Why Nigerians will never leave South Africa (I)

A lot has been said about xenophobia and on the strained relationship between South Africa and the rest of black Africa with particular reference to Nigeria. In the past week we have seen the evacuation of Nigerians from South Africa – at least as many as want to leave. But the numbers are quite small compared to the number of Nigerians who live in the rainbow country. At the last count just over 1,000 Nigerians have signified their intention to come back home. This is a tiny fraction compared to the number of our compatriots who live there. The South African government also ensured they barred those who left, for 10 years. In a way, this made many who would have wanted to leave, to remain in that country. Most have gone into hiding, but for how long? The other day, we saw a parade of South Africans who we are told, are apologizing to the world for their xenophobia, but that is not enough assurance for the remaining foreigners in that country, to troop out. Even if they would, I will advise that the unruliness I’ve seen some of our brothers display on the streets there, is something that must be totally banished.

The refusal of almost all Nigerians in South Africa to leave that country should be a cause of concern for us as a people and as a nation, being that despite the amount of tribulation that these Nigerians have gone through they still believe that it is better to remain and bear the risks. Unfortunately, we have seen some of them grossly abusing their hosts – perhaps out of trauma. We also know some who don’t see anything wrong in calling black South Africans ‘lazy’, ‘jealous’, ‘wimps’, ‘stingy’, ‘slaves’, ‘dependent on white handouts’ and all sorts of names. If the South Africans are indeed apologizing, I also apologize on behalf of those who have called them these names. I believe we all should. Today it seems that Nigerians who live in SA are somewhat contrite as they realize that it is perhaps much better for them to remain in South Africa than come back home. Some of those interviewed stated clearly that the standard of living in most of South Africa is far better than in most places within Nigeria. It is really bad manners that some of our people keep hurling these abuses at South African natives when we know that we still have to benefit from sharing their space. It is their space, and they have every right to defend it, just as we should defend ours from people who move in and out at will presently – a major reason we are under terrorist attack in some territories.

It is correct that the savage history between the blacks and whites in South Africa still plays out today in the high crime rate on the streets of many South African cities and the seeming predilection to violence of the average, neglected South African poor. There is also a proliferation of light weapons on the streets of South Africa, the availability of which facilitates the often fatal high crime rates. My take is that it is beyond our pay grade to dissect South Africans and their issues when we haven’t as much as achieved basic things for ourselves. If we were smart, well-educated, savvy, fantastic with women, quick on our feet, and all other attributes we accord ourselves, then Nigeria should not be a country where every young person seeks to run away from. In fact, it could be said that we lack these very attributes for which we thump our chests and that is why our young people fill asylums centers in many countries around the world. It must however be made clear that the savagery encountered in the hands of some South Africans could never be justified in this day and age.

That said, why is South Africa a much better place to live for Nigerians? There’s a reason why this is the case and it is about public policy and the investment in the people of that country. Nigeria not only has not invested in her people, but also in the kind of infrastructure that makes South Africa very livable for Nigeria’s legal and illegal immigrants today. Let us look at some examples of what successive South African governments have done for their people overtime and compare to what our governments have left undone here.

There is the building of hundreds of hostels for South Africans who came from far flung villages to work in cities like Johannesburg, Cape Town, Pretoria and others. There are over 605,000 rooms in those hostels which today houses some of the roughest, poorest South Africans. A lot of the rioters and looters actually reside in those hostels. As much as we must blame the hostels for harboring low-lifes but we must also see this as an initiative taken by the SA governments for the benefit of her peoples. Where is the equivalent of the hostels in Nigeria? There is nowhere in Nigeria where we can point to houses built for the poorest people. I once pointed out the need for us to start renewing our villages (rural renewal) in a way that opens them up and encourages urban-rural drift. The closest to this kind of mass-housing initiative are the famous Jakande houses in Lagos; but those were built for civil servants and middle class. He built 30,000 housing units/flats in all. South Africa today has a housing deficit of 1.5 million houses for a population of about 60 million people. Nigeria has a deficit of 17 million houses for a population of about 180,000,000 to 200,000,000, but instead of mass housing to clear this backlog, we have over 2 million unoccupied luxury houses all over the country; products of greed and corruption. It is clear to see which country has the interest of its people at heart. More next week