If we want to end one-way migration, where Nigerians are forced to leave home in search of opportunity in South Africa, we must integrate our economies. Young Nigerian engineers should be able to work in Johannesburg, Gaborone, Windhoek, Harare, Cairo and Accra not as foreigners but as Africans contributing to Africa.
A South African entrepreneur should be able to set up in Lagos without suspicion but with support, as a partner in a shared future. We must harmonise trade policies, align visa regimes, and build continental infrastructure that connects our people.
Both South Africa and Nigeria know the pain of colonialism. Both have faced internal divisions. Both have endured the pressures of global imperialism that seeks to divide, exploit, and control us. Both know that the only path forward is Pan-African solidarity.
We must reject the illusion that our salvation will come from Washington, London, Brussels, or Beijing. Our salvation lies here, in Lagos and Johannesburg, in Abuja and Pretoria, in the hands of Africans who refuse to be divided.
Together, Nigeria and South Africa can lead the African Continental Free Trade Area not as a paper agreement, but as a living reality that changes the lives of ordinary people. Together, we can demand fair trade, protect our industries, and invest in education, technology, and innovation. Together, we can prove that Africa is not a begging bowl but a continent of giants.
On the Need For Solidarity With Oppressed Nations
My comrades as I close, I want to state that as Africans our fight has never been confined to borders. From the very beginning the struggle of South Africa against apartheid, we knew that the suffering of one oppressed people anywhere in the world is the suffering of all oppressed people everywhere. It was in that spirit that South Africa, during its liberation struggle, was embraced by Nigeria and other African nations, who declared that apartheid was not simply a South African problem but an African and global crime.
It is in that same spirit that today we say: our liberation as Africans will remain incomplete if we turn a blind eye to the struggles of those who continue to suffer under occupation, colonialism, imperialism, and economic exploitation. It is this tradition of solidarity that compels us today to speak clearly on the struggles of other oppressed peoples. The EFF continues to stand firmly with Western Sahara, Palestine, Cuba, Haiti, and the Democratic Republic of Congo as a commitment to international law and justice.
In Western Sahara, Morocco’s continued occupation violates the principles of the United Nations Charter and the African Union’s Constitutive Act, both of which enshrine the right to self-determination.
The International Court of Justice affirmed in 1975 that Morocco had no sovereignty over Western Sahara, yet decades later the Sahrawi people remain dispossessed. In Palestine, we are witnessing one of the gravest violations of international law in
modern history. The apartheid regime of Israel has for decades defied UN resolutions, the Geneva Conventions, and international humanitarian law. Collective punishment, the bombing of hospitals, the illegal annexation of land, the killing of children, and deliberate starvation of a population are crimes under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.
The world cannot remain neutral in the face of genocide and just as apartheid South Africa was declared a crime against humanity, so too must the international community recognise and act against Israel’s apartheid and genocide.
The importance of fighting on the level of the law was made evident in this case when the South African government took Israel to the International Court of Justice
to report their crimes when no other country would do so. This fight in international court was won when the court declared that indeed Israel was perpetuating a genocide, a win that was necessary to sway some support away from Israel and to embolden other countries to speak up.
This fight also led to the International Criminal Court to issue warrants of arrest for the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and his Minister of Defence for war crimes. This is the power of the legal fraternity in the global fight for the oppressed.
However, the ICJ’s pace is slow and a final judgement on charging Israel with genocide has not occurred yet.
We must, therefore, confront the uncomfortable truth that the slow pace of these proceedings is not accidental but reflects a global legal order designed and maintained under white supremacy. International law is swift and ruthless when prosecuting leaders of the Global South, yet hesitant, and cautious when dealing
with crimes committed by Western powers or their allies.
This is the hypocrisy we must name without fear. When an African leader is accused, indictments are issued overnight, sanctions imposed immediately, and military interventions justified under the banner of international law. However, when Israel starves children in Gaza, or when the United States and its allies invade nations and topple governments, the same institutions suddenly discover restraint, complexity, and delay. As the legal fraternity of Africa, you cannot accept this double standard. You must be bold enough to create alternative and fairer systems of accountability that do not bend to imperialist interests.
If the so-called “international community” is unwilling to deliver justice in real time, then Africa must advance its own courts, its own tribunals, its own instruments of solidarity and protection. Just as we built liberation movements when colonialism denied us freedom, so too must we build new legal institutions when the existing ones fail us.
In Cuba, for over 60 years the United States has imposed an economic blockade in contravention of international law, including the principles of non-interference
and the sovereign right of nations to choose their social and economic systems. Despite this, Cuba has demonstrated a profound commitment to human solidarity, sending doctors across the globe, including to Africa, welcoming Africans into their classrooms and participating in the liberation of the oppressed.
The tragedy of Haiti is one of historical injustice. Haiti’s revolution was the first declaration of Black freedom in the modern world, yet it was punished with centuries of economic sabotage and enforced debt, contrary to any principle of justice. Today Haiti suffers from foreign interference, the denial of sovereignty, and the imposition of external governance. International law demands reparations, debt cancellation, and the withdrawal of foreign forces so that Haiti can govern itself with dignity.
Closer to home, the Democratic Republic of Congo illustrates the worst form of resource exploitation. Despite its enormous mineral wealth, it remains trapped in conflict and poverty because multinational corporations and foreign powers extract its resources illegally, often through the use of child labour. This is a modern violation of international human rights law and the laws of armed conflict. It is slavery by another name, and it persists because of global demand for cobalt, coltan, and gold.
These cases remind us of a fundamental truth: international solidarity is not optional but a legal and moral obligation. International law is being undermined by
powerful nations that act with impunity, but Africa must insist that the rule of law, not the rule of might, governs global relations. We must not allow the United States or Europe to dictate which struggles are legitimate and which are ignored. And this is where the struggle of South Africa and Nigeria must converge again as
we cannot speak of Pan-Africanism only when it concerns our borders. We must extend it to every corner of the globe where Black and oppressed peoples resist. The time has come for Africa’s two giants, Nigeria and South Africa, to join hands and lead not only in trade and development, but in global justice. Our legal professionals, like the distinguished members of this Bar Association, must sharpen the legal instruments of solidarity using international law, human rights conventions, and trade agreements to defend the oppressed.
