Xenophobic attack: FG demands compensation for victims

By Jubril Bada
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The federal government has demanded compensation from the South African government for those who lost their lives, properties as well as prosecute those arrested during the   xenophobic attack.

The government also declared that Nigerian government is taking the South African government to task at ensuring that justice is done to ameliorate the humiliation visited on her citizens.

The assurance was given yesterday by the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa at the First Diaspora Lecture held at the Federal University of Technology, Akure.

Dabiri-Erewa who spoke through her Director of Media, , Abdulraham Balogun  explained that it is not a crime to move within the African countries, saying that any Nigerian who contravened the laws of the host country should be prosecuted.

According to her, “We are pressing for compensation for those who lost their properties. Justice for those killed, while those arrested should be prosecuted by the South African government”

Dabiri-Erewa noted that potentials in Nigeria and Africa” made remittance of over $25b into the country last year.

“Nigerians in Diaspora have made Nigeria first in Africa and third in the world. The remittance as at last year was over $25 billion which is the budget of two countries in West Africa”, she explained

She added that if the country taps more into the resource, it will benefit more from it.

Mrs Dabiri-Erewa, who posited that Nigerians are making headway in health and technology in diaspora said it is necessary each state have a Diaspora Desk for it to link up with Nigerians in Diaspora.

Delivering the Lecture, Prof Mobolaji Aluko said Nigerian universities were not enough, not evenly populated, not properly funded, not adequately staffed, and lacked coherent national academic development policy.

 The Vice Chancellor of FUTA, Prof. Joseph Fuwape, said the lecture with the theme “Role of Africans in Diaspora in the Transformation of University of Technology” was a relevant topic to contemporary time and challenges necessary to tap into the potentials of people and continent with enormous capacity which has delivered little so far.

He noted that the African continent is blessed with great human and materials resources as it has been reputed to be the most endowed in term of natural resources deposit.

Fuwape explained that Nigerians have continued to make waves in different sectors both at home and abroad, contributing immensely to the global economy.