Nigeria–South Africa relations refer to the bilateral relations between

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

. Both countries are former colonies of the

British Empire The British Empire was composed of the dominions, colonies, protectorates, mandates, and other territories ruled or administered by the United Kingdom and its predecessor states. It began with the overseas possessions and trading posts e ...

, and both countries are members of the

Commonwealth of Nations The Commonwealth of Nations, simply referred to as the Commonwealth, is a political association of 56 member states, the vast majority of which are former territories of the British Empire. The chief institutions of the organisation are the ...

and African Union. Nigeria has a high commission in

Pretoria Pretoria () is South Africa's administrative capital, serving as the seat of the executive branch of government, and as the host to all foreign embassies to South Africa. Pretoria straddles the Apies River and extends eastward into the foot ...

and consulate general in

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

. South Africa has a high commission in Abuja. Nigeria played an active role in opposing the apartheid regime of South Africa. Despite the end of apartheid in 1994, relations between the two countries have been severing due to competing economic and cultural influence, and various diplomatic disputes including xenophobic riots and violence in South Africa targeting Nigerians. The bilateral relations have been described as a "

love–hate relationship A love–hate relationship is an interpersonal relationship involving simultaneous or alternating emotions of love and hate—something particularly common when emotions are intense. The term is used frequently in psychology, popular writing and ...

". According to a 2017 BBC World Service Poll, 53% of Nigerians view South Africa's influence positively, with 27% expressing a negative view. This is the lowest Nigerian positive perception of South Africa ever reported by the poll since polling began in 2009, with the 2014 poll reporting 65% of Nigerians viewing South Africa's influence positively and 17% expressing a negative view.

History

Apartheid era

During the apartheid era in South Africa, Nigeria was one of the foremost supporters of anti-apartheid movements, including the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

; the Nigerian government issued more than 300 passports to South Africans seeking to travel abroad.The love/hate relationship between Nigeria and South Africa
NigeriaWorld.com, May 2008

Sonny Okosun Sonny Okosun (1 January 1947 – 24 May 2008) was a Nigerian musician, who was known as the leader of the Ozzidi band. He named his band Ozzidi after a renowned Ijaw river god, but to Okosun the meaning was "there is a message". His surname is ...

, a Nigerian musician, wrote the hit song "Fire in

Soweto Soweto () is a township of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for ''South Western Townships''. Formerly a s ...

" in 1977 to commemorate the 1976 Soweto uprising against apartheid in South Africa.

Post-apartheid

Following the end of apartheid in 1994, South African businesses sought for professionals to immigrate, and a large number of Nigerians did so. It is estimated that there were 24,000 Nigerians living in South Africa in 2011. Much of South Africa's good will towards Nigerians for supporting the ANC during apartheid has disappeared due to the activities of

Nigerian organized crime Organised crime in Nigeria includes activities by fraudsters, bandits (such as looting and kidnappings on major highways), drug traffickers and racketeers, which have spread across Western Africa. Nigerian criminal gangs rose to prominence in ...

in the country. Nigerian organised crime groups, mostly involved in illegal drug trafficking, in South Africa grew rapidly between 1994 and 1998. Increasing competition between the two countries for positions at multilateral organizations is also thought to have worsened relations. Nigeria acted against South Africa to replace the incumbent Gabonese chair

Jean Ping Jean Ping (; born 24 November 1942 in Omboué)UN profile page
Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma for the powerful position of the African Union Commission chairperson. Relations further deteriorated when South Africa backed incumbent president

Laurent Gbagbo Koudou Laurent Gbagbo
, FPI website . ( Côte d’Ivoire in 2011. However, after Dlamini-Zuma won the election Nigeria's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Olugbenga Ashiru stated that although Nigeria supported Ping for the position of AU chairperson in "a position which was principled along with our ECOWAS members and we stood by it. But as usual, people can insinuate that once Nigeria was not in the camp of South Africa, it means that Nigeria is against South Africa. We are not against South Africa".

Issues

Human Rights Criticism

The

Mandela Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela (; ; 18 July 1918 – 5 December 2013) was a South African anti-apartheid activist who served as the first president of South Africa from 1994 to 1999. He was the country's first black head of state and the ...

-led

ANC The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...

had been seeking to help resolve the political crisis in Nigeria since 1993, following the annulment of the Nigerian elections in June 1993. In June 1994, Nigeria's military ruler, General

Sani Abacha Sani Abacha (20 September 1943 – 8 June 1998) was a Nigerian military officer and politician who ruled as the military head of state of Nigeria from 1993 until his death in 1998. He seized power on 17 November 1993 in the last successful c ...

arrested and sentenced for execution 40 political opponents including former Nigerian head of state

Olusegun Obasanjo Chief Olusegun Matthew Okikiola Ogunboye Aremu Obasanjo, , ( ; yo, Olúṣẹ́gun Ọbásanjọ́ ; born 5 March 1937) is a Nigerian political and military leader who served as Nigeria's head of state from 1976 to 1979 and later as its presid ...

as well as Chief

Moshood Abiola Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola , also known as M. K. O. Abiola (24 August 1937 – 7 July 1998) was a Nigerian businessman, publisher, and politician. He was the Aare Ona Kankafo XIV of Yorubaland and an aristocrat of the Egba clan. M.K. ...

. Mandela sent Archbishop Desmond Tutu and then Deputy President

Thabo Mbeki Thabo Mvuyelwa Mbeki KStJ (; born 18 June 1942) is a South African politician who was the second president of South Africa from 14 June 1999 to 24 September 2008, when he resigned at the request of his party, the African National Congress (ANC ...

on successive missions to Nigeria to lobby for the release of Obasanjo, Abiola and nine others. Right up until the Commonwealth Summit in 1995, Mandela was misled by Abacha into believing that there would be a stay of execution. However, one of South Africa's first experiments with quiet diplomacy failed when in November 1995 Abacha moved ahead with the execution of the nine Ogoni leaders including

Ken Saro-Wiwa Kenule Beeson "Ken" Saro-Wiwa (10 October 1941 – 10 November 1995) was a Nigerians, Nigerian writer, television producer, and environmental activist. Ken Saro-Wiwa was a member of the Ogoni people, an ethnic minority in Nigeria whose homelan ...

. After which South African president Mandela then publicly criticised General Abacha for human rights abuses and personally pushed for a two-year suspension of Nigeria's membership in the

. Mandela also criticised

Royal Dutch Shell Shell plc is a British multinational oil and gas company headquartered in London, England. Shell is a public limited company with a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange (LSE) and secondary listings on Euronext Amsterdam and the New Yo ...

for going ahead with a US$4 billion gas project in Nigeria despite its unpopularity within Nigeria and the rest of the world. This led to South Africa being isolated in Africa amid accusations that it was: Within a month South Africa started back tracking in an attempt to patch up its relationship with other African nations; and in an attempt to regain regional prestige amongst other African governments at the expense of its international prestige. On 29 March 1995

Wole Soyinka Akinwande Oluwole Babatunde Soyinka (Yoruba: ''Akínwándé Olúwọlé Babátúndé Ṣóyíinká''; born 13 July 1934), known as Wole Soyinka (), is a Nigerian playwright, novelist, poet, and essayist in the English language. He was awarded t ...

, leader of an exiled Nigerian democratic movement, attempted to hold a conference in South Africa. The South African government responded by refusing to grant any visas to Nigerian democrats for six weeks prior to the conference. The ANC called for the conference to be cancelled. The Nigerian debacle forced South Africa into a new foreign policy approach. Leading the country to abandon a "go it alone" policy and into a policy that sought to build partnerships with fellow African states through regional and continental bodies. It also made South Africa reluctant to engage in any confrontation with other African states.

Visa restrictions and expulsions

Relations between both countries were damaged in 2012 when 125 Nigerian travellers to South Africa were expelled due to not having valid

Yellow Fever Yellow fever is a viral disease of typically short duration. In most cases, symptoms include fever, chills, loss of appetite, nausea, muscle pains – particularly in the back – and headaches. Symptoms typically improve within five days. ...

certificates. In retaliation, Nigeria expelled 56 South African businesspeople. This prompted the two countries to enter into discussions around easing travel and visa restrictions between the two countries as a means of enhancing bilateral relations and trade.

Xenophobia

A factor in anti-Nigerian xenophobia is the fact that many Nigerians in South Africa have greater skills and education than the locals, giving them an advantage in the job market, making it difficult for the locals to get access to high-paying jobs given South Africa's already high unemployment rate. Recent attacks took place in 2009, 2015 and 2019, leading to the deaths and injuries of many impoverished Nigerians. The attacks instigated retaliatory violent reactions on South African businesses in Nigeria as many condemned the xenophobic violence taking place there. In response, the South African President Ramaphosa, made an apology to Nigeria in 2019 through his envoy

Jeff Radebe Jeffrey Thamsanqa "Jeff" Radebe (born 18 February 1953) is a South African politician who was last appointed as Minister of Energy by Cyril Ramaphosa on 26 February 2018. He served in the government of South Africa as Minister in the Presidency ...

, stating that he was ashamed of the violence towards Nigerians. He said, "The incident does not represent what we stand for," adding that South African police would "leave no stone unturned" in bringing those involved to justice. Ramaphosa, addressing the BBC, further said "We are very concerned and of course as a nation we reashamed because this goes against the ethos of what South Africa stands for". President

Buhari Muhammadu Buhari (born 17 December 1942) is a Nigerian politician and current president of Nigeria since 2015. Buhari is a retired Nigerian Army major general who served as the country's military head of state from 31 December 1983 to 27 Au ...

responded to the apologies from the South African president, pledging that the relationship between the two countries will be solidified," a statement from his office said.

Trade and investment

In November 2009, South Africa hosted the South Africa-Nigeria Bi-National Commission in

. At the conference, it was noted that

Oando Oando Plc is a Nigerian multinational energy company operating in the upstream, midstream and downstream. In July 2016, Oando entered into a tri-partite agreement with the Vitol Group, an independent trader of energy commodities and Helios I ...

, an energy conglomerate based in

Lagos Lagos (Nigerian English: ; ) is the largest city in Nigeria and the second most populous city in Africa, with a population of 15.4 million as of 2015 within the city proper. Lagos was the national capital of Nigeria until December 1991 fo ...

had recently been listed on the

Johannesburg Stock Exchange JSE Limited (previously the JSE Securities Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange) is the largest stock exchange in Africa. It is located in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, after it moved from downtown Johannesburg in 2000. In 2003 ...

and the Nigeria-based

Dangote Group The Dangote Group is a Nigerian multinational industrial conglomerate, founded by Aliko Dangote. It is the largest conglomerate in West Africa and one of the largest on the African continent. The group employs more than 30,000 people, generating ...

had invested a record $378 million in South Africa's cement industry. In 2008, approximately $2.1 billion was traded between the two states.SA, Nigeria to push trade, investment
/ref> By 2012, total bilateral trade had increased to $3.6 billion. In 2012, 83% of trade was taken up by South African imports of Nigerian crude oil. Between 2002 and 2012 South African imports from Nigeria have increased by 750% (mostly increases in oil imports) whilst Nigerian imports from South Africa have increased by 130%. The Nigeria - South Africa Chamber of Commerce serves to improve and facilitate bilateral trade relationships between Nigeria and South Africa. Its offices are in Lagos, Nigeria and it has in its membership 315 companies currently trading in both Nigeria and South Africa. It is made up of blue-chip companies, Nigerian companies and South African companies. Nigerian businesspeople have expressed concern over the pace and perceived rapid expansion of South African business interests in the country.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nigeria-South Africa Relations

Bilateral relations of South Africa