By Haruna Salami
The Senate, at its plenary on Tuesday urged President Bola Tinubu to sever relations with South Africa over killing of Nigerians and other nationals in South Africa in Xenophobic attacks.
The resolution followed a motion on Xenophobic attacks on Nigerians moved by Senator Asuquo Ekpeyong (Cross River South).
Contributing to the motion, Senator Abdul Ningi (Bauchi Central) said the Senate as the People’s chamber cannot watch Nigerians being killed in Xenophobic attacks, which are carried out openly in South Africa.
He said Nigerians deserve to live in other countries, adding that “talking and lamenting will not help.
“Let us sever relation with South Africa. There must be action,” he stated.
In his contribution, Senator Babangida Hussaini (Jigawa North West) regretted that Nigerians are vilified and killed not only in South Africa, but said “our foreign policy must be strengthened to deal with this matter”.
Senator Adams Oshiomhole specifically called on President Tinubu to naturalise South African interests like MTN, Stanbic IBTC Bank, Multi choice, etc and use the proceeds to compensate those who have lost property in South Africa.
Other senators, including the Senate Chief Whip Mohammed Monguno (Borno North) spoke strongly against xenophobic attacks on Nigerians and destruction of their businesses in South Africa.
The Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin who presided at the plenary agreed with his when said “the xenophobic attacks are not in line with civility, it is uncivilized. We see what is happening in America, but who is doing that?
“They called the immigration, moving around to check illegal residents, getting them arrested, and so on and so forth. But now, gangs going around in the name of protesters, persecuting, intimidating people; killing people in the name of protests is not something that should be accepted. It’s unacceptable. We cannot allow that.”
“But then, we need to be very careful, as Senator Yahaya said, particularly because we live in Africa. We need peace.
“Whatever we need to do, we need to be very careful. Like what Senator Adams Oshiomhole said, sometimes we don’t take things that are said on social media. We need to analyze what is always put out there.
“I saw what he’s talking about. What the minister was saying was that those who live in shanties, illegal settlements, will not be paid anything because they illegally occupied those areas.
“But those who have titles, nobody will take will those properties from them. I saw that. Nobody will take those titles from them.
“Even if they have been displaced, those properties still belong to them. The titles are in their possession.”
Therefore, Barau directed the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs to investigate the xenophobic attacks and report back to the Senate to enable the red chamber take informed decision.
He advised that they should not put the cat before the horse, adding “my former chair of APC, a respected statesman in this country, internationally renowned, labor leader, let’s allow the committee to do its work.
“It’s being headed by your colleague, former governor of Niger state, well-experienced, and someone who has the pedigree to do this investigation”.
However, Oshiomhole argued that as a leader his concern was that the matter was exhaustively debated about a month ago at this chamber “under your leadership. We took a decision that it should be investigated by foreign affairs.
“So, it doesn’t mean that our decision must coincide with your opinion, with profound respect. You want us to be careful until the people are killed”.
