There is something about Nigeria and the way we think and act that defies logic. We are inundated almost on a daily basis with stories of how our ‘leaders’ steal our collective wealth and insult our intelligence without giving a hoot about our feelings. We seem to have resigned ourselves to fate, hoping that God will somehow, someday smite all of them dead and things will automatically get better and thus, we sigh and shake our heads whenever a fresh story emerges of how the barely literate morons who are in positions of authority commit one atrocity or the other…
October 4, 2010; I powered on my laptop and opened website that offers news on Nigeria. The headlines hit me like an uppercut to the jaw and I almost yelled out in disbelief. ‘FIFA bans Nigeria’ screamed the bold print. Apparently, the Football Governing Body got fed up with the mess in the Nigerian Football Federation and banned Nigeria indefinitely from participating in FIFA-sanctioned competitions. Since FIFA is the ONLY Football body on the face on the earth that means Nigeria can go and take a piss as far as International football is concerned.
Anyone with half a brain would have seen this coming and taken steps to prevent it. Ever since the EFCC picked up the former top shots of the NFF and rightly arraigned them before a Judge on more than a billion counts of financial crimes, it was obvious FIFA was going to do something drastic. The subsequent elections to fill the positions vacated by the previous administration were riddled with electoral malpractices. The NFF board led by Aminu Maigari has not been able to operate (and loot) because of the court ruling in Lagos which prohibits them from parading themselves as NFF officials. Did the Sports Ministry take steps to prevent FIFA’s axe? How is our local league faring? What steps are being taken to groom young players as is obtainable in other countries? What is the state of the turf in the Abuja National Stadium, or the one in Lagos which has turned to a den of marijuana smokers and itinerant preachers?
My main grouse is the fact that elections are close so the jokers in power have more ‘important’ things to do than salvage the remnants of Nigerian football. Everyone who is anyone in Nigerian politics is busy campaigning for one candidate or the other (replace that with strategizing on how to rig the elections) and their duties are being unattended to.
The timing of the ban couldn’t have come at a worse time. The ‘Super’ Eagles are due to take on their Guinean counterparts in a 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on October 10 in Conakry. The Super Falcons are to compete in the African Women Championships in South Africa later this month. The Flying Eagles were due to play the Mauritian National team in an African Youth Championship qualifier, in which they hold a two goal advantage from the first leg. As a result of the ban, they will have to forfeit these games.
I place the blame of this mess squarely on the shoulders of the Government. Early in the year, reports surfaced of how over $200,000 was ‘stolen’ from the drawer of an NFF accountant. No one was arrested and tried over the incident. If the imbeciles in power had dragged all the NFF staff out of their building and proceeded to shoot them one by one, I’m sure the truth would have come out one way or the other. The rot in that place is absolute! From the lowest security man to the President of the body, none of them has clean hands…
To complete this rant, I’ll leave you with an excerpt from an insider in Nigerian football… Add Mikel Obi to the list when you are done… That Boy-Man pisses me the fuck off with his nonchalant attitude to National call-ups. It’s not like he’s THAT good sef… SMH!
All Nigerians, including the president know where our soccer problems are coming from but 150 million people are involved in what I call the greatest conspiracy on earth – the conspiracy to conceal the true age of our players. Our country is suffering because the country is not producing young talents period. We do not have soccer fields anymore because they have been converted by the rich. Secondary school competitions where young talents were previously discovered do not exist anymore. Where do we then expect young talents to come from? When Adokie Amasiemeka reported with proof that the captain of the 2009 Under-17 team played for Sharks of Port-Harcourt in 2002 as an 18 year old, what did the then vice-president say? Macauley Chrisantus , the boy-man who emerged the highest goal scorer in the 2007 Under-17 tournament in Japan a few years ago and ended up signing for Hamburg FC in Germany has been traded or loaned several times that nobody knows where he is now. Some of his “age mates” in that competition have blossomed and are playing in the ongoing World-cup. Why did Chrisantus not blossom after Japan 2007? Why did Opabunmi not blossom after Trinidad and Tobago 2001? Why did Phillip Osondu not blossom after Canada 1987? Dimeji Lawal, a member of Nigeria’s Under-17 team that participated in Canada 1987, wrote his West African Examination Council exam in 1982 at prospect High School, Aba-Nla and did his “A” levels at Ibadan Grammar School and graduating in 1984. Yet, he played for the Under-16 team in 1987. Victor Ikpeba was a student of Yaba College of Technology when he played for the under-17 team in 1989. Yakubu Aiyegbeni, our main striker to the ongoing world Cup in South Africa had completed his West African School Certificate and was working with Okomu Oil in Edo State as a painter when he was discovered by Coach Izilien in 1996 (http://allafrica.com/stories/200401050704.html) and this Yakubu is now 27 years old in 2010. Maybe he was 13 years old in 1996 but the law in Nigeria does not allow the employment of minors.
