13102019

PAGE 28 — SUNDAY VANGUARD, OCTOBER 13, 2019
I was on S/African
‘Wanted List’
– Urhobo, ex-Executive
Secretary of S/African
Relief Fund
Aformer Executive Secretary of South African Relief
Fund, SARF, Dr. Omawumi Urhobo, in this interview,
explains how South Africa and Nigeria can foster
permanent harmonious relations. Urhobo, who is the
President/Chief Executive Officer of Morgan Smart
Development Foundation, also shares her experience as the
student counsellor to more than 500 South African students
in Nigeria during the apartheid era. She was the Student
Counsellor of the International University Exchange Fund,
IUEF, an international NGO based in Geneva, Switzerland,
that had an agreement with the Federal Government of
Nigeria and the African National Congress, ANC.
By Ebele Orakpo
Involvement in the South
African struggle in the 1970s
It was the aftermath of the Soweto
Uprising of 1976 when many students
went into exile and they needed to be
evacuated because they were staying in
the border countries of Botswana and
Zambia and the South African
government was sending planes to
bomb these countries. Thabo Mbeki,
who was ANC’s chief representative in
Nigeria, negotiated for these youths to
be brought to Nigeria to continue their
studies.
With that arrangement, about 500 of
them were brought to Nigeria. I was a
fresh graduate from University of
Lagos, working in the Federal Ministry
of Social Development. The Cabinet
Office, as it was then called, was
looking for a Student Counsellor that
would take care of the students. That
was how that responsibility fell on me.
It was a great idea because the first
thing that occurred to me was that the
salary they were offering me was more
than what I was getting in the ministry.
Who employed you?
The NGO recruited me while the
Federal Government made the places
available. The students from Soweto
were politically-vibrant and here I was,
a young girl, whose duty was to ensure
that they were properly placed in
schools, and their social needs met. The
Federal Government Colleges, FGCs,
were newly set up so they were taken to
FGCs all over the country. I got them
admission, and I ensured they got their
stipends. We did that until apartheid
ended in 1994.
Hell of an experience
It was a hell of an experience for me.
This group of politically active students
did not behave normally, so people just
couldn’t understand them. They could
fight and do a lot of things but with the
support of government, we ensured they
survived and got education. Mashinini,
who was the President of SA students in
Soweto then, was hosted in Nigeria, so
also was Makhubo, the guy in the
famous photo, carrying the girl that was
shot by the police during the Soweto
Uprising. Mmusi Maimane, the
opposition leader in the South African
parliament, and many others were here.
At a point, Nigeria was considered a
front-line state because of our
commitment to the anti-apartheid
cause. Thabo Mbeki was so effective in
terms of establishing a good
relationship with the government as the
Chief Representative of the ANC.
Nigerians took these SA blacks into
their homes. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo
said Nigeria spent over $10 billion as
support for the struggle.
Mama Evelyn
I became Mama Evelyn at a young
age because students were coming to me
with various challenges. A student once
came to me and said: “Mama Evelyn, I
can’t get a girlfriend,” and I asked why;
he said: “It is because I am not
circumcised and the girls said they won’t
be with me.” I made arrangements for
many of them to be circumcised.
Nigeria helped to crumble apartheid.
Post-Apartheid
When apartheid ended, the South
African Relief Fund, SARF, came into
place. Beyond the Federal Government’s
support for the struggle, individual
Nigerians were called upon to also help.
A lady (now late) donated what she
called her widow’s mite, that was the
seed money used to start the SARF. Later,
all civil servants were instructed to
contribute a percentage
of their salaries to SARF.
I became the Acting
Executive Secretary, ES,
of SARF because the
substantive ES could not
deal with the rudeness
and the very militant
posture of the students.
For years, we were
looking after the students
and, at the same time,
raising money and taking
relief materials to the
‘frontline’ states.
At one point, the South
African government had
my name on the ‘Wanted
List’. They said the
students were brought to
Nigeria to be trained and
I was one of the
supervisors. You can then
imagine when I visited
Botswana, Zambia or
Mozambique because
these were places the
refugees were taken to.
After the Soweto
Uprising, there was
continuous rioting, even
ordinary South Africans were coming
out and they flooded Zambia and
Botswana. Zimbabwe had their problem
at the same time, so we were also taking
in Zimbabwean refugees. There were
Mozambicans too but because of the
language barrier, they did not find it
comfortable here. When apartheid
collapsed, the mass movement of
Nigerians to South Africa began.
•Dr. Urhobo
Mass movement
With independence, the South African
blacks that have been oppressed for so
long, did not have the boldness of
character and the aggressiveness needed
to take charge of the evolving economic
system and all the vacancies. So,
Nigerian professionals moved there in
droves. Naturally, the bad guys also
moved in. In 1996, when I went to South
Africa, the Hillbrow area was a no-go
area for South Africans. Nigerians
colonised the area.
It’s an area with high rise buildings
originally owned by white South
Africans, so Nigerians were buying off
the buildings. Over the years, they
created a colony for themselves there
and more blacks moved in.
Dwindling economy
I was there two years ago and I was
stunned by the level of poverty. The
present South African government has
not done too well. Thabo Mbeki, who
took over from Nelson Mandela, was
more sophisticated. He was in exile and
had interacted and knew the dynamics.
He was going to be more careful with
the transition. Mandela was neither a
politician nor a
development
practitioner, he just
depended on a lot of
At one point,
the South
African
government
had my name
on the ‘Wanted
List’. They said
the students
were brought to
Nigeria to be
trained and I
was one of the
supervisors
advice but by the time
Thabo Mbeki came, he
was more grounded in
terms of his political,
economic and
developmental
exposure; so I think he
had a template of a
gradual thing that will
help to transit properly
and absorb the blacks
into the system. Then
there was an internal
coup that I saw happen.
They removed him and
Jacob Zuma, who was
internally grounded in
the country, came in. He
didn’t really have
exposure but he became
a politician that would
say all the right things
and people followed him
and then everything
started going bad. It was
during his rule that
corruption got to the
limit and he was indicted. There was a
failure in governance.
Failure of governance, scapegoat
Cyril Ramaphosa is trying to salvage the
situation because he had some exposure
himself in the private sector, development
and business. By the time I went to the
country in 2016, the statistics were
frightening in terms of the level to which
the economy had degenerated, so it was a
question of the blacks looking for a
scapegoat on whom to transfer the
aggression.
Yes, there are many Nigerians there. Yes,
a lot of wrong things are being done by
Nigerians, but there is a huge mass of lawabiding
Nigerians contributing to the
economic development of South Africa.
Unfortunately, some of our people
exported all the bad behaviours in Nigeria
to SA – living in opulence, big parties, big
cars amid poverty. It is provocative. South
African blacks, I am sorry to say, are
typically laid back. They don’t have that
aggressiveness and it is because of years of
oppression.
SA blacks are laid back
I seriously indict the South African
government because they are not doing it
the right way. I remember the SA security
forces during the apartheid regime that
were very brutal. They ensured the security
of lives and property. What happened?
How come they can’t do anything about
the violence in South Africa today? If you
think that people have become a nuisance
in your country, there are legal ways to
deal with them. Arrest the ones you find
wanting, try them, sentence them to jail or
deport them.
But they are not laid back when it
comes to fighting other blacks,
why?
It’s because they have been trained to be
aggressive in the wrong direction. They
probably just need a leader who tells them
what to do. Nigeria and South Africa need
to dialogue. They said the Ghanaians
actually went to parliament to get a law in
place to dislodge Nigerians from Ghana. I
don’t think we went to the extent of getting
a law but there was a proclamation giving
Ghanaians one week or 48 hours to leave.
SA men accused Nigerian men of
taking over their women, how true
is that?
It is a fundamental issue. But again, who
doesn’t love a macho man? The Nigerian
man has style, has class, and the
wherewithal. And their girls are very
shapely. Again, there is a lot of violence
against South African women by their
men. I was watching Malema’s interview
where he said: “Ïs it the Nigerians that are
coming to beat your wives and girlfriends
in the villages?” Amid the crises, the
women went to demonstrate at the Stock
Exchange in Jo’Burg against the violence
of their men against them. So if they are
claiming that Nigerian men are taking
their women, is that enough to kill them?
Why don’t you be a man yourself and
make yourself worthy instead of
physically and mentally abusing your
women every day? They have a serious
alcoholic problem. Let us even leave the
drug side. When you drink, who is your
first contact when you get home? Your
wife! And you beat her up. I am not telling
lies against South Africans, it is the reality.
Drug cartels
The main drug cartels conduct their
business in more sophisticated ways but
Nigerians carry drugs on the streets. They
put them in lollipops for children to drink
and get addicted. No matter how you want
to put it, the South African government
has not met its responsibility considering
how far we have come.
Repatriation
not new
Ghanaians first repatriated Nigerians in
1957 immediately they got their
independence. The next was in 1965 in
which they sent away all Nigerians in
Ghana. In the early 80s, Nigeria sent over
two million Ghanaians packing. I am still
in touch with my friend, Mrs. Mbeki, the
wife of the former South African President,
till date. She is completely distraught.
She said to me: “Evelyn, I can’t
understand. Can we ever get together
again? That fraternity that existed between
Nigeria, South Africa and the whole of
Africa, not just Nigeria.” If you look at the
history of this “foreigner must go”, it
always has to do with the economic
situation and when the economic situation
becomes that bad, the first person they
move against is the foreigner. There is a
systemic failure in South Africa presently.
You may not believe it but that is the truth.
They have not been able to handle the
economy. It is in very bad shape, so the
South Africans find it easier to turn
against their own fellow Africans.