Super Eagles, NNPC and the Biafra question

By Joseph Edgar…

The last time I watched the Super Eagles play was shamefully during the era of the Dutch wizard, Clemens westerhof. That, you will agree with me, was the golden age of the Eagles. They were a cohesive team and did us proud. Today they are a shadow of themselves.

So I was not really interested in their match against Cameroon and went about my business with pleasurable ignorance. But then my State governor announced a $10,000 reward on any goals scrored. This pepped up my interest and really made a mental note of seeing how much the Eagles will earn from this generous pledge.
The game came and went with the Super Eagles playing against my expectations and coming out victorious with a four goal margin earning for themselves a tidy $40,000 dollars from my governor. I was really glad that despite the continuous call for a break up of the country by the ethnic militants we were still able to play as a structured and united team of the field of lay.

Football used to be such a uniting factor and when our team gets on the pitch, especially during international tourneys we temporary forget our differences and root for our team. At that point we are all Nigerians, an Okocha carries our national aspirations on his back as he strives for glory. When we win, you see jubilation across the length and breath of the country. Everybody screaming okocha’s name with different accents but all owning him and jumping for joy.

I still remember vividly when the team qualified for the finals of the African Nations cup and the then military despot placed a call to the team. He spoke to all members of the team individually calling their names in his heavily accented english but all the same begging them to do the nation proud and that the nation was solidly behind them and that we would all be waiting for them at the airport to give them a heroic welcome when they come back with the cup. Those were the glory days of our football. Today, the premiership has destroyed all of that adding to our pain as we battle ourselves, losing the uniting tonic that has kept us glued together.

Read also: Akwa Ibom churches as parastatals

Back to the present, as we began to assimilate the victory over Cameroon that used to be such an awesome team, the bad news started sipping up via social media. The composition of the team was skewed remarkably in favour of the south east. A total of eight out of the eleven players fielded by the coach which I must state is foreigner were all of Igbo ancestry. In a charged environment that we have found ourselves with ethnic revisionists and apologists roaming our political landscape, that was another keg of gun powder and the debate as usual became heated and strictly divided. Those that talked about merit praised the coach for eschewing the divisive federal character principle which in my own estimation only exacerbated the disunity that has debarred us from progress politically or economically. For the coach, what mattered was the strategy he was deploying and the inherent skill displayed by the player and how he would align this skill to his strategy.

But for the proponents of the breakup of the country, this was another pointer to the fact that the igbo man was only useful when it came to things as úseless’as this. Just as the euphoria of the victory was reaching its crescendo, news of the restructuring of the NNPC the nations huge conglomerate that controls oil wealth and by extension Nigerias wealth broke. No single person from the South East was given a strategic role. Although later repots showed that out of the total 65 executive management positions there was a semblance of balance, this still did not mute the agitators who attempted to notice that the Igbos were give only superfluous positions with no real influence.

A quick cursory look at the list seemed to lay credence to this position and one begins to wonder if the strategies of the super eagles coach was deployed in making these appointments. Wither the position of merit in federal appointments, is it time we discarded the constitutionally backed federal character principle and rely vulnerably on the principle of fair play and judicious equity in these things? We do not have to go even far to see just how badly this will fail. If the one backed by law is being trounced with ignominy, is it the one that will rely on a better sense of judgement of a politician that will win?

I feel our authorities play into the hands of these agitators with their crass policies which seems to carry on a devil may care approach in appointments and policies. The seeming feeling of marginalization especially amongst a cluster who are in firm grasp of a majority of private wealth remains quite idiotic. The aim of achieving a balance by holding on to political power remains archaic as it sounds. The super eagles coach has shown that the enthronement of merit in our dealings whether backed by law or a simple sense of fair play and justice will put us on the road to Eldorado.

I am sure on that bench there was a majority of players from all other parts of the country but they did not mind as the coach and his crew felt we were playing a formidable foe and as such we just had to put our best foot forward. So, in addressing the national question, be it politics, the economy or social cohesion, we should put our best foot forward at all times irrespective of ethnic colouration. The coach has taught us a perfect lesson.

 

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