The rivalry between Nigeria and Ghana has extended for years, and with Ghana struggling at the AFCON, Nigerians have taken to social media to exchange banter with them
The Super Eagles of Nigeria defeated Cote d'Ivoire 1-0 on Thursday to claim their first three points of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations. However, their close neighbours, Ghana, did not get that kind of joy in their own group, as Egypt held them to a painful 2-2 draw on Thursday evening.
The result puts Ghana in a precarious situation, as they now have just one point from two games, as they lost to Cape Verde in their opening fixture.
Following Ghana's poor performances, Nigerians have taken to social media to banter them. This is not the first time, though, as citizens of both countries have always been at loggerheads- in sports, food, entertainment, culture and football.
This time, Nigeria has the upper hand, and Nigerian footballers have been the ones leading the charge. Following Ghana's draw against Egypt, Super Falcons star Asisat Oshoala posted on her X page that she was looking forward to sharing in the banter.
https://twitter.com/AsisatOshoala/status/1748104059700097422?t=rSfrR2EaZqZ8rlRF8UHkRw&s=19
This sparked a lot of reaction on social media, with Nigerians and Ghanaian fans throwing jibes at each other on social media. Oshoala also fired some bullets of her own.
no lies told ……YOU HAVE A POINT #AFCON2023 https://t.co/yiH4qcwbgc
— ASISAT M.O.N (@AsisatOshoala) January 18, 2024
— Latifat Adebayo-Ohio (@Phatill) January 18, 2024
Super Eagles striker Victor Boniface, who initially made Nigeria's AFCON team before getting ruled out due to an injury, also took part, but he later deleted his post.
While this may be fun, a question lingers- should Nigerian professional footballers participate in this kind of banter?
In the actual sense, the typical Nigerian youth loves to engage in banter and jokes. It is not a coincidence that Nigerians consume a lot of comical materials. Also, these players are still quite young, so they can be excused if they show a bit of exuberance. Napoli hitman Victor Osimhen used to share a lot of memes on social media, but since the birth of his daughter, it has reduced drastically.
On the other hand, these kind of actions could have a negative effect on the players in the long run. It would put them under the searchlight and make them unnecessarily.
Players like Oshoala and Boniface are role models for younger players, and if they fail to comport themselves on social media, they may be setting a bad example for younger players.
I totally disagree with this. throwing banters is just fun, so far the throwers are not using far abusive words. our players are part of us. when they do what an average Nigerian do, it makes us to love them and see them as one of us. it also give lot of Nigerians confidence, like, ok, Boniface is just a normal person like me, so I can be a star too one day…just those banters with big names involved may have a lot of psychological benefits for depressed Nigerians and even ghanaians especially if ghana players too respond and ghanaians tweet behind them as Nigerians tweet behind their own players. this is totally fun. after few days, everyone will leave the matter. Nigerian players too will start being careful so as not to loose games and expose themselves and Nigerians to Ghanaians’ banters. all this is fun, positive fun. what can make our players to become bad examples for Nigeria youth, which I don’t think any of our players do, is the immoral acts such as posting naked pics of themselves beside the beach or half nude pictures with their spouse…etc..as those oyinbos do sometimes.