Xenophobic Attack on Nigerians:  Nigeria and Her leaders Should Rise Up to the Challenge and Treat the Citizens Right

By ThankGod Emeh, Owerri.

Our foreign policy is becoming weak if not moribund to say.

In as much as Africa would want Nigeria to do good by her, Nigeria equally would want Africa to do good by her.- Bolaji Akinyemi.

The Trouble with Nigeria: There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian Character, nothing wrong with the Land, Climate, Water, Air or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the Willingness or inability of its leaders to rise to their responsibilities, to the challenge of personal example which is the hallmark of true leadership – Prof Chinua Achebe.

The Federal government is expected at this time and no other time whether diplomatically or otherwise to right the wrong image perception of Nigeria in diaspora as soon as possible because such calculated moves, measures, actions and inactions are far much better than any project in Nigeria at the moment which will as well go a long way to cloud the future of the the country and Nigerians.

According to William Shakespeare; There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the flood, leads on to fortune. Omitted, all the voyage of their life is bound in shallows and in miseries. On such a full sea are we now afloat. And we must take the current when it serves, or lose our ventures.
This means that this is the right occasion in the life and history of our country as well as the ugly records of Xenophobic attacks in the African soil when we can commit ourselves as a country, government, and the citizens to a course of action that will lead to a successful end of the anomaly because we can’t continue this way of killing and destroying our own out of envy and greed and whatever unworthy reason; but if we fail to take this opportunity just as it has once again present itself, we are really heading for a greater doom for the rest of our existence as a country, said and placed to be the giant of Africa; as continent neglected by the Westerns after exploiting us to the weakness of our foundations and makeups. If not we are bound to remain mediocres or failures in the face of the world.

We can’t keep shooting ourselves in the leg as a continent yearning for and working towards World recognition yet keep doing things the wrong way for the viewing displeasure of the world which in turn affects us in all ramifications.

Nigeria as the giant of Africa is on a very high speed more than that of speed train loosing its grip to order and control the affairs and politics of the African continent which is acclaimed by her foreign policy on daily basis and this is really telling on her makeups leaving no facet unturned as Nigeria citizens and migrants are being maltreated even in the country, continent and anywhere in the world.

There is every need to overhaul our system of International Relations, get the right hands in Ambassadorial positions to project the good image of the country- Nigeria as well as the foreign affair ministerial positions.
Among the definitive measures to be taken is to bar Nigerians and Nigerian leaders from speaking ill of the country unnecessarily because it deems and lowers the image of Nigerians and places them on ‘No-Do-Well’ watch List of the world to the extent that Nigerians are already condemned criminals at foreign checkpoints.
This becoming worst on daily basis as well after Our leaders in foreign conferences said the country is fantastically corrupt, that the Nigerian youths are very lazy, that the country is a living hell, that the country is lawless, that the leaders are nothing to write home about to the fault that foreigners think and do things just they way they wish bearing in mind to get away with whatever it results to. If not what would have been the rationale behind the unreasonable actions and inactions of foreign governments to pleas and diplomatic relations between Nigeria as well as their citizenry especially South Africans who has burnt Kenyans, Zimbabweans, Togolese, other foreigners and their businesses, investments, and properties in their land with total disregard of what the Universal Human Rights entails and what their law enforcement agents will do them after such barbaric acts and outright break down of public peace.

Don’t care where you come from, as long as you’re a black man, you’re an African.- Peter Tosh.

The Nigerian government should wake up to the challenge of nations poking their hands into her eyes because of her gentility and big brother factor that in most cases cause Nigeria to neglect some insults, fights, physical and verbal attacks, destruction of national image and many more for the sake of peace, just as an Igbo adage says “O bu Okenyi na-eri Ariri” that is only the aged takes or receives insults of all kinds but neglects the true picture and taking of actions.

As far as the evacuation moves of Air Peace Chief Executive, Chief Alex Onyema is well welcome by all and sundry in the country even the continent as would be expected from numerous well meaning Nigerians just as Americans contributes to national building, the Federal government of Nigeria in addition to state governments ought to have done more than obtained in this recent attacks other than remaining diplomatic and calm to a fault. Planes should have gone in numbers to evacuate these suffering Nigerians other than Air Peace which can’t airlift all Nigerians willing to Return Home.

In this regard, Late Professor Dora Akunyili said that our Nigerian citizenship can’t be taken to the bank, “we want to bequeath them Nigerian Citizenship that they can take to the bank, otherwise God will not forgive us”.

“And when we look at the way we behave to ourselves and the way we behave to country, Nigeria for which we have no other country to call our own is all because of our bad attitudes- that attitude of the pastand even the present that we are saying through re-branding that we must change. If we don’t change, nothing will change…if we don’t change, we won’t be able to achieve Vision 2020, because it is human beings that will work to actualize vision 2020. We will not get it from the air; angels will not come down, foreigners will not come here and fix Nigeria for us because they have their own countries to fix, so that change of attitude which is the critical aspect of re-branding we must embrace, we must embrace it and if we don’t embrace it; sorry we may not be talking seriously, So Re-branding is the key”.

“So Nigeria of my dreams, is a Nigeria that Nigeria’s people will be so changed in their attitudes that will be in a position to tell the world who we are, that will be in a position to define who we are because for too long people has defined who we are. We need to elvolve a Nigeria where we have a sense of pride for our country, where we will love one another- where we will appreciate what we have done and who we are and right now we are not even appreciating who we are, we are not appreciating what we have done. …Look at what we did in South Africa during the dismantling of Apartheid; our people even gave up part of their salaries in the 70’s and 80’s to help in the struggle, nobody is talking about it while we have beautiful stories to tell the global audience and we have to under the platform of re-branding elvove a country. We have to put ourselves in a position to lend our and say-this is who we are, this is what we are doing, this is what we did and in that way we will elvove a Nigeria will have a sense of pride for and of”.

History South Africans have forgotten so soon!!!!

Nelson Mandela was hidden in Nigeria from the apartheid Govt for 6 months by former Nigerian Minister, Mbazulike Amaechi in 1963.

South Africa’s former President Thabo Mbeki lived in Nigeria from 1977-84.

Nigeria’s Jaja Wachuku saved Mandela from the death penalty in 1963/1964.
“There can be no excuse for the attacks on the homes and businesses of foreign nationals,” Ramaphosa said in a speech aired on national television and radio.

“Equally, there is no justification for the looting and destruction of businesses owned by South Africans.”

It is very worrisome and provocating that the South Africa President would say that at least 10 people have been killed by xenophobic violence in South Africa this week, President Cyril Ramaphosa said when interviewed by press men, adding that one victim was a foreign national.

No matter the crime whether committed by one person or a group of people, it shouldn’t have been generalized to all because crime and criminality has no nationality and crime is crime everywhere in the world and shouldn’t be used against a whole country and as the case is – over eight African countries (Mozambique, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia, Lesotho, Angola, etc). They culprits should have been made to face the book all alone than dragging innocent souls into the whole scenario.

According to the leader of the Economic Freedom Fighters, EFF, Julius Malema, it is not the Nigerians or Zimbabweans in South Africa that killed and raped South African women as well commit crimes in the land but South Africans themselves.

“All my brothers and sisters who say they will not come to South Africa for G7 Conference and all those African countries that said they won’t play football match with Bafana Bafana because of this problem, I support them. They have taken a step. Take a step too South Africa”

“The problem is in us, as for crime, crime is crime. Crime has no nationality, crime has no colour. Crime is crime and must be punishable. Don’t tell me that Nigerians must not sell Drugs here, No, Nigerians must not sell drugs here even in Nigeria like South Africans. Drugs must not be sold by anyone, anywhere because it is a crime”

“The Anger in the Continent is justifiable and what do you expect Africans to do. A majority of us are not South Africans but Africans. There is nothing special about South Africa; there is no South Africa and Africa. We are African continent ourselsves and will recognise your takes”

“Criminals are taking over the streets and damaging the good image of South Africa, Take a step. We must fight crime but we (EFF) are not part of this madness.”

“Please Afrians, find a place in your good hearts as Africans to forgive us, we are sorry. We are ashamed of ourselves and we sincerely apologize, we are sorry and please don’t treat South Africa as the same….we are working on getting them.”

Reacting against the Xenophobic attacks on Nigerians, a South African, Bafana Kumale said the attacks are barbaric and meaningless to the fact that lazy South Africans are accusing Nigerians of taking over their works and businesses whereas they had the same opportunities the foreigners are taking advantage of and refuse to be sensitive to embrace but only go about causing problems.

The South African Police Chieftain who said that foreigners doing well in businesses and work places in the country is Economic Sabotage should as a matter of urgency be enrolled into Primary school and as well be well tutored of what economic sabotage means and reminded of how Nigeria spent billions in a Big Brother role to Save South Africa from Apartheid government that nearly took one of their best presidents, Nelson Mandela.

…©️News Corner.