The semi-final between Nigeria’s Super Eagles and South Africa’s Bafana Bafana at the AFCON in Ivory Coast on Wednesday promises to be one of the most scintillating and entertaining football matches in this year’s continental competition.
However, it is off-the-pitch concerns that is dominating headlines in Nigeria; what will be the fate of Nigerian citizens in South Africa should Nigeria win the 7 February match?
Haunted by the xenophobic attacks on Nigerians by South Africans, Nigeria’s High Commission in Pretoria issued a statement advising its citizens to be mindful of their utterances and be careful where they watch the match in South Africa.
The Nigerian government said it has stumbled on some inflammatory comments on social media which included veiled threats against Nigerian citizens in South Africa.
“In this regard, the High Commission hereby advises the Nigerian community to … refrain from engaging in loud, riotous or provocative celebrations should the Super Eagles win the match,” the statement read.
The Department of International Relations and Cooperation (DIRCO) issued a statement Tuesday evening calling the Nigerian advisory “regrettable because it seems to create alarm and unnecessary tension between the citizens of South Africa and Nigerians living in or visiting South Africa”.
It stated that the South African national soccer team, Bafana Bafana, has played against their Nigerian counterparts, the Super Eagles, on many occasions, and there has been no history of soccer hooliganism among South Africans associated with the outcome of such encounters.
“We are confident that the sports-loving nation of South Africa poses no threat to Nigerian citizens, and we do not agree with the apprehension expressed by the High Commission,” it added.
Unexpected rivals
In the late 1970s, the Nigerian military regime of General Murtala Muhammed and Olusegun Obasanjo championed and funded the anti-apartheid struggle on the continent and South Africa was the biggest beneficiary.
Obasanjo specifically hit the apartheid government of South Africa with various sanctions when he assumed authority as head of state following Muhammed’s demise. He ordered the withdrawal of all Nigeria’s public funds from Barclays Bank and expelled a third of the bank’s white employees from Nigeria because the bank’s London parent company bought $14m worth of South African bonds.
The Obasanjo military government said any firm operating in South Africa was not welcome in Nigeria. He also visited the US President Jimmy Carter with a view to getting him to join in sanctioning South Africa. Nigeria also reportedly issued some 300 passports to those fleeing South Africa. This made the Nigerian government the darling of black South Africans suffering under the repressive apartheid government.
After Nelson Mandela became South Africa’s first black president, he acknowledged the role that Nigeria played and also encouraged migration of African professionals to South Africa. This attracted thousands of Africans to the country. Statistics show that at least 30,000 Nigerians now live in South Africa but multiple reports suggest that the number of undocumented Nigerians in the country is far higher.
However, many black South Africans in recent years targeted Nigerians and other Africans living in South Africa for xenophobic attacks, accusing them of stealing their jobs and making them jobless.
By 2019, the Nigerian government said 118 of its citizens had been killed in such xenophobic attacks in South Africa. This forced Abuja to repatriate more than 600 Nigerians from South Africa that same year.
The attacks triggered retaliatory attacks on South Africa-owned businesses in Nigeria, like MTN and Shoprite. Nigeria’s Vice-President also boycotted the World Economic Forum in Cape Town over the attacks.
Eventually, the South African government offered its “sincerest” apologies to Nigeria that year, saying, “the incident does not represent what we stand for,” and promising to bring the culprits to book.
A BBC documentary released last year showed how anti-migrant vigilante groups like Dudula now enforce xenophobic regulations in South Africa.
Renewed hostilities?
The rivalry between Nigeria and South Africa is still very much palpable especially on social media. Apart from being economic rivals, they also battle for who is the king of African entertainment.
Just days ago, South African songstress Tyla beat Nigerian superstars Davido, Burna Boy and Ayra Star to win the inaugural Best African Music Performance Award at the 2024 Grammys. It is within this atmosphere that both South Africa and Nigeria head to the field of play with the latter seeking to redeem its image after a poor outing at the Grammys where it lost all nine nominations.
The Super Eagles and the Bafana Bafana have met 14 times with Nigeria winning seven, South Africa winning two and five matches ending in a draw.
Nigeria, which ranks 42nd as opposed to South Africa’s 66th on FIFA rankings, are favourites to proceed to the finals having conceded just one goal so far in the tournament. But the possible absence of Nigeria’s star player, Victor Osimhen – the current best player in Africa – could tip the scales in favour of the Bafana Bafana.
Even so, this latest edition of the AFCON has sprung up more surprises than previous ones and South Africa would be hoping to ride on this wave.
But what happens after the game – if anything happens at all – may overshadow the beautiful game fans across the continent anticipated on the pitch. Olaniyi Abodedele, a Nigerian living in Gauteng, South Africa, tells The Africa Report that the fears being expressed by the Nigerian government are uncalled for.
Abodedele, who heads the Nigeria Union South Africa in Gauteng, says the Nigerian government ought not to have issued the advisory which, he fears, could cause unintended consequences.
“I feel they should have been more diplomatic about it and not jeopardise the safety of Nigerians. They should have reached out to community leaders in Nigeria, the department of international relations or the South African police,” says Abodedele, arguing football had never caused conflict between Nigerians and South Africans.
David Aworawo, an international relations lecturer at the University of Lagos disagrees. He says while the Nigerian government ought to have written officially to its South African counterpart on the need to protect its citizens, the fear of attacks is not completely misplaced going by historical antecedents.
“If South Africa wins, there will be no issue because Nigerians are accommodating but if Nigeria wins, there is likely going to be violence against Nigerians,” he tells The Africa Report.
As the zero-hour approaches and tension continue to rise, this football match and its aftermath could determine the next chapter in South-Africa/Nigeria relations.
Meanwhile, just before we went to press, reports emerged that Nigeria’s talisman Osimhen has been declared fit to play against South Africa.
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