Nigeria's National Assembly has suspended all official visits to South Africa and ordered lawmakers, committees, officials and staff to boycott legislative activities hosted or organised by South African authorities after reported xenophobic attacks killed two Nigerians in Johannesburg.
Who Pays for the Violence
Bishop Michael Taiwo Fakunle was reportedly killed at his home in Johannesburg on September 4, and James Uchechukwu Nwankwo allegedly died the following day after an encounter with officers of the South African Police Service. Those are the names at the center of this latest round of state failure and social hatred. The people at the bottom keep getting buried, displaced, or pushed out, while institutions issue statements and call it response.
Former Minister of Aviation and ambassador-designate to South Africa, Femi Fani-Kayode, disclosed the deaths in a statement posted on his X handle. He said Fakunle had allegedly received a series of threats before his killers went to his home and shot him dead. He also alleged that Nwankwo died following what he described as "gruesome interrogation techniques" by South African police officers.
The National Assembly leadership expressed "grave concern" over reports of xenophobic attacks, killings, violence, intimidation, destruction of property and other forms of hostility directed at Nigerians and other African nationals resident in South Africa. It said it was particularly disturbed by reports that Nigerians had been killed, injured and displaced, while others had been forced to abandon their businesses, investments, homes and other property following recurring violent attacks.
What the Assembly Ordered
Under the resolution, official visits to South Africa by the National Assembly, its committees, lawmakers, officials and staff have been suspended. The boycott also covers conferences, seminars, workshops, parliamentary meetings, legislative exchanges and other activities organised or hosted by South African legislative authorities. The National Assembly further resolved that its lawmakers and officials should not participate physically or virtually in South African-hosted legislative programmes. The Clerk to the National Assembly was directed to communicate the decision to senators, members of the House of Representatives, committees, departments, directorates, officials and staff for strict compliance.
The statement was signed by the Clerk to the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, after consultations between the leaderships of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The suspension will remain in force until further notice. That’s the machinery of official power at work: a closed circle of leaderships consulting, signing, directing, and ordering compliance while ordinary people face the consequences of violence far from the chamber.
The National Assembly said the decision was not intended to undermine the longstanding diplomatic, historical and people-to-people relations between Nigeria and South Africa. Rather, it described the suspension and boycott as an expression of concern over the safety, dignity and welfare of Nigerians living and conducting legitimate businesses in South Africa. The lawmakers called on the South African government to take "urgent and concrete measures" to protect Nigerians and other African nationals within its territory and prevent further xenophobic attacks.
They also demanded thorough investigations into reported incidents, the arrest of suspected perpetrators and the prosecution of those found culpable in accordance with the law. The familiar script appears again: investigate, arrest, prosecute, comply. The apparatus promises order after the damage is done.
The People Left Exposed
The National Assembly further urged the leadership of state Houses of Assembly to take note of the decision and consider adopting similar measures in response to the reported attacks. The federal lawmakers said they would continue to monitor developments concerning the safety and welfare of Nigerians in South Africa. They also acknowledged interventions by the Federal Government and other stakeholders, including efforts to assist affected Nigerians and facilitate the evacuation of Nigerian nationals from the country.
That evacuation line matters. It shows who gets moved, who gets protected, and who gets left to absorb the blow. Businesses, homes and property were abandoned after recurring violent attacks, while institutions traded statements and procedural language.
Fani-Kayode claimed that the two deaths brought the number of Nigerians killed in South Africa in 2026 to eight, with four allegedly killed by South African police officers. He further claimed that more than 100 Nigerians had been killed in South Africa since 2022, including more than 30 allegedly killed by officers of the South African Police Service and the South African Defence Force. He said no arrests, prosecutions or convictions had resulted from the alleged killings.
"What is most disturbing is the fact that in spite of our constant expressions of concern about this disturbing state of affairs not one person has been arrested, detained, prosecuted or brought to justice for ANY of these heinous crimes," he said. He called on the South African government to strengthen measures to protect Nigerians living in the country and ensure that anyone responsible for the alleged killings was brought to justice.
Fani-Kayode also expressed concern over an alleged September 30 deadline issued by some South African non-governmental organisations for African nationals, including Nigerians, to leave the country. He accused the organisations of being racist, xenophobic and Afrophobic, and alleged that they had threatened African nationals who failed to comply with the deadline. "No-one deserves to be targetted and murdered simply because they are Nigerian," he said. The former minister said the Nigerian community in South Africa was "deeply disturbed" by the developments and warned that continued killings and discrimination against Nigerians could have consequences for relations between the two countries.