President Bola Tinubu has declined to personally receive a special delegation from South African President Cyril Ramaphosa led by International Relations Minister Ronald Lamola, redirecting the envoys to the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs amid growing tensions over xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa.
President Bola Tinubu has delivered a diplomatic signal without saying a word — by simply refusing to show up.
The Nigerian president has declined to personally receive a special delegation sent by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in response to the ongoing xenophobic attacks on Nigerians and other African nationals in South Africa. Instead, as reported by Daily Trust, Tinubu directed the visiting envoys to meet with Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanolaiye.
The delegation, led by South Africa’s Minister of International Relations and Cooperation, Ronald Lamola, arrived in Abuja over the weekend carrying a personal message from President Ramaphosa. The visit, however, got off on the wrong foot from the start.
Presidential Special Adviser on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga confirmed the development to Daily Trust, explaining that Lamola arrived on Friday without prior notification to the Nigerian government and immediately insisted on a personal audience with President Tinubu to deliver Ramaphosa’s message.
“First of all, the envoy arrived on Friday, without prior notification to the Nigerian government. He insisted on meeting the President on Friday to deliver his message. The Foreign Affairs Ministry said the request was out of order,” Onanuga said.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs rescheduled the meeting for Monday — but President Tinubu made clear he would not be present, directing Ambassador Enikanolaiye to receive the delegation and brief him afterwards.
The diplomatic snub comes at a particularly sensitive moment. Nigerians and other African nationals have faced renewed and intensifying xenophobic violence in South Africa in recent months, prompting the Nigerian government to begin evacuating its citizens, sparking public protests across Nigeria, and fuelling widespread calls for stronger diplomatic and economic consequences against Pretoria.
Air Peace CEO Allen Onyema had already called on Nigerians to boycott South Africa economically, while the Nigerian government has been under mounting pressure to take a firmer stance against the attacks.
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