South Africa and Nigeria's rivalry: a call for self-reflection

South Africa’s long-standing rivalry with Nigeria now plays out as much online as it does on the sports field, with citizens of both nations often trading barbs over even the pettiest of issues. During the current AFCON tournament in Morocco, for instance, some Nigerian fans openly wished for Zimbabwe to defeat South Africa so that their own team’s chances of reaching the last 16 would improve. Whether one calls it banter or animosity, this back-and-forth has become a sustained feature of our relationship.

Unfortunately, the rivalry sometimes spills into uglier territory. In South Africa, there are those who generalise Nigerians as being synonymous with crime, particularly drugs and human trafficking. While such sweeping claims must always be handled with care, what saddened me more recently was seeing South Africans mocking the Nigerian government after a deeply tragic incident in which two members of boxer Anthony Joshua’s team died in a horrific car crash.

According to eyewitnesses, the SUV they were travelling in lost control during an overtaking manoeuvre and slammed into a stationary truck. There were reportedly no emergency medical services on scene to assist the former world heavyweight champion, who is recovering in a Lagos hospital. For many observers, this raised serious questions about Nigeria’s public emergency response and broader health system.

The irony of Joshua, a multi-millionaire being in a country whose government can't afford ambulance services must be deeply embarrassing for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu's government.

Having seen Nigerian roads several times, I also cannot help but wonder whether poor road conditions may have contributed to the tragedy.

But before we indulge in ridicule, South Africans should look closer to home. How often do we see a state ambulance at accident scenes in our own country? More often, it is private emergency responders, tow operators, and security companies who arrive first. This should worry us.

Rather than laughing at Nigeria’s shortcomings, we should reflect on our own and ask how, as a nation, we too reached a point where essential public services so often fail when they are needed most. Residents of the rural areas and the townships how it takes hours for ambulance services to arrive or not come at all. | NATHANIEL CLOETE Durban