Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has advised Nigerians
evacuated from South Africa following the xenophobic attacks on foreign
nationals in the Rainbow Nation to get ready to go back saying he's confident
the meeting between President Buhari and Cyril
Ramaphosa, next month will yield a positive outcome.
Obasanjo who spoke on Saturday, September 28th in his
Abeokuta residence said Buhari and Ramaphosa should be ready to make the right
statements that would encourage the Nigerians who returned home to go back to
South Africa.
When asked by reporters what he discussed with Ramaphosa
last week, he said, “I took the opportunity of being in South Africa to
actually pay a courtesy call on President Cyril Ramaphosa and he quickly
granted me the opportunity.One of the major things we discussed was this issue
of xenophobia or Afrophobia.
“The President told me that there was so much at stake and
whatever mistake we had made, we had to correct it. And I think that was a very
good statement and I know that he meant it, because he immediately said ‘what
can we do or should we do?’
Obasanjo also advised South Africans to tread softly on the
issue of foreigners seeking opportunities in their country.
“The idea of thinking or saying that foreigners are taking your
jobs should be killed, because most of these foreigners paid something into the
country. I met more than two Nigerians who are doing legitimate businesses and
the turnover runs into millions of
dollars and they employed 50 to 60 South
Africans.
“All these must be expressed and must be shown that
Nigerians in South Africa are not drug peddlers and criminals; there are many of them that are genuine businessmen
and professionals and who are making meaningful contributions to the economy and the social life of that
country.
“I think that is all we must be doing and be saying and my joy is that President Cyril Ramaphosa is
ready to do what needs to be done to
stop these incidents and to put the
relationship between Nigeria and South Africa on the right track. One of the
things they are going to do between South Africa and Nigeria is that they are going to have what we established
during my tenure – that we called bilateral commission.”
On the Nigerians evacuated from South Africa, Obasanjo
said, “I hope they will
go back to the South Africa from what I heard from President Ramaphosa.
Like I said, the meeting that President
Buhari and President Ramaphosa will have during the first week of October should smooth the
ground. And the right statements and the
right action coming from both sides should encourage our people to go back.But,
as I have always said that Nigerians living outside Nigeria must try to be good
citizens of wherever they live.”
According to him,
Ramophosa is ready to bring back the mutual understanding between Nigeria and
South Africa. He said, “I believe the President of South Africa did the right
thing to quickly send emissaries to apologise to the countries that were
affected (xenophobic attacks), countries like Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Zambia and
Mozambique and I think this was good.”
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