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30 — Vanguard, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019 08052202308 (sms only) Global wor orker ers’ union rises up against xenophobia, Afro-phobia •Blames bad governance, calls for full employment of African youths Stories by Victor Ahiuma- Young “Poor-on-poor violence in major cities of South Africa under the guise of Xenophobia points to crisis of governance and bad leadership in Africa.” Those were the words of The Vice President of IndustriALL Global Union, Africa Region, Issa Aremu, who spoke while addressing Special Congress of National Union of Mine Workers, NUM, Aremu in Durban, South Africa. The Vice President lamented that the wave of antiimmigrant violence which swept some settlements of Johannesburg and Pretoria with attendant looting of shops owned by immigrants also cast shadows on the historic miners’ Congress as well as World Economic Forum, WEF, which took place in Durban and Cape Town respectively. The Vice Geneva-based IndustriALL Global union organizes 50 million industrial workers world wide with majority manufacturing workers from South Africa and Nigeria. According to Aremu who is also doubles as the General Secretary of National Union of Textile and Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria, NUTGTWN, hundreds of African immigrants had been killed in the series of violent protests by some South Africa citizens, the first outbreak in 2008. Addressing delegates drawn from various mining regions of South Africa, he urged organized labour in Africa to demand for inclusive growth and development, declaring that labour must hold respective African governments accountable with respect to Industrialization, job creation, poverty eradication and income inequalities, being the factors driving youth violence, insurgency and xenophobia on the continent. Aremu described as “unacceptable paradox” a situation in which the two biggest economies in Africa: South Africa and Nigeria with 50 per cent of Africa’s wealth, parade as much as 60 per cent open youth unemployment rate as many as 60 per cent living below poverty level. He challenged “both the two labour centers in the continent, namely COSATU and NLC to engage their governments on reindustrialization, job- led inclusive growth, full decent employment, shared prosperity within the context of UN Sustainable Development Goals,SDGs falling which youth violence and loss of faith in democracy will persist. Despite the present diplomatic rows caused by xenophobic criminal attacks, Nigeria and South Africa have similar poor governance statistics; widening A cross section of IndustriALL Global Union, Nigeria, during campaign against precarious jobs. inequalities between few billionaires and bottom poor majority millions, growth without jobs, new illiteracy and ignorance among youths, absence of sense of history about pan-Africanism, leadership complacency and leadership denial. “South African political leaders to lead like Nelson Mandela who he recalled in Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, has pleaded with the International Transport Federation, ITF, for the training and upgrading of the skills of members to boost their employment opportunities. President-General of MWUN, Adewale Adeyanju, made the appeal while playing host to a delegation of ITF from Kenya and London, led by the African Regional Secretary, Mohammed Safiyanu. Safiyanu, a Nigerian is a former President of National Union of Air Transport Employees, NUATE. Adeyanju among others, recalled that when the government of Ibrahim Badamosi Babaginda clampdown on the union 1991, ITF stood by the union and assisted it to bounce back, How to promote industrial peace; increase productivity ---SEWUN THE Automobile arm of Steel and Engineering Workers’ Union of Nigeria, SEWUN, has advised employers in the sector to do the needful and embrace purposeful negotiations to ensure industrial peace and boost productivity. The union passed the message at its Annual Industrial Relations workshop jointly organized with Bablink Consultancy Services in Abeokuta, Ogun State, saying “one of the cardinal principles behind the formation of trade union movement is to act as a body that would negotiate on various issues of interest of members with the employers of labour or government.” 2008 even in retirement proactively rose to damn xenophobic attacks on fellow Africans. I condemn late response of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to serial murders of fellow African immigrants by criminal elements in South African cities. There is evidence that some local politicians in Johannesburg opted for cheap Speaking at the workshop with theme “Effective Negotiation for achieving sustainable Industrial Harmony” the union’s President, Elijah Adigun, said the programme was meant to address Conflict resolution, skill acquisition, management of union fund, Labour laws and Employment Regulations, productivity and work ethics, Workmen Compensation Act, etc. He said among others that “it is important that programmes be organized for members for the purposes of education; especially now that some branch officers hardly negotiate welfare packages for their members; but rely on the diversionary negative populism during the last elections to blame immigrants for youth unemployment and poor governance service delivery in South Africa. The promise of Africa Union as contained in the Constitutive Act of the Africa Union, AU, launched in 2002 is United States of Africa in which all Africans will collectively promote shared prosperity Maritime workers seek ITF’s help for skills upgrade begging ITF to assist the union in the training of Seafarers to meet to international certification. According to him, “I will appeal to you to do all that is possible to ensure that the trainings that has been denied Seafarers, not only the Seafarers, the dockworkers and other port workers are brought back. Training is very important, it is the key to moving forward. We want ITF to return the training as was being between 1987 and in the 1990s of training our members to compete with their foreign counterparts.” Responding, Safiyanu, among others said “We have discussed on how to address some of the deficiencies in the sector. Of course, our discussion is on seafarers. Why do we have foreign vessels operating in Nigeria waters without Nigerian seafarers in the vessels? What has come out is lack of training . Most of the Nigerian seafarers have what we called the basic training. The only way for you to be part of the global seafarers Labour network operations is to have internationally recognized certification. Most Nigerians do not have this. So, when we go back to London, we will see how to design some strategies to bridging that gap so that Nigerian Seafarers can have the international certification to work in international vessels.” He assured that ITF would continue to work to ensure that all ITF affiliates in Nigeria benefit from the the global body, saying “the only thing I will like that will also boost our image and gives us leverage for us to have capacity building in terms of national secretariat to do the negotiation, even when the items involved are domesticated. Adigun lamented that a proposal for negotiation was sent to employers in the association of Automobiles and Precision sectors where it has its members, “but the later is yet to invite us while the former has scheduled a date. We commend the Automobile industry for appreciating effective negotiation. We do hope employers in the precision industry will invite us any time soon because we cannot afford to create an industrial conflict at this time”. Lamenting further, the union stated that the influx of second-hand vehicles (Tokunbo) and inferior through trade and investment. African Trade Unionists as pan-Africans and members of global trade union movement must strongly condemn xenophobia, Afro-phobia, bigotry and neo-fascism. IndustriALL Global Union stands for democracy, peace and freedom for all. African workers have a right to seek legitimate work anywhere in the continent, of course within the context of national laws. There should be sanctions within the rule of law against criminals but it’s unacceptable to criminalize all Africans in Africa or anywhere. African National Congress, ANCis oldest political party in Africa. It is not by accident the party was named African National Congress, not South African Congress. Pan Africanism is a South African heritage, nobody dares to exorcise it now.” Aremu called on “organized labour to promote peoplepeople contact between Nigeria and South Africa. The present relationship between the two countries has been informed by zero-sum business game and profit making in which few rich winners take all, while ordinary people of the two countries count their loses in terms of limited job opportunities, crimes and violence. I call for the revival of Nigeria-South Africa bi- commission to facilitate cooperation instead of un-rewarding competition and confrontation.” training, additional welfare facilities is for you, as much as possible, to see how you can also increase your membership. We have a system in ITF that has to do with declaration of membership. We need to sustain this power, we are having these opportunities because of our strength in terms of membership. Like I said earlier that we have about 55 percent of total members in Africa, but if we have additional membership declaration, I think it will give us better and additional leverage .“I want to assure you that not just because I am a Nigerian, I was actually part of you and will continue to be part of you. Whatever that is due to you in terms of welfare, training and others, be sure that you are not going to be denied it. electrical cables from China have also been the sectors bane, reiterating that unhealthy business environment has made negotiations almost impossible with the employers. Managing Partner, Bablink Consultancy Services, University of Ibadan, Mr. Ogunsade Sunday, on his part said, “it is imperative that 21st Century Union leaders make a radical shift from the traditional ways of doing things. “We must imbibe new ideas that are in consonance with global best practices. Union officials must be exposed to various techniques involved in successful negotiation to maximize the gains of labour movement.”
SOUTH Africa has an acute problem with xenophobia. That goes without saying. The recent wave of xenophobic attacks on Nigerians and other Africans was just one of such appalling incidences. It is a terrible stain on the reputation of a country that calls itself the “rainbow nation”! Yet, Nigeria did not cover itself in glory with the reprisal attacks and unsavoury calls for retribution. South Africa’s xenophobia is vile, but Nigeria has no claim to moral superiority on hate-filled violence. Its moral outrage smacks of the pot calling the kettle black. Let’s start with the kettle: South Africa. Truth is, there is an ingrained culture of violence among Black South Africans, seared by decades of brutal apartheid rule. When they stopped attacking the Whites as apartheid neared its end, they turned on one another. In the early 1990s, Black-on- Black violence between supporters of the Inkatha Freedom Party and the African National Congress claimed over 15,000 lives. But since the end of apartheid in 1994, South African violent streak took a xenophobic form, as Black South Africans turned on foreigners. As I said, the recent xenophobic attacks were only the latest in a series of attacks on foreigners, dating back several years. In 2015, hundreds of South African youths looted and burned shops belonging to foreign nationals, asking them to “return to their home countries”. Similar xenophobic attacks took place in 2008, when a wave of antiimmigration violence left about 62 people dead. Two years earlier, in 2006, xenophobic riots broke out for several months in Cape Town. But what we call xenophobia is, in fact, Afrophobia, the hatred of fellow Africans. As the then South African police minister, Nathi Nhleko, said after the 2015 attacks, there was widespread Afrophobia in South Africa. The country’s current foreign minister Naledi Pandor said the same thing following the recent violence: there is a prejudice in South Africa against people from other African countries. This is very sad. Why would Black South Africans hate their fellow Africans? Have they forgotten so quickly how Nigeria, and other African countries, supported their struggle against apartheid? How could they forget, for instance, that Nigeria harboured several prominent ANC exiles, and made significant financial and diplomatic contributions to help accelerate the collapse of apartheid? As President Jacob Zuma said in 2015, the solidarity of other African countries “was critical to achieving the freedom and democracy we are enjoying today”. Sadly, South African youths, even some of their elders, hardly remember that today! But let’s face it, poverty and inequality also play a key role in fuelling the xenophobic attacks. South Africa is one of the world’s most unequal countries, with one of the highest unemployment rates, currently at 29 per cent. Over 10 million South Africans are unemployed and half the country live below the poverty line. Yet, out of the country’s 55 million-strong population, two Vanguard, THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2019—31 million, with 800,000 of them Nigerians, are foreign born. When you have a large visible immigrant community in a country amid widespread poverty and inequality among the locals, xenophobia is not far away. Poverty and inequality tend to breed the resentment of foreigners. Of course, xenophobia is not a uniquely South African problem. It is a world problem! What is unique about South Africa’s brand of xenophobia is the violent element. Sadly, South Africans have allowed their fear of immigrants to have a violent streak. There is absolutely no excuse for any form of violence. Which brings us to Nigeria. The reactions in this country to the xenophobic attacks in South Africa have been frenetic, even hysterical. Of course, Nigeria has a right to protest the ill treatment of its citizens in another country. Yet, what I have read and seen in the newspapers over the past two weeks smacks of confected indignation, an unconvincing claim to the moral high ground. There were reprisal attacks on South African companies in Nigeria, forcing, as one newspaper said, MTN to “shut offices nationwide”. That’s irrational because responding to xenophobic violence in South Africa by attacking its commercial interests in Nigeria risks damaging investor confidence and, thus, Nigeria’s economy. Sadly, even some prominent Nigerians were advocating farreaching economic sanctions. President Buhari’s party, All Dealing with the zeitgeist of South Africa’s xenophobia By PATRICK OBAHIAGBON THE incidents of xenophobic attacks in South Africa by South Africans, with Nigerians very largely as targets, have been characteristic and assumed nauseating dimensions. The rising orgy of killings and arsons has been quite worrisome. One wonders what offence Nigeria and Nigerians have committed to become consistent victims of xenophobia that has almost assumed a genocidal dimension. This is a strange comeuppance, given the huge investments - especially pecuniary, totalling over $60 billion - that Nigeria deployed in South Africa and Southern Africa to torpedo the apartheid regime foisted on the former British colonies by the minority White in cruel circumvention of the rights of the majority South African and Southern African Blacks. One had expected that South Africa, in particular, should, indeed, have always treated Nigeria as a compassionate big brother in the ramifications of the successful antiapartheid struggle. A celebratory attitude towards all issues that are Nigerian by the government and people of South Africa should have been taken for granted and as a matter of course to which fidelity should be kept as a directive principle of state policy. It is insalubrious and opprobrious that the good gesture by Nigeria had not found anchorage in a reciprocal gesture by South Africa; in which case the present leadership under President Cyril Ramaphosa, cannot escape essential South Africa’s xenophobia and Nigeria’s moral relativism indictment for the rising complexities and waves of debilitating xenophobic assaults on the significant other Blacks of foreign origin. To be sure, whereas post-apartheid South African presidents, particularly the late legendary and inimitable Nelson Mandela and other well-meaning, perceptive, perspicacious and temperate leaders of the anti-apartheid struggle, had worked so hard at continental amity, it is a harsh and corrosive verdict of history that the wheel of brotherhood is being reinvented by South Africa under President Ramaphosa. While it may not be correct to assert that xenophobia was alien to South Africa before the coming of Ramaphosa, the sheer magnitude of his body language had, without a doubt, encouraged an unprecedented renewed revulsion by South Africans for other foreign nationals, especially Blacks of African descent. His deputy minister of Police Affairs, Mr. Bongani Michael Mkongi, had recently endorsed the spate of xenophobic attacks wherein he referred to the activities of foreigners who were involved in legitimate business as tantamount to economic sabotage to South Africa. The ruling African National Congress, ANC, in South Africa does not seem to find anything wrong about these wanton killings, attacks on foreign nationals and looting of the businesses of foreign nationals; otherwise, it should have condemned the madness in the strongest terms possible. In the circumstance, it would be Responding to xenophobic violence in South Africa by attacking its commercial interests in Nigeria risks damaging investor confidence, Nigeria’s economy impracticable to expect a South African government under Ramaphosa’s presidency to demonstrate a political will to decisively address the scourge. Therefore, it is delicate for Nigeria, in particular, to continue to maintain diplomatic niceties in the face of real danger to her policy of citizen diplomacy. The attitude and body language of Ramaphosa’s government have not helped matters at all. The fact that no single South African had been arrested, tried and sentenced to prison for these dastardly acts reinforces the complicity of Ramaphosa’s government, which has negative implications for South Africa’s acclaimed good faith in the crystalisation of The South African way is not the appropriate trajectory to global humanism bilateral, multilateral and diplomatic relations. This is the reason the blame for the recent upsurge in xenophobic attacks should be laid at Ramaphosa’s feet. In the absence of expeditious and clearly effective and reinforcing positive actions by the South African government to halt this festering madness, protect the life and property of Nigerians and other foreign nationals and preserve their right to legitimate businesses, I will be at great pains not to concur with the call by the National Chair of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, for the Send Opinions & Letters to: opinions1234@yahoo.com Progressives Congress, called on the president to “nationalise” South Africa’s companies in Nigeria. The party’s national chairman, Adams Oshiomhole, asked Nigerians to stop patronising MTN and other South African companies in Nigeria, and called on the government to revoke the landing right of the South African Airways, adding that “it shouldn’t have the right to fly in any part of Nigeria”. So, instead of exercising selfrestraint, as expected of any responsible party and politician, Nigeria’s ruling party and its chairman are whipping up reckless populist sentiments. Yet, consider this. According to Xenowatch, xenophobic attacks in South Africa have claimed 309 lives and displaced 100,000 people in 24 years, between 1994 and 2018. Few of those are Nigerians. But, in 2018 alone, according to Human Right Watch, Boko Haram killed at least 1,200 people and forced the displacement of 200,000; while herdsmen killed at least 1,600 people, causing the displacement of 300,000! Ethnic and religious attacks have claimed more Nigerian lives than South African xenophobic attacks. Yet, where is the moral indignation? Where is the justice for the victims? How many people have boycotted herdsmen’s cows? Is it more tolerable when Nigerians kill Nigerians than when South Africans kill Nigerians? Judging by the reactions to the xenophobic attacks, the answer is yes. The moral relativism is galling! nationalisation of South African businesses in Nigeria. After all, the volume of trade between Nigeria and South Africa tilts in favour of South Africa. South African companies in Nigeria repatriate about $60 billion to their home country, whereas Nigeria is less disadvantaged in this regard. It is rankling that due to their laissez faire lifestyle of hedonism, epicureanism and riotous modus-vivendi, envious South African youths who depend on their government for social security benefits, would unleash terror, pains and death on Nigerians, in particular, and other foreign nationals, for their industry and resourcefulness. This is a queer macabre sense of vengeance against a people whose only offence is the obvious reward they derive from a competitive South African economy for their investments and hard work. Xenophobia has afflicted the South African spirit and inured their sensibilities. It is a misplaced zeitgeist that must be condemned by the global community. The United Nations must lend its stentorian voice in condemnation of the dastardly and beastly act. What we need more than ever before is continental and global peace. The South African way is not the appropriate trajectory to global humanism. South Africa must be made to respect the rights and preserve the life and property of legal migrants; otherwise, it should resort to becoming an insular nation, having no dealings with the rest of the human world. •Hon. Obahiagbon contributed this piece from Benin City.
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