The Campaign for Democracy has issued a one-month ultimatum to President Bola Tinubu and the federal government to sever diplomatic and economic relations with South Africa over what the group described as systematic killings, destruction of businesses, and coordinated ethnic hostility targeting Nigerians, warning that nationwide peaceful protests would follow if the government failed to act by June 6.
In a statement addressed to the president, the National Assembly, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Campaign for Democracy National President, Reverend Ifeanyi Odili, said the attacks on Nigerians in South Africa had gone far beyond isolated criminal incidents and had become a deliberate pattern of violence that Nigeria’s continued diplomatic silence was effectively endorsing.
Among its demands, the group called for the immediate expulsion of the South African High Commissioner to Nigeria, the recall of Nigeria’s High Commissioner to South Africa, the imposition of a total trade and economic embargo, the revocation of operating licenses held by South African companies in Nigeria, and the establishment of an independent international tribunal to investigate the attacks and secure compensation for victims.
The organization said Nigeria had committed enormous financial and diplomatic resources to South Africa’s liberation struggle between 1960 and 1995 and that the current climate of hostility and intimidation represented a profound betrayal of that history.
The group also appealed to the National Assembly to pass an emergency resolution endorsing the proposed diplomatic and economic measures, and warned that maintaining cordial relations while Nigerians were allegedly being killed and their livelihoods destroyed would diminish Nigeria’s sovereignty and dishonor the sacrifices of previous generations.
