The chairman board of trustees, Nigerian citizens in South Africa, Chief Chuks Okolie has commended President Muhammadu Buhari for the steps taken to stop xenophobic attacks on Nigerians and other foreign nationals in South Africa.
Okolie who gave the commendation in an interview with DAILY POST in South Africa lauded Buhari for using his visit to the country to ensure that Nigerians in the country were safe.
“The situation like you could see since you arrived has been normal and everything is ok now. Everybody is going about their business and there is relative peace, there is peace now.” he noted.
Recounting what led to the recent xenophobic attack on Nigerians and other foreign nationals in South Africa, Okolie stated that some uninformed miscreants who had disagreements with foreign nationals took laws into their hands.
He said, “it was just a misunderstanding. You will agree with me that in every society that there are some miscreants the uninformed South Africans that took law into their hands and because of some disagreement they went into the street and they started looting.
“ It was purely looting, it was an act of no provocation. When it started, we the Nigerian citizens in diaspora association went fact finding and we found out that the issue was not connected to Nigerians but just a few misunderstandings that started in a small place and some miscreants took laws into their hands and started looting foreign owned shops.
“I will not say that it was a case of South Africans hate Nigerians or other foreigners but in every smoke there is a fire. There might be a South African that doesn’t like a Nigerian and when that issue comes up they will use it as an avenue to leverage on the misunderstanding or misconception.
When asked how the South African government has tackled the situation to stop a reoccurrence of such attack and what the Nigerian government have done for Nigerians who were repatriated during the attack Okorie said, “Initially we were not happy because the South African police stood by and watched South Africans destroy and loot businesses but I will tell you that since the visit of President Buhari, things have changed. The police has also promised to always be at the scene or on call whenever issues like that come up.
“ There was a case in woodberk in Mpumalanga not that far from Victoria they started a thing like that but the police came in and stopped them an nipped the situation on time.”
’’The truth is I wouldn’t say those who left were repatriated, nobody repatriated them, they left voluntarily and we encouraged it because those ones are not doing anything in South Africa so instead of doing nothing here it is better they go back home and find themselves something to do.
“I understand that they were welcomed , assisted and handed over to the respective Governors from their state so am very sure that Nigerian government is taking care of those Nigerian returnees.”
The Chairman, however, commended the Nigerian government for closing its borders.
According to him, border closure will boost the economy and crest more jobs.
