•It’s government’s duty to ensure justice for them whatever the circumstance
Extreme hatred of and hostility towards foreigners has been an endemic problem in post-apartheid South Africa. The bright dreams of the country as a model rainbow coalition that would show the way for others to find the path to multi-racial and cultural harmony within plural polities have been sadly diminished. Xenophobic attacks against foreigners in South Africa have been recorded several times, including 1998, 2000, 2008, 2009, 2013 and 2016. In most of these instances, the victims have not only been mindlessly brutalised, tortured and their property looted or destroyed; scores of lives have been taken with impunity in the process.
What is even more significant about the variant of xenophobia in South Africa today is that it is directed, especially by black South Africans against their fellow black immigrants from African countries. And, to make matters even worse, Nigerians bear the brunt of the barbaric and dehumanising treatment.
It has been reported, for instance, that no less than 116 Nigerians have been killed in South Africa in recent years through extra-judicial means. So serious had the situation become that in 2013, the Nigerian and South African governments signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with a view to reinforcing diplomatic ties between both countries and preventing or discouraging further xenophobic attacks in future.
It does not appear, however, that this MOU has been worth more than the paper on which it was written. Only last week, the Western Cape chapter of the Nigerian Union in South Africa told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that a Nigerian, Uchena Eloh, had been strangled to death by South African policemen. The late Eloh was reportedly walking out of his house towards the bus station when a police van stopped to search him on the suspicion that he was in possession of illegal substances. Reportedly suspecting that Eloh had swallowed the substance, one of the three policemen held him by the neck while another held his legs. In the process, Eloh fell on the ground and was dragged by the police officers until he began foaming from the mouth and died.
Apparently worried by the complacency and levity with which these kinds of incidents involving Nigerians had been treated in the past, an official of the Nigerian Union in South Africa told NAN: “We have reported similar killings to the South African government and the Nigeria High Commission in South Africa and nothing was done to bring the culprits to book. We want the Nigerian government to intervene to stop this brutality against innocent Nigerians and stop killing of Nigerians out of hatred, racism or xenophobia”.
In any part of the world where they are found, the vast majority of Nigerians are known to be confident, well educated, highly skilled and contributing positively to the well being of their host communities. There are also, however, those miscreants, criminals and undesirable elements that give the country a bad name, just as is the case with other nationalities. But on no condition should security agencies be allowed to snuff life out of a fellow human being on the basis of mere suspicion.
Again, we join in the call on the Federal Government to create a conducive condition at home for access to credit at affordable rates for small and medium businesses to thrive, to drastically reduce the number of Nigerians thronging foreign lands in search of jobs, with all the attendant dangers. In the unfortunate case of Eloh, the Nigerian Union in South Africa has reportedly engaged a lawyer to handle the case against the South African police.
We believe that this is a responsibility that should be taken up by the Nigerian High Commission in South Africa.
