The House of Representatives has called on Nigerians to remain calm
despite the renewed xenophobic attacks on Nigerian citizens resident in
South Africa.
The Speaker of the House Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, who said this
during a world press conference on Friday in Abuja, said the House would
ensure that compensation is paid and justice is done for Nigerians that
lost their lives and property during the attacks.
Immediately after the world press conference, Speaker Gbajabiamila met
with President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa over the
xenophobic attacks.
Accompanied by the Deputy Speaker Rt. Hon. Ahmed Idris Wase and other
principal officers of the House to the press conference, Speaker
Gbajabiamila said the South African government must probe the recent
attacks on Nigerians and make public findings of the probe.
The House, the Speaker said, is ready to authorize legal funding for
Nigerians who wish to take legal action against identified perpetrators
of the violence and their sponsors.
“Nigerians have long traveled far and wide in search of knowledge, of
experience and prosperity. As we have traveled, we have opened also our
borders to those who will seek their greener pastures here. In Africa,
we have demonstrated our commitment to the brotherhood of nations,
sacrificing life, labour and wealth to achieve peace and restore freedom
from Sierra Leone to Liberia, Sao Tome to South Africa. We have sought
nothing in return, we have made no claims to the land and resources of
our brothers. Our commitment has always has been to the advancement of
Africa, to freedom in all our lands and prosperity for all our peoples.
“Yet today and too many a time, we are called to stand as pallbearers,
bringing home to burial the bodies of our brothers and sisters, fathers
and mothers, our children, savaged and decimated. What is their offence?
That they dared to dream of glory and profit beyond our borders, and
having dreamt, they endeavoured to make real the visions of their
hearts. We did not provoke, nor do we deserve the violence that has been
visited on our people in South Africa.
“We reject entirely the obvious attempt to change the true narrative of
events by casting the recently organised acts of violence as a merely
internecine conflict between gangs fighting for turf. Unless it is the
position of South African government that all Nigerians living in South
Africa are gangsters and criminals, we demand that they reject these
claims without equivocation. The vile images of violent devastation and
death randomly visited on innocent people seeking their way in the
world, strikes at our heart, causing pain that words alone cannot
express. Let no one add insult to our grief.
“To every citizen of Nigeria in every city and every state who has
watched recent events with rising anger and pain, we in the House of
Representatives, are with you. To those who are sorely tempted to
respond to these latest incidents with violence on our streets and
destruction in our communities, I call on you to resist all such
temptation. Your anger is justified, your pain is rightly felt but we
cannot honour the memory of our fallen citizens by setting our streets
aflame and our houses asunder.
“We will achieve nothing by destroying businesses that employ our people
and provide a living for our families. We will honour the lives of our
fallen brothers by making sure that never again will our citizens’
inalienable right to life and liberty be so wantonly denied here at home
or anywhere else in the world. We will honour the sacrifice of the
fallen by devoting ourselves once more to a covenant of service to one
another, certain in the knowledge that our greatest protection against
such harms, is peace, progress and prosperity in the homeland,” the
Speaker said.
The House commended the actions taken so far by President Muhammadu
Buhari in communicating the government’s “extreme displeasure at what
has occurred and taking action to see to the return of those of our
citizens who are willing to come home at this time.
“We will further ask that the President direct the Ministry of Health to
assist the families of the bereaved in expediting the return of loved
ones who have lost their lives in these unfortunate events.
The Speaker also said that the House would invite the Minister of
Foreign Affairs, the Nigerian High Commissioner to South Africa, the
chairman of the Nigeria Diaspora Commission and other stakeholders to
ascertain the real causes of the attacks.
“We intend not only to determine the causes of these latest events but
also to assess and account for the losses in life and property that have
occurred. This will allow the government to more accurately demand
reparations to compensate our citizens who suffered in this recent orgy
of violence.
“Let no one be left in any doubt, we will seek, and we will obtain by
whatever means available, due restoration and recompense for all that
has been lost in this latest conflagration and all the ones that have
come before. We are committed to a sustained and special effort to see
that the ends of justice are met for all our people who have suffered.
We have heard the cries of our citizens, and we have witnessed their
devastation. We will mourn for the dead, and cry for the lost, but we
will not stop there.”
“The House of Representatives is ready to authorise legal funding for
those citizens who wish to take legal action against identified
perpetrators of the violence as well as those who sponsored them or
permitted their actions to occur and to continue.
“We recognise that there are many places in the world right now where
internal crises and conflicts have made the terrain unsafe for our
citizens there. The House of Representatives will work with all the
stakeholders within and outside the government to evolve and implement a
plan to evacuate our people from these places and as much as possible
keep them out of harm’s way.
“We must accept that there are at this moment in time several forces
converging in different parts of the world, creating seismic events over
which we have limited control yet may not entirely escape the worst
consequences of. We ought no longer to wait until our people are caught
in the foulest manifestations of these events before we take necessary
action to protect them.
“There have been reports that state actors may have participated in the
worst acts of violence; sometimes actively, at other times by standing
and doing nothing whilst murder and mayhem was unleashed. We expect that
the Government of the Republic of South Africa will conduct a thorough
investigation into these allegations and make public their findings
whatever they may be. Where any of these claims are determined to be
true, we expect also that the individuals responsible will be held
accountable to the highest degree allowed by law.”