Human Rights Activist, Reno Omokri, has urged Nigerians to promote Pan-Africanism and stop the online battle with South Africans, News About Nigeria reports.
He gave this charge in a statement issued via his verified handle on X on Tuesday.
Omokri cautioned Nigerians against exchanging words with South Africans, stating that they cannot be told how to run their country.
He sympathised with Chidimma Adeshina, the model with Nigerian ancestry who withdrew from the Miss South Africa contest, but noted that it is a South African problem.
“My fellow Nigerians, Please do not exchange fire for fire with South Africans. It is their country. Our brothers and sisters are their guests. We cannot tell them how to run their country. And xenophobia is not an exclusively South African problem. We have had this in Nigeria towards Ghanaians in the eighties and nineties. It is a human problem since the days of the biblical Babel, that should be dealt with using divine wisdom.
“Moreover, we as a nation have not done the best we could in scrutinising our citizens going to South Africa to weed out unsavoury elements who go there to give us a bad name. I have been to South Africa. We could do better as Nigerians. Let me not say more on this.
“The Chidinma saga was unfortunate, but we must accept their choice and stop goading them or allowing them to taunt us. They have evolved from their history and have formed a bond with other racial groups in their country, which, in itself, is commendable.
“They do not need us going to their country with a superiority complex, or talking down on them on social media, to tell them how they should manage their internal affairs and race relationships. They have come to terms with being a rainbow nation, and I am not sure that that is such a bad thing.
“Who knows, we could even learn from them.
“We need fraternal relationships in Africa. We must promote Pan-Africanism. This tit-for-tat is not constructive and will do us more harm than our South African brothers and sisters. It is enough. Let this matter die a natural death, and do not feed the back and forth anymore,” he stated.
