Nigeria senator calls for 'balance of madness' in response to xenophobic attacks

The spilling of Nigerian blood on the streets of Pretoria, Johannesburg, and Durban has become grimly routine. In May 2026, however, the response shifted. Senator Adams Oshiomhole, representing Edo North in Nigeria’s National Assembly, told the Senate what many Africans have long felt but rarely heard from an official platform: “When we have this balance of madness, I believe there’ll be sanity.”

His words articulated a harder-edged diplomatic posture that may mark Nigeria’s most significant foreign policy shift toward South Africa since apartheid’s end. The era of only mourning citizens who suffer abroad is giving way to one of mutual respect enforced by consequences. To understand why Oshiomhole’s “balance of madness” resonates, one must confront the long record of violence Nigerians have faced in South Africa, a pattern that has persisted for decades, often tolerated by state inaction.

Incidents cited include seven Africans killed in August 2000, riots in 2008 that left at least 62 dead, and damage estimated at N21m in April 2015. In 2016, roughly 20 Nigerians were reported killed, including one allegedly shot extrajudicially by police. In February 2017, five buildings, a garage with 28 cars, and a church were looted and burned in Pretoria West. Coordinated attacks in September 2019 again singled out Nigerian-owned businesses. A report to Nigeria’s House of Representatives noted that 116 Nigerians had been killed in South Africa in the previous two years, with an estimated 118 lives lost to xenophobic violence from 1999 to 2018.

A 2018 Pew Research Centre poll found that 62 percent of South Africans viewed immigrants as burdens linked to crime. When a clear majority of citizens see a group as a problem rather than people, violence becomes a predictable outcome. The attacks have continued. In January 2025, the Nigerian Union South Africa reported extensive property damage and seizures in Pretoria Central. In late April 2026, another wave of xenophobic violence hit major cities, leaving at least two Nigerians dead: Nnaemeka Matthew Andrew Ekpeyong, who died in police custody, and Kelvin Chidiebere Amaramiro, who died from injuries allegedly inflicted by South African National Defense Force personnel. Local media reported that, in total, five Ethiopians and two Nigerians were killed.

Unlike Ghana’s 1969 state-led expulsions under the Alien Compliance Order, South Africa’s xenophobic attacks are largely bottom-up, a pattern that has persisted for decades, often tolerated by state inaction. The article notes that the Nigerian senator's statement signals a potential shift in Nigeria's foreign policy, moving from mere mourning to demanding mutual respect enforced by consequences.

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When we have this balance of madness, I believe there’ll be sanity.