A political activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of
\nthe All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, has called on
\nthe President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, to urgently halt attacks
\nagainst Nigerians and the wanton destruction of their property by
\nrampaging citizens of that country.<\/p>\n
While demanding an immediate stop to the bloodletting against innocent
\nNigerians, he called on the South African Government to commence the
\npayment of adequate and commensurate compensation to the victims of the
\ndastardly and unprovoked acts of aggression without delay.<\/p>\n
“On behalf of Nigerians, we plead with the South African government, its
\nyouths and the enire citizens to put a stop to the wanton killing of
\nNigerians and destruction of their property by irate South Africans and
\ninstead fashion out ways on how Nigerians and other African countries
\nresident in your country can live together in peace and harmony.<\/p>\n
“We agree completely with what Julius Malema said and I quote: “South
\nAfrica is Nigeria and Nigeria is South Africa.” Therefore, let’s live in
\nunity.<\/p>\n
“May we also remind our South African brothers and sisters that Africa
\nis one indivisible continent and that most African countries especially
\nin West Africa and Nigeria in particular, helped South Africa to fight
\ntheir subjugation under apartheid by generously supporting them
\nfinancially, materially and otherwise until they attained the
\nabolishment of racial segregation.<\/p>\n
“It was not only the right thing to do but was done because Nigeria
\nregards South Africans as our brothers and sisters.<\/p>\n
“We urge South African youths to emulate the late icon, Nelson Mandela,
\nwho was always for peace and even forgave those that imprisoned him for
\n27 years. Mandela preached peace, love and forgiveness during his
\nlifetime.<\/p>\n
“We therefore encourage the youths to give peace a chance and allow
\nNigerians and other Africans resident in their country to live in
\nharmony in the spirit of African oneness,” he said.<\/p>\n
He urged the South African authorities to urgently evolve both legal and
\npolicy instruments to permanently stop this acts of belligerence and
\nopen aggression against Nigerians.<\/p>\n
He also called on the leadership of the African Union (AU) to intervene
\nand prevent needless hostilities between Nigeria and South Africa which
\nmay result if the prolonged attacks against Nigerians and their
\ninterests in the former apartheid enclave is not urgently halted.<\/p>\n
“It is time for the AU to walk the talk by invoking the necessary
\nsections of its charter to stop this orgy of degradation and
\ndehumanization against Nigerians.<\/p>\n
“The AU must prove its relevance by acting swiftly. They cannot afford
\nto obfuscate by mouthing words while shying away from addressing the
\npogrom and genocide against innocent Nigerians legally residing in South
\nAfrica at this time.<\/p>\n
“They must act to prevent this unprovoked aggression from snowballing
\ninto unimaginable proportions on both sides. A stitch in time would save
\nnine at this trying moments,” he said.<\/p>\n
Frank in a statement in Abuja further disclosed that he already had
\ndiscussions with one of the leaders of opposition political parties in
\nSouth Africa, Julius Malema, over the imbroglio and said that he would
\nsoon visit him to strategize on how to permanently end the hate induced
\nviolence against Nigerians in South Africa.<\/p>\n
“It is most unfortunate that Gen. Muhammadu Buhari and his ‘yahoo yahoo’
\nadministration is clueless on how to protect Nigerians from this
\nhorrendous xenophobic onslaught against hapless citizens.<\/p>\n
“Since they are presently busy organizing worthless press conferences, I
\ntook the initiative and spoke with Julius Malema, one of the most
\nrespected voices in South Africa, and urged him to prevail on his people
\nto sheath their swords and allow peace to reign.<\/p>\n
“I will be going to South Africa soon to visit Malema in order to evolve
\nstrategies and actions that would end this inhumanity being meted on
\ninnocent Nigerians by South Africans once and for all,” he said.<\/p>\n
He pleaded with Nigerians back home to exercise restraint in the face of
\nthis grievous acts of provocation emanating from South Africa.<\/p>\n
“If the South Africans are exhibiting madness, we must maintain our
\nsanity by not attacking businesses owned by Nigerians here but operating
\nunder franchises owned by South Africans.<\/p>\n
“It is unfortunate that most business outlets now suffering reprisals in
\nthe country are 100 per cent owned by Nigerians operating under
\nfranchise.<\/p>\n
“Therefore any loss of lives or destruction of businesses in Nigeria in
\nreaction to what is\u00a0 happening in South Africa would amount to double
\njeopardy for Nigeria,” he said.<\/p>\n
The political activist commiserated with families that have lost loved
\nones in the fracas.<\/p>\n
He also sympathized with Nigerians who have sustained injuries, lost
\nproperty or businesses as a result of the attacks and urged them not to
\ntake laws into their hands but to allow justice to prevail.<\/p>\n
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…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":67067,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-other-news"],"yoast_head":"\n