The Speaker of the House of Representatives in Nigeria, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila has condemned Chinese Xenophobic attack on Africans, particularly, Nigerians living in China over an erroneous allegation that Africans brought coronavirus into China.
Gbajabiamila made this condemnation on Saturday April 11, 2020, when Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Ambassador Zhou Pingjian paid him a visit.
Information gathered revealed that Africans including Nigerians are being attacked because Chinese hold that they are asymptomatic carriers of coronavirus.
Many Africans living in China have been booted out of their legitimate residences paid for and now been forced to sleep on the streets and major roads of the highways. The situation is so bad that the people of China being aided by their policemen denied the Africans the access to public facilities, while shops’ owners are not selling food and other necessary materials to them.
A Nigerian students, Tobenna Victor, painted the ugly picture when he said, “They are accusing us of having the virus. We paid rent to them and after collecting rent they chased us out of the house. Since last night we have been sleeping outside”.
The Speaker on his twitter page said, “Today I met with the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria on disturbing allegation of ill treatment of Nigerian citizens in China. I showed him the video clip that had made the rounds. He promised to look into it and get back to my office on Tuesday”
“In a video clip on his twitter page, Gbajabiamila told the Ambassador, “How you treat our ambassador is very very important, but how you treat our citizens is much more important. You said you have not seen any of the videos that are out there. I am at the liberty to show you. You know what our government including those of us here did to let your medical personnel come into our country. You know the resistance we put up just to allow your medical team to come into our country couple of days ago. Nigerians were worried for good reason because we have this virus out there. I am almost undiplomatic the way I am talking but I am actually upset about the whole thing. I don’t know how you want to address this. Have you spoken to your Nigerian counterpart in China? Have you spoken to Nigerian Ambassador in China?”
However, Ambassador Pingjian claimed ignorance of such attack on Nigerians and other Africans saying, “We are here, we don’t have the whole picture”.
Meanwhile, Spokesperson, Zhao Lijian of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of China, during a press conference pointed out, “China opposes all forms of discrimination and prejudice”, adding, “I’d like to stress that we treat all foreign nationals equally in China. We reject differential treatment, and we have zero tolerance for discrimination”.
According to him, “Since the COVID-19 outbreak, China and African countries have been supporting each other in fighting the pandemic. We won’t forget the support voiced and provided by African countries and their people when we were at the most crucial stage of the fight. Now we are closely following the situation in Africa. The Chinese government and people are doing our best to help them. Faced with the severe test of epidemics, China and African countries are united more than ever, demonstrating brotherhood in times of adversity”.
He, however, urged all foreigners in China to strictly abide by the Law of the People’s Republic of China on Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases, as well as other laws and local regulations on epidemic prevention and control.
“We hope foreign citizens in China will continue to fully understand and cooperate with China’s epidemic control measures to prevent risks and protect the health and safety of themselves and others. That is their way to contribute to the final victory over the epidemic”, he concluded.
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