By Nelson Ekujumi
Following the recent “Super” Eagles 2-2 draw in Monrovia
against Lone stars of Liberia in the last qualification stage for next year’s
edition of the African Nations Cup to be hosted by South Africa in 2013, a lot
of misgivings are being expressed daily about this team and its handlers that
have become a big embarrassment and shame to the pride and sensibilities of
Nigerians.
I have for some time now decided to go on sabbatical with
regards to comments regarding this team which our people including journalists
proudly, patriotically and hopefully refer to as Super Eagles but which
realistically speaking do not deserve any commendable appellation because of
its continuous embarrassment to our national psyche by its uninspiring and
negative football display. But I have been forced to come out of my shell by
concern for the sensibilities of fellow Nigerians and this impending calamity
of missing out of the Nations Cup again next year like we did from the last
edition co-hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea early this year.
There is a saying which goes thus, “As you lay your bed, so
will you lie on it”. Is anybody still surprised as to how we got to this pitiable
state? Well, the answer is in the way we have allowed our football
administration to be managed by persons who shouldn’t be any where near it. Our
football have so degenerated to the level that even countries who took leave
for almost a decade from football due to internal strife are confident that
they can defeat us Nigeria, who play day in, day out 24/7 all over the world
and even in our bedrooms. Oh what a shame, how are the mighty derided!
I remember vividly very well that it took all the agitations
in the world before the former national team handler was kicked out even when
it was glaring to every discerning mind that he was piloting the ship of the
senior national for disaster, which he eventually did with our non
qualification for the last Nations cup of which we had become customary
participant for a long time. Even though some of us like Prophets of old had
predicted that he was unqualified by all ramifications to lead the senior
national team of a great footballing country like Nigeria in view of the fact
that he lacked the temperament and had no previous record of football
management at the senior level, yet we were called names but his result at the
end of the day justified that we didn’t cry wolf for the fun of it.
When the present senior national team handler was
appointed, a lot of Nigerians queried the method of his appointment in view of
the fact that unlike in civilized climes where the preferred is chosen from a
shortlist of applicants, Our own chief coach was appointed just like that, in a
manner that has become synonymous with the disorganized and nepotism oriented
way with which we do things here in Nigeria and which have continuously turned
us into an embarrassment in the comity of serious minded people globally. He
was appointed based on considerations other than merit, hence the distasteful
football display by the senior national team under his guidance ever since.
Since he took charge of the senior national team, Coach
Stephen Okechukwu Keshi in deference to his tactical ability and the team has
continuously churned out shameless and uninspiring display not symbolic of the
spirit of the Nigerian people and reminiscent of the Fanny Amu wobbling and
fumbling era to the consternation of all. In all the matches played so far by
the team, they have struggled and failed to raise their game beyond their usual
mediocre level in view of the fact that this team is populated by players with
brawns and no brains, tired legs and perpetual bench warmers. A lot of the
players in the team are regulars for their clubs only in the media. Today, they
are heaping all the blame for the draw in Monrovia on Vincent Enyeama, as if
they expected anything more from a player who for the past two years has
remained the number one goal tender for the senior national team even though he
sits on the bench regularly for his unknown club in Europe at the expense of
other fit goal keepers who stand between the sticks week in and out for their
clubs both here in Nigerian and outside our shores. This glaring tactical error
in selection of players calls to question the technical ability of the Big Boss
to choose the right players for our senior national team.
Coach Keshi’s case is not helped by the fact that despite
displaying glaring technical incompetence in reading of matches that he has
played so far which has been characterized with mountain of excuses for their
repeated mediocre display, some jobbers still continue to make case for us to
be patient with him as though the we are not Africans who are guided by the
need to avoid an impending danger with one of our proverbs which says “Igi
gogoro ma gun ni loju, ati oke re la tin woo”. With the way we are going under
Keshi, if we are lucky to scale this Liberia hurdle, we will only be going to
the Nations cup in South Africa to make up the number which will not be in
tandem with the wishes and aspirations of the Nigerian sporting community.
As we prepare for the
second leg return match against Lone Stars of Liberia in Calabar, there is need
for us all to admonish the Big Boss to parade only players who are
psychologically tuned, regulars in their clubs and have the thirst to don the
national team jersey rather than his so called “Super” Eagles who cannot defeat
even a team made up of my grand mother and her fellow grand mothers so long as
the match is played on my village football field. There is also the need to
appoint immediately now a quality national technical adviser to oversee and
technically develop Keshi and other national team coaches if we are truly
desirous of reclaiming our cherished position in the global world of football.
As for the board of the NFF, the people have spoken and lampooned them
repeatedly as a body of unserious minds who are more interested in feathering
only their pockets and that of their pay masters because they have no iota of
shame to realize that it is more honourable to resign and leave our football
management alone rather than piloting it to shame and calamity just like our
political elites are doing with our lives.
(Ekujumi is Executive Chairman,
Committee for the Protection of Peoples Mandate (CPPM)
26A Adesina Street, Ikeja, Lagos. He can be reached on: 08023172694,
07033853232)
