South Africa asks Nigeria for evidence Ayra Starr was denied a visa, as the diplomatic back-and-forth over Tyla’s cancelled Lagos show heats up.
So there’s a bit of drama brewing between Nigeria and South Africa, and it’s got nothing to do with football or Jollof rice this time. It’s about visas, concerts, and two of Africa’s biggest pop stars caught in the middle.
Here’s the gist: South Africa is basically saying, “prove it.” Their Consul-General to Nigeria, Prof. Bobby Moroe, has come out to challenge claims that Ayra Starr and her team were denied visas back in 2024. According to him, there’s no record on their end of any visa application or rejection tied to her or her crew at all. He’s asking whoever’s making the claim to bring receipts, actual names and application reference numbers, so they can investigate properly.
Well, this whole thing got dragged back into the spotlight after South African singer Tyla quietly pulled Lagos off her A*POP World Tour. No big announcement, no explanation. The December 22 date just vanished from her ticketing page. And Nigerians weren’t having it, a boycott campaign had already been building over renewed xenophobic attacks on Nigerians in South Africa, so when Tyla’s Lagos stop disappeared, people connected the dots fast.
That’s when Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan stepped in, calling for Nigeria to apply reciprocity and scrutinise South African entertainers’ visa applications the same way. Her point wasn’t really about Tyla as a person, though. As she put it:
“This is not a call against Tyla as an individual. Rather, it is a call for Nigeria to uphold the principle of mutual respect that underpins international relations.”
Former Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole backed the sentiment too, pushing for tighter scrutiny of visa requests from South African acts.
Reports say she and her team couldn’t get visas ahead of planned shows in Johannesburg and Cape Town, and both concerts got cancelled. The organisers, Steyn Entertainment, blamed it on travel document issues at the time, and fans got their money back.
Now it’s turned into something bigger than one cancelled tour stop. It’s touching on national pride, fair treatment, and how African countries treat each other’s citizens. As of now, nobody’s responded to South Africa’s request for proof, so this one’s still very much unresolved.
