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| Atiku Abubakar. |
Former
Vice President and PDP’s presidential candidate Alhaji Atiku Abubakar has
condemned in strong terms, the attacks on Nigerians living in South Africa.
According
to him, “It is perhaps the most disturbing development in the turn of the
century that Nigerians who live in the Republic of South Africa have
consistently been victims of xenophobic violent attacks. Unfortunately, both
countries have not done enough to reduce the spate of those attacks”.
He
says: “Both Nigeria and South Africa share a history of brotherhood and
camaraderie at different times in our difficult times and it is very important
that we do not allow this ugly development cause a blot in our shared history. While
I will recommend that both countries press all available diplomatic buttons as
fast as possible, it is equally important to impress on citizens from both
sides to see ourselves as brothers and never as adversaries.
True,
the days of Apartheid in South Africa and military rule in Nigeria are far
behind us, we still both have a common enemy, and that is in expanding the
space for economic prosperity to a large range of our peoples.
The
new battle is economic in nature and it will be delusional for both Nigeria and
South Africa to think that it is a battle we can win in isolation of each
other. Neither and never can victory in the economic battle come by the way of
turning daggers at each other.
For
Nigeria to realize her economic potentials, we must be ready to welcome and
protect South Africa investments on our soil, and ditto for South Africa to
welcome and protect Nigeria's investment in capital and manpower.
There
are no short cuts. The only path to success in the battle against poverty and
lack of economic empowerment to our peoples will require Nigerians and South
Africans to soldier on as brothers and sisters. It must involve governments
from both ends to rework our bilateral trade agreements and statutes to respond
to the realities of this time.
Meantime,
our mission in South Africa should open its doors wide open for all
humanitarian support that could be required of them from Nigerian victims of
these attacks. Also, it will be a good take off ground for solution to this
problem for the South African government to cause a probe into the attacks and
bring all perpetrators to book.
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