On Monday 21^st January, 2008, Nigeria played its first football game at the ongoing African Cup of Nations’ tournament in Sekondi, Ghana against Cote D’ivoire and after 90 minutes, predictably lost 1 – 0 after Salomon Kalou of Chelsea’s strike. I said predictably, because I knew it, and most objective Nigerians who have been following the decline, the rise and fall of Nigerian football, knew and are realistic about.

Apart from the heartache of seeing this loss, I take consolation in the fact that I made some money from the bookies on the game. I placed a £10.00 on Cote D’Ivoire to beat Nigeria by a lone goal, and at 3 to 1 the odds, I collected £40.00. Not a bad day for gambling, but one for Nigerian football.

It was always going to happen. With a clueless, corrupt and inefficient Nigeria Football Association, an ageing team of un-motivated players and an equally useless, clueless and un-committed coach in Berti Vogts, Nigeria was always in for a beating. It has always been an accident waiting to happen, and sure it did. Anybody who thought one of the tournament favourites was going to lose to Nigeria had another think coming. The display by the Super Eagles was inept at best and comical at worst. The boys were static and pedestrian and could hardly put passes together. Their shots at goal and hitting the target was largely non-existent, and the Ivorien goalkeeper had the easiest 90 minutes of the tournament so far. He was hardly put top the test, despite initial displays that suggested he was very vulnerable. The player called Apam was so short of confidence he was giving away the ball most of the time. Because Obi Mikel was played out of the position he was originally known for, attacking midfielder, (even Chelsea has damaged the boy), we could not enjoy his talents and skills. Martins hardly saw the ball and Yakubu was out of sorts, and could not pull his weight as a striker. Only Yobo was confident and reliable, while Danny Shittu, while very hard working and hard-tackling, showed why he is still playing in the Championship Division of Engalnd and not the Premiership. It was not until Odemwingie was introduced that we saw some bright spark and deft movements, which unfortunately were not complemented by his ponderous team-mates, and by that time, it was too late for Nigeria.

To make it worse, after the game Mr Vogts told the World Press, that the boys did their very best and he was sure Nigeria will qualify for the next stage. Indeed, Nigeria “may” qualify to go into the next stage of the competition, yes, we are likely to beat Mali and the little Republic of Benin, but I shudder to imagine what will happen when they meet tougher opponents in those stages. Watching the demolition of the “indomitable Lions of Cameroon” by Egypt and the superb display of the hosts, Ghana against Guinea, as well as the talents displayed by Morocco against Namibia, I am not that optimistic. One thing for sure, I don’t think the Super Eagles, on the face of their inept display against Cote D’Ivoire can even get to the semi final stage of this competition. If they do, it will be a major miracle. Most Nigerians are yet to see exactly what is super about these eagles.

Mr Vogts, despite sitting on the bench right there in Sekondi must have been watching a different game from the rest of us, when he said the boys did their best. That tells you the manner of coach the man is. This is a coach who refused to live in Nigeria, where he would have the chance to travel round the country and help to discover new talents, like Clemens Westerhof did. The man preferred using foreign based players who have already made their names, but alas, are fading rapidly and are in no way a match for the younger talents in other African countries. No effort is being made to discover and develop new talents among the thousands of Nigerian boys who play their football hard on the streets and on the rocky surfaces as well as the league.

So who do we blame? Who else? The visionless, clueless, corrupt Nigeria Football Association, led by one Sani Lulu, and backed to the hilt by one Dr Amos Adamu, National Sports Commission (NSC) Director-General.

One thing, for as long as Dr Adamu remains at the top helm of Nigeria sports, we will never see progress. Compare him with the now late Isaac Akioye, and you know Amos Adamu is a man of straw. A man of extraordinary ambition, what Adamu lacks in managerial ability and ideas for how to develop Nigerian sports he makes up for with his native intelligence, intimidation, slyness and coercion.

Chimaobi Uchendu in the Sun Newspapers of Wednesday, September 19, 2007 wrote “Since Adamu returned to the Nigerian sports, things have not been the same. Like a thief in the night, he came in to re-organise the Football House by positioning his loyalists in strategic positions, and so he organised a Kangaroo election to throw out the Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima-led board, comprising most of the victims in the new NFA executives” Apart from being the director general at the NSC, Adamu occupies sensitive positions in both CAF and FIFA. About two years ago, he was also eyeing the WAFU top job, as well as the CAF Presidency, and this is a clear example of a man ready to do anything to have power. Of course, he was the Chief Executive of the African Games (COJA) held in Abuja a few years earlier, and we all know what happened – the monumental fraud that accompanied the games.

I read recently that Dr Adamu said he plans to devote his time and life to God after his retirement, whenever that is, by becoming a priest and having his own church. Well, that is one church I don’t plan to be seen in. I don’t see myself entering the Kingdom of God by going to Dr Adamu’s church.

And the Chairman of the NFA, Sani Lulu? He himself has never denied the fact that he’s been playing the script of his master in the Football House. Lulu had said that he was Adamu’s errand-boy, and that he was not ashamed to serve him in any capacity. Sani Lulu was, before he was (s)elected NFA Chaiman, the Chairman of the Abuja FA for many years. Tell me, what is happening in Abuja in terms of sports and its development? “For years, Lulu has been the director of sports in FCT and sports in the FCT is like trees in the desert. It is not just there; even at recreation level, sports is dead in Abuja. At National Festival, Games and other events, they always fail to impress. So Nigeria should be ready for a period of heartbreak, because if Lulu cannot run the  corner shop that is FCT sports, how will he run a supermarket like NFA?” wrote the respected Olukayode Thomas , The Guardian, 8^th November 2006. He even correctly predicted the outcome of the election. (For the full report of the intrigues behind this farcical and depressing election, and other issues relating to the NFA, Amos Adamu and Sani Lulu, please read Mr Thomas’s article, and his article titled “The Sorry State of Nigerian Sports” published in www.Playthegame.org,  9^th August 2007). “As Director of Sports of FCT, what sporting events did Sani Lulu organised in that small zone, to qualify him as the man who can lead Nigerian football into the global zone? What indelible and unforgettable mark has he made to sports in the FCT not to talk about sports in Nigeria?”, I asked in 2006 in my article “Nigerian football and sports, Amos Adamu’s influence and the recent NFA elections – Another step backwards”. I am still asking that question 2 years later.

The NFA, Amos Adamu and Sani Lulu have been laying claims, with the aid of their friends in sports journalism, to some successes in recent years that they are not entitled to, such as the successes of the Super Falcons, Nigeria’s success at the Atlanta 96 Olympic Games with two Gold Medals.  They have been embroiled in controversy and corruption. They suspended the Nigeria Football League  (NFL) Chairman Chief Oyuki Obaseki and three other senior officials of the league, throwing the whole football season into confusion.  The Senate was probing them in 2006 but we will not see any report because of Dr Adamu’s intervention to cover it up and protect his errand boys. The NFA maltreated the women’s team, The Super Falcons, at the Fifth Women's Football World Finals, also known as China 2007. There have been financial scandals as well as sex scandals, where officials have been found to be impregnating women players. Do you hear anything about the outcome of the investigations into this? No, you wont, because Dr Adamu fixes everything. He has a lot of officials and people in and out of Government in his pocket who are utterly compromised and dare not act against him, because if Adamu goes down, he will take many of them with him.

In his article, The Bad Eggs of the Nigerian Football Association, (Onlinenigeria.com, 15^th June 2006)  Bankole Kolawole Monsuru, contends that Nigerian “sports icons like Olusegun Odegbami, Fanni Amu, Adokie Amaesimaka, and the likes of Chief Oladipo were not allowed to reach the post of the NFA chairman, despite their status and achievements for their noble country that was overlooked by the looters and not good enough officials of the NFA, The cart was laid before the horse, and this has brought chaos and indiscipline coupled with disgrace and bad record to Nigeria in the International Football scene”. How true.

The Nigeria Footbal Association does not even have a functional website. I tried to get the official website of the NFA, and all I got was one last updated, it seems in 1993 when Emeka Omeruah was elected Chairman and the NFA Headquarters was given as 146-148, Ogunlana Drive, Surulere, Lagos. The source of the information then was from Complete Football, Nigerian Football 1960-1990 by Segun Odegbami, and Sporting Champion, June 1992. And this was an association launched in 1945. A shame really.

The problem of sports development in Nigeria, as with many other areas of national interest, governance and issues, is that of putting square pegs in round holes, corruption, selfishness, lack of vision and mismanagement. An inadequate, unqualified, mediocre and inept cabal almost always find themselves in positions of great responsibility because of nepotism, tribalism and corruption to the consternation of the willing and able and we the ordinary Nigerians are often left counting the costs. Where are the likes and calibres of Dennis J. Slatterys, the Akioyes, the JK Tandohs, Sunday Dankaros, the Anthony Ikazobohs,  the Omeruahs, the Odegbamis, the Amaesimakas, the Godfrey Amacheres, to run our sports and football? With the amount of hard dollars that accrue to our football authorities, it is no wonder that a lot of charlatans and nonentities fight tooth and nail  to get into football administration just to make money, without any ideas of how to go about making their marks. It has been like that for ages, and will apparently continue to be so. Take a look at the delegation list to Ghana, and you will see almost all of the NFA Board there, if you are in the good books of the Chairman and Dr Adamu. After the tournament, don’t be surprised to hear that the players have not being paid, and there was changing-room discontent. This happens everytime, it is predictable. It is the story of our life.

It was rumoured that  Dr Adamu once told a Chairmanship contender that “(name withheld), yes, you are the right man, but you are too honest for this game, I am sorry, but you cant be chairman. We don’t need you now”. Incompetence will breed corruption, because the incompetent will always try to shroud their failings in lies, delusions, deviousness, depravity, secrecy and dirty deals. It is only in our dear country that mediocres rule the roost in everything. Sports and especially football have moved forward in the last ten years while ours have regressed, no small thanks to inconsistent, ineffective and obsolete government policies, greed, corruption, obtuse and arrogant officials, power-hungry idiots and the likes. With countries like Namibia, Mali, Sudan and Benin are making it to major finals, that tells you football is developing in those countries. Kudos to them.

But our Football League has been reduced to no more than a Sunday football kick-about. I do not see our fans wearing football shirts bearing the names of our own footballers, but those of foreign stars. Nigerians no longer want to watch their local league. All they know now are foreign stars and teams. When I was young, I used to travel from Ibadan to Lagos just to watch the Super Stores;  Railways; ECN (later to become NEPA, and who knows what they call it now?),  and I was always at the Liberty Stadium to watch, in those days, WNDC, later to become IICC Shooting Stars; Water Corporation; NEPA Ibadan; Housing Corporation; NTC, etc. play such great teams as Enugu Rangers, Mighty Jets of Jos, Bendel Insurance, Sharks of Port Harcourt, etc. Lord, I cant bear to remember!

The Liberty Stadium, Ibadan, (built by that visionary and icon, Obafemi Awolowo) one of the first in West Africa, if not in Africa, is hardly used and is rotting away, taken over by food and beer sellers. And so is the National Stadium in Lagos, taken over by religious groups trampling all over the grass, and the outside by beer-sellers and prostitutes. And someone tells me, we have people in charge of sports in Nigeria? Well, think again.

So, the outcome of Ghana 2008 for Nigeria? Lifting the trophy is out of the question. Getting to the knock-out stages is a possibility, but after that, our hearts will be broken, and we will slump back home. All kinds of blames will be apportioned – sack the coach, sack the officials, etc, but nothing will happen, and Nigerians will look forward to making up the numbers and playing at the next big tournament, unprepared again. Thanks to Dr Amos Adamu, Sani Lulu, Bolaji Ojo-Oba and co.

A very happy ending, depending on which side you are looking at it.