By Abdu Rafiu
My attention has been drawn to publications in the BusinessDay, Nigeria’s leading and compelling business newspaper today. I said last week, horrendous as the experiences of our people were in the hands of South African mobs, Nigerians themselves were not, to a large extent, without blame. To every effect there must be cause. While Mr. Chigachi Eke, described as Witness to History gave extensive reasons for the distasteful, indeed horrifyingly hateful experiences, saying Nigerians largely caused the problems, another Nigerian, Yaw Nsarkoh, has put the blame squarely at the table of the South African President, Cyril Ramaphosa. It is President Ramaphosa that has failed fellow Black Africans and South Africa. According to Nsarkoh, South Africa has been going down under his watch. To deepen our understanding of the xenophobic tragedy, and because this Column has shown its perspective of it extensively, it behoves me, for balance, to share the views of others on it, even though my position is unwavering that doing harm to our fellowmen has unpalatable consequences, sour fruits for harvesting sooner or later, here or in the beyond. I am, therefore, reproducing the illuminating perception of the two Nigerians, one described as a Witness to History.
In the words of Yaw Nsarkoh: “In 2005 when the writer arrived in South Africa, I was living there with my then young family. Thabo Mbeki was President.
“Mbeki was a deep Pan-Africanist. I once had a four-hour encounter with him, and left deeply impressed with his intellectual capabilities and acumen.
“South Africa even then faced risks of xenophobia, given its history, but it had real leadership. That leadership ensured xenophobic mobs did not run amok attacking foreigners, especially Africans, with impunity.
“Since then, the Mandela/Mbeki era ended, there was a brief caretaker presidency, then Zuma, then Cyril Ramaphosa. The latter has made all the difference, in my view.
“By several estimates I sourced, in 2005, SA’s GDP growth rate was 5.8 per cent; in 2025 that number was 0.5 per cent. I could, if time and space allow, go on to point out in what other ways, in my eyes, South Africa changed.
“Leadership matters, so do leaders. I say this even at the risk of being monocausal in analysis. The ANC had an overwhelming majority in 2005, in 2026 it hangs on to life in government by partnering the DA, having lost significant electoral legitimacy. Leadership matters, so do leaders.”
Chigachi Eke writes glowingly about how hospitable South Africans could be, using his personal experience. He got so integrated that he became a member of ANC. In his view, it was Nigerians who abused the hospitality and played into the hands of bad elements in South African communities. There was also the issue of defiance against the counsel and warning by the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, Dr. Dozie Ikedife, who rushed to South Africa to warn against coronation of anyone as Eze Ndigbo South Africa to avoid confrontation with the host country.
In his account, Chigachi Eke states: “I arrived in south Africa in June 2002, and a year later the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits University) offered me a full postgraduate scholarship for my Master of Arts. Every Nigerian I met at Wits with First Class or Second Class Upper, without exception, was offered a scholarship by South Africans.
“Even before my graduation in June 2005, South Africans gave me a permanent Resident Permit. I got my South African Citizen Identity Document and International Passport by 2009. Thereafter, I registered as a financial member of the African National Congress, ANC, and voted in 2009 Election.
“That same year, 2009, I served as National Secretary of the Chief Baldwin Obasi-led Ohanaeze Ndigbo South Africa when the association formed an alliance with the ruling ANC in that year’s Presidential Election that brought Jacob Zuma to power. During our pro-ANC rally at the Hillbrow Theatre, I spoke before Honourable Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, who was South African Minister of Home Affairs. She was the ANC delegate to our rally.
“In her speech, the esteemed Minister Nqakula assured Igbos of South Africa that was how we introduced ourselves and were so recognised by Her Excellency that it was the policy of her government to empower Ndigbo and Nigerians. Then she told us to tell Nigerians with degrees in Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Geography to come to South Africa and take up teaching jobs. Where did she wrong Nigerians?
“The leadership of Randfontein Municipality was so impressed by our discipline during the Mother-of -all-Rallies organized by the ANC two weeks later at Ellis Stadium, Johannesburg, that it issued us a Special Invitation during its African Day Celebration. The good people of Randfontein wanted the Ohanaeze to come and talk about Igbo Culture. The paper I presented on behalf of Ohanaeze was titled, “Man and His Chi: The Igbo of West Africa” I chose this topic because my South and East African friends at Wits were curious about why most Igbo names bear “Chi.” The Igbo community under Chief Obasi attained a golden age in diplomacy. Even the scourge of Igbo-killing -Igbo was efficiently tackled.
“Therefore, I am competent to speak on Nigerians’ uneasy relationship with Black South Africans because I was on the ground zero. It is not true that Nigerians helped Black South Africans liberate themselves from Apartheid only for them to forget so soon. Be it known that Black South Africans wholeheartedly welcomed and empowered us with ways and means, including their citizenship. We are the ingrates deliberately committing crimes in South Africa. That is the real bone of contention being craftily deemphasised by commentators; for which reason I place it back on the centre stage. Not every Nigerian in South Africa commits crime. But even those of us not into crimes bear the stigma of collective guilt.
“It is not my business here to talk about other African migrants in South Africa. I am only concerned with the Nigerian problem. Which is essentially an Igbo/Yoruba/Edo problem. Elements from these ethnic groups are involved in wholesale criminality that creates tensions between Black South Africans and us.
“Two factors will help you understand the crimes we perpetrate in South Africa. One, the crop and character of Nigerians found there. The Igbo population, the largest, was 300,000 in 2009. Yorubas and Edos constitute the second and third largest groups. Unlike what obtains in the Americas, Nigerians in South Africa are basically traders, artisans and outlaws who came to South Africa to “hustle.”
“This trader/artisan/hustler population means trouble. Four out of every 10 Nigerians prefix “Dr” to their names as a respectable mask for criminality. A genuine graduate thinks twice before committing a crime since he hopes to use his certificate someday. Self-interest steers him from moral unorthodoxies. But a hustler who has no certificate could do anything and vanish into thin air. For instance, a Nigerian patent medicine seller scammed the management of Hillbrow Clinic, Johannesburg, into recruiting him as a medical doctor in the late 1990s. He ran away when his employers became suspicious, as he refused to enter the theatre and perform surgeries.
“Xenophobia originated within the Nigerian community in South Africa; it is the natural response of law-abiding Nigerians against their criminal-minded countrymen. The dog-eat-dog that obtains among Nigerians means you must develop antipathy against other Nigerians to be murdered. There is no morality, civility or love as Nigerian-kill-Nigerian. Black South Africans only imbibed and magnified it upon realising what we were hiding. You don’t expect them to tolerate the very criminals you detest? That is the provenance of xenophobia in south Africa.
“And two, also factor in the character of Black South Africans if you must understand the patterns of crime we commit in South Africa. They are humble and honest when answering your questions. Their humility misled us into seeing our benevolent hosts as lazy idiots. Argumentative by nature, our presumptuousness means we also talk rudely to them.
“But there is also the other side of Black South Africans that terrifies every Nigerian. This is their penchant to kill without warning. Nigerians “talk Shakara” but don’t shoot, but Black South African shoot without talking. Nigerians only behave nicely inside the Hiace bus of a Zulu driver because bludgeoning you to death with his dreadful knobkerrie means nothing to him. In Nigeria, we fear soldiers, but bus drivers are to avoid in South Africa. We have a deep phobia for Black South Africans. That explains why everyone scampered when they announced all foreigners must leave by 30th June 2026.
“At play is the classical Steve Biko Two-Complex Syndrome: Black Suth Africans who bear the brunt of our crimes detest Nigerians. But knowing full well our intransigencies, we Nigerians are ever suspicious that Black South Africans are itching to snuff out our lives. Our fear conditions the crimes we commit. For instance, armed robbery is a no-go area; it could bring you into physical contact with Black South Africans who will certainly shoot you dead.
“Crimes favoured by Nigerians in South Africa are those we execute from a safe distance. They include: (1) Illegal coronation of Ezendigbo by extortionists associated with the Igbo community. (2) Wholesale manufacture and importation of cocaine, methamphetamine, ephedrine, etc, by Igbo drug barons (3) Global frauds by elements among Yoruba and Edo communities (4) Abduction and trafficking of South African underage girls for prostitution by Igbo, Yoruba and Edo cultists, and (5) Rampant killing of Nigerians by Igbo, Yoruba and Edo cultists.
“Space allowing, we now address the criminal coronation of Igbo kings that angered Black South Africans into expelling all African nationals.
“In 2008, Dr. Dozie Ikedife, President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide, the socio-cultural association of the over 80million Igbos, rushed to warn us never to crown anyone ‘Eze Ndigbo’ (Igbo King in South Africa). He cautioned that such an institution could bring the peace-loving Igbo community into confrontation with our host country. Instead of a king, Dr. Ikedife implored us to pick one of us for him to recognise as “Onyendu Ndigbo South Africa” (Igbo Leader in South Africa).
“Dr. Ikedife arrived South Africa with two powerful Igbo monarchs, namely, HRM Eze Cletus Ilomuaya, chairman of the South Eastern Traditional Rulers Council; and HRM Igwe Kenneth Orizu, the Igwe of Nnewi. But even while Dr. Ikedife and our kings were addressing the Igbo community, the gang interested in crowning one of their own king approached the South African Court to restrain Dr. Ikedife and our monarchs from recognising anyone as ‘Onyendu’ (Leader) as the Igbo community already had ‘Eze’ (King).
“Our leaders left South Africa after inaugurating Ohanaeze Ndigbo South Africa with Chief Baldwin Obasi as president, Sunny Unachukwu-John, a Unisa law student, as Youth Leader and Chief Frank Times Ifeanyichukwu as “Onyendu “Ndigbo South Africa.”
“With the pent-up fury of psychopaths, the pro-monarchical gang ‘crowned’ another man ‘Ezendigbo South Africa’ and also formed a parallel Ohanaeze Ndigbo South Africa. Thus began the schism in the Igbo community. Eventually, Chief Ifeanyichukwu was poisoned and only the one masquerading himself as Ezendigbo South Africa was left standing. His death cleared the coast for the two factions of Ohanaeze to emerge. But rather than uniting Ndigbo for progress, especially in building the much -desired Igbo Market as a way of helping our boys go legit, the unified Ohanaeze Ndigbo South Africa under different leaderships teamed up with the two groups calling themselves Nze na Ozo South Africa and Eze-in- Council South Africa. The Evil Trinity provoked Black South Africans by crowning fee-paying Igbos “Eze”, “Igwe” and “Obi”, contrary to Dr. Ikedife’s instruction.
“The crowning of ‘Ezendigbo East London’ discomforted South Africans. Provoked, Black South Africans, reeling from centuries of alien rule and land dispossession, reacted to the excesses of Ezendigbo East London, labelling Igbos ‘colonialists’, ‘criminals’ and ‘terrorists. Resolved to defend the land of their ancestors, it came as a rude shock to them that their Nigerian brothers could contrive to also rule them as cruel White settlers did. Enough is enough. They told Nigerians and other African nationals that the safety of any foreigner, documented or not, found in their country after 30th June 2026 could not be guaranteed.
“The first to flee South Africa were Nigerian drug peddlers, cultists, Ezes, Obis and Igwes. Those stranded are poor Nigerians who did legitimate businesses. Summer in the Northern Hemisphere is winter in the Southern Hemisphere. Nigerian children and their hapless parents forced to pass many nights outside the Nigerian High Commission in Pretoria are exposed to the biting winter cold nights. Other Africans also passing winter nights outside their embassies blame Nigerians for their predicaments.”
Yaw Nsarkoh on the other hand states: “Crime in South Africa has many originating factors—historical contradictions, egregious inequality, proliferation of small arms, poor civic education, and fragile institutions are on the list.
“Singapore and China, both have multiple poor countries as neighbours, but their institutions work so they are not overwhelmed by imported crime from illegal immigrants. The view by some Ramaphosa’s propaganda lackeys that South Africa’s problems are the doing of others veers too close to escapism. The parallels with BREXIT and Boris Johnson are too vivid.
“All crimes must be condemned, that is simply right, but it must be done within the law—no ifs and buts, no excuses.
“South Africa’s governing-institution strength can be summarised using a single composite index: the Worldwide Governance Indicators (WGI) Overall Governance Score. Based on available data, South Africa’s approximate scores in the stated years below (using the composite averages for all attributes) were:
*2005:–63/100
*2025:–48/100
These values reflect a clear long-term decline in institutional strength. With “2005—Approx. 63/100, South Africa in 2005 still reflected
*strong rule- of -law institutions
*comparative effective bureaucracy
*moderate corruption levels
*high regulatory quality.
This was the tail end of the Mbeki era, when institutional performance was still relatively robust.
2025—Approx. 48/100. By 2025, the IMF documents a substantial decline:
*weakened state capacity
*deteriorating corruption control
*declining government effectiveness
*increased political instability
*worsening regulatory quality
The IMF explicitly notes South Africa’s ‘rank deterioration in Worldwide Governance Indicators’ and a widening “distance to the good-governance frontier.”
Interpretation: The drop from 63 to 48 represents:
*a 24% decline in institutional strength over two decades
*erosion across all governance pillars
*a shift from upper-middle institutional performance toward the lower end of the global middle tier
This aligns with broader assessments of state capacity decline, including corruption scandals, weakened enforcement agencies, and policy instability.
“Leadership matters, so the leaders. That crime should be dealt with is an inescapable, indelible, ineluctable fact of society. That South Africa seeks to do so is eminently supportable. What cannot be supported though, is to unleash vigilante mobs on people—foreigner or indigene—as a means of doing so. Law cannot be meaningfully enforced using outlaw methods. Cyril Ramaphosa must be told this straight in the face. He must show up and deal with the matter.
“After South Africa, I lived in Nigeria for six years. It is a country in deep distress, on many fronts a development failure. I make no excuses for that. Nor do I even deny that some Nigerians could have been involved in unacceptable crimes in South Africa.
“First, the demographic constitution in Nigeria is a game of playing blind man buff. Population estimates are very slippery, on an average day in that country. This is no secret. On what basis then does he reach the conclusion, with such sure footedness, that crimes by Nigerians in South Africa are committed by Edo, Igbo and Yoruba people only? By some estimates, these three groups represent just 24% of the Nigerian population, but who knows.
“Second, undocumented immigrants, as Thabo Mbeki recently pointed out, are exactly that—undocumented. Which means they are not regularly registered in the South Africa system. So where did the writer source such precise ethnic breakdowns from? Perhaps, that is another thing that changed about SA. When I lived there, precise use of data impressed me a lot. Now we are where we are.
“Many prominent SA people, as well as ordinary people have spoken out against xenophobic violence. Their voices must not be forgotten as the SA government of Ramaphosa is rightly criticised across the Africa continent (for dithering and fiddling as Azania burns). As an African, I am deeply saddened that these failures of leadership are causing such sharp divisions among our people.
“Ramaphosa must show up and lead. So far, he has not.”
Enthralling and lucid as the submissions of the two gentlemen are, they do not touch the core of the development. It bears restating that man in these times must seek knowledge. Didn’t Apostle Paul say to us: “For now we know in part but when that which is perfect comes, that which is imperfect shall be done away with”? For, we now know that as contained in the revelation of the times, “In the Light of Truth”, the Grail Message: “Every earthly action can only be considered as the outward expression of an inward process.” What maketh a man, indeed, what defines him, is the state of his inner maturity!
The Guardian
