TeamNigeria4Change, one of Nigeria’s leading socio-political groups, has kicked against the planned Lagos performance of South African Grammy-winning singer, Tyla, describing it as insensitive and insulting.
Tyla is billed to perform in Lagos on December 22, 2026, as part of her forthcoming ‘A*POP’ World Tour. The announcement has, however, triggered heavy online backlash, with some social media users calling for a boycott over unresolved xenophobic tensions between Nigeria and South Africa.
According to TeamNigeria4Change, Tyla’s silence as a celebrity and public figure in the face of xenophobic attacks in South Africa amounts to tacit approval of the attacks.
The group’s President, Otunba Bestman Nze-Jumbo, described it as a total lack of empathy on the part of the show’s organisers to bring a South African artiste to perform in Nigeria at this time, especially given that Nigerians were among the worst-hit victims of the xenophobic violence in the former apartheid enclave.
Nze-Jumbo further noted that for a country Nigeria sacrificed so much to help attain independence, it was unfortunate that South Africa continues to treat Nigerians and other black African nationals the way it does.
Recall that the Federal Government of Nigeria recently deployed aircraft to South Africa to evacuate its citizens after they were threatened with deportation and given an ultimatum to leave the country by South African authorities.
