Photo by Gary Raynaldo /  Professor  Adekeye Adebajo,  Director,  Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation,  University of Johannesburg,  at International Peace Institute in Manhattan, NY policy forum Mar. 29, 2019.

By Gary Raynaldo     DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

NIGERIA  and  SOUTH AFRICA  are regional, economic  powerhouses on the African continent. South Africa and Nigeria collectively make up about a third of Africa’s economic might.  Both account for at least 60 percent of the economy of their respective sub-regions in West and Southern Africa.  Nigeria and South Africa have led many conflict-management initiatives over the last twenty-five years.  Professor  Adekeye Adebajo,  Director,  Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation,  University of Johannesburg, provided insights into the two countries at the International Peace Institute’s policy forum Friday Mar. 29, 2019: ‘Nigeria and South Africa: Regional Dynamics in a Changing World.’  Adebajo is an accomplished scholar and he is the director of the Institute for Pan-African Thought and Conversation at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. He was Executive Director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution in Cape Town between 2003 and 2016.  A Rhodes scholar, Adebajo  obtained his doctorate from Oxford University

Professor  Adebajo stated that the success of political and economic integration in Africa rests heavily on the shoulders of these two regional powers,who have both collaborated and competed with each other in a complex relationship that is Africa’s most indispensable.

The scholar is also the author of a new book titled “The Eagle and the Springbok: Essays on Nigeria and South Africa”.  The book essentially assesses Nigeria and South Africa relations in the areas of politics, economics, and culture within the context of rivalries and hegemony. Adebajo explained that the symbols he used for the  book’s title is based on two sports crazed countries.  The Eagle is the Nigerian soccer team ,  and the Springbok is the  South Africa rugby team. 

Photo by Gary Raynaldo /  Professor  Adekeye Adebajo  and moderator Ambassador John Hirsch, Senior Adviser, International Peace Institute.

Adebajo pointed out that South Africa and Nigeria both trade very profitably off each other, with Bilateral trade between the two pegged $4.5 Billion in 2016.   Adebajo noted  that there are some 120 South African companies based in Nigeria.  However, Adebajo stated that there remains serious strong differences of views about each other. For example,  Nigerians often complain about the ingratitude of South Africans in not acknowledging the important role Nigeria played in the anti-Apartheid struggle.

He said Nigerians also complain about what they perceive to be South African’s mercantile attitude, as South African companies are ubiquitous in Nigeria, while the South African market  is closed to Nigerian companies.  South Africans also, in turn,  often complain about Nigerians’ involvement in  drug trafficking and fraudulent scams, while its companies complain about Nigeria’s bureaucratic obstacles, and lack of infrastructure that makes doing business in Nigeria so difficult.  Adebajo  added that Nigerian immigrants are particularly stereotyped by South Africans as being involved in drugs, theft, prostitution, and witchcraft. 

However, the scholar, who worked and lived in South Africa 15 years, said the views are based on stereotypes and xenophobia. “The vast majority of Nigerians living in South Africa are law-abiding citizens who contribute vastly to South Africa’s economic and social fabric,” he said.

Photo by Gary Raynaldo /   Professor Adebajo speaks at IPI policy forum New York City Mar. 29, 2019

SOUTH AFRICAN COMPANIES MAKE IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTION TO NIGERIA.    “The vehemence of  the anger of some Nigerians against South African companies operating in Nigeria is sometimes shocking,”  Adebajo said, given the fact that many South African companies contributed to a wide range of goods and services that would not have otherwise existed in Nigeria. “MTN South Africa opened up Nigeria’s telecommunications industry in the early 2000’s.”   The scholar stated that this type of stereotypes can become dangerous. “While South Africans tend to direct their negative stereotypes against Nigerian citizens,   Nigerians tend to direct their stereotypes against South African companies. And citizens and companies can, of course,  become targets.  Nigerian citizens were attacked in South Africa in xenophobic attacks in 2008, 2015, and 2017.  Then, in retaliation, South Africa MTN office in Abuja was derided as a money thieving network at attacked in 2017.

Adebajo stated that  despite their disagreements , South African and Nigeria share many similarities. Both countries, he noted, were born out of British amalgamations in 1910 and 1940.  Both have trained regional elites at their universities for decades. Both have had tremendous economic, intellectual impact on the continent. Both are heavily dependent on mineral resources: Nigeria-Oil,  and South Africa, Gold. Both also suffer from growing corruption and are among the most unequal societies in the world. Both are prone to incidences of vigilantism  and violence, which have made Johannesburg and Lagos among the most feared  cities in the world. The scholar added that, despite the similarities, there are contrasts between South Africa and Nigeria that are quite large. 

“While Nigeria’s legitimacy as an African power is unchallenged, South Africa’s black government’s continues to struggle with is credibility  as an African leader because of the continued dominance of 10 percent white minority of the economy, of the universities, and NGO sectors . While South Africa’s black majority struggles to emerge from legacy of  the Bantu education,  Nigeria has trained three generation of self confident students and has the largest black intelligentsia any where in the world.  And while South Africa has a third of the population of Nigeria,  it produces 10 times more electricity.  Johannesburg’s stock market capitalization is 15 times larger than Lagos.  While South Africa has several well funded quality universities,  Nigeria’s ivory towers are crumpling monuments to years of neglect and government closures . And while South Africa liberalism entrenched gay rights in the 1996 constitution,  Nigeria in 2014 criminalized homosexuality with 14-year jail sentences, ”    Adebajo observed.

photo by Gary Raynaldo / Professor Adebajo speaks at IPI policy forum

Nigeria in 2014 overtook South Africa as the continent’s largest economy, he noted, while harboring an erosion of political leadership in Nigeria with the recent delayed elections, and low turnout rates  for voting.  The high unemployment among Nigeria’s youth is a “ticking time bomb” Adebajo warned.   South Africa itself faces general elections in May 2019.   Many tensions remain between Nigeria and South Africa, despite the relationship being indispensable.