ABUJA (Reuters) – South Africa and Nigeria are embroiled in a diplomatic spat after the authorities at Johannesburg airport deported 125 Nigerians, alleging their yellow fever vaccination certificates were fakes – the latest twist in a long-standing rivalry between Africa’s two biggest economies.
Nigeria
has responded with undisguised tit-for-tat deportations of 84 South
Africans in the past two days, according to a senior official at the
State Security Service who could not be named.
“South
Africans will know we are very serious with this matter and that any
deportation of any Nigerian, we will meet it with equal reciprocal
measure,” Foreign Minister Olugbenga Ashiru told a hearing at the
National Assembly late on Tuesday.
“What you see
playing out is … xenophobia by South Africans against all Africans, not
just Nigerians, including even those from their neighbouring countries,”
he said.
A spokesman for South Africa’s home
affairs department said the decision to deport the Nigerians stemmed
purely from concerns about health.
“It’s not an
immigration issue, it’s a health matter … Nobody without a yellow fever
certificate is allowed into the country and that’s what this is,” said
Ronnie Mamoepa.
Cards proving vaccination against
yellow fever – a deadly mosquito-borne disease – are required by most
African countries for entry. But they sometimes serve as a lever for
immigration officials to obstruct travel or extort bribes.
Olugbenga warned that Nigeria could take broader retaliatory measures, including a clampdown on South African companies.
“Their
companies here in Nigeria are making more profit than in South Africa.
They bring in half-baked graduates and place them above better qualified
Nigerians, and we have been overlooking that before now. There are many
ways to hit back,” he told the Senate.
Nigeria
is the biggest market for South Africa’s MTN mobile operator. South
Africa’s Shoprite and Standard Bank Group also have profitable
operations in Nigeria.
Nigeria and South Africa
have been at odds diplomatically at the African Union several times,
including over the conflicts sparked by former Libyan leader Muammar
Gaddafi’s and Ivory Coast president Laurent Gbagbo’s bids to stay in
power last year.
South Africa backed Gbagbo and
Gaddafi as counterweights to Western hegemony, even when the two men
began killing opposition demonstrators, while Nigeria backed
intervention to oust them.
Forged yellow fever vaccination certificates are easy to buy from hawkers at Lagos airport.
Unlike many African countries, relatively developed South Africa has the facilities to check whether they are fake.
No comments:
Post a Comment