A Nigerian law firm, Damilare Adenola and Co. Law practice (DACO LP Africa), has defended the right of Grammy-winning South African singer, Tyla, to perform in Lagos later this year, insisting that public outrage over xenophobic attacks against Nigerians in South Africa should be directed at the governments of both countries rather than the artiste.

The firm’s position comes amid growing calls on social media for Nigerians to boycott Tyla’s scheduled A’POP World Tour concert in Lagos on December 22, 2026, following renewed xenophobic attacks against Nigerians and other African migrants in South Africa.

In a statement signed by its Managing Partner, Damilare Adenola, DACO LP Africa acknowledged that Nigerians’ anger over repeated attacks and killings in South Africa was justified but argued that holding an individual musician accountable for the actions of a government amounted to collective punishment.

“The announcement of Grammy-winning South African artiste Tyla’s A’POP World Tour stop in Lagos on 22 December 2026 has sparked calls for a boycott rooted in legitimate anger over xenophobic attacks against Nigerians in South Africa,” Adenola said.

“The pain is real. The deaths are real. But as legal practitioners committed to African rights, African business, and continental integration, we believe this conversation is aimed at the wrong person.”

The law firm maintained that both Nigeria and South Africa are signatories to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, which guarantees freedom of expression and the right to work, stressing that Tyla is legally entitled to earn a living through her music regardless of the actions of her country’s government.

“No principle of law, domestic or international, establishes that a private citizen must issue a public statement condemning state violence as a precondition for exercising her economic rights,” Adenola stated.

He added that nationality alone could not be used as a basis for assigning responsibility for state-sponsored or tolerated violence.

“A person is not culpable for the acts of her government simply by virtue of sharing a nationality. To hold Tyla responsible for xenophobic violence she did not commit, endorse, or encourage is to apply collective guilt, a standard that the very human rights framework invoked to protect Nigerians abroad explicitly prohibits.”

However, the firm said its position would change if credible evidence emerged linking the singer to acts of violence or support for xenophobic attacks.

“We state this plainly: if credible evidence emerges that Tyla personally participated in, endorsed, or profited from violence against Nigerians or other Africans, our position changes entirely. Accountability must follow evidence. In its absence, we have collective punishment, and collective punishment is not justice,” Adenola said.

The law firm also described the planned Lagos concert as a practical demonstration of African integration, arguing that cultural exchanges should not become casualties of diplomatic failures.

It noted that leading Nigerian artistes, including Burna Boy, Wizkid, Davido and Asake, also perform in South Africa and benefit from a continental entertainment market.

“A South African artist performing in Lagos is not a provocation. It is continental integration in practice. It is the African creative economy doing what governments have consistently failed to do: binding this continent together through culture,” the statement read.

DACO LP Africa further urged the South African government to prosecute perpetrators of xenophobic attacks and reform its policing system, while faulting the Nigerian government for failing to adequately protect its citizens abroad through stronger diplomatic engagement.

“The South African Government must be held to account for its repeated failure to protect Nigerian and other African migrants living lawfully within its borders,” Adenola said.

“The Nigerian Government has a sovereign duty to protect its citizens abroad through rigorous diplomatic engagement, bilateral protection frameworks, and formal consequences at the level of the African Union and ECOWAS where diplomacy fails.”

While suggesting that Tyla and her management could voluntarily acknowledge Nigerians’ concerns as a gesture of solidarity, the law firm insisted that such a statement should not be imposed as a condition for allowing her to perform.

It called on Nigerians to channel their frustrations toward political leaders rather than the singer.

“Let Tyla perform in Lagos on 22 December 2026. And while she performs, let Nigerians direct their legitimate anger at the governments, Nigerian and South African alike, that hold the power to stop these deaths and have chosen not to.

“That is where justice lives. Not in the silencing of a 24-year-old South African artist who makes music, but in the halls of power where decisions about life, protection, and dignity are made and avoided every day. Africa’s future is continental or it is diminished,” Adenola said.