Reminiscing

I don't want to regret my unfounded certitude in the possibility of the Nigerian Team advancing to a greater extent in the ongoing World Cup -- the quarter finals at least. I had watched our pre - world cup friendly match against USA, and despite our defeat, my convictions  didn't quaver. Not even our imperfect streak of equalizers against Mexico, Scotland and Greece respectively, the omission of key-influential players and obvious technical impediments wobbled me to the other divide where realists believed different, and actually chided me for ignoring real situations on ground.

At the end of every work hours, I tuck my laptop in its pouch always hoping to do some office works at home -- something I seldom do, because either I'm not energetic enough to put away my shoes or I'm able to convince my self that "it's not that voluminous, so I'll do it first thing in the morning (again, something I seldom do)". Of course my procrastinating tendency isn't anything noble to flaunt, and that is not what I'm aiming for here. I mean it's a limitation that has caused me to wear rumpled clothes to church or work on numerous occasions, almost had me running across the highway to a filling station with a gallon for fuel to get my car moving again. What more embarrassment can one endure? It is rather the few times I had beaten the somnolence, started or completed whatever that needed to be started or completed,  Those rare moments, I applaud myself for hauling the poor gadget along ignoring the voice of uncertainties about whether the laptop will remain in the bag untouched or not.

I had reasoned that like me (who never fails to bring the laptop along), Walt Disney who didn't capitulate to a newspaper editor' opinion that he "lacked imagination and had no good ideas", or Michael Jordan who didn't admit defeat after being cut from his high school basketball team, and also considering that lately, our country has been on the news for all the wrong reasons, that our team would fight hard, passionately and determinedly to project us in a positive light or probably in honour of innocent lives lost in all bomb blasts. At least, that was the basis of my conviction.

I watched the the game against France. France was vulnerable, very much permeable, and seemed disorganized and pressurized from Nigeria's pace. It was clear we possessed the physical prowess to win the game. But we lacked the passion, the drive, the hunger, the determination, the motivation, the focus, the attitude to actually win. Mikel strutted so lazily about the pitch like he was taking a walk on the beach, Musa, who proved to Messi that two could play the game was a shadow of himself, Victor Moses' attack looked insipid, Onaze's injury and substitution further did us in. Stephen Keshi's post match statement that African teams didn't always excel in International tournaments because they lacked zeal and focus buttresses my notion.

Evidently, Super Eagles had played the match under a cloud of quarrels with the Nigeria Football Federation over the payment of match bonuses. They had boycotted the training session until they had been paid.  I've always embraced the principles of justice and integrity, and it would be hypocritical of me to hold the players' protests against them, or to translate it to mean they're money-oriented, selfish or unpatriotic. I don't care about what the Greece and Algeria teams chose to do with their bonuses, the players had every right to demand for their entitlements, otherwise, the NFA officials would have siphoned the money and I'm certain they won't give it to charity. Isn't corrupt leadership and docility the reason football in Nigeria and Africa generally appears stagnant? The same thing applies to the leadership of the nation and continent at large.

However, it is one thing to stand for due process and another to have conceded defeat even before the match played out. I daresay the later was the case. I don't have sources for ascertainment, but I saw it in their eyes and body language after the game. It was the expression of surrender, timidity and doubt. It was the expression of "yea, I knew it"! These expressions are enemies of optimism. On that match day, optimism was the edge France had over Nigeria, and that won them the game.

So, I'll never regret having faith in our football team. I'll pray that like Switzerland (against Argentina), they'd come believing no mountain is too hard to climb.