JOHANNESBURG (Reuters) - The recall of Nigeria's top diplomat after a spate of xenophobic attacks in South Africa follows several similar spats that expose the two countries' deep rivalry for economic and political dominance in Africa.

Nigeria's Acting High Commissioner to South Africa Martin Cobham said on Saturday he had been "invited" to Abuja to discuss this month's anti-immigrant attacks in South Africa, which have killed at least seven people.

Televised images of armed gangs attacking immigrants and looting foreign-owned stores in Johannesburg have sparked a backlash in Nigeria, where hundreds protested in front of shops owned by South African brands like MTN and Shoprite.

South Africa's foreign ministry on Sunday called Cobham's recall an "unfortunate and regrettable step", before taking a swipe at Abuja for its own record on protecting foreigners.

Last September, a church hostel collapsed in Lagos, killing 115 people, most of them South African. Nigeria was criticised for its slow response to the disaster and what some saw as a haphazard rescue effort.

"It would be curious for a sisterly country to want to exploit such a painful episode for whatever agenda," a foreign ministry statement said in response to Cobham's recall.

"We did not blame the Nigerian government for the deaths and more than nine months' delay in the repatriation of the bodies of our fallen compatriots."

Such tit-for-tat slights are becoming increasingly common.

Weeks after the hostel collapse, South Africa seized $9.3 million from a private jet carrying two Nigerians, funds Abuja said were for a legitimate arms deal. South Africa said the deal was being conducted without relevant permits.

Abuja accused South Africa of xenophobia when Nigerians were deported after staff at Johannesburg airport believed their yellow fever certificates were fake. Arik Air, Nigeria's biggest airline, briefly cancelled flights to South Africa.

CANNIBALS

Nigeria banned 2009 film "District 9", a hit movie directed by a South African that depicted Nigerians as cannibals, criminals and prostitutes who had sex with aliens.

Rows over Hollywood movies and yellow fever certificates are reflective of a more serious battle for economic dominance and control over Africa's representation on the global stage.

"It's no secret that Africa's would-be superpowers don’t like each other very much," analyst Simon Allison wrote in a column in the Daily Maverick, a leading South African political online newspaper.

"For all their lofty talk of unity and pan-Africanism, both Nigeria and South Africa are actually locked in a fierce struggle to be sub-Saharan Africa's pre-eminent superpower."

Nigeria overtook South Africa as the continent's biggest economy last year after re-basing its GDP. Pretoria said the numbers reflected Nigeria's larger population and not the sophistication of their respective economies.

"Despite what was said publicly, Nigeria's rebasing was resented by the South African government," a Pretoria-based Western diplomat told Reuters.

Diplomats say that when South African politician Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, the ex-wife of President Jacob Zuma, won a close race to chair the African Union Commission in 2012, Nigeria strongly backed her opponent.

Both countries are also lobbying for a permanent position to represent Africa on the United Nations Security Council.

Given their political and economic heft -- together, the two economies are larger than the rest of sub-Saharan Africa's combined -- relations between South Africa and Nigeria could be decisive for the future of a continent of 1 billion people.

"Nigeria and South Africa are like two prisoners in the same cell of poverty, inequality and bad leadership," Nigerian writer and political commentator Elnathan John told Reuters.

"Together they could muster the strength to break their bonds and overpower the jailer but instead they spend time feuding with each other in a needlessly fractious relationship."
http://news.yahoo.com/xenophobia-row-exposes-rivalry-between-south-africa-nigeria-141122090.html;_ylt=AwrC1CqYPENVgBIAIiOZmolQ;_ylu=X3oDMTBydDI5cXVuBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwM2BHZ0aWQDBHNlYwNzcg--

Nigeria was not meant to be like this, God will help us

again

I knew they were going to come back on the Synagogue issue, when fashola wanted to take actions, nigerians criticized him... About the arm deal i no blame them na the president wey we get i blame, you want to buy arms from a foreign country and you couldn't use one of the 10 presidential jets to move the funds so we wont suspect you right or when Pastor Bling Bling private Jet turned one of the presidential Jets.

If not for the selfish and corrupt leaders we have been "blessed" with, Nigeria shouldnt have been in this condition, with all the natural resources available and man power, its just a pity some group of THIEVES had been milking this nation and i pray things CHANGE for good from this incoming administration.

......I'm not surprise ........

Anyway God go punish anybody wey dey spoil Nigeria....






Even if na Jona or Buhari or even the highest person in Nija

I don't care

So its

"Nigeria Vs South Africa"

#Word

ok

Comment reserved about this appalling issue.

Let the rivalry be healthy so that Africa can move forward.

Wait

Is xenophobia the fear of XENO And What's Xeno and why dafuq are they scared of it.

No matter the rivalry. ...
All we know is Nigeria remains the giant of Africa.

Nigeria banned 2009 film "District 9", a hit movie
directed by a South African that depicted Nigerians
as cannibals, criminals and prostitutes who had sex
with aliens


Dis Flat heads sef.. Mtcheeew

True talk. But let's stop the dirty competition,we're Africans.

No need for the rivalry.
The average South African still has a better standard of living though.

Oh Africa

ppl don go sha


lord have mercy

Competition my arse! So they are comparing the SCOAN building collapse accident to the deliberate barbarism of those monsters they call citizens? Dese fuktards must be smoking puke !

slowly and surely, we will get there.

@lalasticlala.....abeg ur attention is needed abt one stuff online bro...

We are rivals not enemies so they should d stop xenophobia

after all those apc will say that it is pdp or jonathan handwork......

Thank God GEJ did not allow their evil to prevail in Nigeria. Grandpa, now that you are there, don't dance to their stupid tunes oooo

These castrated fuckstards should stop disturbin' us with sh!ts......We're tired of all these....Abegi my people dey come back home o...Change is here already...Naija go soon better....

Watching the Platform on Channels television.

This guy Tonye is intelligent.

Looking forward to when guys like this would become the holders of political power in Nigeria .

OK! Watch Nigeria in the next four years.

We need peace