‘Igbo king’ coronation didn’t violate S’African law– Nigerian community president, Nwobi

President-General of the Nigerian Union South Africa, Mr Smart Nwobi, speaks to DANIEL AYANTOYE on the controversy surrounding the alleged Igbo king coronation in South Africa, fears of xenophobic attacks, and other related issues

Following the protest over the alleged Igbo king installation in South Africa, what is the current situation with the Nigerians affected?

The Igbo people of Nigeria were exercising their social and cultural freedom, which is allowed in the South African Constitution. This exercise was misinterpreted by some people with particular interests to fuel xenophobia.

As you can see today (Wednesday), the Premier of the Eastern Cape, just like a governor in Nigeria, released a statement to say that what transpired was not a coronation of a king. That is merely a cultural expression. So, the people who blew the event out of proportion on social media were political opportunists trying to use that medium to fuel xenophobia.

How does criticising the coronation of an Igbo king fuel xenophobia?

If you check the trend, every time election time is near in South Africa, a xenophobic uprising takes place. So, these actors seize the opportunity, knowing that unsuspecting citizens will not know the difference when a jurisdiction is being violated. They seize the opportunity to confuse the locals and incite them to begin attacks on foreigners.

As you know, when they mention Nigerians, most South African people do not know the difference between the other nations in Nigeria. They refer to every other nation in South Africa as Nigerians. When these opportunists took to the streets of the Eastern Cape to protest against the coronation of an Igbo king, the question will be, where are they marching to?

This alleged king, does he have a palace? So, that is why it is laughable. The government has investigated; our diplomatic missions, the Nigerian Consulate in Johannesburg and the Nigerian High Commission, ably represented by His Excellency, the acting Ambassador, Temitope Ajayi, are also on the matter, trying to explain that both the alleged coronators and the coronated never claimed or intend to claim that they want to establish a colony or a palace.

Does the South African law permit such a coronation?

There are various Nigerian groups in South Africa registered under the law, and these groups organise cultural exhibitions and ceremonies every year. If they decide to celebrate or honour any of their members with a title, how does that infringe on the existing traditional structures or framework within the country? It does not.

For example, I am the Nigerian Union president, and we have our constitution, which states that the leader will be called the president. If they decide to elect me as the president of this union, do I really have to consult the President of the country for that?

If I don’t consult him, does it mean that I am trying to overthrow the president? No. That is where the misconception lies. A group of people can decide to call their leader a chairman. Does that take away the official chairman of the country? No.

South Africa is a country with a proper system, just like Nigeria; for you to be recognised as a traditional leader, you must follow the system. So, these people are just celebrating each other, and they never sought to apply to the government to say, ‘recognise us’. Then, how does it become a threat to existing traditional leadership? It’s all just mixed up. It’s totally different from what transpired in Ghana.

How is it different from what happened in Ghana?

The one in Ghana is totally different in that those men decided to buy a lot of land and decided to build a palace. But here, there was no palace. It is just that these people decided to honour this man as the leader of the Igbo extraction in that area, but they chose a language that the Igbo are used to.

There is no way, in any form, that they invited South Africans to bow to this Igbo man. It is just symbolic and cultural; a cultural ambassador and representative, and he does not seek to compete with existing traditional authority. So, it is right to say they should understand that no violation has taken place.

How are traditional institutions in South Africa reacting to the matter?

These actors tried to confuse the royal house. When there is a lot of confusion, even the royal house can take certain positions.

But we have elected to send some delegations from the Nigerian Union, the Ohanaeze, as well as the Nigerian Mission in South Africa, to approach the royal house and explain to them.

I think they would even be happy to have such a person who represents this extraction, so that if some of our people in that area misbehave, the South African king of that area will know who to call to caution them. That is the essence.

In fact, it’s more beneficial for that local community if you understand the essence. At least this man is a person who has stayed in that area for up to 30 years. He’s married to their daughter, and they have children. So, he has his own culture and that of his wife.

There is a cultural exchange. What happened is that some opportunists blew it out of proportion. They tried to get some relevance out of it.

They want to act as the ones speaking on behalf of the people because the election is coming. They want to use it to score political points.

So, it has some political dimensions, and it has some xenophobic dimensions as well. We hope that the government is in top gear to bring all stakeholders together, and once they understand, they will know how to caution their followers.

We keep preaching from the Nigerian Union that Nigerians should always be law-abiding and respect the laws of the host nation, and that if anyone breaks the law, the law will deal with them decisively. But we are saying that no law has been violated in this instance.

Does this mean that other issues could have triggered xenophobic tensions, even if this incident had not occurred, especially in the context of the elections?

From the trend as we know, if it is not about this issue, there will be another issue that will also trigger a xenophobic attack because of this season. It is quite unfortunate that this is happening. You know, once it starts, it not only affects Nigerians, but it also affects all foreign nationals in South Africa.

As I told you, it is opportunistic people who went out to protest. If you say you are going to protest against an alleged Nigerian king, must you go to people’s businesses to loot their goods? It is not actually about the alleged Nigerian king because they know he does not exist.

It was just a decoy. If you will protest against a Nigerian king, you must know the palace and march there, but in this case, there was no palace because there was nothing like an Igbo king in South Africa.