Xenophobia: Why Nigeria and South Africa must be cautious

This week, in a development that can be described as a setback in Nigeria’s diplomatic relations with South Africa, President Muhammadu Buhari dispatched a Special Envoy to South Africa and recalled Nigeria’s ambassador to South Africa over the recent xenophobic attacks on Africans resident in the country.

Nigeria also pulled out of the World Economic Forum taking place in South Africa and demanded full compensation for victims of the xenophobic attacks.

As a fallout of the attacks, angry Nigerians went on rampage in several cities in Nigeria and Abuja. The protesters blocked roads, burnt tyres and attacked a mast belonging to MTN, a giant telecommunication company in Nigeria with large ownership by South Africans.

The special envoy would convey the president’s concerns and also interact with President Cyril Ramaphosa on the situation.

However, while the latest round of xenophobic attacks evokes yet the most serious reaction from Nigeria, xenophobia didn’t start now. It had been building up. And build up it did.

In 1998, three foreign nationals were killed on a train between Johannesburg and Pretoria. In 2000, a Sudanese refugee was thrown from a train on a similar route. The reasons were all the same: blaming foreigners for a lack of jobs or economic opportunity. In 2007, a shop in the eastern Cape was set alight by a mob. 

The violence that escalated in 2008 was distinctive and decisive. It affected black, African foreign nationals, poor and disenfranchised South Africans in the townships, but there is no evidence to suggest white Europeans were attacked or those from the Indian subcontinent.

A very particular demographic paid the price. At least one third of the victims were actually South Africans. Xenophobia is not a problem unique to South Africa.

With so many economies battling recession for the better part of the past decade, the deadly triad of competition, survival and blame has seen fear of the foreigner rise across the globe.

Xenophobia is experienced in the north and the south, in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regions and other countries. It’s a worldwide phenomenon.

But, contrary to popular belief, xenophobia in South Africa is not just a problem of the poor.

A national survey of the attitudes of the South African population towards foreign nationals in the country by the South African Migration Project in 2006 found xenophobia to be widespread: South Africans do not want it to be easier for foreign nationals to trade informally with South Africa (59 percent opposed), to start small businesses in South Africa (61 percent opposed) or to obtain South African citizenship (68 percent opposed).

Still, the latest round of xenophobic attacks and the resultant diplomatic tussle between South Africa and Nigeria is a serious issue and if not properly addressed and handled wisely, it would lead to a serious diplomatic crisis which would affect trade relations between the two countries.

Definitely, the attacks will not encourage trade because fear is created already. Nigeria is mono-economy and most of the giant companies like MTN, DSTV and Shoprite stores come from South Africa.

Hence, any form of reprisal attacks against South African interests would be counterproductive to Nigeria’s economy mainly because many jobs would be lost if operations of the multinationals become negatively affected.

But, in the short run, the effect of xenophobia on diplomatic relations between the two countries largely depends on the reaction of the South African authorities.

If the government condemns the act and put in place proper disciplinary action against those involved in the act and initiate measures to compensate victims, Nigeria should, ideally, take the next step to strengthen the existing relations.

In the long run, the impact of the xenophobic attacks on the diplomatic relations between South Africa and Nigeria, the two leading lights in Africa, will depend on the way the crisis is handled by the countries.

Welcome Japan Bank, Toyota

As usual with such trips, President Muhammadu Buhari, while in Japan recently, took the opportunity to discuss with the top officials of Japan Bank for International Cooperation and Toyota Group.

The discussions took place at the margins of the Seventh Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 7) in Yokohama, Japan.

Led by its Deputy Governor, Mr Nobumitsu Hayashi, the Japan Bank for International Cooperation indicated its interest in supporting projects in which Japanese companies are involved in Nigeria.

With the vast resources at its disposal, the bank said it would be interested in oil and gas, and development of infrastructure in Nigeria.

Similarly, at a bilateral meeting with Toyota Tsusho, a part of the Toyota conglomerate, President/CEO of the group, Ichiro Kashitani, indicated interest of his group to invest in sectors like energy, healthcare and automobiles.

And, why won’t Toyota be interested in the vast market Nigeria offers? Nigeria has a population of about 200 million people and it’s an automobile country. Thus, Toyota would be delighted to have presence all over Nigeria.

Kashitani said Toyota Tsusho would also be interested in building an advanced medical diagnostics centre which, hopefully, would bring to an end frequent foreign medical travel and save huge resources for the country.

But, on the whole, foreign direct investment from the Japanese will allow the transfer of technology, particularly in the form of new varieties of capital inputs, that cannot be achieved through financial investments or trade in goods and services.

Foreign direct investment can also promote competition in the domestic input market and Nigerians will gain training in the course of operating the new businesses. This development will eventually contribute to human capital development in the country.

Equally, in the event the Japanese group got to invest here, profits generated through taxation will contribute to the country’s corporate tax revenues.

Going forward, Nigeria should concentrate on improving its environment for investment and the functioning of markets. By doing so, country will be rewarded with increasingly efficient overall investment as well as with more capital inflows.

On reopening embassy in Sri Lanka…

Nigeria says it would consider reopening its embassy in Colombo, Sri Lanka, closed in 2017, in view of the important relationship between the two countries.

The possibility of reopening the embassy was raised by President Muhammadu Buhari during a farewell audience with the outgoing High Commissioner of the Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka to Nigeria, His Excellency Thambirajah Raveenthiran at the State House in Abuja.

The president said financial challenges which the country faced informed the decision to rationalise the number of Nigerian embassies and consulates.

When the Buhari-led administration took that decision, some ex-diplomats and experts on international affairs have backed government’s call for a review of the number of the country’s foreign missions, saying that they should be cut by at least 60.

The experts said the country’s economy, which has recently been on a downturn, could not sustain its 119 foreign missions.

Some experts suggested that the government should only maintain embassies in neighbouring countries and other countries that are strategic to Nigeria’s interests.

Of course, at the time government rationalised the embassies, the state of the country’s economy was in bad shape while it’s quite expensive to maintain an embassy.

However, now that the president feels otherwise, whatever embassy the country may decide to reopen, economically and politically sound reasons must inform the basis of the decision.

There’s no doubt that there are a few countries where our interests are minimal and even where Nigerians are not many and where we can reduce our presence there and increase our presence in some other countries like Sri Lanka.

In the end, Nigeria has to take a global look at its embassies, keep shutting some and ask some embassies for multiple accreditations. For instance, an embassy in Turkey can take care of Philippines and Singapore.

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