There is a particular kind of betrayal that cuts deeper than neglect, the betrayal of a promise kept halfway.
Right now, hundreds of Nigerians are living that betrayal in South Africa.
They answered their government’s call. They queued, registered, and waited in good faith. And their government cancelled the flight home without a word of explanation.
This is not a story about xenophobia alone. It is a story about what happens when a state asks its citizens to trust it, and then fails to honour that trust.
How we got here!
Anti-immigrant pressure has been building in South Africa for weeks, with civic groups marching through industrial hubs and pressuring businesses to terminate foreign workers, documented or not, ahead of an informal June 30 deadline.
Much of the panic was inflamed by a fake government poster, falsely bearing South Africa’s coat of arms, which authorities have publicly denounced as fraudulent, yet the date has taken on a life of its own.
In response, Nigeria’s Federal Government announced on June 7 that it would deploy five chartered evacuation flights via Air Peace to bring citizens home.
Nigerians across South Africa’s provinces, women, children, the elderly packed up, travelled long distances, and reported for registration as instructed.
The first flight landed in Lagos on June 11 carrying a little over 260 citizens.
Three days later, a day before the second flight was due, the government cancelled it without explanation.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson delivered a one-line statement, there would be no evacuation flight that day. Nothing more was said.
The human cost of a cancelled flight
What does a cancelled flight mean for a family with nothing left?
It means women, children and the elderly who had already exhausted their savings travelling for registration were left without food, shelter, or transportation.
It means sleeping in difficult conditions, with no certainty about when, or if, the next flight will come.
It gets worse. The Nigerian Citizens Association South Africa (NICASA) reports that some of these citizens were met not with compassion, but with disrespect.
Affected citizens have alleged humiliation, insensitive treatment, and poor communication from officials during the very registration and screening process meant to save them.
NICASA’s National President, Rev. Frank Onyekwelu, put it plainly, people who complied with official directives deserved empathy, not an experience that deepened their suffering.
He went further, stating that the community has not felt adequately represented, informed, or supported by the Acting High Commissioner, Ambassador Alexandra Ajayi.
A pattern, not an accident
Of the more than 1,000 Nigerians who indicated interest in returning home, only one flight, carrying 258 people, has actually taken off.
Four chartered flights remain outstanding. NUSA’s President-General, Smart Nwobi, has demanded the government clarify what went wrong and when Nigerians can expect the next flight.
When Daily Trust contacted the Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson for comment, he said he did not have an update.
This is the part that should alarm every Nigerian, regardless of politics, a government can be forgiven for a crisis it did not create.
It is far harder to forgive a government that creates a second crisis through its own silence.
What must happen now!
NICASA’s demands are neither radical nor expensive. They are the bare minimum any state owes its citizens abroad.
Immediate clarity on why the second flight was cancelled and when the remaining four chartered flights will fly.
Emergency humanitarian relief, food, shelter, and welfare support, for those already stranded.
Accountability for officials accused of mistreating citizens during registration.
Proper representation from the High Commission, with transparent, regular communication to the stranded community.
The bigger picture!
Nigeria is Africa’s most populous nation and one of its loudest voices on the continent.
How we treat our own people in distress abroad is not a footnote, it is a measure of our national character.
A country that cannot reliably bring its citizens home when it has explicitly promised to do so sends a dangerous message, that Nigerian lives abroad are negotiable, and that promises from Abuja carry no guarantee.
The Federal Government must act, not with another statement, but with the four remaining flights, full transparency, and visible accountability.
Every day of delay is not just a logistics failure. It is a family sleeping outside in a foreign country, still believing their government is coming.
The world is watching how Nigeria treats her own. So far, the answer has not been good enough.
By Ayuba Doekyil
~He is a digital visibility and PR expert, political communication strategist, and public affairs commentator.
