Nigeria and South Africa ended their week-long dilopmatic face-off yesterday. South Africa apologised.
Nigeria deported 131 South Africans as part of a reciprocity policy – in protest against the deportation of 125 Nigerian travellers last Friday at the Oliver Tambo International Airport in Johannesburg.
As part of the peace deal, a special envoy from South Africa is expected to meet with President Goodluck Jonathan in a couple of days.
Also, a meeting of the Bi-National Commission of the two countries will reconsider all issues which led to the row, especially a review of the Yellow Fever Vaccination Card.
The Bi-National Commission will determine whether the card should be waived or retained with a new format number system.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru, who broke the news yesterday in Abuja, said Nigeria received a letter of apology from South Africa and the apology has been accepted by the government.
Ashiru said: “The recent mass deportation of Nigerians by the South African Authorities from the Oliver Tambo International Airport, Johannesburg on the 1st and 2nd of March 2012, allegedly on the grounds that they were in possession of irregular Yellow Fever Vaccination Cards, has expectedly elicited reactions from several quarters in Nigeria.
“In accordance with its avowed policy of protecting the interest of Nigerians wherever they are found, the Nigerian Government had to take appropriate reciprocal measures, primarily to protest this inhuman treatment of Nigerians by overzealous South African Immigration officials.
“This unfriendly act was considered unacceptable to the government, especially coming from a friendly African country to which Nigeria has regularly extended solidarity, friendship and support.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs under my watch immediately undertook the following measures:
•Nigeria’s High Commissioner in South Africa was directed to lodge a formal protest to the South African Authorities.
•Nigerian and South African officials held a first round of talks in Pretoria on the 5th of this month with a view to resolving the issue.
“Another meeting was held yesterday 7th of March 2012. The meetings, among other things, met the request for an apology by the South African authorities over the maltreatment of our nationals. I have accordingly received appropriate communication from my South African counterpart.
“Other agreements reached include the following: (a) The Immigration Working Group (IWG) of our Bi-National Commission (BNC) would be revived; (b) The South African National Department of Health and the Gauteng Health Department would consider re-opening the vaccination clinic at the Oliver Tambo International Airport so that passengers without the Yellow Fever Vaccination Card can be vaccinated upon arrival at the airport, rather than be deported.
“(c) The Nigerian and South African Authorities would exchange vaccine batch numbers and details about the official Institutions that administer the vaccine for verification purposes at the port of entry. The relevant authorities would exchange samples with regards to the vaccine batch numbers; (d) The Immigration authorities would be the first officials that deal with passengers at the point of entry and if they experience challenges would invite other units, such as health, to help and not the other way round.”
“Arising from the determination of the two sides to settle this matter amicably, the South African President will, in the coming days, send a special envoy to Nigeria to convey his regret at the unfortunate incident that has constituted an irritant in relations between our two sister nations.”
“My South African colleague and I are agreed that one of the ways in which we can avoid incidents that are harmful to our relationship is to make use of the bilateral structures that already exist, such as the Bilateral National Commission (BNC), as mentioned above.
“In this regard, we both agreed that an early revival of the BNC will be appropriate and Nigeria is determined to use the opportunity of the BNC when it is reconvened, to fully address the whole gamut of our relations.”
Recalling steps taken in the wake of the development, the Minister said: “Also, the South African High Commissioner was summoned to the Foreign Ministry on the 5th of March 2012 by the Permanent Secretary who also handed him Nigeria’s protest against the spate of deportations of our nationals from that country.
“The High Commissioner of South Africa, however, expressed regret about the treatment of the Senator and assured that the matter would be looked into by his government immediately.”
“Last Tuesday, I had interactive sessions at the National Assembly, first with the House Committee on Foreign Affairs and immediately thereafter with the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs.
“At both meetings, I enumerated to them the actions we are taking and which I assured will be mature and calculated in order to underscore to our South African brothers the level of concern with which we view their actions.
“A subsequent scrutiny of travel documents of South African passengers travelling into Nigeria revealed that there were inadequacies contained in them. Consequently, over the last couple of days, over 131 South African nationals have been deported from Nigeria.”
Also at the session, the Minister of State II in the Ministry, Nurudeen Mohammed said: “This is a government that cares for its citizens. Any Nigerian that is maltreated anywhere in the world will be taken up. This is a message to all the governments globally. We will not stand by where Nigerians are maltreated unjustly.”
The joint statement by the Department of International Relations, Republic of South Africa, and the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria gave the details of the truce.
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