www.africanactivist.msu.edu/organization.php?name=National+Committee+Against+Apartheid

The National Committee Against Apartheid (NACAP) was
founded by the Nigerian government sometimes in the
1960s with branches all over Nigeria. Through NACAP, hundreds
of South Africans resident in Nigeria went to school free
of charge and Nigerian workers contributed financially to the
liberation of South Africa. NACAP had
alliances with the labor movement, student groups,
progressive elements within the country and other
grassroots organizations.

(Source: Akpan H. Ekpo, a
former member of NACAP)

www.naij.com/427645-nigerias-role-in-ending-apartheid-in-south-africa.html


In March 1960, 69 black people were
massacred in Sharpeville, South Africa, by
the white apartheid police. That same year,
Nigeria successfully liberated itself from
160-year British occupation.
The new Nigeria’s leaders’ reaction to the
Sharpeville massacre has changed everything
in South Africa from then on.
Here is a letter
Nigeria’s Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa
Balewa sent to the African National Congress
(ANC) militants on April 4, 1961.

A letter from Nigeria’s Prime Minister
Abubakar Tafawa Balewa to the ANC sent on
April 4, 1961. It was supposed to emphisize
Nigeria’s commitment to fight against
aparheid in South Africa.

Immediately after sending the letter, Sir
Balewa lobbied for the effective expulsion of
South Africa from the Commonwealth in
1961.

Beyond political support, Sir Abubakar
Tafawa Balewa was the first leader to
provide a direct financial aid to the ANC
from the early 1960s. At the height of the
liberation movement in the 1970s, Nigeria
alone provided $5-million annual subvention
to the ANC and the Pan Africanist Congress
(PAC) annually.

In 1976, Nigeria set up the Southern Africa
Relief Fund (SAFR) destined to bring relief to
the victims of the apartheid regime in South
Africa, provide educational opportunities to
them and promote general welfare.

The military administration of General
Obasanjo contributed $3.7 million to the
fund. Moreover, General Obasanjo made a
personal donation of $3,000, while each
member of his cabinet also made personal
contributions of $1,500 each. All Nigeria’s
civil servants and public officers made a 2%
donation from their monthly salary to the
SAFR. Students skipped their lunch to make
donations, and just in 6 months, in June
1977, the popular contribution to the fund
reached $10.5 million.

The donations to the SAFR were widely
known in Nigeria as the “Mandela tax”.

As a result of the fund’s work, a first group of
86 South African students arrived in Nigeria
in 1976, following the disruption of the
education system in South Africa. It
happened after the massacre of 700
students by the white police while the
former were protesting against the decision
by the apartheid regime to change their
education language to Afrikaans.

Hundreds of South African students have
benefited from the fund’s activity having
come to study in Nigeria for free.

Beyond welcoming students and exiles,
Nigeria had also welcomed many renowned
South Africans like Thabo Mbeki (former
South African president from 1999 to 2008).
He had spent 7 years in Nigeria, from 1977
to 1984, before he left to the ANC
headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia.

For South Africans, who could not travel
abroad because the apartheid regime had
withdrawn their passports, Nigeria’s
government issued more than 300
passports.

Along with fellow African countries Nigeria
lobbied for the creation of the United
Nations Special Committee against Apartheid
and chaired it for 30 years, longer than any
other country.

Between 1973 and 1978, Nigeria contributed
$39,040 to the UN Educational and Training
Programme for Southern Africa, a voluntary
trust fund promoting education of the black
South African elite.

As for trade, Nigeria had refused to sell oil
to South Africa for decades in protest against
the white minority rule. Nigeria had lost
approximately $41 billion during that period.

Above all, Nigeria was the only nation
worldwide to set up the National Committee
Against Apartheid (NACAP) as early as in
1960. The committee’s mission was to
disseminate the evils of the apartheid
regime to all Nigerians from primary schools
to universities, in public media and in
markets, through posters and billboards
messages.

The NACAP was also responsible for the
coordination of Nigeria’s government and
civil society joint anti-apartheid actions and
advising of policy makers on anti-apartheid
decisions. For over three decades the NACAP
had successfully built alliances with labor
movement, student groups, progressive
elements and other international grassroots
organizations within Nigeria for effective
anti-apartheid activities.

In fact, until 1960s, the ANC fight against the
apartheid regime in South Africa was
yielding very small results. The whole world
was quite indifferent to the suffering of the
black South Africans.

Moreover, western
countries strongly supported the apartheid
regime providing it with technologies,
intelligence and favorable trade agreements.
Things started changing dramatically only
after African countries became independent
in the 1960s. Nigeria unequivocally took
over leadership of the anti-apartheid
movement worldwide.

Who una hep enter troubu o!

south africans should read about thier history before coming online to spew rubbish because alot of them cannot read all this things nigeria and a lot of africans did to them and still be this mean to fellow africans, i will never set my foot on that country because of what i have heard about them

These are kind of educating write up we expect to read since politics is ova.

@ topic dose doin dis re nt preview to dis kind of info.

Abduljohn:
These are kind of educating write up we expect to read since politics is ova.

@ topic dose doin dis re nt preview to dis kind of info.

But unfortunately the MOD will do this topic no favour at all. What an interesting thread!