Due to the violence being committed against foreigners living in South Africa including Nigerians, it is worth reminding the perpetrators the role Nigeria played in ending aparthied in their Country.
South Africans are alleged to be protesting the fact that Nigerians and other foreigners are taking their jobs, turning their girls to sex workers and drug trafficking. Read more after the cut.....
Aggrieved South Africans should resort to legal means of voicing their concerns instead of violence that leads to wanton destruction of lives and properties.
Below are some of the ways Nigeria helped South Africa in their struggle against Aparthied in case they seem to have forgotten;
1.) Nigeria set up the National Committee Against Apartheid (NACAP) in 1960.
2.) The late Sunny Okosun composed a song called “Fire in Soweto” in 1977 to show support for the fight against apartheid.
3.) From 1966, Nigeria gave material and financial support to the freedom fighters in South Africa.
4.) Then Nigeria’s Prime Minister, Alhaji Abubakar Tafawa Balewa sent letter to South Africa’s ANC militants on April 4, 1961 showing support for their cause.
5.) Nigeria provided $5 million to the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) annually.
6.) In 1976, Nigeria set up the Southern Africa Relief Fund (SAFR) for the purpose of bringing relief materials to the victims of the apartheid.
7.) The military administration of General Obasanjo contributed $3.7 million to the fund and Obasanjo personally donated $3,000 to the fund.
8.) All Nigeria’s civil servants and public officers made a 2% donation from their monthly salary to the SAFR.
9.) Nigerian students skipped their lunch to make donations, and by June 1977, the total contribution to the fund had reached $10.5 million. The donations to the SAFR were widely known in Nigeria as the “Mandela tax”
10.) Between 1973 and 1978, Nigeria contributed $39,040 to the UN Educational and Training Programme for South Africa
11.) Nigeria boycotted the 1976 Olympics and Commonwealth games in 1979 as part of our protest against apartheid in South Africa
12.) From 1960 to 1995, Nigeria spent over $61 billion to support the end of apartheid, more than any other country in the world.
13.) Nigeria refused to sell oil to South Africa in protest against the white minority rule. Nigeria lost approximately $41 billion then.
$41billion dollars. Remember this was our oil boom moment. As long as we fought apartheid, the money meant nothing.
It is also germane to remember that the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa took a more dramatic turn during the regime of Gens. Murtala/Obasanjo from 1975-1979. The struggle was so strong that domestic awareness was mounted to the degree that many tertiary institutions formed clubs like Youth Solidarity on South Africa.
Apart from creating domestic and mobilizing public opinion, young Nigerians contributed from their little pocket monies to the struggle. At some level, the then Head of State Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo threatened to use all means available to fight down this evil system-including invoking blackman’s power.
It’s esoteric if not impossible to know the quantum of Nigeria’s financial commitment to the struggle against apartheid because apart from official commitment by government which was in different layers, individuals also committed resources into the struggle in diverse channels.
Source...Emem Benson
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