When Nigerians return home, will Nigeria be ready?

Every nation is eventually tested by how it treats citizens returning home after adversity abroad. Nigeria is facing that test once again. As xenophobic violence forces Nigerians to abandon businesses, jobs and livelihoods in South Africa, the immediate priority is their safety and evacuation. The greater challenge begins after the flights land. Repatriation removes citizens from danger, but it does not rebuild lives. Without a credible reintegration strategy, the crisis simply shifts from Johannesburg to Lagos, Abuja, Kano and Port Harcourt.

The attacks deserve unequivocal condemnation. No economic grievance or political frustration justifies violence against people because of their nationality. South Africa has every right to enforce its immigration laws, but that responsibility belongs to state institutions, not mobs. Every attack on African migrants weakens the ideals of the African Union and the African Continental Free Trade Area. A continent that seeks deeper economic integration cannot allow Africans to feel unsafe in other African countries.

Indeed, Nigeria should resist viewing this as South Africa’s failure alone. Every xenophobic attack exposes two governments. One has failed to protect migrants within its borders. The other has failed to create enough opportunities to keep many of its citizens from seeking better prospects elsewhere. People do not leave their families because migration is fashionable. They leave because they believe opportunities abroad outweigh those available at home.

That is why the national conversation cannot end with evacuation. Bringing citizens home is an emergency response, not a development strategy. The harder questions come afterwards. Where will returning entrepreneurs rebuild? How will skilled workers reconnect with the economy? How will families who have lost businesses and income recover? Governments can organise flights. Only a productive economy can rebuild futures.

This is where Nigeria’s institutional response remains weak. The country has agencies responsible for humanitarian assistance, diaspora engagement and emergency management, yet no coordinated national framework exists for the economic reintegration of citizens forced to return from crises abroad. Assistance often ends once evacuees arrive home, leaving them to rebuild their lives with little structured support. A country that values its citizens should not treat repatriation as the end of its responsibility.

Nigeria should instead establish a structured reintegration programme involving the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, the National Emergency Management Agency, development finance institutions and state governments. Such a framework should provide temporary livelihood support, business advisory services, access to affordable finance, skills recognition and employment pathways. Many returnees are experienced entrepreneurs, traders, technicians and professionals. Their experience, networks and resilience are productive national assets that should be integrated into the economy rather than wasted.

Other countries have demonstrated that this approach works. China, India, South Korea and Vietnam have all introduced policies that encourage returning migrants to invest, establish businesses and transfer skills. Nigeria should adapt similar ideas to its own circumstances instead of treating returnees solely as humanitarian cases.

The crisis also exposes a contradiction within Africa’s integration agenda. The continent promotes regional markets and freer trade, yet Africans increasingly face hostility while living and working in other African countries. Nigeria should therefore work through the African Union to strengthen protections for African migrants, improve accountability for xenophobic violence and establish faster regional response mechanisms when such attacks occur.

The most important lesson, however, lies at home. The strongest protection any country can offer its citizens abroad is not diplomatic protest after violence occurs. It is an economy that makes migration a choice rather than a necessity. Economic reforms must now produce productive jobs, competitive industries, reliable infrastructure and an environment where enterprise can flourish.

Every evacuation flight from South Africa carries a question Nigeria can no longer postpone: why did so many citizens believe their best chance of prosperity lay outside their own country? The success of Nigeria’s response will not be measured by the number of citizens brought home but by whether they find reasons to rebuild their futures with confidence at home.