AFRICA-SPORTS: Nigeria Versus South Africa In Political Football

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Gumisai Mutume

JOHANNESBURG, Jan 8 1996 (IPS) - Sports boycotts are a form of protest that post-apartheid South Africa thought were behind it, particularly from a fellow African nation that played such a major role in the country’s liberation.

But that is precisely what is happening, albeit dressed up as a security issue, with the Nigerian government banning its national soccer team from playing in the South African-hosted Africa Cup of Nations kicking off this weekend.

Although football fans across the continent fervently hope a last minute deal will allow the defending champions to contest Africa’s premier soccer event, the final result of the political gamesmanship is still far from clear.

“Government is not satisfied with the security situation in South Africa, hence the refusal to allow the Super Green Eagles to participate in the Nation’s Cup,” Nigerian Information Minister, Walter Ofonagoro said late Sunday.

“It will be sheer irresponsibility to send our players to a country that has openly called for guerrilla warfare against the federal government,” he explained. “Nigerians should accept government’s decision in good faith as it is in their own interest and in the interest of national security.”

The diplomatic spat since late last year between Pretoria and Abuja, in which President Nelson Mandela took the lead in calls for international sanctions and even internal resistance to the Nigerian military regime, has now been paid back in spades by Gen. Sani Abacha.

The boycott has embarrassed South Africa and taken the shine off the continental cup, leaving African soccer’s governing body CAF in a quandary over who will replace Nigeria following first draft replacement Guinea’s announcement that they will not attend in Nigeria’s stead as the sixteenth finalist.

With organisational disaster looming over Nigeria’s withdrawal, South African policy towards the country underwent an abrupt about face. In an attempt to lure the reigning champions, South Africa’s sports minister Steve Tshwete went out of his way last week to ensure the safety of the Nigerian players.

It is the same South Africa that barely two months ago barred the Nigerian soccer team from taking part in a locally sponsored tournament known as the Four Nations Cup, and sent Miss Nigeria packing from the Miss World Contest in protest over the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other minority rights activists by the government in November.

“The apparent lack of a clear cut decision over Nigeria underlines that South Africa’s foreign policy lacks direction,” says Sarah Pienaar, director of the South Africa Institute of International Affairs.

“We have swung several times from calling for dialogue with Abacha then swung to the extreme, calling for punitive measures following the hangings, we are now swinging back over the soccer,” Pienaar told IPS.

Sport officials here have however been at pains to explain that there are no double standards as this month’s competition is different from the Four Nations Cup as it is under the auspices of CAF.

“In one case they were victims of the South African government protesting against the Nigerian government. In the case of the Nations Cup, South Africa merely act as the hosts and decisions as to who is eligible rightly rest with CAF,” writes local sports columnist Colin Bryden.

“There can be endless arguments about selective morality,” notes Bryden. “Many countries have violated human rights and it is always a moot point as to when such violations justify sanctions.”

South African Football Association president, Solomon ‘Stix’ Morewa, says South Africa has gone out of its way to ensure Nigeria’s presence as a good host, not because it feels that human rights conditions in the country have improved.

Morewa’s football association is a member of a recently established South Africa-Nigeria Democratic Group (SANDG). The lobby made up of political parties, business, trade unions and civic associations was formed to coordinate pressure, including oil sanctions, against the Nigerian government.

But it is Nigerian soccer that is the biggest loser in the dispute. CAF will decide this week in Johannesburg on whether to impose a six-year ban on Nigerian club sides participating in continental championships and impose a 30,000 dollar fine on the local football authority.

FIFA, the soccer world governing body, is already under European Union pressure not to award Nigeria the 1996 World Youth championships, and is likely to match a CAF ban.

Nigeria’s soccer squad, arguably the best ever assembled in Africa, is still in training at the national stadium in Lagos and waiting to here whether there could be a last minute reprieve in response to the deluge of domestic appeals begging the government to relent and allow the Super Green Eagles to play.

Many of the players know that if they do not take part in the Cup in South Africa and the country is banned from international matches for six-years as expected, age will prevent them from ever again pulling on a white and green jersey and playing for their country.

“What worries me now is that Nigerian fans saw the last of some of us in the match against Uzbekistan (the Afro-Asian cup earlier this year which Nigeria won),” says 29-year-old Nigerian defender, Uche Okafor. “How we wish we had known, we would have celebrated the match against Uzbekistan for what it was — a valedictory match.”

Foreign-based professionals are already under pressure from their teams to report back or risk being placed on half-salary.

Nigeria won the last African Cup of Nations in Tunis in 1994, beating Zambia in the final. The South African edition, the 20th in the Cup’s history, kicks-off on Jan. 13 with the final due on Feb. 3.