Before that Sunday...

Quick plug here. I was alerted to the existence of a website, Naira Books. Given that I've had cause to complain about our poor reading habits as a people, I think this site is a very welcome development. Little drops of water make a mighty ocean, and this is definitely a step in the right direction. Quick points to note about the site though, methinks they should as a matter of urgency make arrangements with Interswitch and eTranzact to help with ease of payment. I had actually forgotten all about the Flash-me-cash thing, and somehow I doubt that it works too well. When I can get a more secure form of payment, the first thing I would order is Fred Forsyth's The Avenger. By the way guys, there's a lot more to novels than romance and thrillers. There's also room for Nigerian novels you know? I would be eternally grateful if y'all can source me with Cyprian Ekwensi's The Passport of Mallam Ilia. I think I should hit CMS Bookshop next time I'm in Lagos...

Before that Sunday...

Yesternight I had drinks with some guys including a recalcitrant lawyer. As is the norm with a lot of conversations when Nigerian males and lots of beer is involved, the topic of the conversation drifted towards football. Not of the club variety this time (and I am sick of the way we follow clubs in Europe in this country), but of the national team variety. Two of the geezers gathered around me stated quite clearly that they don't want the Eagles to be at the next World Cup. I am still in shock.

Their reasons for not wanting us to qualify are quite sound I must say. And mainly have to do with the (lack of) organisation at the Nigeria Football Federation. They feel that not qualifying for the World Cup would be a shock to the system of Nigerians such that we would begin to question the NFF and a true reorganisation would occur in the Glass House.

I think they are wrong, and I think they are throwing the baby out with the bath water. Every body and his mother knows that the NFF is the most disorganised of all the 208 member football associations of FIFA. For starters, the NFF doesn't even have a website in 2009. The best place to get information about Nigerian football is on FIFA's website! Again, truth be told, the current leadership of the Football house in Nigeria leaves more than a lot to be desired, and in my God-honest opinion, Sani Lulu is an idiot. We failed to make the 2006 World Cup, but did that change anything? The answer to that question is no and yes.

No, because the NFF is still as shambolic as ever, and in my honest opinion is not going to get any better in the near future. It is a total embarrassment that in this day and age, we still play our League football in Nigeria on bare pitches that health and safety regulations in the UK would absolutely prevent people from even taking a walk on. It is also very embarrassing that in this day and age, Globacom can bully the League in such a manner as to insist that everyone wears a Globacom branded jersey? Now try and imagine Barclays insisting that Bolton and Hull wear Barclays branded jerseys and sit back to watch the heavens fall. It is very true, the NFF is a total disgrace run by civil servants and crooks who are just out to make a quick buck. How else does one explain the recent theft of cash from a safe in the Glass House the day after it was approved for this same game we are playing in Sunday? It smacks of inside job, and I daresay that the money will not be recovered. What the NFF needs is to be handed over to Corporate Nigeria to be run for profit. Then sit back and watch our football grow...

Yes, in the most obvious manners. Prior to 2002, Nigeria's football was on the rise. This was most apparent in 1994 when only inexperience on the part of our players prevented us from knocking out eventual runners up Italy at USA '94. In 1996, there was absolutely no doubt that the Nigerian team would have won the Nations Cup had dictator Abacha let us go, but he did not and what happened next is history. In any event, we showed the world that we were a force by winning football gold at the Atlanta Olympics in that same year. An event that showcased the next generation of World football stars (Vieira, Pires, Wiltord, Cannavaro, Buffon and Nesta are all players who have gone on to win the World Cup, and I didn't even mention the Brazilians) . In 1998 in France, it was expected that Nigeria would do very well, and we did begin well with that famous victory against Spain. Overconfidence was our undoing when we fell to the Danes in Round 2. One of the positives that came out of France '98 was that arguably one of Nigeria's greatest ever footballers, Jay-Jay Okocha came out of the football wilderness based on his performances in that tournament. From a footballer's point of view, that is the value of a major international tournament besides the most obvious one of writing your name in the stars.

Our failure to qualify for Deutschland '06 was directly responsible for the fact that a lot of our players today play in mediocre clubs, and the players know this. Hence for the first time in a very long time, the complacency that became a disease in the Nigerian National Team space has been erased. Even perennial call up dodger John Mikel Obi is in camp with the rest of the squad. Yakubu Aiyegbeni has paid his own way to Maputo to cheer his team-mates along, and Joseph Yobo even though injured is there. That is what the World Cup means to them. That they were always there for camp during the first part of the qualifying series, and that we came away from that first section with maximum points shows the new found dedication on the part of the Nigerian player, and that is reason enough in my opinion for us to be at the World Cup.

But the truth is that the NFF's sad behaviour is symptomatic of public sector life in Nigeria. We indeed have a way of placing square pegs in round holes all the time. That however should not prevent the Eagles from being at the World Cup. UP EAGLES!!!

P.S: I am seriously rethinking my plan to attend the next World Cup. The fact that Lucky Dube's killers gave mistaken identity as a Nigerian as one of their reasons from murdering the poor fellow is scary as hell. Why should I spend my money in a country that condones killing someone simply because he is Nigerian?