Olabode Omoyele condemns Afrophobic sentiment against Nigerians in South Africa
Social critic and public affairs analyst, Mr.Olabode Omoyele has described as condemnable the xenophobic sentiment of South Africans against Nigerians and citizens of other African countries who are residents of South Africa.
Mr.Olabode who made this known in an interactive session with newsmen said the trend of killings and threat to fellow Africans resident in the ‘ once upon an Apartheid country,’ has become quite unbecoming, retrogressive and sad.
He said it has gotten to a stage that all Africans of good conscience must rise up against the seeming return to stereotyping fellow Africans on African soil, stressing that the government of South Africa will be held responsible for every bullying, every killing and every act of inhumanity against settlers and residents of South Africa who have come to ply their trade in the country.
” Of a really sad note is the fact that South Africans are intimidating Nigerians. It beggars belief that South African govt will look sideways while their citizens gleefully maim and kill Nigerians who are doing their legitimate business in South Africa. What this implies is that South Africa has simply become ungrateful to all the noble efforts of Nigeria at their trying time of Apartheid,” Olabode emphasized.
He noted that every overt or covert display of Afrophobic sentiment against Nigerians and other People across Africa in the country is reprehensible and condemnable, noting that the silence of the government of South Africa has made it culpable and it is a reflection of a continuation of Apartheid in the country.
Olabode called on Nigerian government, the Ministry of External Affairs and Nigerian in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) to promptly come to the aid of Nigerians who are distraught and beleaguered in the seemingly ‘enemy territory ‘ that South Africa has become for Africans in the ancient Apartheid colony.
“I call on sub regional organizations like Ecowas and OAU to hold the government of President Ramaphosa of South Africa responsible for the inhuman treatment meted out to Africans of other countries in South Africa,” Olabode charged.
