SUPER EAGLES “LOSS”

Before the match started, I had promised myself to not get involved emotionally. So throughout the build up to the match- the arrival of the Super Eagles, the media hype and the boasting that the Carthage Eagles would fall, I had maintained an emotional distance. This distance lasted only few minutes into the match and I got involved. I noticed I was involved as I started kicking and nodding the air whenever the Super Eagles came near their opponents. I knew I was thoroughly involved when Odemwinge scored and in a burst of patriotic zeal, I “shouted Super Eagles would beat them senseless”. I celebrated the goal like it was a personal triumph, hugging everyone and pumping hands.

Alas! The celebration was cut short in the briefest of seconds. They equalized. What? No time to even savor the goal we scored? Well, I was involved already and so conciliatorily and in pursuance of my new found optimism, I declared, “we go beat dem 3-1”. Meanwhile, my younger brother was complaining about Nigeria giving us heartache in everything. “Dem no give us chance enjoy ordinary goal” he complained. Before anyone had the chance to comment, PHCN (Power Holding Company of Nigeria) showed they could not be out done in the art of scoring goals and they took the light. No one was really bothered by the public power outage as we Nigerians have more confidence in our pollution producing generators. So we switched on the generator to continue watching the match.

And we watched in agony as the Tunisians were making dangerous forays near our goalpost and in outrage at the lack of cohesion of our defenders. Typically, we had no kind words for them. We remembered they are big boys who make big bucks in Europe and would only show commitment to their clubs and not to their national team.. But each time the Super Eagles got near the other eagles’ goalpost, we held our breaths in bated anticipation. We prayed and hoped, and then complained. We were in this state of mind into the second half when we scored. Boy! What elation! This celebration seemed to be for my wife, I don’t know why. (Laughs) I hugged and kissed her with more passion than I did when the pastor said I could kiss her on our wedding day. It was Joy unhinged.

Of course we had won, we were the better eagles. It was very few minutes to the end of the match and wow, what a match. What relief! Our chances of going to South Africa for the World Cup just blossomed brightly. But wait a minute! It can’t be. They didn’t just equalize again? It was true, so sadly true. They had scored again! Just as our chances had brightened, it dimmed and so our happiness.

Should there be blames? I know there would be, a lot. There are clearly problems with the group as they are certainly not a team. However these problems have been there and like everything Nigerian, solutions are given in a fire brigade fashion. They are not planned, organized and strategic

In the midst of the palaver that is Nigeria, corruption, collapse of governance, poverty, unemployment, power failure, bad roads, Niger Delta crisis and endless strikes, etc, a win would have been a huge breath of fresh air.