(News Investigators)/ A labour leader, Oyinkan Olasanoye, has charged the Federal Government to adopt measures to discourage Nigerians from embarking on risky migrations, especially to xenophobic enclaves such as South Africa.
Mrs. Olasanoye, Second Deputy President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC) made the appeal in an interview with a correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos on Monday.
She spoke against the backdrop of the relentless killing of Nigerians in South Africa, the latest of which is the murder of a top insurance executive in her hotel room in South Africa on July 4.
Deputy Director-General of the Chartered Insurance Institute of Nigeria, Elizabeth Ndubuisi-Chukwu, was allegedly killed in South Africa, where she was attending a conference.
Ndubuisi-Chukwu’s death increased the number of Nigerian deaths in South Africa to 127 in the past three and half years.
According to the labour chief, many Nigerians may not be willing to leave Nigeria if the government provides employment opportunities and upgrades infrastructure.
“If electricity supply remains poor and bad roads are not repaired, small and medium scale entreprises will find it difficult to operate not to talk of growing.
“These problems often force young Nigerians to seek greener pastures to various countries, including countries that are hostile to them.
“But as Africans, we are not supposed to be killing ourselves. We should be one another’s keepers,” Mrs. Olasanoye said.
She said that South Africans should adopt other ways to resolve issues with Nigerians, rather than murdering them in cold blood, recalling that Nigeria had played big brother to South Africans in their moment of need.
The unionist enjoined the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, to ensure that the Nigerian delegation to the Pan-African Parliament raised the issue of killing of Nigerians with their South African counterparts when the lawmakers go to South Africa later in the year.
On June 10, the senate warned the South African Government to end the persistent killing of Nigerians by South Africans or to be ready to face the consequences.
Hundreds of Nigerians, mainly young people are currently in South Africa finding their daily bread, while scores of South African companies are engaged in businesses in Nigeria.NAN
