Of course there would be no welcome party for the Super Eagles. They did not do us proud and we are not proud of them. They also know better than to come home. I bet they have wisely all taken next available flights to their bases where they can go and shine in their club sides. Not only did they disgrace us, they also lost the Super in their Eagles.

We are angry, very angry that we didn’t win the Nations Cup. We are angry that we couldn’t beat ‘ordinar y’ Benin Republic when another team that didn’t come from the ‘giant of Africa ’ spelt Benin with five goals. We have every right to be angry because our once shining and soaring Eagles failed not only to fly, they could not even walk convincingly. How else do you explain a team that has Yobo, Kanu, Mikel Obi, Taye Taiwo, and Odemwingie that scored only one goal throughout their unremarkable stay in Ghana ? Oh yes, one goal.

As far as I am concerned, they didn’t score any goal in the Ghanaian match, Penalty goals during regulation time don’t impress me much. It’s like cooking without the necessary ingredients and luckily ending up with an edible dish.. An edible dish is not the same as a tasty one.

Anyway let’s quit the anger, especially since this is not a Sports page. It’s just that Nigeria ’s woeful performance at the ‘recently concluded’ Nations Cup holds so much lessons if only we’ll look beyond the goal post. The way Nigeria performed at the tournament is the way we are in so many ways.
As usual, there are already calls that Coach Bertie Vogts be given the boot. Who wanted a foreign coach in the first place? Who were the people who criticized Austin Eguavoen out of office? Like in every area of our national life, impatience is ruining every good thing. We do not want to go through the phases to get anywhere. We wanted our democracy to be like America ’s knowing full well that the only thing that you build from the top is a grave. And when things don’t work the way we expect, we launch into hysterics, blaming everybody and everything in sight.

How is it that the failure of the Eagles is absolutely Bertie Vogts fault? Apart from coaching the boys, was he also supposed to join them on the pitch? The previous tournaments where we had performed woefully, was Vogts our coach then? When last did we win the Nations Cup or any cup at all? And anyway, we wanted a foreign coach and Vogts is one, so what are we raising hell about? Mature people live with the choices they make. They do not throw tantrums. Considering the number of times we have changed coaches without bringing home desired trophies, we ought to get out of this ‘kill the coach’ syndrome. The coach of the Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire resigned weeks before the tournament began because his son was ill. The Elephants are still on the pitch terrorizing the remaining teams. Sacking Vogts will be nothing but scratching an itch while ignoring a godawful leprosy.

In most instances, our problems are caused by our tendency towards mob action. Once someone says the other person is guilty, everybody turns it into a refrain and before you know it, it becomes a national anthem. Ask those who want Bertie Vogts’ head to answer the questions raised above or to tell you five things the white guy did wrong on that pitch and you’ll be amazed at the level of ignorance we have around us. Most likely, your neighbour wants Vogts sacked because his fanatical boss said so. What exactly are those new things members of our squad did not know about football that Vogts was supposed to teach them?
If you have a faulty system, you have to fix it. Zeroing in on one man or department does not solve the problem. If we have failed to win football laurels even after sacking four coaches, why should we think sacking Vogts will change our fortunes?

As in the football house, Nigeria has a system problem. We can, for instance, blame Iwu for conducting a ‘wuruwuru’ election but do we have a system that can stop rigging and are we addressing that problem? Well, we all agreed somehow that former President Olusegun Obasanjo orchestrated all the electoral fraud in the last general elections but if the governors produced last April were as unacceptable as we believe, how come they swept the polls again at the local government elections? All the governors won all the council seats even in places when they did not win last April. Winners take all, they call it. So, was Obasanjo the problem again? Now, try and see beyond the usual hysterics of who is and who isn’t a pro-Obasanjo person, are the governors any better than just kingpins of rigging? If they all did what they did at the council polls, if we replace any of them with Iwu, would we ever have credible elections? Iwu did not live up to expectation. Obasanjo was the supervisor under whose watch all the evils took place. If the evils did not stop even when the old man has gone, why should we continue to ignore the system that ensures that rigging remains the norm, the guiding principle of our democracy?

We all must stop and think. Take deep breaths. Stop joining the multitude to do evil. The Oshodi mob mentality has not helped us one bit. You see, in Oshodi, all it takes to send a man into a grave is for his fellow Nigerian to shout ole (thief) and a standby mob will swing into action. Tires, matchboxes, lighters, petrol, kerosene and other ingredients of public cremation will surface. Within minutes, the man would be roasting and coasting nicely to the lands of his ancestors. Two minutes after the evil has been done, ask one of the ‘undertakers’ to tell you the gender of the dead man and what he stole. He would not have an answer. For all you know, the man who summoned the killer squad just wanted his enemy out of the way.

Isn’t there something wrong with us? We can’t conduct elections without the world thinking we have rocks where our brains ought to be. We can’t refine oil that God gave to us without charge. We can’t even spend, utilise judiciously proceeds from our oil wealth. We can’t fix roads , let alone refineries. We cannot even do a proper headcount. Why should we win Nations Cup? Why should we kick a small round leather accurately into the net. What have we done accurately, anyway? I think we are just a nation of non-performers.

And this time around, Bertie Vogts is the scapegoat. Wait a minute, did I just say we don’t do anything accurately? I apologise. Nobody, no nation can beat us in the game of catching scape goats. That is one thing we do so well.

And is it true that Mallam Amos Adamu has been in NFA since forever? Sorry, since 1992. So, what is the difference between six and half a dozen? Smart guy has survived all the Sports minister since 1992. He is a career soccer administrator, right? He has been everywhere in the soccer house for almost 16 years. That is how many terms? And Bertie Vogts is the problem? The administrators are doing what, changing coaches? We have a rotten football house and the earlier we do something about it the better.

Where were those administrators when our boys were being shipped off to Malaga to train at eight degrees when the tournament would take place in a country hotter than Nigeria in February?

Our football is rotten but it is only a metaphor for our larger system.