Xenophobia: Nigeria, South Africa set up early warning centre

Foreign Affairs Minister Geoffrey Onyeama says Nigeria
and South Africa have set up a 24-hour early warning
system to protect Nigerians from unwarranted attacks.
Onyeama said to newsmen at the forum in Abuja that
Federal Government was ready to intervene.
“Wherever any Nigerian is threatened or in difficulty, we
will always intervene quickly, an example of this was in
Italy, you will recall last year or the year before there
was a Nigerian who was attacked and killed.
“We quickly engaged with Italian Government and really
took all the necessary steps, arresting people and pay
compensation to the family. So we will always engage to
protect Nigeria lives wherever they may be.

“We are hoping now to set up a 24-hour call centre so
that Nigerians anywhere in the world can call a particular
number whenever they are in distress,”
He said that the Nigerian High Commission in South
Africa had been directed to facilitate legal support to help
the victims of recent xenophobic attacks in the country
to get their compensations.
The minister said that the victims of the attacks had
been advised to make inventory of their losses through a
mechanism that had been created, known as the early
warning unit.
“What we have done is that we visited the scenes of
these attacks; we spoke to victims, we saw their
businesses and we advised them to make an inventory
of their losses.
“And, that the mechanism we have created, the early
warning unit, what will then happened is that they should
submit all their claims through the Nigerian High
Commission to be presented at a high level meeting to
push the issue of compensation.
“First of all we have to see what the insurance laws
provide and really take it from there; the important thing
is that this should be addressed.
“We also asked the high commission to facilitate with
legal support, to identifying lawyers and all that to help
in the process.”
Onyeama decried attacks on Nigerians in South Africa
and India which sometimes led to death and expressed
concern that the South African situation was more
troubling because it often re-occurred.
“We have engaged directly with the highest levels of
government of South Africa. The Vice President of South
Africa spoke with the Acting President at the time
“I went to South Africa with the Minister of Interior and
we were able to get the South African Government to set
up an early warning unit.
“We wanted an institutional mechanism that will address
the issue of xenophobia in South Africa.’’
Onyeama said that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
identified the fact that the Nigerian Union in South Africa
did not have any access to the South African
Government.
He said the Nigerian community felt it was at the mercy
of the South African police.
“We were able to get the early warning unit, comprising
the Nigerian High Commission there and the Nigerian
Consulate but most importantly, the Nigerian Union in
South Africa.
“On the South African side, the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, the Ministry of Home Affairs which is in charge
of the police and the police.
“They will be meeting regularly to share intelligence,
share information, build trust and develop strategies for
early warning intervention.
“We thought that was a very important achievement; it is
institutionalized, they meet once every quarter or they
could meet earlier,” he said.
The minister said that he had directed the Nigerian High
Commissioner in South Africa to arrange the first
meeting as quickly as possible.
He expressed the hope that the step would go a long
way to address the situation.
Onyeama described the attack on Nigerians in India as a
one-off thing because it was a response to a particular
incident.
He said what was gratifying about the Indian case was
that the Indian Government was very quick in
condemning and arresting suspects.