Whatz up with Nigerian Soccer??

Sometime ago, Pres. Goodluck Jonathan decided to withdraw Nigeria from all international football events for two years, in order for the Nation’s national teams to reorganize and be fully prepared for competitions after the period. This was due to the national team’s abysmal performances in all competitions, even in the age grade tournaments where we used to perform above par. The idea sounded good and I was one of the very few Nigerians that liked the idea. Majority of Nigerians felt that the idea was far fetched and it would attract the wrath of FIFA, the world’s football governing body. Jonathan, being a man of the people, decided to call it off.
Immediately it was called off, people started celebrating. I began to wonder the reason for the celebrations. Its not like our football improved. Its not like anything thing changed. In fact, the people involved did not make any effort to salvage the worrisome situation our football had gotten into. A country that had beaten Argentina in years past now falls 4-nil to Argentina. A team that won the Atlanta Olympics cannot even win an under-17 competition with 25 year old men. And yet, the people meant to make changes cannot even conduct a simple election. Everything is politicized. As a result square pegs keep getting into round holes at the expense of the dreams of our youths. It’s a sad situation. Very sad indeed.
The corruption in the sports sector is something else. Most times, I wonder what the EFCC is doing chasing ex-governors, while they can easily chase past and present members of the national sports commission. The legislative approves large sums for athletes whenever there is a competition, and yet, our athletes cannot afford good hotels whenever they arrive at their host countries. It’s likely the only sport these thieves we call sport administrators know how to run is stuffing their briefcases and Ghana-must-go bags with athletes’ funds. Competitions are no longer organized in order to discover the talented, undiscovered sport men and women in this country. I swear, the boys that play soccer on the streets of Ajegunle are better than any of the jokers in that national team. But yet, these boys’ talents are left to rot. Our indigenous league is as good as dead. I do not even know one footballer that plies his trade in this country. But how can I when a team offloads its entire squad and buys 22 players every season? Are the players goods that are thrown away when they are expired? No wonder some players are purchased with a sign-on fee of less than a hundred thousand.
Recently, we witnessed how we were humiliated out of the world cup. One of the players that gave us heartbreaks was Yakubu. Now, in the days of Shuaibu Amodu, Yakubu was the guy that provided his coach with accommodation whenever he was in the UK. He also gave his coach little change when he was leaving. So how can a shuaibu do away with an unperforming Yakubu and pick up a boy from AJ that would give him nothing? Your guess is as good as mine.
We just came back from a fifa ban (which we were trying to avoid, but couldn’t when the scumbags couldn’t hold a successful election) to suffer defeat at the hands of one of the weakest African teams which we had promised to make look silly. Who ended up being silly? isn’t it obvious? Aren’t we silly? A country that cannot cater for its youths is nothing but silly. A country that toys with one of the few things that still unites us is silly. A country that beats up camera men that come to promote our football is silly. And we will remain silly if we do not change.
The government should realize that football and sports as a whole is a good way to reduce unemployment among our youths. Let private individuals invest in sports and bring back the golden days when we had a prominent league and our best medal at the Olympics wasn’t bronze. Let us field skillful and talented sportsmen and women and cater for their welfare. Let’s take our sports seriously. It begins with you…

Up Nepa!!

Up Nepa!! This is a phrase which is fast becoming a cliché in Nigeria. I can proudly beat my chest to say that there is no Nigerian that cannot pronounce these two words correctly, even if he cannot spell his name. In fact, as soon as a baby can pronounce his first word, he can pronounce these words. Abii I dey lie? If I lie, make una tell me o!
But seriously, Nepa (or is it PHCN now) is one of the federal government public corporations that has continually taken Nigerians for a ride. Dem dey use us play. It got to a time that my area used to receive power once a week (on Sunday nights) for one hour only. That was it. One hour only and you had to wait for next Sunday. The situation improved only when the whole of satellite town decided to stop paying their bills (which they had doubled).
As if that wasn’t enough, even last week, when the conditions had seemingly improved, we had to put on the gen four times due to the fact that these people kept interrupting the power at 10 minute intervals. Because of this, I had to use thirty minutes to finish ironing one t-shirt. Can you imagine?? It then makes me wonder, what do they do with the bills that we pay? Why should I even bother paying my bills??
This goes to show that these people are very much undisciplined. Seriously. Now, I was reading a book about revolutions and stuff, that is when people rise up against the government and change shit before it got out of hand. These revolts are usually bloody and sacrifices are made but overtime, the people are better for it. We can start from somewhere. At least Nepa. Me, I’m tired of being overridden. We can’t take this shit any longer. We can do it. Abii una dey fear??
Even our president said that we spend three times the amount of money that would be used to guarantee power generation on running our diesel generators. He didn’t even talk about the ones powered by petroleum. Overtime, generators have become the source of power supply, and Nepa is on standby. Depend on them for anything, and I promise, you will be utterly disappointed. The situation is worrisome. And yet, nothing is been done about it. We still keep suffering. And these people have kept soliciting our votes in 2011. Sha, what is my own business? I dey vote??
The day Nepa would sit up is when every car with a Nepa plate number is burned down, and every official is kidnapped and tortured. Sorry I’m sounding like this, but this is the only practical solution. Then Nepa officials won’t even say their identity not to talk of coming to give you bills or cut your light. Instead, they would be busy telling the government to increase power generation, so that they could supply more power. That would be a good way to keep them busy with the right stuff.
It is worth a try isn’t it? Think about it…

Hurray!! Behold, our beloved country is fifty. Everyone and everywhere is looking green and the champagne glasses are being raised in the air with reckless abandon. E remain small sef, them for paint the champagne bottle green. But seriously, on October 1^st, I viewed Nigerians as a very patriotic set of people as people represented our great country to the fullest. Yes we are fifty and we need to celebrate.

On the other hand, there are people that feel we have done nothing worthy of celebration as a nation. After all, a fool at 40, they say, is a fool forever. According to them, a nation that does not have good roads, portable water for its citizens, stable electricity, utilizable education and one that cannot provide jobs for its unemployed youths and even adults should not celebrate. I quite agree with them. I mean, citizens of a country as “endowed” as ours should not have to suffer for anything. We should live as kings like our Dubai counterparts who are not as blessed as we are anyway. Like seriously…

So permit me to ask, who is responsible for our woes? The answer is a little bit too obvious. The government. The government, the government, the government. The government and rulers are the ones to blame. Why not? After all, the selfish and inhumane people that have been opportuned over the years to rule(instead of lead) us have dragged us into this mess. The places described as ‘consulting clinics’ by IBB years back have been reduced to mere pharmacies over the years. The railways built by our colonial masters have been converted to marketplaces.  And most importantly, our roads have become deathtraps, where innocent Nigerians reap the ‘dividends of democracy’ by becoming objects of sacrifice to the gods of corruption, while those in leadership are too drunk on power to pay attention to our woes. This is a sad situation indeed. A very sad one…

But come to think of it, we are the government. Take it or leave it, but that is the solemn truth. Apart from that, we are responsible for our problems to an extent.  We are the ones that have been oppressing and depressing ourselves. You don’t believe me?

Take this example: a young business man sells a commodity of #500 for #650. A commercial motorcyclist charges someone #150 for a #50 trip just because time is not on the person’s side. An orange seller decides to sell a #20 orange for #35 during the Ramadan period for obvious reasons. These same people scream and wail that the government is corrupt. Imagine one of these people becoming your local government chairperson tomorrow. What will be the result? Your guess is as good as mine…

Did I hear you say impossible? Gov. Alao Akala of Oyo state is an ex-policeman. Pres. Goodluck Jonathan is an ex-teacher. The immediate past minister of education was a lecturer(who forgot his people upon resumption of office). These are ordinary Nigerians that God has placed in privileged positions. It could be anybody. Things happen like that nowadays. Nothing is impossible to them that believe.

We all know that complaining is the easiest thing to do. Every single person knows how to complain. We Nigerians have gotten used to it and once we don’t change our complaining mentality to a winning mentality, things will not get any better for us. The major problem plaguing Nigerians is nothing but lack of conscience. We have lost our consciences. All of us. We are being oppressed and instead of helping ourselves, we are busy destroying and killing one another. Take a marginalized MEND for example. In order to make their voice heard, their bomb fellow struggling Nigerians who decided to hang around the Eagles square and celebrate. Their oppressors are still left unscathed. People are killing one another in the name of religion. People create hold ups on the road due to impatience. A minor traffic situation that could have been resolved in minutes results to people spending hours on the road just because some people suddenly decided that the best way to drive is to drive against traffic. All this wasn’t done by the government. They are done by Nigerians, for Nigerians. Yes, we derive joy in oppressing ourselves. If not, tell me why someone will invite kidnappers to kidnap the father of his kinsman and blame it on unemployment? When did kidnapping become a noble profession that one can become gainfully employed in? We have indeed murdered our consciences.

The time to change is now. Let Nigerians resurrect their already buried consciences, leaders and followers alike. Let us take our future in our own hands and stop depending on the government for everything. No developed society does that. Let rich and blessed Nigerians take it as a point of duty to cater for less fortunate members of society. Let business moguls give back to the society in which they do their businesses. If 5 nigerian billionaires decide to fix benin-ore road, that road will be a thing of the past.

Finally, if we don’t like those in power, we should rise up and vote deserving personalities into power. There’s no way we can say our votes didn’t count if we didn’t vote at all. It is time to stop being passive citizens and actively take charge of our future. The future is ours and not for anybody else.

Even as we celebrate amidst pomp and pageantry, we should pause and redefine ourselves. Like Michael Jackson sang, look at the man in the mirror and encourage him to change his ways. Let us start the revolution from ourselves. After all, that’s what rebranding is all about abii?

Till I come ur way again remain blesses and Proudly Naija…

Nigeria is 50. Hurray!!