A political activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of
the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has called on
the President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, to urgently halt attacks
against Nigerians and the wanton destruction of their property by
rampaging citizens of that country.
While demanding an immediate stop to the bloodletting against innocent
Nigerians, he called on the South African Government to commence the
payment of adequate and commensurate compensation to the victims of the
dastardly and unprovoked acts of aggression without delay.
“On behalf of Nigerians, we plead with the South African government, its
youths and the enire citizens to put a stop to the wanton killing of
Nigerians and destruction of their property by irate South Africans and
instead fashion out ways on how Nigerians and other African countries
resident in your country can live together in peace and harmony.
“We agree completely with what Julius Malema said and I quote: “South
Africa is Nigeria and Nigeria is South Africa.” Therefore, let’s live in
unity.
“May we also remind our South African brothers and sisters that Africa
is one indivisible continent and that most African countries especially
in West Africa and Nigeria in particular, helped South Africa to fight
their subjugation under apartheid by generously supporting them
financially, materially and otherwise until they attained the
abolishment of racial segregation.
“It was not only the right thing to do but was done because Nigeria
regards South Africans as our brothers and sisters.
“We urge South African youths to emulate the late icon, Nelson Mandela,
who was always for peace and even forgave those that imprisoned him for
27 years. Mandela preached peace, love and forgiveness during his
lifetime.
“We therefore encourage the youths to give peace a chance and allow
Nigerians and other Africans resident in their country to live in
harmony in the spirit of African oneness,” he said.
He urged the South African authorities to urgently evolve both legal and
policy instruments to permanently stop this acts of belligerence and
open aggression against Nigerians.
He also called on the leadership of the African Union (AU) to intervene
and prevent needless hostilities between Nigeria and South Africa which
may result if the prolonged attacks against Nigerians and their
interests in the former apartheid enclave is not urgently halted.
“It is time for the AU to walk the talk by invoking the necessary
sections of its charter to stop this orgy of degradation and
dehumanization against Nigerians.
“The AU must prove its relevance by acting swiftly. They cannot afford
to obfuscate by mouthing words while shying away from addressing the
pogrom and genocide against innocent Nigerians legally residing in South
Africa at this time.
“They must act to prevent this unprovoked aggression from snowballing
into unimaginable proportions on both sides. A stitch in time would save
nine at this trying moments,” he said.
Frank in a statement in Abuja further disclosed that he already had
discussions with one of the leaders of opposition political parties in
South Africa, Julius Malema, over the imbroglio and said that he would
soon visit him to strategize on how to permanently end the hate induced
violence against Nigerians in South Africa.
“It is most unfortunate that Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and his ‘yahoo yahoo’
administration is clueless on how to protect Nigerians from this
horrendous xenophobic onslaught against hapless citizens.
“Since they are presently busy organizing worthless press conferences, I
took the initiative and spoke with Julius Malema, one of the most
respected voices in South Africa, and urged him to prevail on his people
to sheath their swords and allow peace to reign.
“I will be going to South Africa soon to visit Malema in order to evolve
strategies and actions that would end this inhumanity being meted on
innocent Nigerians by South Africans once and for all,” he said.
He pleaded with Nigerians back home to exercise restraint in the face of
this grievous acts of provocation emanating from South Africa.
“If the South Africans are exhibiting madness, we must maintain our
sanity by not attacking businesses owned by Nigerians here but operating
under franchises owned by South Africans.
“It is unfortunate that most business outlets now suffering reprisals in
the country are 100 per cent owned by Nigerians operating under
franchise.
“Therefore any loss of lives or destruction of businesses in Nigeria in
reaction to what is happening in South Africa would amount to double
jeopardy for Nigeria,” he said.
The political activist commiserated with families that have lost loved
ones in the fracas.
He also sympathized with Nigerians who have sustained injuries, lost
property or businesses as a result of the attacks and urged them not to
take laws into their hands but to allow justice to prevail.