South African President Cyril Ramaphosa was on a week-long state visit to four West African nations, which ended in Senegal last Monday.
The visit has opened a new phase in the relationship between his country and three others, Nigeria inclusive, but who does Mandela’s country count as its closest friend?
In the shortlist, one can easily say Nigeria is right on top, being the first country he visited on November 30 – December 1, 2021, followed by Côte d’Ivoire on 2 and 3 of December 2021.
Ramaphosa’s third visit was on 4 – 5th of December, when he visited Ghana, and last but not the least, Senegal, from 6 to 7 December 2021.
For Nigeria, the relationship has historical ties – with its frontline role in the fight against white minority rule in South Africa.
Even though the relationship between the two nations is time tested, it has remained stable for many years but certainly not unchanged.
In an exclusive interview with Daily Trust, the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, Thami Mseleku, said Nigeria participated and played a very key role in the struggle for the liberation of South Africa.
“Many of our leaders actually exiled to Nigeria, studied here and they were trained here. An example of people who lived in Nigeria then is our former president, Mbeki. He spent a lot of time here in Nigeria.
“He also came in and out many times soliciting support from different Nigerian governments for the South African struggle,” he said.
With this, one can easily say that the informal diplomatic clout exacted by Nigeria and other African countries clearly dictated South African independence.
Strain relations with S/Africa
But, in the past decades, things have been changing. South Africa has advanced more than the countries that helped it to be independent and it is now the fastest-growing economy in Africa.
So, this achievement attracted many Nigerians and other Africans to become economic migrants in South Africa but, of course, not without issues that strained relationships between them and South African citizens.
In the recent past, Nigeria, and other West African countries have resentments over the killing of their citizens (“xenophobic attacks”) in South Africa, but which the Zulu nation described as ‘vilifying’.
No wonder during Ramaphosa’s state visit, President Muhammadu Buhari underscored the need to enhance people-to-people relations between South Africa and Nigeria to avoid “unhealthy competition”.
Buhari also noted that such relations were necessary to evolve a bond that would be of benefit to both countries and the entire African continent.
“Mr. President, permit me to state that some of the challenges identified during the last Bi-National Commission (BNC) have not been completely addressed. We need to ensure that our people-to-people relations are enhanced to a point where there would be no need for unhealthy competition,” he said.
With this, one can easily say that some of the political issues have been smoothed over but “xenophobia” is still a touchy subject.
Enter Omicron
The visit saw the signing of various bilateral agreements between South Africa and the four countries.
In Nigeria, the two countries signed three additional agreements and reviewed some of the 32 existing ones. These include Memoranda of Understanding on Youth Development, Women and Child Empowerment, and Political Consultations, among others.
In Ghana, four bilateral agreements were signed on international relations, transport, agriculture and gender issues, while two more agreements are expected to be signed virtually.
Ramaphosa and President Nana Addo Akufo also presented a united front regarding addressing poverty, recovery from the devastation caused by COVID-19 pandemic as well as the massive unemployment plaguing both countries.
In Cote d’Ivoire, which was Ramaphosa’s first state visit to Abidjan, nine memorandums of agreement were signed by ministers between the two countries.
Here, Ramaphosa and President Alassane Outtara held extensive talks on several issues that are beneficial to the two countries.
In Senegal, Ramaphosa met President Macky Sall and a memorandum of understanding was signed on political, economic and trade matters between the two countries.
Now, Ramaphosa has darling friends in West Africa, and already, he has a bait for his neighbouring Southern African countries that cannot close their borders due to the economic gain/migration they enjoy from Mandela’s nation.
The visit was also an opportunity for Ramaphosa to garner fellow African leaders’ support against Western countries’ onslaught against his country on the discovery of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19
The South African leader was able to convince the West African leaders to clearly turn their back at the measures taken by the western powers on his country.
What experts say
Some analysts opined that the bilateral relationship between Nigeria and South Africa and the personal chemistry that existed between successive leaders of the two countries needed to be revived.
Dr. Jimam T. Lar Head of Department, History and International Studies, University of Jos, said Nigeria and South Africa have a lot in common, therefore it’s important that more relations, more cooperation should be established between them.
“If you look at the history, there was a period that Nigeria was in the frontline states in terms of supporting the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. Unfortunately, because of our years of military rule, there was a falling out during General Sani Abacha’s regime.
“The falling out was between Abacha and Mandela because of the case of Ken Saro Wiwa and the other Ogoni nationalists that lost their lives during that regime.
“So, we have improved relations over time, since then, both countries are perhaps two most important nations in terms of the size of the economy but also in terms of their diplomatic clout.
“Even recently, during these xenophobic attacks against Nigerians in South Africa, we were making the point that South Africa and Nigeria have a lot to share and together they can provide leadership in Africa. And, therefore, it’s important that more relations, more cooperation be established.
“We shall not forget that there are several Nigerian banks operating in South Africa but there are also lots of South African companies operating in Nigeria. I’m speaking to you now on the MTN powered SIM of a South African company, we also have a South African cable company (DSTV) and some other interests.
“So there are a lot of economic interests between the two countries that can be strengthened for the gain of both populations.
“There are also a lot of Nigerians living in South Africa —businessmen, academics, professionals – so it’s in our interest as a country to make sure that we strengthen relationships economically and politically,” he said
Professor Sheriff Ghali, Director of Institute for Legislative Studies of the University of Abuja, said Ramaphosa’s tour was to build trust as well as ask his African counterparts not to forget him in difficult times.
“Western Europe had actually suspended flights from South Africa to Europe, so African countries shouldn’t consider doing the same.
“So, I think the visit is rather strategic to have this continued support from the African Union, as well as other regions of Africa, knowing fully that the suspension of flights to and from South Africa by Europe will implicitly and explicitly affect the economy of South Africa.
“So, Cyril Ramaphosa will actually try to harness other potentials in other areas of Africa by visiting them in order to mitigate this potential threat that their economy is facing,” he said.
On the advantage of the visit to Nigeria, he said, it’s for Nigeria to strategically reposition itself in its relationships in Africa and in terms of its investments in South Africa.
He advised that stringent measures should be taken to protect Nigeria’s investments in South Africa as well as Nigerians and other African nationals who are in the country.
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