Geoffrey Anyanwu, Awka
House of Representatives member for Njikoka, Dunukofia and Anaocha Federal Constituency, Valentine Ayika has attributed the recent xenophobia attacks on Nigerians in South Africa and other misfortunes befalling the country to “anti people system” being run in the country.
In this interview, Ayika looked at the cause of the attacks and also spoke on the herdsmen menace and other national issues.
The xenophobia attacks in South Africa where Nigerians are most affected have been subject of discussions now, what’s your view about what is happening?
It’s quite unfortunate that South Africa or South Africans will have the audacity, the impetus to attack Nigerians. If not for Nigeria majorly, and other African countries especially West Africa or Black Africans, South Africa till today would have still been suffering more than slavery. They would have still been under the inhuman apartheid system. Just yesterday, I was going into the archives and I came across the inaugural speech of Nelson Mandela, the great Mandela, where he eulogised, commended, appreciated Nigeria and Nigerians for being in the forefront, for leading the onslaught against apartheid, for seeing to it that South Africans, fellow blacks were freed from white racist government. It is inhuman, it is condemnable, and it is unconscionable. I don’t know the best adjective to describe what is going on in South Africa.
So far, how do you see the actions and response of the Federal Government to these attacks in South Africa?
First of all, let me also delve into what I consider as a cause of what is going on there. To some extent, it is about the failure of government, it is about the failure of leaders in both countries. In South Africa, social services are no more flowing or are no more as it should be. Unfortunately, the illiterates and some of the ignorant ones among poor South Africans seeing Nigerians, especially of Igbo extraction become envious. The Igbo man wherever he is cannot take the back bench. He must find a way to stand out; business-wise, he must triumph. Now, with this, South Africa is a capitalist country, if you have an investment and you make profit, you are free to enjoy the fruits of your labour. So, when they see Nigerians, other Africans riding in exotic SUVs, living in exclusive areas, living in good houses, they are thinking that their poverty, their sufferings, their inabilities to meet up with the challenges are because of these people. This is one of the causes. On the Nigerian side, majority of Nigerians that travelled to South Africa are in search of greener pastures. They didn’t go there on invitation of South Africa, they didn’t go there on the grounds that they are there to help South Africa on one thing or the other but to help themselves. They are in search of greener pastures and why will such a great number of Nigerians, especially the youth, the workforce that we have, be trooping out of Nigeria on daily basis? It is because of maladministration of our leaders including myself. It is because of our selfishness, it’s because of our wickedness, it’s because of our lack of focus, and it’s because of our inability to do the needful. That is why you see young Nigerians trooping out of this country, going into the unknown, being sacrificed, being killed like goats. My brother, I shed tears, seeing those Nigerians, how they were beaten, how they were burnt alive and when I was looking at it, what I was asking myself is, is there anything I should have done? I felt guilty because indeed, I’m among the leaders. If we have done what we needed to do, more than 80 per cent of those people abroad would have remained here. How many Americans troop out of their country? How many British people troop out of their country? It’s because of the failure of leadership in this country that has expelled or forced those young people to escape from this country. That’s just what is it, they didn’t travel out. They escaped because of the system we operate here which is anti-people. That’s just the problem we have here. These are the root causes of what is going on in South Africa. I feel bad, my heart is bleeding, and I feel so, so bad about it.
Again, talking about the actions taken by the government, what do you expect?
The government did nothing. We the leaders, did nothing. We were talking about recalling the Ambassador, we are talking about sending this and that, that is not what it should be. By the strength as the giant of Africa, we are supposed to have war vessels in some of the African waters to the extent that if something like this happens, we threaten the country that if you continue to kill our people, we do something that both countries will regret because we are supposed to protect our people wherever they are but unfortunately, the government did not take any decisive action. There was no decisive action, there was no unequivocal statement for them to realise that its people that are being killed don’t feel it that much because our immediate families are not involved. I think the people will get to know when their immediate families are involved. Look at one single person that was caught in Saudi Arabia, the government did everything for her to be freed but look at what is happening to how many people. This is not the first time. They are saying that something should be done for it not to have a repeat. Don’t talk about repeat, talk about the one that has happened. Compensation must be paid, the people responsible must be brought to book and that will serve as a deterrent for it not to repeat itself.
Before this xenophobia attacks, we’ve been battling the issue of herdsmen. What do you think is the reason the problem of herdsmen has persisted? What’s the way out?
I think there is only one reason why it has continued to persist. To me, it’s just about the political will for the right thing to be done. Where somebody is going around with cattle and he has AK47, is he using it to chase lions from killing the cattle or is he using it to protect himself? Assuming he is using it to protect himself and his herds, history, events have shown us that these are weapons of mass destruction; these are weapons of attack, not defence. The facts are there but the government for whatever reasons best known to them especially on the part of the executives don’t want to do the needful. A system whereby certain sections of this country will do something, certain tribe will do something and it will be accepted and the other tribe will do similar thing and it will be condemned and described as terrorism. How right is that? The truth remains that we sometimes, our leaders are so short-sighted and lack perception. By what is going on now, rarely can people travel by road anymore. Leaders in Nigeria don’t travel by road anymore. Even common citizens don’t travel by road anymore. Movement is so restricted now to the extent that people who are into transport business are bringing down the number of their employees. Airlines are not able to meet up with the number of passengers requesting to travel. We are constricting our economy, unemployment will be on the increase because when transporters decide to reduce the number of their fleet, the drivers will be expelled, the other staff and management will be expelled. So, what is going on is like Peter Obi said, the society we are abusing today will turn around to haunt us tomorrow. I pray and hope that my fellow leaders will understand that what is going on is dangerous especially for us leaders.
One day in this country, if this continues, we will not have the liberty to move around anymore. Even our so-called security can no more secure us because when the time comes, power belongs to the people and unless and until we realise that, something dangerous is going on. We are sitting on kegs of gunpowder in this country. It will be good for the government to do the needful and curtail the excesses, the impunity and the atrocities being committed by the herdsmen. It’s already an alarm clock, a time bomb ticking. One day, the people will take laws into their hands and only God knows where that will lead us.
Any specific thing the government needs to do on this?
Now, on the issue of cattle herdsmen, why will government not stop the herdsmen from going into a cultivated land and eating up peoples sweat, peoples cultivated foods? Why will the government not do something about it? It is a crime. It is against the law. Ordinarily, you can call it trespass. You don’t have right, while you are trying to grow your own business, destroying my own. You don’t have such right. Someone who planted and cultivated a farm wants to reap from there. You don’t have a right to go and destroy it by way of trying to feed your cattle on that. Having said that, again these things happening was okay before when Nigerian population wasn’t as big as it is today, when there were hectares and hectares of free lands that cattle can roam around on. The government needs to go into ranches now. This is the time, especially in those Northern states where these herdsmen belong to because if you want to establish it in Anambra State or South East for example, the suspicion is already there. Whether you have good intentions, whether the land is there or not, the people will reject it. No matter how good the intention, people will reject it. So, the option left for the government is the Northern states that are interested, they discuss it there, they do it there. Because the cattle will be brought down to this place, it will be more expensive here. For those who can afford it, let them go for it. That will be the way out. Have ranches there, let the people go about it. Again, we must understand that when you talk about cattle herdsmen, you are talking about peoples individual private businesses. It is not a national thing for crying out loud. It’s not everybody that is interested in cattle. It’s not everybody. It’s just like my own business that I go about, Federal Government doesn’t go into it to know how they will do this or do that for me, no. The cattle herdsmen must find a way to go about their business in a way that will not encroach or destroy other people’s right and businesses.