GOOD, NIGERIA DID NOT QUALIFY FOR THE NATIONS´CUP 2015

  I did not even bother myself to watch the match against South Africa in Uyo, Akwa Ibom state even though it was transcendental for the future of my dear nation in its quest to defend the title it won in South Africa in 2013 in the oncoming 2015 edition slated for Equatorial Guinea.

  The super Eagles team headed by Coach Stephen Keshi has in recent times displayed a very deficient technical and tactical understanding of the game; the team had declined notoriously in form and quality since winning the nations ´cup in 2013, coinciding as it were with the loss of control and direction of the team by the coaching crew headed by Coach Stephen Keshi who on winning the nations ´cup changed his functional approach and dismantled a team he was lucky to have discovered and opted rather for the old and dysfunctional system of things that has plunged our nation into the sorry governmental state that it is in today.

  Keshi, like the typical Nigerian man that he is, allowed his success to go into his head and worst still destabilize his mission as a coach. He eventually went to the world cup just one year after conquering Africa with some players who did not participate in that successful conquest of Africa, players who were completely out of form and who had not in any way participated in qualifying Nigeria for the world cup And by so doing, Keshi destroyed the union and the togetherness he was lucky to have found in a team that was beginning to mentally believe in its capacity to win great things after a very long period of impasse and failure.  

  Although, many Nigerians, in our spirit of mediocrity-tolerance celebrated our lackadaisical performance at the world cup even when some of us believed and expected that the same team that conquered Africa just barely a year ago could have given any world rated football nation a close fight. Our technical crew at the world cup exhibited a very deficient technical and tactical knowledge of the game, and as is innate in us, we began to depend on good luck rather than hard work….. And the rest is history.

  Some of us saw the tell tale sign of exhaustion in the technical crew which was also made manifest in the attitude of the team, the passion, the hunger for victory that was hitherto present in the African nations´ cup was conspicuously missing thereafter. And to make matters worse, some of the players who had performed acceptably well at the nations´ cup like Emenike, Victor Moses and even Mikel Obi became a complete disappointment at the world cup and in every subsequent matches they played for Nigeria, but Keshi´s insistence on always feeding a completely worn out Mikel Obi would be the crux that will deal a devastating blow to our ambition of defending the nations´ cup in 2015.

  The continuous and eternal tussle for administrative power by the Nigerian football governing body, the NFF, one of the most corrupt institutions in the world did not help matters at all. I will really never understand why a nation as passionate about football as Nigeria and where football is the only remaining unifying factor has completely sworn never to put someone with enough football understanding at the helm of its football administration. It is like building a hospital and putting a herdsman in charge of it instead of a doctor, why have we never had an ex-footballer as an NFF chairman in Nigeria? Why do we always opt for football laymen to manage football issues in this country? And why is the government constantly intervening in football issues in Nigeria?  

  Haven said all this; I think it is just and proper that Nigeria did not qualify for Equatorial Guinea 2015, because if we had qualified, it would still have appeared as if everything is ok with our football in Nigeria. Some people, especially government agents and agencies would have gone around bombastic of the achievement. So now that we are out of the competition by our own merit, a very serious and a total overhaul of the sector are necessary. It is not just enough to change a person and believe that everything is ok, we need to cleanse the entire football policy making organs in our country, a completely new approach must be adopted, the private and the public entrepreneurs should come together, especially in the area of tapping into the talents that abound in our country from a very young age. Our players need tactical discipline and these things can only be inculcated at a very young age, say from 5 to 6 years.  

  I know for sure that nothing special will be done after this shameful outing of our super eagles, as is customary in us, we will make the noise for two days and afterwards we will return back to normalcy as if nothing is amiss. I just wish that we think less for once about what we can steal from Nigeria and think for once on how we can move her an inch forward.  

NIGERIA, A PEOPLE THAT NEED NEAR NOTHING TO BE HAPPY

  I must have watched a different match today, all the views and the exhilaration expressed today on the social media after Nigeria´s 2 – 0 away win against Congo confirmed that we are indeed a nation that needs very little to doll out the drums and throw decorum to the winds.

  I saw a Nigerian team that played without any purpose whatsoever, a team that still could not make three straight passes in 90 minutes, a team eternally under construction where the players looked like they had never trained together and that the match against Congo was the match they were all playing together for the first time, a team very slow and predictable, with many childish errors in all the departments of the game.

  Yes, we won and it is true that the three points at stake today were very key to our options of continuing in the qualification race for Equatorial Guinea 2015 but to want to say that our boys played a very good game is preposterous as it is incredible. Apart from Enyeama who once again was exceptional, Egwueke who also played with a lot of conviction today as well as Ogenyi Onazi who was very resolute as usual and maybe Ikechukwu Uche who had some intermittent actions in the course of the game, the rest of the players were mediocre.

  The Nigerian national team that I watched today is a world away from that Nigerian team that won the nations cup in South Africa in 2013, we were lucky that the Congolese side was worse than our mediocre team today and that the god of soccer continued to show that it holds Nigeria dear to its heart at least as far as football is concerned.

  We may eventually qualify for the nations´ cup as the second best in the group but we should not misinterpret our desperation and fervent thirst for something, just anything at all to celebrate, after a long time of so many bad news emanating from our nation to begin to exaggerate and embellish a lackluster performance of a selection that cannot be termed a team.

  If indeed the Super Eagles must retain the super accolade, the players and the coaching crew need to do much more than what is being exhibited.

PLAYERS PERFORMANCE AGAINST CONGO:

Vincent Enyeama – 9

Ambrose Efe – 4

Oshaniwa – 4

Oboabona – 4

Azubuike Egwueke – 8

Onazi – 7

Mikel Obi – 5

Hope Akpan – 5

Aluko – 5

Musa – 4

Emenike – 5

Uche Ikechukwu – 7

Aaron Samuel – 6

Gbolahan Salami - 3

BRING BACK THE REAL SUPER EAGLES

  I was trying to explain the evolution of Nigerian football to my six year old boy yesterday when he asked me frankly what Nigeria had won in football and why he has never heard about any world class Nigerian footballer. I didn´t really know where to start, I tried to start from the very last big thing that Nigeria won, which was the nations cup in 2013, but I realized that even though we won that competition, there was really no world class player I could mention in that victorious squad whom I could be able to play his action video shots on youtube that will wow my little boy.

  I looked around the whole of the European leagues and I just couldn´t find any above average Nigerian player plying his trade in any first class European league, one that makes the headlines at least twice a month in big football magazines in Europe. It was then that I realized that our lack luster performance at the national team level in recent times is due mainly to the fact that our national team is packed full of mediocre players, some of who are not even regular players in their teams in Europe.

  But how did we get to this sad situation where in the last five years we do not have any world class player that can be rated among the top 50 best players in the world in their positions. How can I now convince my six years old son that there was a time when we had JayJay Okocha, George Finidi, Mutiu Adepoju, Kanu Nwankwo, Victor Ikpeba, Taribo West, Sunday Oliseh, Rashidi Yekini, Samson Siasia, Daniel Amokachi, Jonathan Akpoborie, Celestine Babayaro…. just to mention a handful, who were always making headlines with their weekly superlative performances in their various leagues all across Europe. Then you could bet with anyone and win that there will hardly be a week when a Nigerian is not mentioned in the course of football news across the globe.

  Today, our so called best are saddled only among the rest. There is no top Nigerian player anywhere in the world that deserves any special attention and that is responsible for our recent bad performances at the national team level.

  After fidgeting on youtube for several minutes and seeing nothing of notable football value that will hold my boy spellbound, I finally settled for the video of two of Nigeria´s best football talents in the last two decades, JayJay Okocha and Kanu Nwankwo, two of our most creative players, who in their time could decide a match with one very extraordinary play, and since yesterday my boy who always called himself Diego Costa while playing around with the ball, now tells me to call him Okocha.      

EVERY NIGERIAN MUST HAVE THE SAME GOAL

  The Nigerian political institution is not well defined along ideological lines like is expected in a democratic dispensation, so because of this and coupled with the fact that our leaders are not tested and demonstrated leaders who had undergone leadership trainings and proved their leadership mettles in tested fields before being ascended into public offices, the idea of voting a party into power in Nigeria is absurd. Because no one party in Nigeria is different from the other in terms of ideologies and the real predisposition to apply its manifestos.

  What Nigerians should be concerned about are the individuals being presented to them, especially the possibility and ability of these ones to be able to deliver the dividends of democracy to them, it is unfortunate that Nigerians are not used to asking questions and their leadership is not responsible enough in most cases to be accountable to Nigerians. It becomes almost forbidden for a Nigerian to raise up his hand at any public function and formulate a question before an elected public servant and expect a clear response to his questions especially if it is a question that makes the public servant a bit uncomfortable, there will always be other Nigerians present at the same occasion who will quickly want to oppose the person asking the question, then also would be the teeming group of sycophants usually gathered around all public servants in Nigeria like flies on a rot who too will be preventing any access to the man whose office naturally obliges him to be at the service or better put at the beck and call of every Nigerian.

  Sometimes, one risk even physical aggression in the hands of the many thugs, official bodyguards, aide-de-camp… and even security forces all paid from our public funds but who out of ignorance and selfishness act as unnecessary encumbrance to our elected public servants. How many political parties in the history of Nigeria have stuck to their manifestos on getting to power? What makes any Nigerian political party different from the other? If you take a detailed look at these questions you will discover that unlike in the developed nations where democracy is practiced on the bases of at least two alternative ideological choices; one conservative, the other progressive, one right wing, the other left wing, right center, center left and all that….. Signifying what to expect from any elected one amongst them, in Nigerian we only have a conglomeration of mostly dubious persons without any ideological bearing, who have formed a party lacking any form of ideology simply for the purpose of contesting an election because a candidate need to contest under the auspices of a party.

  But then, it is still not all bad news as it eventually depends on the practical outcome of the party in the hypothetical case that it gets to power. The truth is this, Nigeria as a nation cannot afford to be divided into just two interest groups as we normally see in most advanced, democratic societies, our problems are multifaceted, in fact, no under-developed nation can afford itself the impudence to do that. Nigeria therefore by its nature should have parties with the same ideology which is no other than speedy development. If you ask me, I do not think that Nigeria needs politicians as much as it needs patriotic technocrats, we need a blue print and persons committed to pursuing the outline developmental agenda with all urgency and vigor. Take for instance that a government comes into power in a nation like Nigeria, following a pre-tabled and underlined major problems facing us as a people in the scale of their preferences and decides in its 4 year tenure to fix two very major and outstanding of all the underlined problems rather than diversify its energy in dealing with a million problems that we have and eventually carrying it over to the next government worse than it was before he inherited them.

  What I am trying to say is this; the key problem in Nigeria today and always has been corruption and mismanagement of public funds, what if we have a government that makes this its major agenda and works vigorously to uproot the existing impunity characteristics of our government in recent times as regards this issue of corruption. What if the only success of President Goodluck Jonathan in his tenure was efficient and constant electricity supply? Imagine if in the 4 years of any president in office in Nigeria, there is constant power supply for 4 years; Nigerians will no longer mark the Xmas or the Id-el Kabir festivals but constant electricity day.

   On a more serious note, I think that we are continuously and helplessly left as a people in the hands of those who play politics with our well being as a nation rather than those who are really willing to sacrifice themselves for the growth and progress of our nation. We all know what our problems are in Nigeria, our leaders should begin to face and resolve these problems and stop once and for all this useless game of bamboozling Nigerians and unnecessary time buying. Nigeria is a nation endowed to be great, mediocrity should therefore not be an option.                 

"EL CLASSICO" IS HERE

  It really does not matter the form in which the players of two century old rival clubs like the Real Madrid and Barcelona gets to a derby, nor are there any other ways to motivate the players to be in their best forms for matches of this category, the motivation is almost a natural thing that comes on its own. The fact that the two teams are meeting is itself sufficient motivation for any player wearing the colors of any of the two teams.

  The players are aware that this is not just another match, and although there are three points to be won or lost at the end of the day, the pride of winning such a world class derby is much more than the three points at stake, in fact no matter how bad any of the teams in such matches may be on the league table, sometimes a victory in a match like this helps put aside a rather unsuccessful and gloomy season.

  Lucky for the supporters of both teams and football fans all over the world, Real Madrid and Barcelona are going into this match in a similar form; both teams appear to be at their very optimum at this stage of the competition. Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are breaking and setting new football records every day, records that are out of the reach of human footballers except galactic stars like them.

  There will also be very many other stars to watch out for as both teams will be using their best football weapons to try to outwit and beat their opponent, Luis Suarez who has been on suspension all through the season due to the suspension slammed on him by Fifa for biting Chiellini at the world cup may be having the opportunity of playing his first official league match this season for Barcelona against no other rival than Real Madrid, Iniesta, Neymar, Ivan Rakitic, Xavi Hernandez and other Barcelona stars along with James Rodriguez, Luka Modric, Toni Kroos, Isco, Benzema are stars to also watch out for in the game which no doubt promises to be scintillating.

  Let us just hope that the passion from the footballers of both teams will not be so much as pushing them into engaging in none-footballistic and controversial issues as we have seen in other times. They should do what they are best at doing, play football and playing it very well for the good of the game.

  I wish both teams the best of luck and may the better side win at the end of the day.       

NIGERIA IS MORE THAN CAPABLE OF SURVIVING A WORSE OUTBREAK

  Although Nigeria is seen by many as a mere geographical expression, experience has continuously proved the contrary, the 100 years this year of inter-relationship between what used to be the northern and the southern protectorate of the British empire now Nigeria from 1960, has shown that Nigeria is much more than a mere geographical expression, unfortunately though most self-centered politicians and their cohorts inside and outside the shores of our great country are using our rich and positive diversity to create unhealthy tensions that have in recent times jeopardized and compromised the unity and the continuity of our nation as one indivisible entity.

  But Nigerians are a very special kind of people with a very uncommon mental capacity to surmount their myriad problems no matter how insurmountable they appear at first. Like every country, we have our challenges, the most important of all being bad leadership and corruption. And that is the area every Nigerian is expected to focus on and not the trivialities that our corrupt political elites are always selfishly diverting our attention to for their insatiable benefits at the detriment of our common good.

  Experience has shown that each time Nigerians come together and patriotically face their problems, we always come out victorious and the amount of Nigerians managing and leading important world institutions with the highest level of efficiency and professionalism shows that Nigeria as a nation is not short of credible, efficient and well trained persons to assume any leadership position within and outside our country. What is apparently wrong then is the status quo installed in our country by a handful of antipatriotic Nigerians most of who selfishly work to defend foreign interests at the expense of our nation.

  We are currently living in one of those rare seasons when it is a worldwide trend and a pride to be related to Nigeria, our nation, often regarded as a third world country with very limited infrastructures but that has been adequately able to contain the spread of the Ebola virus that came into our country through a Liberian infected patient. The lesson from that is that Nigeria and Nigerians are more than capable of making things work for our common benefit if we so desire. We must therefore apply the same zeal, the same level of patriotism, professionalism, sacrifice and love exhibited during this dreadful Ebola outbreak to fight other mortal and devastating viruses that are equally killing our people and withholding our advancement as a nation, such as Ignorance, corruption, intolerance, disunity, impunity, nepotism, favoritism and all other vices, especially used by undesirable elements in our political field to ensure that the real dividends of democracy does not get to the people.

  The message is clear; if we can beat the Ebola we can beat any other challenges on our part to a long overdue greatness. Let us prove to those who doubt that Nigeria will survive the 2015 deadline that Nigeria has come to stay.     

A WORSE BUHARI IS BETTER THAN THE BEST OF THE OTHER CANDIDATES

  There have been some relative mixed feelings and reactions since Rtd Major-Gen Mohammadu Buhari announced his renewed intention to run for the presidency in the oncoming General elections in Nigeria under the platform of the APC. The former Head of state who ruled Nigeria from 1983 to 1985 is being accused by his detractors of being one of those who masterminded a military coup that put an abrupt end to the second republic and a democratic government in Nigeria, an action they argued was responsible for the predicaments of our nation today, saying that if not for the military intervention, Nigeria would have advanced democratically and developmentally today much more than is the case.

  The Military is seen to have retrogressed Nigeria below acceptable standard considering our unquantifiable and numerous human and natural endowment. The military government in Nigeria is accused among other things of curtailing the rights of Nigerians and for creating despotic rulers who siphoned the wealth of our nation at the detriment of our people for decades. Although Rtd. Major- Gen Muhammadu Buhari is one of the few Major Generals who a lot of Nigerians exonerate from any registered corrupt case during his short period as the Military Head of State of Nigeria, but the fact that he had previously served in other administrative capacities without a functional legacy to show for it is what a lot of people are using against him.

  It would be recalled that Rtd. Major-Gen Muhammadu Buhari was the governor of North-eastern Nigeria between august 1975 – March 1976; he also served as federal commissioner for Petroleum and natural resources from March 1976 – June 1978. His last public office was under the despotic leadership of Late Gen Sani Abacha where he was appointed to serve as the chairman of the petroleum trust fund (PTF) between 1995 and 1999. National and international economic observers have lauded his contribution during this period, pointing it out as no doubt one of the few positive things that could be related to the unpopular and dictatorial government of Sani Abacha, although critics also faulted the 20% allocation to the military from the PTF fund under the chairmanship of Rtd. Major- General Muhammadu Buhari. But if anything, no single Nigerian government or government worker has been able to accuse this man of any act of corruption while serving in any of the many public offices he has served in.

  In a nation where corruption is almost tradition and every public servant sees the public office as an opportunity to loot public fund, I think that Nigerians are not being just to this man, Muhammadu Buhari, except of course that anyone has any proof that could implicate or indict him in any corruption case in the history of our nation.

  For those who are saying that he had been a governor and had nothing to show for it, the record shows us that Muhammadu Buhari was governor in the defunct north-Eastern state for less than a year, from august 1975 – March 1976, not even enough time for any governor to be acquainted with his office and environment, much less to begin to transform things in the state. As federal commissioner for petroleum and natural resources under the General Obasanjo led government, Buhari was also only in office for two years enough time for Gen Olusegun Obasanjo to eulogize him for his uprightness. As Military head of state, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari was only in office for two years during which Nigeria witnessed a change from the old ways of doing things in our country, the Buhari/Idiagbon tandem for the first time in a long while instilled a sense of patriotic pride into Nigerians all over the world. The tandem also made the fight against indiscipline a cardinal point during the two years period it ruled the nation.

  It would really be under the evil government of Late General Sani Abacha that Major-General Muhammadu Buhari got enough time to make an impact in government for his appointment as the chairman of the petroleum trust fund between 1995 and 1999, although many of us still would not understand why an incorruptible and ideological man like Buhari agreed to serve under such a corrupt, despotic and unpopular government, but till date, no government audit on the petroleum sector has indicted or found any atom of corruption allegations against this man, in a nation where every Nigerian public servant has investments, properties and millions of dollars attached to their names abroad.

  Another criticism that Major-General Buhari has suffered is his government´s clampdown on the press in the period he ruled Nigeria, the failure to allow for press freedom and the many persecution that Nigerians especially the people opposed to his government decisions suffered during his reign as Head of state for which many are doubting whether this apparent uncompromising ex-military officer demeanor, will ever come to fully imbibe democratic principles and allow for dialogue in the tackling of national issues . Others directly point at his dogmatic religious ideology nearing fanaticism and argue that such a bias Islamic viewpoint may not be beneficial to foster peace and stability in a diverse nation like Nigeria especially at this complicated period in our history. Another opinion poll says that Major-General Buhari has in some instances put his ambition to rule Nigeria before the peace and stability of our country especially when he was quoted to have advocated for bloodshed in the turn out that there was any form of rigging or irregularities during the national election, an irresponsible statement that has been blamed to be behind some of the upheavals and the destruction of lives and properties, especially in the northern part of Nigeria. Another point of conflict is the age of Major General Mohammadu Buhari, at 70 a lot of Nigerians, think that the ex-military man should forget about his political ambition and give room for younger and more dynamic persons to rule our nation.

  But with all the underlining condemnation of some of the unwholesome acts and errors of Major-General Buhari, it is a non-contentious fact that of all the candidates that have been presented to Nigerians at least since the return to civilian rule in 1999 till date, none can match with the ex-major General in terms of honesty and rectitude. It is not every day that you see a candidate in Nigeria disposed to probe the past leadership of the country, and that speaks massively in the favor of Major-Gen Muhammadu Buhari, it is a proved fact that no government in Nigeria has been able to fight corruption efficiently because no incorruptible leader has been discovered so far, and that incorruptible leader could well be Major General Mohammadu Buhari. Corruption can never fight corruption and since we all agree that the great obstacle on the part of our progress as a nation is corruption, we must be willing to push aside our tribalism and fight this national enemy squarely and convincingly.

  Because collating the pros and the cons put forward by those in favor and against the presidential candidacy of Maj-Gen Muhammadu Buhari, the only candidate in the modern history of our country who has seriously come out to say he wants to rule Nigeria unlike all the other accidental rulers which we have had in recent times, I cannot but ask the question, why the phobia for this man, Buhari? If we have allowed Gen Olusegun Obasanjo, the “father of corruption” in Nigeria and a former military head of state to rule Nigeria again as a civilian President for 8 good years, and have also allowed a sick and a weak person like late Umar Yar ardua to rule us for three years and permitted to be governed by a clueless president as President Goodluck Jonathan, can risking another four years to see the real intentions of Major Gen Muhammadu Buhari be worse than the 15 wasted years already spent in our democracy? Honestly, i think that those who are afraid of Buhari are those who have skeletons in the cupboards and those who do not have good intentions for our country.