Thursday, May 4, 2006

Nigeria Football, Which way?

Soccer is perhaps the only eventful sport that unite Nigerians, it is only when Nigeria Super Eagers are playing that you see all the Nigerians cut across ethnicity and religion unite together to cheer their darling teams. There you will see the christian not minding the presence of a muslim spectator calling on Allah or reciting his Rosary to seek God's favour for his team, while the Muslim on the other hand will not mind his christian spectators singing "Ose, Ose o, Ose ooooo, Ose Baba' and even joining in the uncacophonous music and tone the song brought to cheer their darling Super Eagles.
Having said this, the foregoing shows how important the game of soccer is to Nigerians. But recently, our football is in jeopardy because of a single individual. The current Chairman of Nigerian Football Association (NFA) is putting our soccer into jeopardy. He is using his own selfish interest to thwart what is uniting us together as one. At a time when people does not seem to have interest in what the government can do for them, they dont however dont joke with Soccer and Alh Ibrahim Galadima is trying to fiddle with their only source of happiness.
Perhaps it is only in Nigeria that public office holder want to continue in the office when they are not performing. Perhaps it is only in Nigeria that public office holder will use any means to perpetrate themselves in the office, and Galadima is not an exception. For God's sake he should have known that the game of soccer is bigger than himself. He should have seen the handwriting on the wall that the people does not want him. What is more, the government is also against his election, he know this and he corniously use the FIFA's frown on government interference in football to rig himself into office once again, thereby getting the FIFA nod as the chairman. But what he failed to realise is that, the love of people for the game of soccer is greater than his election, or was it selection. No any individual is greater than the people, and no any individual can fight government to stand still, as Galadima want to do. I said government because if indeed the President want him there, Baba would have silent Sport Minister or cal him to order. The government and the people does not sanction his election, and he want to continue in the office. Whether we like it or not, the government assistance can never be cut out of the game, and the earlier Galadima know this, the better.
The only way forward for our game is that, Galadima should resign immediately otherwise, his name will be marked in ink as the man that spoil the only sport that bring happiness to Nigerians. His name will be remembered as the man who brought our football backward, and of course as the man who put his own selfish interest in the form of estacode he gets from the trips as NFA chairman than the love of Nigerians and the game of football. Galadima is only lucky that Nigerians are not violent, as his rigidity could have caused him his life or those closed to him, were it to be in some other crazy loving countries. Enough for the wise.
Pause to Ponder along with me and it baffles me, why our public office holder chooses to be in office in contrast to the institution they represents. Pause to ponder why Galadima chooses to continue to be the NFA Chairman when he knew that majority people and Government of Nigeria are not in support of his position. Pause and ponder whether he would want to be the Chairman of an NFA that is not given all the support in this world to operate and kindly pause and ponder whether Galadima's adamant to remain in office was for the purpose of Nigeria football or his selfish interest.

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