South African’s hatred for Nigerians

Every now and then many Nigerians have been killed in South Africa. Over 117 innocent Nigerians in the last two years have been gruesomely murdered by unscrupulous elements in South Africa. It is so annoying to keep hearing in the news every time of these cruel killings of Nigerians in South Africa.

South Africa and Nigeria have come a long way and I think there should be no rivalry between the two countries. Nigeria as the giant of Africa has particularly been of immense help to South Africa over the years especially during the period of Apartheid where many South Africans were under bondage.

Nigeria has been a big brother to South Africa in this regard and immensely contributed to liberating South Africa from the clutches of the Apartheid regime. So one wonders why a country that has benefited so much from Nigeria would then turn to become so jealous of Nigeria that it would deliberately orchestrate premeditated killings of innocent Nigerian citizens living in South Africa.

This is completely unacceptable to Nigerians because the life of every citizen of Nigeria is important and very precious to us. We cannot afford to lose any more soul to mindless and cruel killings in South Africa anymore. These killings must stop henceforth. All Nigerians in South Africa must be protected by the government and security agencies.

All Nigerians living in South Africa should first and foremost be law abiding, but must equally rise up and protect themselves and defend themselves against any attack by any South African. After all there are many South Africans in Nigeria living, working and making a living for themselves without being harassed, maimed or killed. Nigeria is a free country and willingly allows many African countries to live and work in the country without any form of harassment.

So it is so surprising when South Africa cannot reciprocate these kind gestures by Nigeria. African countries should be united and discard any form of rivalry and jealousy among themselves. There is no way Africa can be united as a continent with the way some countries especially South Africa exhibit hatred towards other African citizens. Nigerians are very hardworking people and anywhere you find them, they are very industrious and they succeed within a short period of time anywhere they travel to.

If our government keeps taking this serious issue of the continuous killing of Nigerians in South Africa with levity, South Africans will continue to kill Nigerians in South Africa.

Tayo Demola,

Lagos.