The Resource Centre for Human Rights & Civic Education, CHRICED has called on the federal government to immediately review the diplomatic relations with South Africa as a way of addressing the xenophobic attack on Nigerians.
CHRICED said the Nigeria government must show true concerns to the lives of Nigerians in diaspora and must act instead of issuing statements which has not achieved any major change.
According to a press statement signed by the Executive Director, Dr. Ibrahim M. Zikirullahi, the Federal Government was told to consider the options of recalling Nigeria’s Ambassador in South Africa and expelling the South African envoy in Abuja, as a first symbolic step.
Dr. Zikirullahi said, “Nigeria must invoke the principle of reciprocity by mobilizing its soft power assets to put pressure on South African economic interests in Nigeria, in the first instance. It is totally unacceptable that South Africans are killing Nigerians and attacking their businesses, while South African businesses thrive in other parts of the continent.”
CHRICED ED said, “the Nigerian government must clearly communicate to the effect that the South Africa cannot continue cutting its nose to spite its face. The Nigerian people reject the blood thirsty notion fast gaining traction in South Africa that Nigerians can be killed, maimed and their businesses destroyed without any real consequence.
“To this end, the Federal Government of Nigeria must mobilize the relevant national institutions to properly document these xenophobic crimes with the view to holding all perpetrators accountable, using the instrumentality of multilateral diplomatic circles like the Africa Union, the International Criminal Court in the Hague and the United Nations Human Rights Commission.
“If Nigeria could selflessly launch and sustain decades-long campaign to help free South Africa from the dehumanizing clutches of Apartheid, it must be prepared to go all the way to protect the lives and dignity of its citizens from irredeemable xenophobes”, he added.