Africans have a lot to learn from some of the fall-outs of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Prominent among these is the total and unblemished outpouring of empathy towards the victims of aggression by a military superpower neighbor.

After weeks of intimidating dress rehearsals and propaganda red herrings that they were merely having military exercises and had no intention of invading Ukraine, Russia did just that on February 24, 2022. It looks like an agenda that had been meticulously planned years in advance and being implemented with cold-blooded precision.

Ukraine, which believed Russia’s dissembling propaganda, was rather startled when Russia started shelling well-selected targets, with tanks rolling across the border into the sovereign territory of its south western neighbor. Within three weeks of fighting, almost three million refugees have fled Ukraine.

Apart from foreign nationals (including Nigerians) who obviously had to return home, most of the asylum seekers are civilian Ukrainians. The number is expected to reach four million unless a permanent ceasefire is announced soon.

The heartwarming thing is that virtually every country in Europe has opened its doors to welcome the fleeing Ukrainians.

Already, Poland has handled about 1.7 million asylum seekers. Romania, another neighbor to the south east, is actively involved in receiving refugees, often for onward transfer to third party countries on the continent and beyond. France is one of the countries that have offered to cater for 100,000 Ukrainian displaced persons, while in the United Kingdom; the citizens have volunteered to take over 100,000 into their homes.

Indeed, it was to accommodate the Ukrainian refugees that the British government temporarily suspended the work, study and family visas to countries like Nigeria to priorities the humanitarian needs of Ukrainian refugees, though report of the suspension was later denied. This is in addition to the sacrifices many of these countries have volunteered to make to press home the sanctions against Russia.

The Europeans have come together to stand behind Ukraine and its hapless citizens in their moment of existential threat. Apart from the Nigerian gesture of accommodating Liberians and sending troops and war machines to quell its civil war in the early 1990’s in the true spirit of Africa’s Big Brother, when have Africans shown the amount of love that the Europeans are heaping on Ukrainian refugees?

Rather, what we see more of is xenophobia, total contempt and undisguised hostility towards fellow Africans. Nigeria, which has sacrificed so much for the liberation of Africa and the preservation of its unity, has been shamelessly targeted by South African, Ghanaian and Kenyan xenophobes. Refugees from war-torn neighboring countries are subjected to inhuman treatment.

We must stop paying loud lip service to African unity. We must emulate the Europeans for their genuine continental solidarity in peace or war. The humanity of embattled Africans must matter to fellow Africans.

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