Xenophobic attack: What next after return?

There has been a subdued diplomatic row between South Africa and Nigeria which, incidentally, are the continent’s biggest economies. While South Africa has recalled its representative and closed its commission in Nigeria in reaction to the brewing animosity, Nigeria has also asked its citizens to return home. The Federal Government made an offer for them to do so. About 187 of them showed up for the trip home when Air Peace flight went to Johannesburg to airlift them last week.

These developments were occasioned by the renewed xenophobic attacks of blacks in South Africa, in which many Nigerians were killed and several others injured. Many also lost their means of livelihood.

Government has been commended for the move. But the Air Peace family that bore the huge financial burden has continued to harvest commendations. The returnees arrived Lagos, the commercial hub of Nigeria, on Wednesday, with uncertainty steering them in the face, despite great promises by government. The question on the lips of many people now is “what next for the returnees; would government walk the talk?”

A return into uncertainty?

“I have my sympathy for these hapless Nigerians who, in my mind, have only succeeded in moving from the frying pan into the fire. Yes, it is said that home is the best, but that is not true for Nigeria and its citizens. Here is a country where government has no attachment to the people,” lamented Raphael Chiazor, a political and social commentator.

“What is playing out in Nigeria is a failure of government and governance; otherwise how do you explain a situation where quite a good number of the citizens are outside the country as an escape from the choking socio-economic conditions in the country. A country where there is no electricity, water, housing, healthcare facilities; no jobs for the teeming youths and the environment does not support private enterprise, is a country where leadership has failed and that is Nigeria,” Chiazor added.

As a country, Nigeria has a long history of evacuating its nationals who are either marooned, criminalsed or persecuted in foreign lands. The last but one was the repatriation of Nigerians from Italy and other parts of Europe who had gone out to ‘hustle’ as prostitutes, drug peddlers, internet fraudsters, etc.

A leopard does not change its colour

Government makes flowery statements, promising the returnees heaven in Nigeria, only to abandon them to their fate on their arrival to the fatherland.

Signs of this culture are already showing in the case of the present returnees from South Africa, judging by the discordant tunes from government officials whose duty it is to resettle them. A media report says that, in spite of the rhetoric from the government, only Abike Dabiri-Erewa, chairman of Nigeria’s Diaspora Commission; Ebienfa Kimiebi, first secretary, Crisis Monitoring and Public Communication Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and his colleague Paul were government delegation on the flight from Nigeria to Johannesburg and back to Lagos.

And to underscore government’s ‘laisez faire’ attitude to the returning sons and daughters, Geoffrey Onyema, minister of Foreign Affairs, who Kimiebi hinted was likely to be the senior government official to receive the returnees, had gone for a more important function in Botswana before the arrival of the returnees.

To set the tone on what future awaits the returnees, Kimiebi disclosed, “We have nothing for them yet; we may eventually be announcing something, but I am not aware of any plans to reintegrate them into society as at now; we are just happy they are back home safe.”

Although Dabiri-Erewa had said something different, observers say it was as hopeless as it was empty. “The government plans to give the returnees N40,000 in recharge cards to enable them keep in contact with their loved ones at their final destination. Additionally, the Bank of Industry is willing to issue soft loans to those willing to start business,” she stated.

Recharge cards for established businessmen/women?

Majority of these returnees are people who, in their own right, were thriving business men and women in South Africa. Some of them were also doing well as entrepreneurs. They have lost all to xenophobia. But life has to go on because nature abhors a vacuum.

Aliu Samuel Saheed, who has lived in South Africa for 14 years had been trading within the Blue Street in town. But during the attacks his shops were looted and burnt beyond recognition. Everything went up in flames.  His case was not an isolated one. Many other Nigerians suffered similar fate and are now back ‘home’ to face the grim reality of living without job or business.

Doubts, doubts, doubts!

The question on the lips of many observers borders on the sincerity of the Federal Government to provide a comprehensive resettlement programme for the returnees, even though it has promised to do so.

The fear stems from many similar cases in the past where Nigerians who had been repatriated from other countries, were left in the cold after lofty promises.

In most cases, bogus promises by government are not kept; after waiting for weeks and months, the returnees’ hopes are dashed.

This often leaves most of them dejected, frustrated, and depressed. Many of them in the past are said to have regretted their decision to come back home.

Although the Muhammadu Buhari administration has promised that the Bank of Industry (BoI) had been mobilised to assist those willing to start business, it is expected that government would perform the doing of it and it is also hoped that it will not be the usual rhetoric.

It remains to be seen what government is going to do differently for the South African returnees. Some time ago, when BusinessDay visited some of the returnees from Italy, it was lamentation galore, with some of them threatening to go back, by all means, over neglect by the government that cajoled them to come back home.

Idowu Omolegan, an activist, has charged the Federal Government to initiate a comprehensive resettlement plan for the returnees, stressing that such is the practice in advanced countries when they repatriate their citizens from other countries.

According to him, “Government should immediately settle them; these people are coming from a war front, if care is not taken they would become a nuisance because they would have no jobs.”

“Proper resettlement is what they do in Britain and America when their citizens are repatriated from other countries. There should be a comprehensive resettlement plan now, which encompasses accommodation and token, but I doubt if this government is serious about anything,” Omolegan further said.

Supo Ojo, former president of the Civic Liberty Organisation (CLO), said: “The government delayed in making the right move, I expected us to act since; Nigerians have been subjected to various forms of violence in South Africa for long and we are watching. It shows we don’t value our citizens, just like they are killed here at home without any concern.

“This current decision is commendable, but if you are talking about plans for the returnees; I think it should have been on ground. We have a Diaspora Commission, they should act”.

Lanre Oshobe, a chieftain of the Accord Party,said:

“Government must come up immediately with a palliative programme to start with and later, engage all the returnees who have lost their valuables in the xenophobic attack with a life changing programme by providing loans at 0% interest, shelter and enroll them in the NSITF scheme of the government,” Oshobe said.

Implication of the return for unemployment rate in Nigeria

What this means is that the job market in Nigeria has forcibly admitted new desperate entrants. Already, the country has very high unemployment figures which the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) estimates at 20 million.

“Immediate help may not be coming from government. What that means is that in the coming days and months, besides increasing the population of the unemployed, the nation might be witnessing a new wave and increased rate of banditry,” Chiazor projected, arguing that if that happened, the security situation in the country, which was already bad, might worsen considerably and irredeemably.

‘70% of youths have no future in Nigeria’

Tunde Adeleye, archbishop of the Niger Delta Province, is not amused by whatever promises by government, he rather expressed total displeasure at the inability of successive Nigerian governments to take care of citizens. He lamented that over 70percent of Nigerian youths have no future in the country.

According to him,for Nigeria to reverse this trend, the leadership of the country has a responsibility to make the country habitable so that citizens of the country can stay back and contribute in developing their fatherland.

Adeleye, who is also the chairman of Christian Council of Nigeria, South-South zone, said Nigeria did not have the right understanding and projection of the threat posed by xenophobia and took things for granted.

“Nigerian government did not respond early, I think they should have responded faster than how they did. They did not have a proper projection and failed to properly understand the dimension the matter was going, they did not imagine things will come to this and took things for granted,” he said.

On the way forward, he said: “Make this place good, provide jobs, houses and give Nigerians a future. 70percent of Nigerians have no future. The political class have taken all such that there is nothing again for the youths. Give them a future, give them jobs, give them what to do, make schools and hospitals habitable so that the country can be good for the people to stay.”

Speaking with BDSUNDAY on the issue, Apostle Alexander Bamgbola, chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Lagos State, said: “The xenophobic attack is a lesson to us. We are being taught a lesson as Nigerians. The government of this nation is being taught a lesson.”

According to Bamgbola, “We need to pay attention to people. Nigeria has the largest population of youths on the surface of the earth. We cannot leave our youths and not give them jobs; we are not building industries; we are not developing the nation so that they can have a future and grow systematically. I am not talking about the type of empowerment we see- where you give the youth N20,000 each and you call it empowerment. Government must pay attention to the youth of this nation before it is too late. All the governments in Africa need to wake up and be serious. They have the challenge to build their nations economically and in other areas. That’s why you see Nigerian young men in Malaysia, South Africa, etc. They go to look for survival.”

CHUKA UROKO, OBINNA EMELIKE, INIOBONG IWOK (Lagos) and MIKE ABANG (Calabar)