Nigeria’s National Assembly has suspended all official visits to South Africa and directed its members and staff to boycott legislative activities hosted or organized by South African authorities until further notice.
The announcement was made in a statement by House of Representatives spokesman Akin Rotimi on Friday. He explained that Senate President Godswill Akpabio and House Speaker Abbas Tajudeen instructed the Clerk of the National Assembly, Kamoru Ogunlana, to formally notify lawmakers, committees, and staff of the decision.
The move follows reports of continued xenophobic attacks, violence, intimidation, and destruction of property targeting Nigerians and other African nationals in South Africa. The Assembly expressed concern that Nigerians have been killed, injured, displaced, and forced to abandon businesses and homes despite repeated appeals to South African authorities to act decisively.
The Clerk noted that the directive was agreed upon after consultations between the leadership of the Senate and the House of Representatives. It applies to lawmakers, committees, officials, and staff, covering conferences, seminars, workshops, meetings, parliamentary exchanges, and other engagements organized or co‑sponsored by South African legislative institutions.
The statement emphasized that the suspension applies to both physical and virtual engagements. No official delegation or member may participate without prior approval from Assembly leadership.
For clarity, the directive provides as follows: a. All official visits to the Republic of South Africa by the National Assembly, its Committees, lawmakers, officials and staff are hereby suspended. b. All participation by the National Assembly, its Committees, lawmakers, officials and staff in legislative activities, conferences, seminars, workshops, meetings, exchanges or other engagements organised, hosted, sponsored or co‑sponsored by the Parliament of the Republic of South Africa or other South African legislative authorities is hereby suspended. c. The suspension shall apply to both physical and virtual/online engagements, including invitations to participate in meetings, programmes, parliamentary exchanges and other legislative activities hosted from or by South African legislative institutions. d. No official delegation, Committee, lawmaker, official or staff member of the National Assembly shall undertake or participate in any such engagement during the period of the suspension without the prior express approval of the Leadership of the National Assembly. e. All existing arrangements, invitations or proposed programmes involving official visits or legislative engagements in South Africa shall be reviewed in accordance with this directive.
The Assembly stressed that the suspension would remain in force until further notice and could be reviewed depending on developments. It added that the action does not amount to a rejection of Nigeria’s longstanding diplomatic ties with South Africa, but insisted that cooperation must rest on mutual respect and a shared commitment to protecting life, property, and lawful enterprise.
