So, the world will not end?
Last week, the world was going to end! Or so we thought. Why?
When the Paris 2024 Olympic Games in Paris concluded without any of the 82 Nigerian athletes returning with a medal around their necks, Nigerians were infuriated. They reacted vehemently. It was as if the world was going to end.
The anger was founded. This agonising process has become a recurring decimal in Nigeria’s sports history, a phenomenon described as ‘insanity’ by late German physicist, Albert Einstein in a famous but unverified quote – ‘doing the same thing over and over again, and expecting a different result’.
The world did not end, even as the anger across Nigeria was palpable. The people bayed for blood, demanding the scalp of sports officials. The media was awash with criticism, condemnation, rebuke and abuse. I believe there were no street protests only because the people had just gone through another national protest over hunger and poverty in the land.
That protest that hardly took off the ground and yielded nothing, only promises. Any additional march for sports in the land would suffer from protest-fatigue.
So, with tails tucked between the legs, Nigerians, as is went, gave up the ‘fight’, retired into the cocoon of their other interests and allowed the world to go on jeje, any further attention for the Olympics left in ‘suspense-account’ till June of 2028, one month to the next Summer Olympics in Los Angeles beginning July 14, 2028!
That’s the way things are done here in Nigeria! That was the situation last week. This week, the vitriol, awash in most local media, vapourise. The only noise was the faint receding echo of the voice of the very humble and honourable Nigerian sports minister, the only official that publicly accepted responsibility, defended his ministry, and apologised to Nigerians for the unacceptable performance. He pledged to investigate and uproot the causes, identify the culprits and ensure that the heads of guilty officials roll.
The only proviso, however, is that the country will have to wait, and that nothing must disturb and distract the other contingent of Nigerian athletes participating in the 2028 Paralympic Games that start in Paris this week.
This set of Nigerians are expected to win Gold, Silver and Bronze medals in their usual tradition and further douse the receding anger, pain and disappointment, even though it is also an optical illusion of the true state of Nigerian sports development.
So, life goes on, the world will not end!
The EPL resumes
THIS week, the English Premier League and other European leagues that started last week take firmer root in the soul of Nigerians. The debates and the arguments about Arsenal, Man U, Barca, Real, and so on, dominate the senses, extinguishing the remnant of any lingering thoughts and concerns over Paris 2024. The embers of that fire will only be fanned again and rekindled in 2028 in an annoying cycle that repeats itself like a broken vinyl record every four years.
In short, this week, life for the Nigerian sports fan has returned to the status quo, just as football resumes with its all-consuming power, taking over the sports interest of the millions of Nigerians that patronise it.
There are now other issues on Nigerian’s sports radar.
Foreign Coach for Super Eagles
It is a done deal that the Nigerian Football Federation has settled for hiring another White man from Europe to handle the Super Eagles. Some of those that are close to the corridors have been mentioning two names as the most likely candidates. Why the announcement has not been made with a few weeks to the most crucial series of matches that will determine the country’s fate in the African Cup of Nations in 2025, and the World Cup of 2026, no one knows.
A good reason may already have been created for the Super Eagles should they fail to win. My personal position on the issue of foreign or indigenous coach for Nigeria’s national teams has not changed. Hiring a foreigner to handle the Super Eagles is just postponing Nigeria’s days in football slavery. Until Nigerians with qualification and experience are trusted and given opportunity to do the job, to gain invaluable experience in the process and to lead the country into international battles, the Super Eagles will continue to find it hard to soar to the highest pinnacle.
Return of Samson Siasia
He was once acknowledged as FIFA’s Coach of the Year. That was when he led Nigeria’s Under-20 to the finals of the World Youth Championship in 2005, the Under-23 national team to the finals of the Olympics in 2008, and a third-place at the Olympics in 2016.
In 2019, Samson Siasia was suspended by FIFA for five years following unsubstantiated charges of corruption against him. Having served the suspension, he is now free to return to football. He may have been enciled down as part of an interim consortium of coaches headed by Director of the Technical Department of the NFF, Austin Eguavoen, to handle the Super Eagles should a foreign coach not be hired in the next week.
That arrangement is laden with danger for Samson.
Should the team fail to win, his name will be added to those of other ‘failed’ Nigerian coaches and the door to a future as head of the Super Eagles will be slammed in his face.
Nigerians are waiting and watching the unfolding drama with interest!
Sports Federation Elections
The elections into national sports federations (with the exception of the Nigeria Football Federation) will likely hold before the end of the year.
Everybody accepts that the present federation constitutions fall short of what are in Nigeria’s best sports interests. The documents have suffered the doctoring of critical articles that render them partial to fair process and inclusiveness of all stakeholders.
Best practises have been blurred by ignorance, the absence of experienced administrators in the system as a result of high turnover of experienced personnel in the sports ministry, and the lack of courage by successive sports ministers to confront the inter-loping puppeteers controlling the strings of Nigerian sports.
The Sports Minister has promised reforms.Nigerians are waiting and watching to see what will happen.
The National Sports Festival
Nigeria’s National Sports Festival is Africa’s biggest, single domestic multi-sports event. It is designed to feed Nigerian sports with the best budding talents in all sports. It is also the biggest program of the Federal Ministry of Sports development,
The next edition is scheduled to take place in about six months’ time in Ogun State. With the developments on ground now, it will be the greatest miracle since the conversion of water to wine in the holy books should the festival hold next January.
Why? The answer is blowing in the wind.
Nigerians are, however, waiting and watching to see what will happen.
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