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| Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila |
The Speaker of the House of Representatives has declared that the old arrangement that made it possible for South Africans to maim and kill Nigerians must be revoked.
The speaker spoke while addressing a world conference in response to the xenophobic attacks against Nigerians in South Africa.
Gbajabiamila, who spoke from a prepared speech and with the full compliment of the House leadership members further said: โWe do not intend to speak many words .
โThe time for speaking has long passed, and the time for action has arrived upon us with a fierce urgency demanding nothing less than our total commitment to revoking the old arrangements that have made such abominations against our people possible.
โNigerians have long travelled far and wide in search of knowledge, of experience and prosperity.
โAs we have travelled, we have opened also our borders to those who will seek their greener pastures here.
โIn Africa, we have demonstrated our commitment to the brotherhood of nations, sacrificing life, labour and wealth to achieve peace and restore freedom from Sierra Leone to Liberia, Sao Tome to South Africa.
โWe have sought nothing in return, we have made no claims to the land and resources of our brothers.
โOur commitment has always has been to the advancement of Africa, to freedom in all our lands and prosperity for all our peoples.
โYet today and too many a time, we are called to stand as pallbearers, bringing home to burial the bodies of our brothers and sisters, fathers and mothers, our children, savaged and decimated. What is their offence? That they dared to dream of glory and profit beyond our borders, and having dreamt, they endeavoured to make real the visions of their heart.โ
โ We did not provoke, nor do we deserve the violence that has been visited on our people in South Africa. We reject entirely the obvious attempt to change the true narrative of events by casting the recently organised acts of violence as merely internecine conflict between gangs fighting for turf.
โUnless it is the position of South African government that all Nigerians living in South Africa are gangsters and criminals, we demand that they reject these claims without equivocation.
โThe vile images of violent devastation and death randomly visited on innocent people seeking their way in the world, strikes at our heart, causing pain that words alone cannot express. Let no one add insult to our grief.โ
