On
Monday 21st January, 2008,
played its first football game at the ongoing African Cup of Nations’
tournament in
D’ivoire and after 90 minutes, predictably lost 1 – 0
after Salomon Kalou of
strike. I said predictably, because I knew it, and most objective Nigerians who
have been following the decline, the rise and fall of Nigerian football, knew
and are realistic about.
Apart
from the heartache of seeing this loss, I take consolation in the fact that I
made some money from the bookies on the game. I placed a £10.00 on
1 the odds, I collected £40.00. Not a bad day for gambling, but one for
Nigerian football.
It
was always going to happen. With a clueless, corrupt and inefficient Nigeria
Football Association, an ageing team of un-motivated players and an equally
useless, clueless and un-committed coach in
was always in for a beating. It has always been an accident waiting to happen,
and sure it did. Anybody who thought one of the tournament favourites was going
to lose to
had another think coming. The display by the Super Eagles was inept at best and
comical at worst. The boys were static and pedestrian and could hardly put
passes together. Their shots at goal and hitting the target was largely
non-existent, and the Ivorien goalkeeper had the easiest 90 minutes of the
tournament so far. He was hardly put top the test, despite initial displays
that suggested he was very vulnerable. The player called Apam was so short of
confidence he was giving away the ball most of the time. Because Obi Mikel was
played out of the position he was originally known for, attacking midfielder,
(even
has damaged the boy), we could not enjoy his talents and skills. Martins hardly
saw the ball and Yakubu was out of sorts, and could not pull his weight as a
striker. Only Yobo was confident and reliable, while Danny Shittu, while very
hard working and hard-tackling, showed why he is still playing in the
Championship Division of Engalnd and not the Premiership. It was not until
Odemwingie was introduced that we saw some bright spark and deft movements,
which unfortunately were not complemented by his ponderous team-mates, and by
that time, it was too late for
To
make it worse, after the game Mr Vogts told the World Press, that the boys did
their very best and he was sure
will qualify for the next stage. Indeed,
“may” qualify to go into the next stage of the competition, yes, we are likely
to beat
will happen when they meet tougher opponents in those stages. Watching the
demolition of the “indomitable Lions of Cameroon” by
and the superb display of the hosts,
against
the talents displayed by
against
I am not that optimistic. One thing for sure, I don’t think the Super Eagles,
on the face of their inept display against
semi final stage of this competition. If they do, it will be a major miracle.
Most Nigerians are yet to see exactly what is super about these eagles.
Mr
Vogts, despite sitting on the bench right there in Sekondi must have been
watching a different game from the rest of us, when he said the boys did their
best. That tells you the manner of coach the man is. This is a coach who
refused to live in
where he would have the chance to travel round the country and help to discover
new talents, like Clemens Westerhof did. The man preferred using foreign based
players who have already made their names, but alas, are fading rapidly and are
in no way a match for the younger talents in other African countries. No effort
is being made to discover and develop new talents among the thousands of
Nigerian boys who play their football hard on the streets and on the rocky
surfaces as well as the league.
So
who do we blame? Who else? The visionless, clueless, corrupt Nigeria Football
Association, led by one Sani Lulu, and backed to the hilt by one Dr Amos Adamu,
National Sports Commission (NSC) Director-General.
One
thing, for as long as Dr Adamu remains at the top helm of
we will never see progress. Compare him with the now late Isaac Akioye, and you
know Amos Adamu is a man of straw. A man of extraordinary ambition, what Adamu lacks
in managerial ability and ideas for how to develop Nigerian sports he makes up
for with his native intelligence, intimidation, slyness and coercion.
Chimaobi
Uchendu in the Sun Newspapers of Wednesday, September 19, 2007 wrote “Since
Adamu returned to the Nigerian sports, things have not been the same. Like a
thief in the night, he came in to re-organise the Football House by positioning
his loyalists in strategic positions, and so he organised a Kangaroo election
to throw out the Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima-led board, comprising most of the
victims in the new NFA executives” Apart from being the director
general at the NSC, Adamu occupies sensitive positions in both CAF and FIFA.
About two years ago, he was also eyeing the WAFU top job, as well as the CAF
Presidency, and this is a clear example of a man ready to do anything to have
power. Of course, he was the Chief Executive of the African Games (COJA) held
in
years earlier, and we all know what happened – the monumental fraud that
accompanied the games.
I
read recently that Dr Adamu said he plans to devote his time and life to God
after his retirement, whenever that is, by becoming a priest and having his own
church. Well, that is one church I don’t plan to be seen in. I don’t see myself
entering the
of
Adamu’s church.
And
the Chairman of the NFA, Sani Lulu? He himself has never denied the fact that
he’s been playing the script of his master in the Football House. Lulu had said
that he was Adamu’s errand-boy, and that he was not ashamed to serve him in any
capacity. Sani Lulu was, before he was (s)elected NFA Chaiman, the Chairman of
the Abuja FA for many years. Tell me, what is happening in
“For
years, Lulu has been the director of sports in FCT and sports in the FCT is
like trees in the desert. It is not just there; even at recreation
level, sports is dead in
At National Festival, Games and other events, they always fail to impress. So
Nigeria should be ready for a period of heartbreak, because if Lulu cannot run
the corner shop that is FCT sports, how will he run a supermarket like
NFA?” wrote the respected Olukayode
Thomas , The Guardian, 8th November 2006. He even
correctly predicted the outcome of the election. (For the full report of the
intrigues behind this farcical and depressing election, and other issues
relating to the NFA, Amos Adamu and Sani Lulu, please read Mr Thomas’s article,
and his article titled “The Sorry State of Nigerian Sports” published in www.Playthegame.org, 9th August 2007). “As
Director of Sports of FCT, what sporting events did Sani Lulu organised in that
small zone, to qualify him as the man who can lead Nigerian football into the
global zone? What indelible and unforgettable mark has he made to sports in the
FCT not to talk about sports in Nigeria?”, I asked in 2006 in my
article “Nigerian football and sports, Amos Adamu’s influence and the
recent NFA elections – Another step backwards”. I am still asking that
question 2 years later.
The
NFA, Amos Adamu and Sani Lulu have been laying claims, with the aid of their
friends in sports journalism, to some successes in recent years that they are
not entitled to, such as the successes of the Super Falcons,
Olympic Games with two Gold Medals. They
have been embroiled in controversy and corruption. They suspended the Nigeria
Football League (NFL) Chairman Chief
Oyuki Obaseki and three other senior officials of the league, throwing the
whole football season into confusion. The
Senate was probing them in 2006 but we will not see any report because of Dr
Adamu’s intervention to cover it up and protect his errand boys. The NFA
maltreated the women’s team, The Super Falcons, at
the Fifth Women’s Football World Finals, also known as China 2007. There have
been financial scandals as well as sex scandals, where officials have been
found to be impregnating women players. Do you hear anything about the outcome
of the investigations into this? No, you wont, because Dr Adamu fixes
everything. He has a lot of officials and people in and out of Government in
his pocket who are utterly compromised and dare not act against him, because if
Adamu goes down, he will take many of them with him.
In his article, The Bad Eggs of the
Nigerian Football Association, (Onlinenigeria.com, 15th June 2006) Bankole Kolawole Monsuru, contends that
Nigerian “sports icons like Olusegun Odegbami, Fanni
Amu, Adokie Amaesimaka, and the likes of Chief Oladipo were not allowed to
reach the post of the NFA chairman, despite their status and achievements for
their noble country that was overlooked by the looters and not good enough
officials of the NFA, The cart was laid before the horse, and this has brought
chaos and indiscipline coupled with disgrace and bad record to Nigeria in the
International Football scene”. How
true.
The
Nigeria Footbal Association does not even have a functional website. I tried to
get the official website of the NFA, and all I got was one last updated, it
seems in 1993 when Emeka Omeruah was elected Chairman and the NFA Headquarters
was given as 146-148, Ogunlana Drive, Surulere, Lagos. The source of the
information then was from Complete Football, Nigerian Football 1960-1990 by
Segun Odegbami, and Sporting Champion, June 1992. And this was an association
launched in 1945. A shame really.
The
problem of sports development in
of national interest, governance and issues, is that of putting square pegs in
round holes, corruption, selfishness, lack of vision and mismanagement. An
inadequate, unqualified, mediocre and inept cabal almost always find themselves
in positions of great responsibility because of nepotism, tribalism and
corruption to the consternation of the willing and able and we the ordinary
Nigerians are often left counting the costs. Where are the likes and calibres
of Dennis J. Slatterys, the Akioyes, the JK Tandohs, Sunday Dankaros, the
Anthony Ikazobohs, the Omeruahs, the
Odegbamis, the Amaesimakas, the Godfrey Amacheres, to run our sports and
football? With the amount of hard dollars that accrue to our football
authorities, it is no wonder that a lot of charlatans and nonentities fight
tooth and nail to get into football
administration just to make money, without any ideas of how to go about making
their marks. It has been like that for ages, and will apparently continue to be
so. Take a look at the delegation list to
of the NFA Board there, if you are in the good books of the Chairman and Dr
Adamu. After the tournament, don’t be surprised to hear that the players have
not being paid, and there was changing-room discontent. This happens everytime,
it is predictable. It is the story of our life.
It
was rumoured that Dr Adamu once told a
Chairmanship contender that “(name withheld), yes, you are the right
man, but you are too honest for this game, I am sorry, but you cant be
chairman. We don’t need you now”. Incompetence will breed corruption,
because the incompetent will always try to shroud their failings in lies,
delusions, deviousness, depravity, secrecy and dirty deals. It is only in our
dear country that mediocres rule the roost in everything. Sports and especially
football have moved forward in the last ten years while ours have regressed, no
small thanks to inconsistent, ineffective and obsolete government policies,
greed, corruption, obtuse and arrogant officials, power-hungry idiots and the
likes. With countries like
finals, that tells you football is developing in those countries. Kudos to
them.
But
our Football League has been reduced to no more than a Sunday football
kick-about. I do not see our fans wearing football shirts bearing the names of
our own footballers, but those of foreign stars. Nigerians
no longer want to watch their local league. All they know now are foreign stars
and teams. When I was young, I used to travel from Ibadan to Lagos just to
watch the Super Stores; Railways; ECN
(later to become NEPA, and who knows what they call it now?), and I was always at the Liberty Stadium to
watch, in those days, WNDC, later to become IICC Shooting Stars; Water
Corporation; NEPA Ibadan; Housing Corporation; NTC, etc. play such great teams
as Enugu Rangers, Mighty Jets of Jos, Bendel Insurance, Sharks of Port
Harcourt, etc. Lord, I cant bear to remember!
The
Liberty Stadium, Ibadan, (built by that visionary and icon, Obafemi Awolowo)
one of the first in West Africa, if not in Africa, is hardly used and is
rotting away, taken over by food and beer sellers. And so is the National
Stadium in
taken over by religious groups trampling all over the grass, and the outside by
beer-sellers and prostitutes. And someone tells me, we have people in charge of
sports in
Well, think again.
So,
the outcome of Ghana 2008 for
Lifting the trophy is out of the question. Getting to the knock-out stages is a
possibility, but after that, our hearts will be broken, and we will slump back
home. All kinds of blames will be apportioned – sack the coach, sack the
officials, etc, but nothing will happen, and Nigerians will look forward to
making up the numbers and playing at the next big tournament, unprepared again.
Thanks to Dr Amos Adamu, Sani Lulu, Bolaji Ojo-Oba and co.
A
very happy ending, depending on which side you are looking at it.
2 comments
You nailed it on the head, when you identified NFA members as the problem in Nigerian football, however you analysis of the game in Sekondi, against CIV was rather emotional (at least to me)
Role playing died in the super eagles with the exit of Westerhof, so players joining the team after his exit had no real clue as to what their roles in the team should be, talk less of excelling in them. The decision by the NFA to stick with local coaches made matters worse, because the coaches simply lacked the ability to design a system, delineate roles within the system and then source talents to fill those roles: these local coaches failed to realize that talents need to be nutured in their respective roles to sharpen their skills and confidence (good examples are Arsenal fc & Man U)
Nigeria started on a good note by hiring a coach who understands this issues, however the apponitment came too close to a major competition like the cup of nations, and as usual we want the team to perform to our unrealistic expectation. On that match day against CIV i saw a nigerian side that is beginning to understand the importance of role playing in a football team. but expectedly, most of the players could not excel in their new roles and their was no on-field motivator like Keshi, Oliseh et al, who knows what it takes to reach and maitain peak perfomance in a role, to egg them on.
Sadly, the senior players have not bonded emotionally with the chief coach enough to want to play their hearts out for him, (i believe this is a neccesary ingredient for achieving victory, and neither do they love their country enough to get injured for it, before you blame them, remember you also left Nigeria for the same reasons they did. It takes time and sustained effort in the right direction for a team to develop these characteristics, and this is where i think we might miss it. As a nation we lack the accompanying temperaments for sustained and concentrated effort in doing the right thing. NFA memebers have to admit their personal inadequasy and invite consultants to help them. It is only in Nigeria that civil servants run entertainment businesses, which, essentially is the heart & soul of football.
Nobody is perfect in life. Although things went wrong it does not mean they did not try at all. In all my years of existence it has always been one complain or the other. If Vogt had fielded young players now and they lost , it would have been: The useless coach fielded inexperienced players, leaving the mature ones who could use experience to secure a win. I think the boys tried. Even our great 1994 world cup squad could not beat the Ivorian team save for penalty. Let us remove sentiment. watch that match again. look at what happened to the host nation Ghana yesterday against Namibia. Or is it Morrocco against Guinea. If you have ever been in the fieldd you would know how difficult it is to satisfy everybody. Players and coaches need encouragement in times like this not rebuking from different quarters.