Following the deportation of 125 Nigerians by South African authorities some days ago, the diplomatic relations between the two countries was headed for the rocks. The ambassadors of both countries were summoned by their parent countries for consultations. The authorities in Nigeria strange enough, opted for reciprocity by deporting 131 South African nationals. The federal lawmakers unanimously endorsed federal government’s position, thereby setting the stage for a possible severing of relations with South Africa. However, on Thursday, the South African authorities tendered an unreserved apology to Nigeria over the deportation incident. CHUKS OHUEGBE chronicles the development.
THE BEGINNING:
During Chief Ojo Maduekwe’s time as the minister of foreign affairs, he had proposed what he called ‘Citizens Diplomacy’ as the country’s new philosophy in dealing with other countries it has diplomatic relations.
The underlining motif being that the federal government of Nigeria would reciprocate in whatever manner the treatment meted out to its nationals to the nationals of the host countries who reside in Nigeria.
Nigeria had to adopt this philosophy of reciprocity following serial maltreatment to her citizens abroad. Carrying the Nigerian green passport, at a time, was enough to stigmatise the carrier at every international airport, for just no reason.
Following the role Nigeria played in the dismantling of the obnoxious apartheid regime in South Africa, coupled with the average Nigerians enterprenuerial spirit, it was no surprise that South Africa became the preferred economic and social destination of most Nigerians. Trade relations between both countries kept improving.
It is pertinent to note that before South Africa discarded the apartheid toga, Nigeria had assumed and maintained the sobriquet, ”The giant of Africa’. Since her return to the comity of democratic nations, the authorities in Pretoria, had embarked in an undeclared war to unseat Nigeria as the ‘giant of Africa’. The scope of this ‘war’ is rather, undefined. The application is general without specifics. The simple goal is and remains; discredit Nigeria and Nigerians.
DEPORTATION OF 125 NIGERIANS:
South Africa’s immigration officials had last week at the Oliver Thambo International Airport in Johannesburg singled out 125 Nigerians and deported them, claiming that they had fake yellow fever certificates.
The Nigerians had arrived the airport via the South Africa airways and Arik Air. Among the number is a distinguished senator of the federal republic, who had to go through the odium of being detained for 48 hours before being deported.
Government reaction to this development was prompt. Diplomatic sources said that Abuja had been fine-tuning its position in the unabetting xenophobic attacks in South Africa, where Nigerian nationals are the prime targets.
To underscore the seriousness government attached to the development, both arms of the national assembly condemned the development and asked the Executive arm of government to seriously consider severing of ties with the Republic of South Africa, if the authorities in Pretoria fail to apologise.
Foreign Affairs minister, Olugbenga Ashiru for once, put aside diplomatic niceties, when he appeared before the joint committee on foreign affairs of the national assembly, where he declared that Nigeria would commence retaliation if South Africa failed to apologise, punish the immigration officials involved and pay compensation to Arik Air.
His words: ‘Nigeria has done so much for South Africa, and will not tolerate a situation where South African police and immigration officials fuel tension between both nations. We must take tough actions against any country that takes delight in the ill-treatment of Nigerians. Nigeria will react in a mature and calculated way on the assault on our people to show that when you show disrespect to our people, we will hit back. South Africa has no monopoly of maltreating travelers.
‘The underlying problem is the xenophobic attitude of ordinary South Africans to Nigerians. South Africa and indeed all other African countries should stop taking Nigeria’s maturity and friendliness for granted.
This government is determined to ensure the dignity of Nigerian citizens anywhere in the world. So, henceforth, we will reciprocate such actions one way or the other”.
SUMMONING OF THE S/AFRICAN HIGH COMMISSIONER:
To underscore the seriousness attached to the deportation incident, the ministry of foreign affairs summoned the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Mr. Kingsley Mambolo to protest Abuja’s displeasure over the incident and for onward delivery to Pretoria. This action, foreign relations watchers say, marked ‘a turning point in Nigeria’s relations with South Africa in particular and other countries in general’.
The terse letter of protest handed over to Ambassador Mambolo by the Permanent Secretary in the ministry of foreign affairs, Mr. Martin Uhomoibhi read in part; “Of particular concern to the Government was the unwarranted detention of a senator of Federal Republic of Nigeria by the South African Port Health and Immigration Authorities for 48 hours at the Oliver R. Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.
‘South Africans travelling to Nigeria, or those residing in Nigeria are not required to produce any evidence of vaccination against yellow fever, or for that matter against tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS, both of which are prevalent in South Africa’.
RETALIATION:
While the diplomatic row deepened, Abuja considered taking what the foreign affairs minister described as ‘tough actions’ against leading South African companies doing business in Nigeria.
The biggest South African company doing business in Nigeria is MTN, which is the largest mobile phone operator in Nigeria with more than 42 million of the 95 million total active subscribers.
This is beside the fact that Nigeria is the biggest and most lucrative market for MTN, which has operations in about 21 African and Middle East countries. Stanbic/IBTC Bank is another company with major South Africa stake operating in Nigeria. Others are supermarket chain –Shoprite, which has many outlets in the country, among others.
However, in the immediate, 28 South Africans were deported last Monday from their entry point at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport, Lagos, for ‘improper documentation of yellow fever cards’. They had arrived aboard a South Africa Air at about 8.30 pm and were deported back to South Africa aboard the same flight at 11 pm the same day.
The control tower officials, it was gathered had instructions not to give the aeroplane clearance for take-off unless it had the 28 South Africans on board. This directive was obeyed to the letter.
To show Pretoria that Nigeria meant business another set of 30 South Africans were deported within 48 hours. Within the next 24 hours another batch of 32 South Africa nationals were also deported.
WHO REGULATIONS ON YELLOW CARD:
Nigeria’s Health minister, Professor Onyebuchi Chukwu stating the government’s position given the extant international rules governing travelers said that the South African authorities flouted the laws.
According to him, the South African government’s action ran contrary to ‘international health regulations issued by the World Health Organisation (WHO)2005, Section 35, which requires travelers from countries at risk of yellow fever to show an international certificate of vaccination against yellow fever, which is in turn required to procure travel visas.
The minister in buttressing government’s claim pointed out that the last confirmed cases of yellow fever in Nigeria was in 1995, when 25 cases and one death was recorded.
“It is obviously very curious that a country that has issued visa to intending travelers, whose issuance was in the first place predicated on the presentation of a valid yellow card will then turn around at the point of entry to deport those travelers.
If those travelers had fake yellow cards, the question will then be how come they possessed valid visas?”, the minister further argued.
The response from the South African authorities on this issue is that even though yellow fever is not prevalent in Nigeria, the country is situated within the area they consider as the ‘yellow fever belt’.
Former Nigeria’s ambassador to South Africa, Ambassador Shehu Malami said that the South African authority always used the yellow fever vaccination to embarrass Nigeria.
He recalled that in 1999 a federal government delegation led by former President Olusegun Obasanjo that was in South Africa to attend the swearing-in of President Thabo Mbeki almost aborted the trip when the immigration officials in Johannesburg requested for their yellow fever certificates.
THE APOLOGY:
With about 131 South African nationals deported within a space of 72 hours, coupled with the facts that its officials flouted international conventions which they are signatories to, the authorities in Pretoria was left with no choice than to beat a hasty retreat.
The country’s Deputy Minister of International Relations and Co-operation, Ephraim Ismail Ephraim tendered the country’s unreserved apology to the government and people of Nigeria over the deportation incident, which he described as ‘unfortunate’.
‘We are apologizing because we deported a number of people who should not have been deported. We apologise for this unfortunate incident and we hope this matter will not in any way affect our bilateral relations.
We have put in place certain mechanisms to ensure that this does not happen again, and we believe that the matter is closed. We are in contact with the embassy in Nigeria to see that there is no longer problems, and that any difficulties over vaccination certificates are dealt with before a visa is issued. We understand the reaction of the Nigerian authorities’, Ephraim said.