Tinubu Blames Xenophobic Attacks on Mandela’s Death, Counseled against Envoy Recall

 In an article purportedly written before the controversial recall of the Nigeria’s Charge de Affair in South Africa Ambassador Uche Ajuluchukwu-Okeke titled; Another approach to the South African attacks, by the National Leader of All Progressive Congress and former Governor of Lagos State, Southwestern Nigeria, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the xenophobic upheaval in South Africa, Tinubu made insightful analysis of the sociopolitical life in South Africa as well as offers diplomatic advise to the Federal Government of Nigeria on how to deal with situation. According to him:

The destructive attacks in South Africa on Nigerians and other sub-Saharan Africans are tragic and mindlessly wrong. The assaults sorely bruise the objective of inter-African harmony. They also put an eraser to the idyll of progress and domestic tranquility many people saw when gazing at South Africa.

The xenophobia is actually a lethal show of misdirected anger. The attacks point to deep, underlying ruptures within the South African political economy that actually have little to do with the presence of Nigerian or other Black Africans in that nation. Nigerians have become scapegoats in a fundamentally domestic struggle.

The Black populace is roiling because their economic plight has worsened since the end of apartheid. If prosperity had come to them, they would not have come to this. The political and economic accommodation between the traditionally White-controlled economic superstructure and the post-Mandela Black political elite is under challenge.

This model of governance has failed to make adequate provision for the bulk of the Black population. Due to his unique status, Mandela was able to give the Black population succour and hope while counseling them patience.

That great man is no longer there. Gone with him is the succour he gave and apparently the patience of the people. South Africans thus lashed out in frustration. They attacked Nigerians and other Africans not so much because our people were the cause of their woes.

They attacked our people because they could do so much easier than they could attack the actual sources of their ire and economic predicament. It is easier to destroy the wares of the local shopkeeper than to change the political economy.

The former merely requires an eruption of anger; the latter requires sustained political organisation, vision and dedication. Thus, although they want political economic reform, all they did was to attack non-South Africans who provided goods and services to them at the neighborhood level.

While the government of South Africa may be questioned about its continued adherence to a political economic model that appears to have exceeded its best-use date, it is completely wrong to say the South African government had even a hand in instigating the unrest.

Thus, recalling the Nigerian High Commissioner is inappropriate and counterproductive. Instead of pulling the diplomat, Nigeria should name a high-level special envoy to visit the nation and engage directly with President Zuma. Nigeria should also send an Interagency Coordinated Action Team (ICAT) to South Africa to complement enhance efforts to provide consular services, liaison with police and security and ensure that affected Nigerians receive proper restitution. We should also talk to major South Africa businesses resident in Nigeria. It would help douse tensions and ill will here if they announced a plan to contribute to the restitution of affected Nigerians.