Mariam Mariam
I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I just looked to me relieved like our football was under a curse. In truth, it is under a curse. The curse in no other than Dr. Amos Adamu, the Director-General of National Sports Commission (NSC) who has over the years turned himself into a stronghold with his strangle hold on the sporting affairs of this country, man cast a spell on everyone in this country? Simon Kolawle
I write these lines on Wednesday morning. after the Nigerian national team managed to qualify for the quarter- finals of the African Cup of Nations. In Ghana. The tension of the past one week has been temporarily lifted, as a result of the favour we received from the Ivorian national team, the Elephants. But in truth, the present class of the Super Eagles (so-called super!) must be the worst we have ever seen, Even the absolutely in competent, Christian Chukwu, managed to put together a team which played with some purpose passion in 2004!
So badly organised is the present squad that one would hardly find anything to commend in the squad: It lacked spirit; the team played without passion; there was no evidence of technical input from the coaching crew; there was not discernable pattern of play; the midfield was lacking in vision (who on earth always chooses to include Seyi Olofinjana in our team anyway?); Joseph Yobo does not have the charisma of a leader and has an annoying tentativeness which was exemplified by the way he pulled away from a tackle which allowed Salomon Kalou to score in that first game against the Ivory Coast. The much-vaunted “most dreaded” attacking squad in Africa just couldn’t find a goal until the last game against Benin Republic!
Clearly, there is a lot that is rotten in the heart of our football. But as we have argued on this page in the past, the problem isn’t only about our football, but our sports in general. Nigerian Sports can be likened to a “milch cow”, which over the years has been milked by a cabal that has held the field in a strangle hold, becoming fabulously rich in the process, while our sportsmen have become increasingly frustrated, with many of our most promising athletes opting to change nationality and finding fulfillment in representing other nations. As our sporting fortunes in every direction have deteriorated from football, to athletics, boxing, swimming, lawn tennis to volley for ball, name it, the powers, personal wealth and influence of and individuals in sports, have increased many times over. But on top of the sporting pile has remained the stupendously rich (by all accounts!) Dr. Amos Adamu the Director-General of ” the National Sports Commission and the’ Alpha and’ Omega’ , of Nigerian Sports.
Simon Kolawole’s; piece quoted at the head of this piece actually asked a most pertinent question. “Has the man (Amos Adamu) cast a spell on everyone in this country?” Kolawle went further, “Either as Director of Sports Development in the Sports Ministry or chairman of COJA. you thought the man would be finally brought to book, but no attempt was made to touch him. Instead, he came out stronger, manipulating the system to make sports administration revolve around him again and again. He decides who gets; what. He put virtually everybody at the NFA there! Today NFA is an extension of his kitchen. Nobody can raise a voice against him. Nobody ? raises a voice against him”. The more powerful Amos Adamu has become, the more crises we have harvested in our sports; the richer Amos Adamu has become, the more frustrated our sportsmen and the greater his stranglehold on our sports, the deeper the rot in sporting The administration and the greater the underdevelopment in Nigerian Sports!
What we have witnessed with the incompetent performance of our national football team at the ongoing Cup of Nations tournament in Ghana, underlines the crisis of Even the our sports, held in a bear hug by the untouchable Amos Adamu. Although within the sporting press have elements pointed this out in the past (I think Onochie Anibeze of think Onochie Anibeze of VANGUARD has been very consistent in this respect), it bears repeating now, especially because the lucky qualification of the team might delude us; the appointment of Berti Vogts as coach was a typical Amos appointment. Again, I think Simon Kolawole was spot on: “He (Amos Adamu), it was who imposed Vogts on Nigeria. He conducted the interview himself, with the help of side kicks, and appointed somebody with such a disheartening CV as our coach. What does Adamu know about football? Is he soon appeared to be vindicated. As the defendants were away from a tackle which allowed Salomon Kalou to score capacity to determine who should coach Nigeria?”
The answers to the questions above have been answered by the obvious incompetence of Berti Vogts (a coach that has been sacked severally by Kuwait and Scotland!). He took Nigeria’s team to Malaga in cold Spain to prepare for a tournament that was to hold in tropical Africa; and the man played friendly matches against Maccedonia, Mexico, Austrialia and Switzerland, while avoiding the African nations that could give our team the type of test we needed before a big tournament such as the African Cup of Nations. The team returned to Africa unprepared for the heat and humidity of the our continent and on the field of play, players had to constantly rehydrate, because they had not to sufficiently acclimatized!
Of course, the lack of understanding of the playing psychology and temperament of the Nigerian player was clearly evident in the sleep-walking coach Berti Vogts! Nigeria’s free-flowing play and expressiveness on the field of play, which reflected the Nigerian persona has been caged by a German coach, the Nigerian persona has been caged by a German coach, has been helped by the rotten state of sporting administration, the corruption that is very essential to the domination of tin gods in a world lacking in transparency and openness and where a fire brigade approach reigns, because that is the way government is made to release millions of dollars for events! It is this murky world which has facilitated the creation of the sporting press or government circles? Is it true he sponsors some federal lawmakers to sporting events around the world? Those who know him very well say he keeps boasting that nobody can touch him. That is a shame”,
