President Jonathan’s address to the South African Parliament

1. May I use this opportunity to say how delighted my
delegation and I have been since our arrival in South Africa. I am
also deeply appreciative of the warm hospitality and reception
accorded to us. This is also evident in the manner the leadership of
the Parliament has received us this after noon. All of these are
consistent with the well-known South African hospitality. I wish,
particularly, to thank my brother, President Jacob Zuma, for
extending the invitation to me to pay this State Visit to South Africa.

2. Mr Speaker, Distinguished Parliamentarians, Ladies and
Gentlemen, it is indeed a great honour to be given the opportunity
to address the Joint Sitting of members of this august body, the
South African Parliament. As the arm of government charged with
the important responsibility of making laws for the good order and
governance of South Africa, the role of Parliament is crucial to the
progress of this country and the welfare of its people.

3. Harmonious relationship between all the three arms of
government, especially between the legislative and executive arms, is
imperative for the objectives of good governance, and national
progress. We in Nigeria are delighted to know that both the
Executive and the Legislature in South Africa have forged a strong
bond for the people’s benefit. It is an example that is worthy of
emulation by some other countries where the doctrine of the
separation of powers and cordial intra-governmental relations still
remain a knotty challenge.

4. At this forum, it is only proper that we acknowledge and pay
tribute to those who made the freedom and democracy which our
two countries enjoy today possible. Generations of young Africans
grew up in the last 50 years to witness and study the singular and
collective heroism, as well as the inspirational examples of many
icons of the South African anti-apartheid struggle, Chief Albert
Luthuli, Walter Sisulu, the Madiba, President Nelson Mandela, Oliver
Thambo, Govan Mbeki, Steve Biko, Chris Hani, and other men and
women of valour and integrity who were imbued with the spirit of
sacrifice, patriotism, and devotion to the common good.

5. This new “Rainbow Nation” where freedom and equality are
now established as inviolable principles is the product of their vision
and dedication.

6. Similarly in Nigeria, our people will forever remember the
efforts and contributions of Dr. Herbert Macaulay, Dr Nnamdi
Azikiwe, Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Sir
Ahmadu Bello, Ernest Ikoli, Margaret Ekpo and many others who
fought hard to secure Nigeria’s independence from divisive, colonial
rule. These men, and women, in our two countries, paved the way
for the freedom we enjoy today. The people’s liberty was well fought
for and earned.

7. The huge debt that we owe the heroes of our history is not to
be complacent with the freedom of our people and the democracy
that we have established. We can stand on the shoulders of the
icons of our history: in so doing we will be able to look much farther
into the future, but this also comes with a responsibility and a duty:
the duty to ensure that as leaders in Africa today, we also leave
worthy legacies for successor generations.

8. Mr Speaker, Distinguished Parliamentarians, Ladies and
Gentlemen, twenty-two years ago, Africa’s living legend, President
Nelson Mandela, was released from prison. Since then, your country
has travelled, more steadily on a path of progress and grown in
stature. We do not only have a new South Africa under black
majority rule, its institutions and processes have become inclusive.
A new generation has emerged that is fired by a sense of unalloyed
patriotism and common destiny.

9. Here we are, today, with the Head of State of another African
country addressing the Joint Sitting of the Parliament of a free,
independent and democratic South Africa that has assumed its
rightful place in the comity of nations.

10. We have arrived at such a moment as this, because the people of
South Africa never gave up their belief in the rightness of their cause
in their quest for freedom and equality. The peoples of Africa and
the rest of the civilised world did not also relent in the support they
gave to the people of South Africa to remove the shackles of racism,
apartheid and colonialism which combined to hold them down for so
long.

11. The role played by individual nations, including my country
Nigeria, in the struggle for the emergence of a new South Africa that
is non-racial, independent and democratic is already part of the
special linkages between our two countries. In those dark seasons,
Nigerians stood by their South African brothers and sisters, because
we shared your pain and concerns. Today, we also stand shoulder to
shoulder with you as brothers and sisters and as partners, working
together in pursuit of mutually beneficial interests.

12. Suffice it to say that throughout the long-drawn, anti-apartheid
struggle, although we were not geographically contiguous, Nigeria
was, nevertheless, considered a Frontline State, by the sheer fact of
our commitment to the just struggle for freedom in Southern Africa.

13. It is important to recall, that this was a cause every Nigerian was
committed to, not just those in government, but the people
themselves. It was for this reason the Southern African Relief Fund
(SARF) was created.

14. This was funded with deductions from the salary of every
Nigerian worker, irrespective of rank, both in the public and private
sectors as well as donations from ordinary Nigerians in all walks of
life, including students. This fund was placed at the disposal of the
liberation struggle.

15. Nigeria provided scholarships for students from South Africa. Our
musicians waxed albums in support of the anti-apartheid struggle, a
memorable one in this respect being Sonny Okosun’s timeless piece,
“Fire in Soweto”. Our poets wrote protest literature denouncing
man’s inhumanity to man; whenever South Africans protested against
injustice, Nigerian students also took to the streets in support and
solidarity