Everybody needs their sanity. And that includes those who live in insane places. I am reluctant to associate myself with persons who describe Nigeria as an asylum where the inmates are in-charge. Some will argue that our country has always been a mad house from the beginning in 1960. And even before its independence. The battle for independence, though some claim we got our political freedom on a platter, was also cacophonous. The Nnamdi Azikiwes, Herbert Macaulays, Ahmadu Bellos, Tafawa Balewas, Mbonu Ojikes, Michael Okparas, Fumnilayo Ransome-Kutis, Margret Ekpos, the Obafemi Awolowos, and many others from across the Nigerian spectrum were among those at the barricades to retrieve Nigeria from the clutches of the British colonizers. In truth their goals and commitments differed. Some wanted self rule and then independence for the country immediately while others were less enthusiastic. But I am almost forgetting. This intervention will not be about Nigeria except as a footnote whenever it is impossible to avoid it. However, I am not unmindful of the fact that Nigeria has a way of inserting itself into any conversation in spite of the best effort to avoid it.
The Football World Cup took off in Qatar on Sunday, November 20. The tournament happens once every four years. This is the first in the Middle East and the first in any Arab and Islamic country. It is the first to be organized during the winter season in Europe. It is the first global football fiesta to begin in the middle of European football league season. It is perhaps the first where a sizable number of star footballers will not participate because of injuries. Qatar 22 is the first tournament where the stadiums are relatively close to each other that any fan could decide to watch any number of matches each day. It is also the first tournament in recent history to be dogged by controversies from the day, twelve years ago, when Qatar was announced as the host. Giving and taking bribe was touted as the reason the tiny but crude oil rich Gulf country was awarded the hosting rights, though no evidence was provided. But the controversy will not go away. European countries raised hell, saying that at 50 degrees celsius or even hotter in Qatar in November the health of players will be in danger. The host committed to providing climate control through the installation of air-conditioning systems stadiums.
Those who wanted to remove the tournament from Qatar refused to relent. They said the human rights record of the country was horrible. They contended that it would amount to rewarding bad behavior to allow the Gulf nation to host the biggest team sports event in the world. Some European countries offered to play host should the world football governing body, FIFA, agree to cancel Qatar’s win. FIFA or Federation of International Football Associations refused. To the rest of us football is sport and entertainment. To FIFA football is business, mega business, and money. And Qatar was ready and willing to spend humongous sums of money to host the tournament. When construction works commenced on the stipulated facilities to affirm the hosting rights, the naysayers claimed that the country will not be ready given the pace of work. That also did not fly. Then followed a concerted campaign to further smear Qatar. There were coordinated and orchestrated European media war about the alleged cruel and inhumane treatment of migrant construction workers and the alleged high number of deaths at construction sites.
Every thing negative that could be thrown at Qatar was thrown at Qatar, including intolerance of gay people and denial of access to alcoholic drinks for visiting fans and sundry tourists. Qatar took everything in her strides. Occasionally it responded. A Qatari official once chided the West for hypocrisy. He said when sports equipment manufacturing behemoths use child labour to make their gears in some Asian countries, the host nations were not usually pilloried. The likes of Nike and Adidas were held to account. So he wondered why firms, including international companies from the countries which champion the criticism of Qatar, were not being held responsible for any problems at construction sites. Recently Sepp Blatter, who left FIFA under a cloud of bribery and corruption, said Qatar should not have been awarded the hosting rights. The irony: Blatter was FIFA president when Qatar was selected to host the World Cup. The criticisms had been so unrelenting that FIFA president, Gianni Infantino, lost his cool on the eve of the start of the fiesta. He said there were no bigger hypocrites than his fellow Europeans. He said their moralizing on human rights was just that- moralizing. He said the only way Europeans could be taken seriously over their role of moral police was if they start from now to apologize and make restitution to the rest of the world for the next three thousand years for their [Europeans] centuries of expropriation.
“For what we Europeans have been doing around the world in the last 3000 years we should be apologizing for the next 3000 years before starting to give moral lessons to the people. How many of these European or Western business companies who earn millions from Qatar, billions, how many of them have addressed migrant workers’ rights with the authorities? None of them, because if you change the legislation it means less profit. The world is divided enough, we are organizing a World Cup, not a war. We organize a World Cup where people who have many problems want to come and enjoy. Look at the City, it’s beautiful. People are happy to celebrate. They were happy when the teams come and they go to see them, and what do I read? These people don’t look English, they shouldn’t cheer for England because they look like Indians. What is that? Can somebody who looks like an Indian not cheer for England, Spain or Germany? You know what this is. this is racism, this is pure racism. We have to stop that because everyone in the world has the right to cheer for who they want.”
Yes, the World Cup is now on. And live. Infantino and his fellow Europeans can squabble as much as they like. We have no dog in their fight. Infantino is fighting for his multi-billion dollar business while the Europeans are doing what they are good at doing – hypocrisy.
The concern of many of us is that Nigeria is MIA- missing in action- in Qatar. However, the absence of our Super Eagles could also be a blessing. Nigerians are already suffering under the yoke of an All Progressives Congress supervised economic carnage. A woeful performance if the Super Eagles were to be in Qatar would only further compound our situation. Let’s sit back and continue to watch football without hypertension for the remaining 20 days of the best soccer can offer.
Qatar has just recorded another first- the first host nation to lose their first two matches and to crash out while Saudi Arabia did the unthinkable by defeating Argentina while outsiders Morocco stunned Belgium. Even Japan dealt a deadly blow to Germany’s aspiration of qualification for the second round. So far, Qatar has been a football World Cup like no other. The erstwhile untouchable football nations are fighting for their lives. And their pride and bonafide. Oh, by the way, in journalism and communication school you are said to be engaging in afghanistanism when you skip addressing pressing domestic issues in preference for happenings elsewhere. That’s what we elected to do today for the sake of our sanity. So Afghanistan, here we come.