citizen in South Africa demands a rapid and robust response from the Federal Government. Enough of the usual innocuous diplomatese that often trails issues concerning the safety and wellbeing of Nigerians abroad; this is the time for concrete actions to stop the barbarism that is fast becoming a norm in South Africa.
Clement Nwaogu’s death was an incident too gruesome to recall: he was chased by heavily-armed assailants, who eventually caught up with him, doused him with petrol and set him ablaze while still alive, until he burnt to death. His offence, according to reports, was that his accent and habit were considered offensive by his attackers; whatever that means. To worsen matters, the gory scene was enacted right in the presence of South African security agents, who did not feel obligated to protect a defenceless man that was being illegally executed in a most horrific manner.
“The mob descended on him like a common criminal, with all sorts of dangerous weapons, in the presence of South African police officers,” Habib Miller, the Publicity Secretary of the Nigerian Union in that country, said. No matter the offence Nwaogu might have committed, it is not acceptable for an irate crowd, driven by raven hatred and baying for blood, to summarily dispense justice in this manner, in a society supposedly governed by the rule of law.
But the gory incident is not an isolated case. In the two years to February last year, the Senior Special Assistant to the President on Foreign Affairs and Diaspora, Abike Dabiri-Erewa, stated that no fewer than 116 Nigerians were extra-judicially killed in South Africa for one flimsy reason or the other. Many more have followed since then.
Before the killing of Nwaogu, a father of two, some other Nigerians were reportedly killed in February by South Africans, sparking a protest by Nigerians. For demanding justice on behalf of their fallen compatriots, 14 of the protesters were taken into custody and branded drug peddlers. There was also the killing of ThankGod Okoro, who was reportedly shot dead in Hamburg, Florida West Rand, in Johannesburg on April 9, 2018 by the South African Police Flying Squad. It has become commonplace to kill Nigerians with impunity in the streets of South Africa.
The lynching shows that very little has changed from the “necklace” culture of the apartheid days, when people suspected to be saboteurs usually had their hands tied to their backs and tyres doused with petrol hung on their necks and set ablaze. The viciousness and savagery are still alive and kicking even though some of the proponents now might not have been born when it was in vogue. This same culture of violent attacks on foreigners saw two Senegalese and a Mozambican thrown off a moving train in Alexandra Township in 1994.
Nico Smith, a white Dutch Reformed Church minister resident in Mamelodi, near Pretoria, told TIME magazine online in June 2001, “There is a loss of sensitivity for people’s own lives and for the lives of others.” If that was true of the immediate post-apartheid era, it still holds water today with the upsurge in violent xenophobia, 25 years after apartheid regime ended. Sadly, change is going to be very difficult to achieve when key political and community figures in the country harbour either open or tacit support for the crime.
Starting from the posturing of the immediate past president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, it is easy to see why xenophobia thrives in the country. In February last year, he described the killings and destruction of property by his protesting countrymen as “anti-crime in the main. It is not an anti-foreigners march.” The Zulu king, Goodwill Swelithini, also appealed to the wild sentiments of South Africans when he said, “We are requesting those who came from outside to please go back to their countries.” For good measure, he raved, “The fact that there were countries who played roles in the country’s struggle for liberation should not be used as an excuse to create a situation where foreigners are allowed to inconvenience the locals.”
Comments such as Swelithini’s are common among politicians who look for scapegoats after failing to deliver on campaign promises. For instance, Herman Mashab, the Mayor of Johannesburg, had also blamed immigrants for the high rate of crime in the city, calling for their eviction. With such sentiments by the leaders, it is easy to see why xenophobia has remained popular and security forces hardly make efforts to stop it.
But, of all their hatred towards fellow black Africans, what is particularly alarming is the venom reserved for Nigerians. In 2012, the country turned back some 125 South Africa-bound Nigerians at the OR Tambo International Airport, on the flimsy allegation of attempting to enter the country without valid yellow fever vaccination papers. For the first time, there was a swift retaliation from Nigeria that saw a planeload of 130 South Africans turned back at the Murtala Muhammed Airport in Lagos.
Aside from the “frontline state” role she played in the struggle to end apartheid, Nigeria has become an investment haven for South Africans, with their businesses grossing billions of dollars annually. But, while Nigerian citizens have never troubled South Africans, all they have for Nigeria has been contempt, no matter who is involved. It was on that basis that they treated renowned playwright, Wole Soyinka, with disrespect at the airport, despite the fact that he was duly invited by the country’s authorities to deliver a lecture on Nelson Mandela’s birthday.
There is no doubt that what is happening to Nigerians in South Africa is, in part, an extension of their shoddy treatment here at home. A country where people are killed on a daily basis, with very low value for human life, would certainly have a moral burden challenging the bad treatment of her citizens abroad. But Nigeria has to stand up to South Africa and ensure that the perpetrators of these grisly crimes against mankind are fished out and punished, while adequate compensation is paid to families of the victims.
The ability to protect the lives of its citizens is the hallmark of a great country. That is why countries like the United States and the United Kingdom, for instance, do not joke with the lives of their citizens. That is the irreducible minimum that should apply to the life of a Nigerian anywhere.
