BY REV. FR. GERALD NWAFOR
I watched the whole game, not live because I do not have the time, but I always have time to watch the recorded one. The Nigerian team progressed slowly but they never developed into a complete team that would bring you hope and success like the Morrocco team did in the last World Cup in Qatar. African Cup of Nations (AFCON) is a tournament, not a league. Tournaments are short and stressful. You do not only need a team but you need depth so you can adapt when fatigue and injury set in. Nigeria had a team, but they did not have depth.
I remembered the fear that gripped the team and the whole nation when it was announced that Victor Osimen may not play the game against South Africa. So, the attacking force of Nigeria was dependent on Victor. All the teams we played tried to mark him out and as you can see, we had a goal drought. We never scored more than one goal in all the matches but for the game against Cameroon.
You cannot win a tournament that way. We need one more prolific striker. There was no mid-field maestro like Okocha on the team. All our mid-fielders were converted strikers like Iwobi and Lookman. The defense was Ekong and Nwabali only. The system that you can protect one goal for ninety minutes doesn’t always work. Jose Mourinho has been using it for the longest time, but the football world discovered that it was not the best tactic, and it has been long abandoned by serious teams.
Although our national team coach is from Portugal, he must have something in common with the Portuguese Jose because the saying goes that an apple does not fall very far away from the tree. The team may be good but what of the nation Nigeria?On the morning of the game, we were expected to pray for the team to win as a patriotic citizen.
You cannot be praying for the ship to capsize because they stole your goods, and at the same time be praying that one container in the ship be saved. That is the real square peg in a round hole. The ship of the nation is in very bad shape. The election result was manipulated almost a year ago and people are still suffering from that manipulation of election results. The economic situation is at its lowest ebb.
Inflation was at an all-time high, and the financial situation as regards Naira and dollars was in a mess. How can you confuse God that all things are good and that victory should be granted to the Super Eagles? Now the most annoying part of the whole thing was the situation on the D-day (match day). There was no electric power supply anywhere in the whole city of Onitsha and beyond.
Those who have alternatives like solar systems, and generators, and I pass my neighbor, were waiting for 9 PM on the dot to start the engine because the price of petrol and gasoline are through the roof. The poor people cannot buy batteries to power their small transistor radios because the price of batteries is now dollar equivalent.
How can we win a game in the heart of this kind of woe? Remember that one Mr. Obi visited the team to celebrate with them during the Angola match with good luck. The result of that visit woke up the jealousy in the ruling class that they went over to the Ivory Coast to make caricatures of themselves. The president should have been shamed, had it been that he made good his promise to go. How can we win against all these problems surrounding us? My friend said just to make us happy for one week.Problems should be solved but not coated with sugar.
Soccer brings Nigerians together, but we should be together for 365 days not only for 90 minutes of soccer. We should be happy as Nigerian citizens for 365 days not only for one week of soccer victory. We had enough happiness in the victory recorded against Angola, Cameroon, and South Africa. Winning the tournament will not change anything in the lives of ordinary Nigerians but would help the political ruling class to lie more and more about the hard work and resilience of the Nigerian citizens for the next month so the defeat by the Ivorians would help the bad government of Nigeria to mind their business of lying and deceiving the public. Meanwhile, the president is in France for a private visit: we do not know when it will end. Thank goodness that this tournament has ended the way it did.
Now we can face the business of the Nigerian government and the hide-and-seek that goes with it. We cannot win in this kind of situation. For victory to come, we must put our house in order. In the last AFCON, our team was doing very well until President Buhari called them and wanted to use them as a template that Nigeria was doing well, and the result was still evident and fresh in our minds. So, when I saw the vice president in the dressing room of our players after the game with South Africa, I knew that the game was up.
I love football, I love Nigeria, but I love the truth more.Well done boys: Nwabali, Ekong, Victor, Lookman, Kelechi, Iwobi, Musa, the coach, and the rest of the teams because of your patriotism and sacrifice. Your lives have changed forever because of the honor and glory you brought to Nigeria. Sometimes you need to lose to win. The trophy would be good, but Nigeria today needs healing more than the trophy. We cannot be suffering and smiling at the same time.
