The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has condemned the recent South African xenophobic attacks on foreign nationals, particularly on Nigerians, their property and businesses.

The APC National Publicity Secretary, Malam Lanre Issa-Onilu, who said the party was ‘deeply’ saddened by the ‘unwarranted attacks’, stated that Nigeria deserved better treatment from South Africa.

Issa-Onilu, who said it was too early for South Africans to forget their country’s history, added that many of the key players in the struggle against apartheid are still alive and active in the country’s national affairs.

“We therefore cannot understand why there seems to be a conspiracy of silence on their part,” he said in a statement issued yesterday in Abuja. The APC spokesman, who said the ‘barbaric’ attack on citizens of other countries pointed to a failure of leadership, stated that South African leaders could not exonerate themselves from the ‘cowardly’ act.

The party, which hailed the decision of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to summon the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria over the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians, said it was one of the first steps and government’s proactive response to the ‘unfortunate’ incident.

The party assured Nigerians that the President Muhammadu Buhari administration would continue to take decisive measures, stressing that the safety of Nigerians – home and abroad – was non-negotiable to the APC administration. “We call on the South African ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC) to urgently step in. This is completely at variance with what ANC stood for. The ANC government can no longer pretend about this obvious contradiction.

“The violence being meted to Nigerians under ANC calls to question the very essence of the struggle against apartheid in which Nigeria was a frontline ally of South Africa. How can those who supported you and made huge sacrifices for your freedom become fair games to be murdered in cold blood? “Perhaps there is a disconnect between the younger and older generations of South Africans.

The older generation cannot sit back while the uninformed youths and some South African public officials in their quest for inordinate populism destroy what we collectively achieved over several decades of sacrifice and brotherliness,” the statement also read.

Read more: https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/xenophobic-attacks-apc-calls-on-anc-to-intervene.html