As reports of racial discrimination against Africans in the Russian-Ukraine conflict keep pouring in from Social media, experts have said African governments were slow in taking the appropriate steps to safeguard the life of the citizenry.
They made this known at the weekly e-Discourse organised by Platforms Africa.
Nurudeen Oyewole, an international politics researcher said the slow response of the governments was responsible the current negative experience of Africans in Ukraine.
“African countries have been quite lethargic in taking proactive steps. We all watched and saw how western powers were giving updates and what to do to their citizens in Ukraine even before the first bomb went off.
” The Ukrainian ambassador to Nigeria said it would be difficult to evacuate foreign students at this time because the airspace is closed. That’s very correct. I mean how do you expect a civilian plane to be flying in an aispace where artilleries are being fired here and there? So, the whole idea of Nigerian government promising evacuation when bombardment is in the air for instance, is nothing short of a ridiculous joke.
African countries not only acted too slow, it appeared no plan was even in place abinito”, he said.
Speaking further, he said the African Union can use its influence to reach out to both Russia and Ukraine “and extract some sorts of guarantee from both to allow easy passage of flights designated to evacuate Africans who are trapped in the conflict.
“If AU is to be active with its power, one will expect it to get along with other regional bodies and pushed for how to bring warring parties to the table. And not only that, AU can mobilised it’s members in UN to establish a common front through which Africa position as a continent can be well marshalled and not one that is being goaded around by the world power.”
On her part, Dr. Stella Ahunnanya, an international affairs expert stated that there is a need to explore resolution so that Ukraine will be saved adding that
African countries cannot be isolated from the global effect of the war.
“Most nations can feel the pain of Ukraine but there is need to explore resolution of the conflict so that Ukraine will be saved from destruction despite being a sovereign state. Libya was a sovereign state but till today, it has not recovered from the activities of super powers that destroyed it.
African countries cannot be isolated from the global effect. During the second world war, Nigerians were sent to Burma as members of the British army so did other African countries who joined their colonial governments to fight on the part of the divide they found themselves. At the end of the second world war, every nation has to be aligned to the West or to the East. Even the countries of the Non-Aligned movement couldn’t escape being aligned in their international and national policies”, she added.
