Dear South Africans, Nigeria supported you when others did not

Thank you for briefly lending me your ears. What many of you, our South African brothers and sisters, who are today railing about Nigerian immigrants, fail to appreciate is that your first elected President, Nelson Mandela, was once an immigrant and political asylee in Nigeria, where he lived in the home of Nigeria’s first Aviation Minister, Chief Mbazulike Amaechi in Lagos in the early sixties.

Additionally, your second elected President, Thabo Mbeki, was also a political asylee living in Nigeria, whom the Olusegun Obasanjo military government of Nigeria financially supported between 1976 and 1978. Please fact-check me.

Nigeria was under considerable pressure from Western governments not to accommodate and support the African National Congress, but we did, and paid a price for it. A very steep price.

And between 1960 and 1999, more than two thousand South Africans schooled in Nigeria, on scholarship from the Nigerian government. I met some of them and have photographic and documentary evidence.

We understand that a few undesirable elements amongst us have brought the name of Nigeria into disrepute, and we are doing our best to address this in conjunction with the South African authorities.

These things are not as easy as you may think, because they involve ethnicity, and Nigeria’s authorities have to be sensitive lest some sections of our society see actions to curtail these activities as anti their ethnic group.

Having said that, please appreciate that our shared history goes beyond English as a common language. We were there for your leaders in terms of asylum, finances, and diplomatic support when many countries of the world, including the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, were not for you.

Not in rhetoric. We put money, arms, and safe houses at their disposal. We did other things that are not prudent to mention in a public forum, such as this.

A former Nigerian Head of State, General Olusegun Obasanjo, was the Chairman of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group, which negotiated the freedom of Nelson Mandela with the Apartheid government, beginning in 1986, and culminating in the release of Mr. Mandela on February 11, 1990. And Mr. Mandela paid a thank you visit to Nigeria on May 14th, 1990, aboard the Nigerian Presidential jet (see attached photograph)

One Nigerian businessman alone, Chief MKO Abiola, committed more than £500,000 of his personal funds to the anti-apartheid struggle in the seventies and eighties.

The claim that Nigeria spent $61 billion to secure your freedom is false. We spent a lot. But not that much.

Please bear with us. This current antagonism and hostility towards Nigerians is perhaps borne out of a lack of awareness and understanding of how far we have come together as a people.

We only know yesterday and today. Not tomorrow. Therefore, let us be measured in our rhetoric and actions, seeing as we are brothers and sisters borne from the womb of Mother Africa.

Omokri is the author of Facts Versus Fiction: The True Story of the Jonathan Years.