The streets of Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban have once again become wicked theatres of xenophobic barbarity, where the lives and livelihoods of Nigerians and other African nationals are being systematically dismantled with brutal impunity.
What is unfolding in modern day South Africa is not merely criminal violence; it is a profound moral bankruptcy, a gratuitous act of ingratitude that casts a long, shameful shadow over the nation that once claimed to champion human dignity and liberation.
It is a historical irony of searing bitterness that South Africa, the very country Nigeria helped liberate from the clutches of apartheid, should now turn its venomous gaze upon Nigerians.
It is on record that between 1960 and 1995, Nigeria expended in excess of $61 billion, supporting South Africa’s freedom struggle, a sum unmatched by any other nation on earth. Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s 1961 letter of solidarity to the ANC was not mere rhetoric; it was followed by tangible, sacrificial action.
Nigeria was the first African country to provide direct financial assistance to the ANC, contributing $5 million annually by the 1970s and launching the Southern Africa Relief Fund in 1976, which raised $10.5 million in merely six months through what became known as the “Mandela Tax”; where Nigerian students voluntarily skipped meals to donate.
The magnitude of Nigeria’s commitment can not be overstated. Under General Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, the Nigerian government contributed $3.7 million personally, while cabinet ministers and civil servants emptied their pockets.
Nigeria refused to sell oil to apartheid South Africa, forfeiting an estimated “$41 billion” in revenue.
The country nationalised British Petroleum assets in 1979 as a direct protest against international complicity with apartheid.
Hundreds of South African exiles, including future President Thabo Mbeki, received free education in Nigeria, spending formative years under Nigerian hospitality. Nigeria issued over 300 passports to South Africans who were internationally ostracised.
At the United Nations, Nigeria chaired the Special Committee Against Apartheid for three decades.
Yet today, the ungrateful descendants of that liberation struggle have forgotten the hands that lifted them. Nigerian citizens in South Africa are being looted, bullied, and killed. Children of Nigerian-South African families are persecuted in schools. Businesses are vandalised.
The Nigerian government summoned South Africa’s Acting High Commissioner on May 3, 2026, after fresh xenophobic attacks intensified, but diplomatic gestures are no longer enough. Two Nigerians have already lost their lives in this latest wave of violence.
This is not merely an act of cruelty; it is an act of selective historical amnesia. South Africa owes its freedom in no small measure to Nigerian sacrifice.
The apartheid regime fell not only because of internal resistance but also because of external pressure, and Nigeria was the vanguard of that pressure.
It behoves the Nigerian government to act decisively and without further procrastination. It is time for Nigeria to reciprocate in kind.
First, the federal government should repatriate all South African nationals currently residing in Nigeria. Just as South Africa has deemed Nigerian citizens unworthy of safety and dignity,
Nigeria must equally declare that South Africans are no longer welcome on Nigerian soil. The Nigerian Immigration Service should be directed to expedite the orderly but firm return of South African citizens to their homeland, allowing them to rebuild in the country they have chosen to make a haven for hatred.
Second, Nigeria must nationalise South African companies dominant in the Nigerian market. Enterprises such MTN, Stanbic IBTC Bank, and other South African-owned conglomerates have profited handsomely from Nigerian consumers while their home government condones violence against Nigerians.
These companies should be compulsorily acquired by the Nigerian state, with compensation held in escrow pending resolution of the xenophobic crisis.
This is not xenophobia; it is reciprocal justice. A nation that can not protect foreigners within its borders can not expect those foreigners’ home countries to welcome its citizens.
A nation that has forgotten the sacrifices made for its freedom forfeits the right to their continued goodwill.
The international community must also take note: South Africa’s xenophobic violence is not a domestic issue. It is a diplomatic emergency that strikes at the heart of African solidarity.
When Nigeria spent billions to liberate South Africa, it did so in the belief that African unity mattered. Today, that unity has been shattered by South Africa’s own hand.
President Bola Tinubu must not permit this moral calamity to continue untreated. The time for diplomatic protests is over. Nigeria owes its citizens protection, and it owes history an answer. If South Africa does not honour its debt of gratitude, Nigeria must ensure that debt is collected in full, through repatriation, nationalisation, and uncompromising resistance to further exploitation.
Let this be the lesson: Freedom given freely can be forgotten, but it can also be reclaimed. The same Nigeria that helped birth South Africa’s freedom now possesses the sovereignty to protect its own. The question is whether it will summon the political will to do so.