Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, on Friday, declared that Nigeria would have to
review its relationship with South Africa.
Gbajabiamila at a press conference over xenophobic attack on Nigerians in
South Africa said Nigeria must revoke the old arrangement that made it possible
for South Africans to maim and kill Nigerians.
The speaker, who recently cut short a trip abroad to address the xenophobic
attacks on Nigerians, said citizens have long travelled far and wide in search
of knowledge, of experience and prosperity.
He went to say “As we have travelled, we have opened also our borders to
those who will seek their greener pastures here. “In Africa, we have
demonstrated our commitment to the brotherhood of nations, sacrificing life,
labour and wealth to achieve peace and restore freedom from Sierra Leone to
Liberia, Sao Tome to South Africa. “We have sought nothing in return, we have
made no claims to the land and resources of our brothers,”.
Gbajabiamila said Nigeria’s commitment has always been to the advancement
of Africa and freedom in all of its lands. “Yet today and too many a time, we
are called to stand as pallbearers, bringing home to burial the bodies of our
brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, our children, savaged and decimated.
What is their offence? “That they dared to dream of glory and profit
beyond our borders, and having dreamt, they endeavoured to make real the
visions of their heart. This nonsense in South Africa must stop.
He further said we reject entirely
the obvious attempt to change the true narrative of events by casting the
recently organised acts of violence as merely internecine conflict between
gangs fighting for turf.
