Super Eagle as an object of unity
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Super Eagle as an object of unity
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From Guardian
The Super Eagles at work
By Reuben Abati
The Super Eagles made all of us feel somewhat happy yesterday when they trounced the Bafana Bafana ("The Boys, The Boys") of South Africa 4 - 0 in an exciting match which offered pleasurable intimations about the Super Eagles of our dreams. On Friday, a friend had remarked that he no longer liked to watch the Nigerian national team, out of the fear that he could have blood pressure problems.
On a good day, the national team inspires nationalistic fervour, and with the Eagles we have had really great times. But on a bad day, the national team can spell tragedy and anxiety. There is the case of one young man who while watching the Eagles screamed G-O-A-L and he gave up the ghost. The opposing team had driven the Eagles out of an important tournament! I recall perhaps even more interestingly the story that was once told about how a group of football fans trooped to a NEPA station and threatened to burn it down and kill all the staff if power supply was not immediately restored to enable them watch a match involving the Eagles.
If the Super Eagles had lost yesterday, many of us would have been sad. But first, it was Jay Jay Okocha who had reassured the nation that the Super Eagles will beat the South African team. He not only threatened that they would draw blood, he announced that if the Eagles lost that would be the end of his career in the national team. He had disclosed that the Super Eagles had never lost two matches in a row, and that it was not going to happen in this current edition of the African Cup of Nations. Jay Jay Okocha, a hardworking professional and a lovely footballer, must be happy wherever he is. He made a promise to his nation. He delivered. Enthusiasm must be on the high side in the Super Eagles camp in Tunisia.
But wait a minute. We may be tempted to think that yesterday's victory was merely an accidental achievement for this particular team. There are several unresolved problems which have cropped up in the course of this Tunisian campaign which draw fresh attention to the limitations of the country's national team. Even as we savour the victory of the Super Eagles over South Africa (surely, a country that we love to beat), we must return to the problem that arose over the undisciplined conduct of three of the players: Ayegbeni, Agali and Babayaro who had to be sent out of the camp. After the humiliating first match defeat in the hands of the Moroccan national team, the Super Eagles had returned to the drawing board.
But three of the footballers, rather than stay in the camp, found solace in the bosom of some ladies. Are those ladies Indians? Were the players offered apples? Nobody can tell. But the good news is that the coach, Christian Chukwu, put his feet down and sent the boys out of the team. Training was subsequently disrupted by the remaining boys who thought that the punishment was rather harsh, but the coach and the rest of the team had the support of the Minister of Sports. It is possible that with yesterday's success, more pressure will be mounted on Christian Chukwu and his colleagues. The ban on those boys must stay. Agali and co must be made to live with the message that discipline cannot be compromised. The biggest problem with our national team has always been this lack of discipline and decorum. In Mali in 2002, the misdemeanour of the players was so much that there was nearly a breakdown of law and order. Part of the problem has to do with the ego of the players. These are boys who earn big money in European clubs. They are not just rich; they are super stars. And they are required to work with indigenous coaches and handlers whose salaries each of the players can pay. When they relate to the coach and his team, they therefore tend to be patronising. But Coach Chukwu ought to be praised for putting his feet down. The camp commandant should be praised for his vigilance. The Minister of Sports should be commended for respecting the decision of the coach. In the past Ministry officials interfered unduly with the handling of the team, creating problems that could otherwise have been avoided. Would Agali, Ayegbeni and Babayaro have behaved as they did if they were with their foreign club-sides?
The biggest problem with the national team has been one of attitude. Yesterday, it was so easy for the Eagles to shine, in part because they entered the match with a determination to win. They knew that it was a critical match. If they lost, they would all be on the way back to their various stations. And they would earn the spite of their compatriots. So much was at stake. So the Super Eagles rose from the dead. They needed to prove to the people at home that the scandal of Agali and co does not define the entire team. By turning the corner in this manner, they turned the decamping of the three party-goers into a blessing. Garba Lawal and Ekwueme struck such fine rhythm that you are forced to wonder where they had been all this while. Even Kanu who in the match against Morocco was almost nearly absent-minded had to start struggling for balls. The victory is sweet. And it is good riddance to Babayaro, Agali and Ayegbeni. They are poor ambassadors for the teams that they play for in Europe. The axe has fallen on their heads. Their places have been taken by others; the disgrace that is upon them is so bad it is humiliating at the same time.
However, we need the Super Eagles to play well all the time, not when they are suddenly under pressure. We need a national team that is consistently competitive. This is what has kept the Camerounian team on top. It is the secret of Senegal. It is the factor that explains the performance of Rwanda so far in the Nations Cup. What we know, what we have seen is a selective form of hardwork on the part of the Super Eagles over the years. The boys tend to be more committed to their teams abroad than the nation. They worry more about their legs than scoring goals. It is not for nothing that Jay Jay Okocha as committed as he is, happens to be in Tunisia with his personal physiotherapist. Kanu, at the best of times does not submit his legs fully to national service.
We need a national team where the players are willing to make necessary sacrifices if the need arises. Fine, we do not have a strong support system for our national heroes. We honour the wrong persons. When sportsmen and women do well in international events we offer them dirty handshakes and poorly prepared meals. That must change. For, there is a sense in which the national team in football is a reflection of a national dilemma. Nigerians are very good as individuals; they always manage to excel in their chosen vocations, but as a team we are unreliable. Sometime we do well; at other times, we misbehave and mess up everything creating anxiety and frustration within the polity. As the microcosm of a larger tendency, the Super Eagles point to the need for new directions.
As for yesterday's match, I thought part of the secret was the introduction of new players. Some of those boys creating great moves and making brilliant runs were having a chance of their lives. They had to prove a point. They needed to show that they too are good. They wanted to be seen to be doing something for Nigeria. They have made us proud and we are all appreciative of how they have rescued this great nation form imminent disgrace. Have you ever thought of the possibility of Rwanda staying in Tunisia beyond the quarter-finals and Nigeria crashing out of the tournament? May it not happen. That is why the Super Eagles must take advantage of their new-found enthusiasm and go for Gold. These are rather difficult times in Nigeria. The people in Aso Rock are under attack. The people are anxious. Angry letters are being exchanged across the land pointing to a great distemper that now defines the national spirit. Fake pastors and priests are seeing the fingerprints of the devil. And God the Almighty is being given a bad name; His Holy name is being called in vain. It is as if this is the End-time in Nigeria. Success in football has helped us in the past to manage this national hypertension. The performance of the Super Eagles in Tunisia may be the therapy that we need at this time.
Let the Eagles go for Gold. Let them find inspiration in the dynamism of the National Supporters Band. The guys in that group arrived late in Tunisia because they could not get their visas on time. They missed the match against Morocco. But they still managed to find their way. That is what I call commitment. I don't know what the national supporters team get from what they do, but I admire them. Yesterday, they were on duty. They displayed part of the beauty of civil organisations as agents for national growth and achievement. They were on duty, quite actively. They cheered the Super Eagles on. With their boundless energy, they projected the well-acknowledged happiness and boisterousness of the average Nigerian.
After yesterday's match, I had a sound sleep. I was convinced that whatever happens Nigeria will not be disgraced out of the Nations Cup in Tunisia. We may be a problematic nation. We may quarrel among ourselves and call our President all kinds of names. But in the end, somewhere in the inner recesses of our minds, each one of us loves this nation. We are angry only because we know that it can be a better country. We are angry because want to be citizens of a country that will be a champion among nations, and a true giant of Africa. We are angry with our leaders only because we have realised that the big men in our midst are not citizens. They are here physically, but their stolen funds as well as their children are in the West, far from the madding crowd. Which is why the suffering majority have a duty to protect the little things that remind us of where we ought to be, even if at the same time of the opportunities that we have missed. Football happens to be important to us.
Tunisia or no Tunisia, with or without Nations' Cup, there are issues to be addressed in the sports sector. Do we have a properly articulated sports policy? Na lie. No such thing exists. And yet we need and deserve a proper framework for the sports sector, to enable the country manage its enormous human resource potential in this area. Our sportsmen and women need to be given the respect that they deserve. I would prefer to see more sports heroes on the national honours list for example. And then we need to start building a national team of the future. Okocha, Kanu and co have served us well, but I suspect that the time to start thinking about the future is now. Anyhow, we did well yesterday oh. So, my brother, congratulations...
From Guardian
The Super Eagles at work
By Reuben Abati
The Super Eagles made all of us feel somewhat happy yesterday when they trounced the Bafana Bafana ("The Boys, The Boys") of South Africa 4 - 0 in an exciting match which offered pleasurable intimations about the Super Eagles of our dreams. On Friday, a friend had remarked that he no longer liked to watch the Nigerian national team, out of the fear that he could have blood pressure problems.
On a good day, the national team inspires nationalistic fervour, and with the Eagles we have had really great times. But on a bad day, the national team can spell tragedy and anxiety. There is the case of one young man who while watching the Eagles screamed G-O-A-L and he gave up the ghost. The opposing team had driven the Eagles out of an important tournament! I recall perhaps even more interestingly the story that was once told about how a group of football fans trooped to a NEPA station and threatened to burn it down and kill all the staff if power supply was not immediately restored to enable them watch a match involving the Eagles.
If the Super Eagles had lost yesterday, many of us would have been sad. But first, it was Jay Jay Okocha who had reassured the nation that the Super Eagles will beat the South African team. He not only threatened that they would draw blood, he announced that if the Eagles lost that would be the end of his career in the national team. He had disclosed that the Super Eagles had never lost two matches in a row, and that it was not going to happen in this current edition of the African Cup of Nations. Jay Jay Okocha, a hardworking professional and a lovely footballer, must be happy wherever he is. He made a promise to his nation. He delivered. Enthusiasm must be on the high side in the Super Eagles camp in Tunisia.
But wait a minute. We may be tempted to think that yesterday's victory was merely an accidental achievement for this particular team. There are several unresolved problems which have cropped up in the course of this Tunisian campaign which draw fresh attention to the limitations of the country's national team. Even as we savour the victory of the Super Eagles over South Africa (surely, a country that we love to beat), we must return to the problem that arose over the undisciplined conduct of three of the players: Ayegbeni, Agali and Babayaro who had to be sent out of the camp. After the humiliating first match defeat in the hands of the Moroccan national team, the Super Eagles had returned to the drawing board.
But three of the footballers, rather than stay in the camp, found solace in the bosom of some ladies. Are those ladies Indians? Were the players offered apples? Nobody can tell. But the good news is that the coach, Christian Chukwu, put his feet down and sent the boys out of the team. Training was subsequently disrupted by the remaining boys who thought that the punishment was rather harsh, but the coach and the rest of the team had the support of the Minister of Sports. It is possible that with yesterday's success, more pressure will be mounted on Christian Chukwu and his colleagues. The ban on those boys must stay. Agali and co must be made to live with the message that discipline cannot be compromised. The biggest problem with our national team has always been this lack of discipline and decorum. In Mali in 2002, the misdemeanour of the players was so much that there was nearly a breakdown of law and order. Part of the problem has to do with the ego of the players. These are boys who earn big money in European clubs. They are not just rich; they are super stars. And they are required to work with indigenous coaches and handlers whose salaries each of the players can pay. When they relate to the coach and his team, they therefore tend to be patronising. But Coach Chukwu ought to be praised for putting his feet down. The camp commandant should be praised for his vigilance. The Minister of Sports should be commended for respecting the decision of the coach. In the past Ministry officials interfered unduly with the handling of the team, creating problems that could otherwise have been avoided. Would Agali, Ayegbeni and Babayaro have behaved as they did if they were with their foreign club-sides?
The biggest problem with the national team has been one of attitude. Yesterday, it was so easy for the Eagles to shine, in part because they entered the match with a determination to win. They knew that it was a critical match. If they lost, they would all be on the way back to their various stations. And they would earn the spite of their compatriots. So much was at stake. So the Super Eagles rose from the dead. They needed to prove to the people at home that the scandal of Agali and co does not define the entire team. By turning the corner in this manner, they turned the decamping of the three party-goers into a blessing. Garba Lawal and Ekwueme struck such fine rhythm that you are forced to wonder where they had been all this while. Even Kanu who in the match against Morocco was almost nearly absent-minded had to start struggling for balls. The victory is sweet. And it is good riddance to Babayaro, Agali and Ayegbeni. They are poor ambassadors for the teams that they play for in Europe. The axe has fallen on their heads. Their places have been taken by others; the disgrace that is upon them is so bad it is humiliating at the same time.
However, we need the Super Eagles to play well all the time, not when they are suddenly under pressure. We need a national team that is consistently competitive. This is what has kept the Camerounian team on top. It is the secret of Senegal. It is the factor that explains the performance of Rwanda so far in the Nations Cup. What we know, what we have seen is a selective form of hardwork on the part of the Super Eagles over the years. The boys tend to be more committed to their teams abroad than the nation. They worry more about their legs than scoring goals. It is not for nothing that Jay Jay Okocha as committed as he is, happens to be in Tunisia with his personal physiotherapist. Kanu, at the best of times does not submit his legs fully to national service.
We need a national team where the players are willing to make necessary sacrifices if the need arises. Fine, we do not have a strong support system for our national heroes. We honour the wrong persons. When sportsmen and women do well in international events we offer them dirty handshakes and poorly prepared meals. That must change. For, there is a sense in which the national team in football is a reflection of a national dilemma. Nigerians are very good as individuals; they always manage to excel in their chosen vocations, but as a team we are unreliable. Sometime we do well; at other times, we misbehave and mess up everything creating anxiety and frustration within the polity. As the microcosm of a larger tendency, the Super Eagles point to the need for new directions.
As for yesterday's match, I thought part of the secret was the introduction of new players. Some of those boys creating great moves and making brilliant runs were having a chance of their lives. They had to prove a point. They needed to show that they too are good. They wanted to be seen to be doing something for Nigeria. They have made us proud and we are all appreciative of how they have rescued this great nation form imminent disgrace. Have you ever thought of the possibility of Rwanda staying in Tunisia beyond the quarter-finals and Nigeria crashing out of the tournament? May it not happen. That is why the Super Eagles must take advantage of their new-found enthusiasm and go for Gold. These are rather difficult times in Nigeria. The people in Aso Rock are under attack. The people are anxious. Angry letters are being exchanged across the land pointing to a great distemper that now defines the national spirit. Fake pastors and priests are seeing the fingerprints of the devil. And God the Almighty is being given a bad name; His Holy name is being called in vain. It is as if this is the End-time in Nigeria. Success in football has helped us in the past to manage this national hypertension. The performance of the Super Eagles in Tunisia may be the therapy that we need at this time.
Let the Eagles go for Gold. Let them find inspiration in the dynamism of the National Supporters Band. The guys in that group arrived late in Tunisia because they could not get their visas on time. They missed the match against Morocco. But they still managed to find their way. That is what I call commitment. I don't know what the national supporters team get from what they do, but I admire them. Yesterday, they were on duty. They displayed part of the beauty of civil organisations as agents for national growth and achievement. They were on duty, quite actively. They cheered the Super Eagles on. With their boundless energy, they projected the well-acknowledged happiness and boisterousness of the average Nigerian.
After yesterday's match, I had a sound sleep. I was convinced that whatever happens Nigeria will not be disgraced out of the Nations Cup in Tunisia. We may be a problematic nation. We may quarrel among ourselves and call our President all kinds of names. But in the end, somewhere in the inner recesses of our minds, each one of us loves this nation. We are angry only because we know that it can be a better country. We are angry because want to be citizens of a country that will be a champion among nations, and a true giant of Africa. We are angry with our leaders only because we have realised that the big men in our midst are not citizens. They are here physically, but their stolen funds as well as their children are in the West, far from the madding crowd. Which is why the suffering majority have a duty to protect the little things that remind us of where we ought to be, even if at the same time of the opportunities that we have missed. Football happens to be important to us.
Tunisia or no Tunisia, with or without Nations' Cup, there are issues to be addressed in the sports sector. Do we have a properly articulated sports policy? Na lie. No such thing exists. And yet we need and deserve a proper framework for the sports sector, to enable the country manage its enormous human resource potential in this area. Our sportsmen and women need to be given the respect that they deserve. I would prefer to see more sports heroes on the national honours list for example. And then we need to start building a national team of the future. Okocha, Kanu and co have served us well, but I suspect that the time to start thinking about the future is now. Anyhow, we did well yesterday oh. So, my brother, congratulations...