From Tony John, Port Harcourt; Noah Ebije, Kaduna; Scholastic Hir, Makurdi; Femi Folaranmi, Yenagoa and Okey Sampson, Umuahia
By this weekend, it is expected that the Federal Government would have airlifted over 500 Nigerians living in South Africa, who have indicated interest in returning home.
The development followed repeated xenophobic attacks on Nigerians and other foreign nationals living in the former apartheid enclave.
In this report, some Nigerians suggested how the federal government should reintegrate the returnees into the society.
There should be basic resettlement grants for immediate survival needs –Rev. Emmanuel Olorunmagba, cleric; Kaduna
I wish to suggest that there should be immediate reception and documentation framework to ensure that returnees are not lost in the system or left vulnerable to exploitation. There should be provision of basic resettlement grants or stipends for immediate survival needs.
The return of Nigerians from South Africa is not merely a repatriation exercise, it is a test of our national capacity to absorb, support, and empower our own citizens in moments of crisis.
A humane, but structured reintegration policy will ensure that these Nigerians return not as burdens, but as contributors to national development.
A stronger Nigeria is one that is prepared not only to bring its people home, but to help them rebuild their lives with dignity, opportunity, and hope.
FG should demand reparation from South Africa –Luka Binniyat, spokesman of SMBLF; Kaduna
Before the Federal Government evacuates these Nigerians from South Africa, every returnee should be required to document what he or she has lost through xenophobic violence. This should include destroyed businesses, abandoned investments, seized assets, stolen property, physical injuries, and compensation claims for relatives who were killed or harmed.
The Federal Government should compile these claims and formally present them to the South African Government, demanding full reparations within 60 days.
That’s how to raise the funds that would help them start life all over again in Nigeria.
If South Africa refuses to compensate the victims, Nigeria should respond with decisive measures, including the confiscation or freezing of South African assets and investments in Nigeria through appropriate legislative or executive action; the suspension of bilateral agreements, and, if necessary, the downgrading or outright severance of diplomatic relations.
They should be placed on govt-sponsored loan, grants schemes –Felix Ikpotor, journalist; Port Harcourt
In the first place, it is a welcome development that the Federal Government is now acting responsibly to the plight of its citizens abroad and more especially in troubled region like South Africa.
To help them settle down and reintegrate speedily, the government should enrol them in any of the government-sponsored loan or grants schemes to enable them get capital to start a new life here since they can’t be guaranteed of immediate government employment.
FG should find where they fit in the economic system –Emmanuel Obe, journalist; Port Harcourt
The next real challenge is how to rehabilitate these returnees who have lost means of survival, family and home. The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs exists for this. They should host them initially and later on find the returnees space where they well fit in into the economic system at home. The number isn’t much that they cannot be rehabilitated.
FG has done much bringing them home, they should face their lives –Chief Iorbee Ihagh, PG, Tiv union; Makurdi
Before they left, they were in their respective states. I think everybody should be taken back to his home state. First and foremost, you come from a state. If you are married, you are married to somebody from Nigeria. I don’t think it’s something the Federal Government will begin to build houses to keep them. They went there on their own and they used their passports, they must have given their states of origin, the local governments.
So, the federal government should take the responsibility of bringing them back but they can go back to their respective places. The Federal Government can hand them over to their state governors, and the governors will hand over to their local government chairmen, the chairmen will hand over to their traditional rulers. Everybody knows where they come from. Most of them are adults and at that age, you should know where you come from. It’s not like they are refugees. The government is evacuating them because they are in danger. It is the duty of the government to take care of their safety and bring them back. But when they returned back home to safety, they should face their lives.
FG should set up scheme specifically to rehabilitate these people –Dr Raymond Anumve, university lecturer; Makurdi
I have not really seen any social investment priorities around here. Otherwise, if we are rehabilitating individuals in our society who are terrorists; who are so-called de-radicalised terrorists, then there should be a policy, an arrangement that will take care of the well-being of individuals who opted to make a living in foreign lands, like those who are being evacuated back to Nigeria.
So, I propose that the Federal Government should set up a scheme specifically to rehabilitate these people, to give them something that they will be doing and taking care of their families and themselves so that they will not constitute a security risk or even become a liability around their own communities. They can actually take them to their own home states, but then, there should be a special package by the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs to handle that kind of thing, to take care of themselves at least between now and the next 12 months. This way they will be able to survive, pick up and continue with their lives. It is not just to bring them back at the airport and drop them to find their way.
FG should take their data to reintegrate them into the society –Dr Timi Timipa Igoli, university lecturer; Yenagoa
From previous experience, they would be repatriated and abandoned. This would be a sad experience for them because these are people who are earning their livelihoods. Of course, not everybody can survive in their own country, but these people found themselves in a foreign land, and unfortunately, they have been engulfed by xenophobic attacks. It is a good thing that the Nigerian government is repatriating them. That means the Nigerian government is living up to its responsibility of caring for her people outside the country.
However, my concern remains the mode and how those repatriated would be settled. My candid advice is for the government to take the data of those repatriated – their source of livelihood so that they can be reintegrated into society to prevent some of them from taking to crime. Scrambling to survive for these people may take a different tune if not properly managed. Honestly, I am not totally convinced from previous experience that the Nigerian government would handle the repatriation well. They may just be brought to Nigeria to be told to go to their respective homes with a little stipend for transport.
FG should make provision for financial assistance for them –David West, right activist; Yenagoa
It is a good thing to bring back Nigerians who are facing serious xenophobic attacks in South Africa. However, these people already have businesses and livelihoods there. Bringing them back to Nigeria without making proper provision for them would amount to another disaster. More so, you cannot just move people without a counselling unit to talk to them and see how they can acclimatise to the Nigerian environment. Some of them sold their houses or borrowed money to travel to South Africa to live a new life. But unfortunately, they are back in Nigeria. The federal government should make provision for financial assistance for them to cope. Otherwise, it would look as if they were brought from the frying pan to the fire. Already, we are contending with some insecurity and economic challenges.
FG should give them money to resettle –Dr. Charles Chinekezi, rights activist; Aba
It is quite unfortunate that South Africans would treat Nigerians living in that country the way they are doing despite what we did for them when they were struggling for independence. I don’t think South Africa can repay Nigeria what our country committed for their struggle, yet, our people are not being well treated in that country.
It is a good decision by the federal government to bring back these Nigerians who have indicated interest in coming back home. I will suggest that the federal government should profile those coming back home and give them substantial amount of money to enable them resettle and reintegrate into the society, so that they would not constitute social problems.
FG should give them grants to start fresh life – Ugochukwu Alaribe, journalist; Umuahia
I pity those Nigerians in South Africa who suffer this repeated xenophobic attacks. If not for the way the economy of this country was mismanaged by our leaders, what will an average Nigerian be looking for in that former apartheid country.
The Federal Government should as a matter of urgency, give the returnees grants for them to start life a fresh since they may be returning home empty handed. We already have enough security problems in the country and if these people returning from South Africa are not taken care of, they may become security risks and add to the nation’s problems.
