By Abdulrahman Abdulraheem
The South African government yesterday ate humble pie by tendering an “unreserved apology” to its Nigerian counterpart over the deportation of 125 Nigerians over the weekend, which resulted in a diplomatic spat between the two countries. The South African government sent an official apology letter to this effect to Nigeria.
Peoples Daily investigations revealed that the South African government, which had earlier adopted a hard line stance over the Yellow fever card imbroglio, was forced to retreat primarily to protect its economy and the business interests of some of its top citizens domiciled in Nigeria. Aside being the biggest market for South Africa’s mobile telecoms operator, MTN, Nigeria is also a strategic hub for South Africa’s Shoprite as well as Standard Bank Group, the parent of StanbicIBTC, all of which have profitable operations here.
A reliable source in one of the South African firms in the country told our reporter yesterday that investors in his company, some of who are members of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) in South Africa had to pressure the government of the country to see reason why allowing the diplomatic row to linger would hurt their own nation more than Nigeria.
This, the source said, “played a significant role in getting the SA government to backpedal from its earlier position on the matter (yellow fever card feud)”.
The MTN Group’s financial result as at December 2010 showed that its total revenues globally for that year stood at N2.57 trillion (115 billion rand), while earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBIDTA) stood at N1.07 trillion (48 billion rand).
A break-down of the Group’s results showed that MTN Nigeria, which remains its biggest operations, contributed the most to its revenues and profits in 2010. MTN Nigeria made total revenues of N749 billion that year, which was 29% of the Group’s total revenues in 2010.
In offering the unreserved apology to the Nigerian government over the saga, Deputy Foreign Minister of South Africa, Ebrahim Ismail, flanked by two Nigerian diplomats, told a news conference yesterday in Pretoria, that his country’s officials had acted in a way the “government believes could have been handled better”. He also described the first deportation incident as ‘regrettable’.
“The governments of South Africa and Nigeria view the development in a serious light. Accordingly, the two countries have, through diplomatic channels, consulted at the highest level on the ways of avoiding a recurrence of such development.
He said that the two countries have a long standing bilateral relationship and “share a common commitment to the unity and prosperity of African continent as well as a just and equitable world.
“We will continue to work together at various levels to achieve this common objective, notwithstanding the recent unfortunate events involving immigration matters which may have created contrary impression,’’ Ebrahim said.
He said both countries were considering implementing a variety of measures to strengthen the historic bilateral relationship between the two sisters African countries.
Ebrahim said the two countries had agreed that the Nigeria- South Africa Bi-National Commission should be revived as soon as possible so as to forestall future occurrence of such disagreement.
The two sides also agreed that the Immigration Working Group under the Commission be revived to iron out consular issues. He said it was also agreed that South Africa’s National Health Department and the Gauteng Health Department should consider re-opening the vaccination clinic at the Oliver Tambo International Airport so that passengers without the yellow fever card could be vaccinated upon arrival at the airport, instead of being deported.
According to him, the two nations’ health authorities will also exchange vaccine batch numbers and details of the official institution that administers the vaccine for verification at the port of entry.
“This information would also be made available to our missions in Lagos and Abuja who issue visas based on the proof of a yellow fever certificate. The airlines will also be informed about the verification process”, he said.
Ebrahim said further that the two sides had agreed that their immigration officials should be first to deal with passengers at the port of entry and if they experience any challenge they could invite officials of other units for assistance.
He said where there was a need for mass deportation of Nigerians from South Africa senior officials of the department should be consulted. He said if fully implemented these measures would “address the current immigration challenges affecting citizens from the two sister African countries and help us avoid a recurrence of the regrettable incidences we have seen recently’’.
Meanwhile, the Nigerian Foreign Affairs Minister, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru yesterday announced the nation’s acceptance of the apology by South Africa.
It will be recalled that Nigeria avenged the poor treatment of its nationals by deporting at least 84 South Africans back to their country from the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos, causing further damage to the already strained relationship between the two countries. The South African authorities had earlier deported 125 Nigerian nationals, including a serving senator, for allegedly trying to enter the country with fake vaccination certificates called the Yellow fever card.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
