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<\/p>\nNigerian Citizens Association in South Africa (NICASA), is optimistic that the meeting between Nigerian and South African Presidents in October, will bring lasting solutions to the recurrent xenophobia.<\/p>\n
The President of NICASA, Mr Ben Okoli, made this known in a telephone conversation with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) from Johannesburg, South Africa.<\/p>\n
Okoli said President Muhammadu Buhari and his South African counterpart Cyril Ramaphosa, were expected to meet in October to discuss modalities to address attacks on Nigerians living in that country.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are looking forward to the state visit by President Buhari and we believe his coming will help reduce the suffering Nigerians go through in South Africa.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will use the opportunity to lay our complaints to the president and highlight security of lives and properties of our members, as the area of concern that we want addressed.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will also be able to get assurance from our host country\u2019s president towards securing lives and properties of Nigerians here.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe hope the visit will comfort Nigerians here, because we expect our plight to be tabled before the host government, so they can provide adequate protection to ensure Nigerians feel safe,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He lamented the highhandedness of Police operatives in South Africa on matters that concerned Nigerians, saying issues like brutality and killings should be brought to the fore at the meeting.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will list all potentials that could bring about economic benefits and growth to Nigerians through the anticipated state visit,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said that Nigerians have, without any fear of contradiction, contributed immensely to the growth of the South African economy.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe urge the South African Government to ensure that the attacks do not recur. We appeal to them to device alternative strategies since previous efforts to stop xenophobia have not worked.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe believe xenophobia can be stopped and therefore appeal to the South African government to provide succour to foreigners who have lost their source of livelihood, especially Nigerians.<\/p>\n
He commended the Nigerian Consulate General to South Africa, Godwin Adama, for the pro-active steps he had so far taken to douse tension via the media in that country.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mission\u2019s gate has never been shut against Nigerians; it has always kept its door open.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened is that after the crisis in Pretoria where South African\u2019s destroyed Nigerian businesses and property, those whose property were destroyed went to the mission out of frustration and anger.<\/p>\n
\u201cI understand the situation; it is not easy for somebody to lose his property and just be watching; but the mission gate was not shut against them,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He said they were invited in and received by an official of the consulate who went as far as organising food and drinks for them to make sure that they are comfortable.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo they were attended to and nobody would say that the gate was shut against them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe mission allowed them in even though they came in by force and destroyed part of the entrance.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey were encouraged to go and calculate their losses and bring back the report through the organisation. So, we are actually collaborating with people who have lost their property.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are taking inventory of what our people lost, which I will make available to the high commissioner in due time,\u201d Okoli said.<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Nigerian Citizens Association in South Africa (NICASA), is optimistic that the meeting between Nigerian and South African Presidents in October, will bring lasting solutions to the recurrent xenophobia. The President of NICASA, Mr Ben Okoli, made this known in a telephone conversation with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) from Johannesburg, South Africa. Okoli said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":150274,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[41,8292,354,13052],"class_list":["post-150273","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-buhari","tag-cyril-ramaphosa","tag-south-africa","tag-xenophobia"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150273","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=150273"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150273\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/150274"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=150273"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=150273"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arewa.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=150273"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}