Professor Abdullahi Ashafa, the Deputy Vice-Chancellor Academics, Kaduna State University (KASU) has said about 400 foreigners were killed in South Africa in the last decade with the perpetrators not apprehended and prosecuted.
This was even as he called on the South African Judicial system to live up to its responsibility.
Ashafa, a Professor of Diplomatic and Military History made the call as a discussant on a Breakfast Discourse on “Xenophobia in South Africa: Its Origins, Trends and Remedies”, organised by History Department on Tuesday.
According to him, the South African justice system must also wake up to its responsibilities, stressing that over 400 foreigners were killed between 2008 to date and no perpetrators were ever arrested and convicted
He further urged FG to refocus its father Christmas foreign policy as in the case of Congo, anti-apartheid, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with nothing to show, to a more rewarding foreign policy for its people.
He said that rather than cry over xenophobic attacks on Nigerians and other Africans in South Africa, the Federal Government should make the country attractive as a destination for greener pasture.
According to him, the foreign policy of a country depends on the strength of its economy, its military and its leadership and urged the Nigerian leaders to live up to its responsibilities to the Nigerian people.
“We are living in past glories by telling South Africans our roles in their liberation struggle, which they have all forgotten and treated as event of the past.
“Our country has retrogressed and became irrelevant because we have been surpassed by countries that once looked up Nigeria as a destination for better living.
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“We have been sleeping for too long, govern by corrupt, gluttonous, predatory and irresponsible clique of elite.
“We have allowed our corruption, terrorism, banditry, lawlessness and laziness, bad roads, non-functional institutions and infrastructure to define us, which allow the world to treat us as bunch of criminals.”
The professor further said: “If anything, the South African events should wake us up as Nigerian once waked up Ghana in the 1980s, with the popular slogan ‘Ghana Must GO’.
“Today, Ghana is the envy of not only Nigerians but the rest of African countries.”
He equally advised the South African Government to educate its citizens to embrace an African identity and run an inclusive government to attract more skilled Africans to create and ‘America in Africa’.
He explained that as the most industrialised economy on the continent, South Africa is the only country that could provide economic opportunities to African professionals.
On his part, Prof. Jeremiah Methuselah, Deputy Dean, Faculty of Arts, KASU, said that South African Xenophobia was not fear of foreigners but deep-seated hatred of South Africans against their fellow Africans.
Methuselah blamed the unabated attacks on fellow blacks African on economic competition, false nationalism, the feeling of superiority over fellow blacks and exclusive nature of the country’s governance.
He explained that the many years of apartheid has robed the South Africans of their self-esteem and isolated them from other Africans, stressing the need to help them out of their current psychophobia.
Another discussant, Dr Suleiman Shehu, Director, Centre for Basic Studies, KASU, noted that apartheid was abolished in 1994, but the mental effect remained with the South Africans.
According to him, Africans need fellow Africans to move forward as a continent, adding that embracing inclusive policies would help attract more ideas and skills needed for growth and development.
Earlier, the Chairman of the event, Dr Terhemba Wuam, Dean Student Affairs, KASU, said that History Department has continued to set agenda in discussing issues of national and international interest.
Wuam, the immediate past Head of the department, said that the South African economy was still being controlled by 90 per cent of western foreigners.
He said that the intense competition on the 10 per cent economic opportunities by the indigenous population and other Africans was among major factors fueling xenophobic attacks.
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