The security situation at the on going FIFA soccer World cup in South Africa has been very encouraging, considering the way many people had expressed concern as to the country's ability to control crime rate during the tournament. With the tournament already one week old, and with first group matches concluded, there hasn't been any ugly report.
With South Africa rated among the three most violent and crime prone countries in the world, one would think that by now there would be incidence of crimes or violence every where. Surprisingly, nobody has been harassed, no crowd troubles during matches, no shooting, and maiming of visitors. This goes to prove to the world that Africa is not synonymous with violence and crimes. This continent is even more secure than Europe, America, Asia and Australia.
Africans are hospitable people; they love visitors/strangers. This world cup is not a South African affair; it belongs to the whole of the African continent, and everything is being done to ensure a positive image for this continent. Africans have demonstrated with time that they could be relied upon to host successful tournaments on their soil.
Other countries have hosted the world cup successfully before, without leaving any sad event for the world to remember. Tunisia hosted the maiden edition of the FIFA U-20 tournament in 1977 and everything was okay security wise. Since then, Nigeria has hosted the FIFA U-20 (1999) and U-17 (2009), providing adequate protection for their visitors - players, match officials, FIFA representatives, journalists, supporters' clubs, spectators, etc. Egypt also hosted the U-17 successfully in 1997 and U-20 in 2009. South Africa hosted the confederations' cup in 2009 and there was no negative security report. The only negative report throughout the confederations tournament was the robbing of the Egypt team of their money in their hotel. That kind of incident is not peculiar to South Africa: robbery takes place everywhere in the world, even in the so called "advanced countries".
If records are anything to follow, it means that Africa is more secure than other continents where there has always been one ugly incident or the other during major tournaments. With these records therefore, I would rather say that more tournaments should be staged on our soil; we would always welcome visitors with open hands. When they come here they should feel free to visit places of interest and fun. We love you all and hope you give more African countries opportunity to host world cups and other major events, without any fear of harassment, molestation or insecurity.
Joseph Ezie Efoghor is a sports analyst with special interest in football, wrestling, golf, boxing, athletics and long jump. For more of his articles visit http://efoghorsportsarena.blogspot.com
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