Geoffrey Onyeama, minister of foreign affairs, on Friday said the federal government was going about the resolution of the crisis that was engendered by the recent xenophobic attacks in South Africa in the appropriate manner.
Speaking when he appeared before the senate committee on diaspora, he said the country would not resort to cutting off diplomatic ties with South Africa as a result of the attacks on Nigerians.
He said that the situation had not got to that point, noting that such action would not be in the interest of Nigerians based in South Africa.
He said Nigeria would ponder other options apart from diplomatic ties severance, to resolve the ongoing crisis.
“We are not thinking to the stage of diplomatic ties called off. There are various options. We are not by any means at a stage where we are breaking diplomatic relations with South Africa,” he said.
“We just met with the senate committee to review the situation with regards to South Africa and we looked at all the possible options we analysed the possible causes and agreed on a road map going forward.”
He also revealed that the special envoy President Muhammadu Buhari dispatched to South Africa would return to the country on Saturday.
He said “Mr. President has dispatched a special envoy to South Africa who would be holding discussion with the South African government at the very highest level
“He should be back tomorrow (Saturday), that will now give the government the basis for further action. In the mean time, if the government is very much on top of the situation.
“We know for a fact that no Nigerian life has been lost so we are extremely concerned now to ensure that there will be adequate compensation for property that have been damaged”
He said the federal government was doing everything it could to make sure attack on Nigerians in South Africa was a thing of the past, adding there were measures in place to forestall the occurrence of such incident in the future.
“We know that a Nigerian Airline is putting a plane at the disposal of most Nigerians that wish to take the opportunity to leave South Africa, this is purely voluntary, but we are particularly determined to particularly make sure that this crisis does not re-occur.
“It has been happening for far too long, its becoming almost endemic, so with the distinguished senators, are helping with some of the options that we may have to ensure that this will be the last time we will ever be meeting to talking about Nigerians attacked in South Africa and to take definitive measures.
“To start doing that, we want to have all the facts available and then we will take the necessary measures.” he said