abdulraheem
Nigerians have gone through a most sad period in the past week, as a result of the failure the national team, the Super Eagles, to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. The game of football is the most popular sporting event in the world, as we all know; and in recent years, some intellectuals have studied the effect of the game on the psychological health of a country. Victories often help productivity and defeats sag the morale of the people. Nigeria’s failure this time was a product of a combination of avoidable problems. In the first place, Obasanjo appointed Col Musa Muhammed, arguably the most incompetent Sports Minister Nigeria ever had. Musa spent a lot of time fighting the Football Association, itself a hotbed of incompetence, planlessness and lack of focus. So from the beginning, the administration of Nigerian football became a huge conspiracy against our securing the ticket to the World Cup. As if that was not enough, the FA appointed Christian Chukwu as the Chief Coach of the national team. Chukwu’s appointment was made soon after he was sacked by Rangers International of Enugu for incompetence; and
anybody who knows anything about football, knew that Chukwu’s appointment was a monumental disaster. A man who could barely express himself in the English language
and whose technical knowledge of the modern game was very suspect. But those who chose to inflict him on Nigeria’s football knew they had appointed a man who was easily manipulable and would take whatever was thrown at him. To protect his incompetent handling of our national
team, an elaborate team of ethnic Ibo journalists in the Lagos press was constructed to ensure Chukwu’s survival even if Nigeria’s World Cup dream went to pieces. There was also the former Director of Sports Development and former Chukwu team mate, Patrick Ekeji, to ensure his
survival at the level of government. In this mix was thrown a set of players led by the captain of the team, Austine Okocha, who toyed with the emotions of the Nigeria people, through their lack of commitment to the task of qualifying Nigeria for the World Cup. They missed vital games that Nigeria ought to have won out rightly, arrived camp a day or two to games, almost always unfit to play but assured of a team place by the spineless Christian Chukwu. Why he was allowed to last long as he did remains a mystery for football-loving Nigerians. At the end of it all, the spirited effort of Austine Eguavoen and his colleagues could not save Nigeria’s World Cup bid.
The situation has led to the loss of opportunity for a generation of Nigerian players to grace the most important sporting arena in the world, all because of a combination of factors that we could have avoided. Sports, but especially football, have become one of the most important expressions of modern culture in the contemporary world. It is a field that must not be left to a group of incompetent people out to fester their own nests to the detriment of our national aspiration. Very important lessons must be drawn from the failure of the Super Eagles class of 2005, to prevent a repetition in future. As a first step let’s keep the new team together-the coaches and the players, as a building block for the future. Even adversity can be a source of strength for the wise.
