The Zambian Lesson

The Zambian Lesson
By Ekanem Moses. 08027272651

The young dynamic Chipopollo of Zambia has taught all the big names in the round leather game, a big lesson. For Nigeria, it is given to us to learn a great lesson. We as the people have for a long time been living with the problem of believing in what we can’t achieve or do. Yet we have been deceiving ourselves and in extension deceive others.
I can remember those great names in football-during our secondary school days we usually hailed and regarded as our idol, today they are still underage while we become older than them. This wrong perception of attaining greatness has an adverse impact on entirely everything we are involved. It is this corrupt mentality that has polluted nearly all the sporting activities in the Glass House.
They are there meddling with the affairs of what is going on in the field without proffering solutions to their problems. Being in the glass house has so made them glassy with obsolete ideas of fielding overage players in each tournament. What will football supporters expect than being entertained in the field with doubled aged men who are a delight to behold as they run like clumsy pack of cards in the field?
I ceased being football enthusiast the day I nearly kicked the TV screen in our home, if not for my father who was available to raise a loud scream. Since then I learnt how to comport myself and control my overzealous enthusiasm for the round leather game. In other clime some beings commit suicide if their beloved team lost in a match. Football has serve as a unifying factor, it is the only time Muslims/Christians sit together in anticipation for their country team to deliver. It is during football match that everybody forgets where last was bombed, and which spot was declared dangerous zone.
When I had real love for the round leather game was when names like Christian Chukwu, Emmanuel Okala, Muda Lawal etc. were a household name. They made the game a delight; they cherished it, and sacrificed to make it worthwhile for their country first, before themselves, though most of them who are still alive may have been yet not forty. That is not the case, the case is they were committed to playing for their country, nothing but for their country; they were not taken by the fact that they will be ferried one day out of this country.
They were determined to give their country the best result and definitely saw the best themselves. Then footballers were focus and imaginative, even creative. I could remember how I was deeply in love with Segun Odegbami, who was christened the Mathematician, he was always on the touch line, and he was a wizard with ball on the field. I tried as much as possible to emulate him whenever I played. As at that time Nigeria’s football was always a delight to watch. Immediately we entered the era of anything goes, the game lost it glamour, the scintillating and tantalizing entertainment it used to offer gone.
The development made me unease and uncomfortable to write about soccer, after all what is there to write about, is it how Nigerians fans are becoming foreign fans, I developed cold attitude about football, coupled with the fact that I nearly damaged Dad’s Standing T.V Screen then. What is there to write about in our football, even the local content has not been what we used to have. Today there is no more Bendel insurance, stationery stores, Julius Berger, NEPA, Prison, even police team, most of these corporate bodies do not see the need to groom and encourage players any longer, may be for the fear of losing them after a short while to foreign clubs.
I refuse to write or partake in anything football, to avoid developing hypertension, even though football is a game I so much cherish, having been involved in it in my Junior secondary days until I had a fracture which crippled any desire to move higher, again the game since it has been monetizes in Nigeria context becomes a bundle of anything come, anything goes, with no more concentration, desire, and determination to give the Nation nothing but the best, the best as the Ivorien and the Zambian demonstrated in the final of the tournament.
How Zambian fought to claim their long lost victory. God decided to reward them and made them happy for losing much lives in 1993 airplane crash that claimed the entire nations National team. Those on field with youthful looking determined lads were ready to make their father land happy, not those who play to be seen if they are materials to be bought to foreign club. Nigeria’s Players should learn from the young Zambians, and have something to imbibe from them. It is insult to our mentality to be infected with being intoxicated with admiration of foreign club than ours.
This African mentality of preferring what is all foreign to ours; totally discourage me from having anymore affection for the game. What is wrong with our local content football style, we cannot be told, why all the talk about foreign coach and foreign player, we cannot be told, were Emmanuel Okala, Christian Chukwu, Atuegbu, Segun Odegbami not raise locally until they excelled and became legend in their time. Even if there was some white coach then, the success was not in them, but on our players who were united to give Nigeria nothing but the best, and it was the best they reaped as result, all through their era.
Unfortunately, since there have been a lot of boardroom politics in football, the game got exposed to corrupt practices. In fact everything about our sports went into total decay. We are completely disconnected from those areas of sport we used to make a landmark achievement. Completely gone grounded are sports like Boxing, Wrestling, athletic, all went into dispute due to many deficiency rocking each of the management of those bodies. It is these corruptions that now turn Nigerian football lovers to become Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester United, Liverpool etc. fans. They promote their activities, encourage their player, their stickers, T-Shirts, Caps are worn everywhere in the country. The entire viewing centres in the country are hooked to the daily matches of these foreign clubs.
Where are we when it comes to sports development in this country, are we leaving things to blind chance or are we now being challenged by the performance of the young Zambians to think on how to give our game a good tonic it need to revive it, or are we still believing that we are the best while we are gradually being relegated to the background, which way Nigerian Sports Commission, are we still believing in indulging in corrupt practices and let the sport die, are we to forget about encouraging “man know man” syndrome in sporting activities and let it survive only on merit wave.
If we brush aside corruption in football, issue of overgrown players will be a thing of the past. Players will have delighted to adorn their country jersey only on merit. We can afford to raise the likes of Odegbami, Chukwu, Muda lawal again, with paramount interest to give the best for their father land if only we can nurture their dream. It is only selecting players by merits that will remove all the hiccups the game have been experiencing lately. When Nigeria football and other sports start having safety guides like Highway code and strictly obey like those traffic drill, to stop when it is to stop, to walk when it to walk, to cross when it is to cross and avoid to play fast and loose with those gimmick that run as down, that is when we will know we have arrive in the scene of being once again in the list of football great in the continent and the world, otherwise we will remain where we are incapacitated