ACF scribe, Sani, urges Buhari to petition AU over assault
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (left); President Muhammadu Buhari and Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama in a meeting on xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa at the State House …yesterday.<br />
The Secretary-General of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Anthony Sani, has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to petition the African Union (AU) over the attack by South Africans on Nigerians before it degenerates into a diplomatic crisis.
Sani spoke in an interview in Kaduna yesterday while reacting to the attack on Nigerian business community and other foreign nationals in South Africa, saying that Nigerians were not the only target.”
According to him, “we must be careful on any reaction that may likely cause a diplomatic problem between us and South Africa,” saying that the Nigerians should exercise restraint in reacting negatively by attacking South African interests in Nigeria.
He then asked Buhari to officially send a letter to the AU urging it to immediately take measure in handling the diplomatic problem before it boils down to crisis situation.
In a related vein, former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, said Buhari had not done enough to protect Nigerians in South Africa.
Frank, in a statement, said he was in touch with one of the leaders of opposition political parties in South Africa, Julius Malema, over the imbroglio aimed at ending the hate-induced violence against Nigerians in that country.
He urged President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, to urgently halt attacks against Nigerians and the wanton destruction of their property by rampaging citizens of that country.
He also called on the leadership of the AU to intervene and prevent needless hostilities between Nigeria and South Africa.
Also, Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) has bemoaned the weak response by the Federal Government to the persistent bloody xenophobic violence targeting other Africans and Nigerians in South Africa.
The group in a statement frowned at the seemingly lackadaisical attitude of Buhari and urged him to wake up and take concrete, forceful and impactful actions against South Africa.
However, the Deputy Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Niger Delta, Henry Nwawuba, in a statement, has advised the Federal Government to jettison the long-held ‘Africa as centre piece’ foreign policy of Nigeria.
Nwawuba, who described the attacks as barbaric and wicked, urged Buhari to adopt the diplomatic reciprocity deployed by the United States (U.S.) in recent times in response to the latest round of attacks against Nigerians.
