South-South national leader and Convener of the Pan-Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF), Chief Edwin Clark, has advised the federal government to handle the relationship with the South African government with mature diplomacy.
Chief Clark was responding to the visit of the South African Special Envoy sent by President Cyril Ramaphosa to convey his country’s apologies to the Nigerian government and people over the recent xenophobic attacks, during which many Nigerian residents of South Africa were said to have lost some lives and property worth millions of dollars.
The elder statesman, who noted that the South African government had taken the first right step by sending its representatives with an apology message, however noted that while to ask for further show of commitment from South Africa in the form of compensation for losses incurred during the attacks, would not be wrong, such should not be done alone by Nigeria.
According to him, the relationship with South Africa and the response to the harsh treatments meted to Nigerians in the country should be treated with guided diplomacy, recalling that there are still many Nigerian citizens still resident in the country, adding that Nigeria should rather work to make the South African government show faith to its promise to eradicate xenophobia and discrimination in the country.
“The South African government did the right thing by sending the special envoy, it is the right step to take, but more than that, other issues of further steps should be discussed when President Buhari goes to have the meeting with President Ramaphosa of South Africa in October.
“About the issue of compensation, I think Nigeria should not make such demand alone since we are not the only affected country. Besides that, the South African government has said it was compulsory for all companies registered in the country to get insured and think this a caveat the take seriously.
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“However, since this xenophobia attacks affected many African countries, I think Nigeria should provide the leadership for other African countries whose citizens suffered losses to these attacks, approach the African Union, the United Nations and even the International Court at The Hague to seek redress and table the matter of compensation.
“All these said, I believe we as a nation need to handle this matter diplomatically, considering how many of our people are not willing to return home yet: I think just about 500, out of thousands have returned, so there’s need for caution. I think we should make the South African government do much more to prevent these attacks from happening. I remember that in 2011, the South African government gave a commitment to ensure that xenophobic attacks, discrimination and racism would be made to end. I think this is a more diplomatic and mature way of dealing with this issue for now,” he advised.
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