Promise by Nigeria on visas merits serious consideration

After the horrendous xenophobic attacks in South Africa on foreigners of African descent that eke out a living there, and without regard to whether they were there legally or otherwise, spirits were down as to expectations of integration.

Nigeria was one of the more affected countries when foreigners’ shops were ransacked in Durban and various other places, and perhaps it should not be surprising that the country is trying to show the way out in such matters.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has declared that his government will give all African travellers visas on arrival from January, dropping the requirement that they apply in advance.  He said the gesture showed Nigeria’s commitment to free movement of Africans within Africa.

The announcement comes five months after Nigeria signed a deal aimed at promoting free trade on the continent, which has also been signed by a good number of other countries, just like the non-visa requirement rule.

But when Nigeria moves to ratify or comply with the terms of that agreement, the Continental Free Trade Area (CFTA) accord, that is different. Even then the move by President Buhari is only about movement of people, not goods.

While Africa still has a largely protectionist environment when it comes to movement of goods, that there are tariffs all over the place though we also have customs union arrangements for instance in the East African Community, gestures like the free movement of people are positive.

They enable Africa to generate people to people contacts that help change attitudes about people next door, not just neighbouring countries but also within a country.

There are criticisms on the President Buhari’s doorstep that Nigeria is still protectionist, which in that sense undermines the vision of pan-African unity.

There is a point in that criticism, but long ago such disputes were cleared or balanced by the view that intense reduction of the presence of the nation-state leads not into greater African unity but into chaos. Localised economic interests, often the most objectionable in their outlooks, create empires.

The case of Nigeria has invited a certain amount of debate, as reports say the country closed its land borders in August, in which case businesses fail to conduct cross-border trade by road.

Buhari has explained that there is onerous smuggling of goods into Nigeria, undermining government efforts to make the nation self-sufficient, especially in the production of food.

These are arguments that can’t be dismissed with a wave of the hand, as each country needs to determine its particular situation and what policy it takes on such matters.

For instance, Tanzania restrained the sale of maize across its borders until recently, after seeing that closing borders was hampering agro-sector investments year after year.

Going by African Development Bank data, last year saw Africans need visas to travel to 51 per cent of other African countries. They could get visas on arrival in just 24 per cent of states and did not need visas in 25 per cent of the countries.

According to the figures, tiny (going by surface area) states lead in visa waivers while large economies lag behind. This is well worth thinking – and doing something concrete – about.