Dr Junaid Mohammed, a medical doctor, politician and member of the Northern intelligentsia, speaks on the self-determination quest by the Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, the xenophobia attacks by South Africans on Nigerians and other foreign nationals in South Africa, the $9.8 billion judgment debt against Nigeria, 2023 presidential elections and power shift. He also speaks on other contemporary national issues. Excerpts.
What do you think about the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians and other foreign nationals in South Africa and the nature of reaction to it by the Federal Government and the people?
This is very unfortunate. The xenophobic attack on Nigerians, Ethiopians, Zimbabweans, Tanzanians and other foreign African nationals in South Africa is disturbing and condemnable. The South Africans are speaking from two sides of their mouth. One, they want to live as if they are the custodians of the liberation struggle and that they fought hard exclusively to dismantle the apartheid regime in their country. On the other hand, they are showing levels of intolerance on fellow Africans. They give the impression that they see the struggle as somehow, we are a burden to them. But when they were in the struggle, we were the mainstay, the main pillar of support as well of other African countries. They have resorted to making the whole thing very obscene and very irresponsible. Nigerians are being targeted. Why? I don’t know. I don’t know why they are making Nigerians the main object of their attacks. The attacks have been very vicious and unsparing even to other African nationals. Even in the face of the attacks, Nigerians have managed to maintain decorum. Having admitted this, we also have to be careful about how we react. We don’t have the aggression and economic capacity to engage the South Africans in a manner that the attacks have elicited.