The Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Aminu Wali, the minister of state for Foreign Affairs, Senator Musiliu Obanikoro and the Nigerian envoys in South Africa, Messrs Uche Ajulu- Okeke, and Martin Cobham, on Tuesday, pleaded with Nigerians to forgive the South Africans over their recent Xenophobic attacks against foreigners living in their country.

The top government functionaries made the plea when they appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, following their invitation by the senate for briefing over the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa.

They specifically pleaded with the Senate to reconsider its stand over its five-point resolution seeking severance of certain bilateral relationship with South Africa.

The senate had last week, passed a resolution to among others, urge the Nigerian government to recall the two envoys in Pretoria and Johannesburg as well as drag the Zulu king, Goodwill Zwelithini, before the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

But officials of the Foreign Affairs ministry said taking drastic actions against the South Africans because of the incident would adversely affect its economy and that Nigeria might attract negative publicity in the process.

In his submissions, Wali explained that what happened in South Africa was not targeted at Nigerians and that the incident had negatively affected few Nigerians.

He said, “As of now, the situation has not warranted such drastic actions like recalling our envoys in the South African country. We are big brothers of Africa. We cannot retaliate by recalling our envoys because it will send wrong signals which could affect their economy.

“Even countries whose citizens were killed and got their shops looted, had not taken such action.”

He explained that the police in South Africa seemed to be overwhelmed hence authorities of the country drafted the military, especially to the gheto to maintain law and order because security reports had indicted the police as being part of the problem.

Wali added that law and order had been restored in the country since military personnel were deployed in the major towns that were mostly affected by the incident.

He said, “On the Zulu king, the South African Human Rights Commission is already investigating his roles, hence we need to wait for the outcome of the investigation so that we don’t assume holier than thou status.

“What we need to do now is to make sure that there is support from our government to make sure that Nigerians affected are well taken care of.”

He said two Nigerians were wounded and hospitalized; Five shops looted; Two families which included six women and eight children were also displaced.

He also explained that a total of N84m being damages done to Nigerians had been calculated and being processed on behalf of the victims, as compensation.

He said, “We cannot rely on the Xenophobic postings on the social media because they were not authorized by the authorities. Already, certain sites were being blocked in order not to incite the citizenry against the foreigners.”

He also said South Africa, though politically independent, has been economically independent.

“Any further negative actions taken against them will adversely affect them. We should not allow this particular incident to destroy our past efforts in South Africa which Nigerians contributed immensely to assist in getting out of the apartheid.”

Obanikoro on his own, said King Zulu had addressed a news conference in Durban where he invited envoys of the affected countries and refuted the allegation that he incited people against foreigners.

He also noted that, “since kings in Africa don’t admit mistakes or offer apology publicly, for Zulu to have done this, means it’s his own way of offering an apology.”

On compensation, Obanikoro said that the South African ambassador in Nigeria had already explained that the South African Minister of small businesses and four others, had been deployed to affected

Forgive them? Tell that to d families of the poor souls who lost their life cause of south african's insecurities.