A lot of commentators like to point to leadership as Nigeria’s biggest failing. Not true, in my view. There are worse problems bedevilling that poor dear country than its leadership. We have religion, ethnicity, the British, etc, etc. But taking pride of place at the top of this scrapheap are the ordinary Nigerians – the followers.

Last week, I was reading through the many commentaries from some Nigerians responding to a write up on Sahararepoters titled: “Nigeria Golden Eaglets Captain 7 Years Ago” written by Sunny Achi.  The piece was done in support of an initial revelation that the team captain, Fortune Chukwudi is far older than the 17 years age limit of the FIFA under-seventeen World Cup football tournament.  The writer also provided some pictorial evidence.

In those pictures, Fortune Chukwudi looks nothing like a seventeen year old.  He looks decidedly older.  That was not all.  Former Green Eagles player, Adokiye Amiesimaka, who at one time was the Chairman of Sharks Football Club and the Coach of its feeder (Youth) team had earlier provided evidence to show that Fortune Chukwudi played for his club as an 18 year old in 2002.  This is seven years later, and the same Fortune Chukwudi is the captain of our national under-seventeen football team!

There’s another player, Olanrewaju Kayode, who wanted to play for Sharks feeders in 2002 and he said he had finished secondary school back then.  Kayode is also in the under-seventeen team.   Please note that the first MRI test carried out by FIFA eliminated 15 of our squad members. 15!  God only knows what ingenuity was then employed by our football authorities for the subsequent test.

But that wasn’t the worst news.  Out of about 76 commentaries on Saharareporters from Nigerians (as at the time I began writing this), close to half were dismissive, contemptuous and lampooned the writer, Amiesimaka especially, even Saharareporters (whose only crime was publishing the story) and the other commentators who thought the whole affair was blatant cheating and wrong.

I now, for the first time, understand why our senior team, the Super Eagles, can’t get off the ground (or is it grass?).  I had always wondered why we play ‘walking football’ at the senior level.  I had wondered many, many times why the same players who excelled at junior levels could never deliver at the senior stage.  Now we know:  Those players were performing at their peak in junior tournaments.  At the senior stage, they were already in their 30s, with kids, mortgages and individual retirement accounts.

But this is not an isolated case as much as there could be the temptation to pass it off as passion for the game or nationalism.  It is woeful cheating and misplaced patriotism.  It is a manifestation of the Nigerian malaise; the Nigerian factor.  Worse; it is short sighted and very self defeating.  A retrogressive practice where we mess up our own future.

When former governor Alamieyeseigha, who had Bayelsa in a headlock was let out of jail, he was immediately feted with government’s money over three days by the same State.  Otherwise intelligent people who hail from that part of the country could not bring themselves to condemn this abhorrence because; well…he is their thief.  They loudly and angrily told other revolted Nigerians to mind their business and go mind their own thieves.

 

Source: Web