I have come to accept the fact that the average Nigerian at heart and by mentality is a defeated individual that justifies mediocrity.  We act and talk big, we religious have high hopes, and are full of optimism, but they are usually built on quicksand.  I never thought that colonization was so strong to last into the 21^st century, to the extent that over 140 million people can not demand and bring change to their nation through adequate governance.  Each year and every generation, we have the wrong people in office, people who never played football at international levels running our football, foreign coaches who have never proved themselves, even in our local leagues, leading our national team, and we watch all our monies go into the Swiss Bank. 

One would think that one day, Nigerians will stand up and match on the streets, saying that they are ready to die until the government does better.  Instead, statistics shows that Nigerians are the happiest people on earth.  Isn’t that what the great Fela called “suffering and smiling?”  When a courageous Nigerian stand up to speak, there is always an over-pompous Nigerian of low mentality that appears to have what Nigeria calls “big manity”, who tries to diffuse the situation  or try to discredit the messenger.  These empty souls will bring up hypothesis and theories such as: “It does not matter how bad the government is, we can always go to England to school or import goods to sell at inflated prices.”  Why doesn’t the Englishman come to Nigeria to go to school or import our trash to sell at inflated prices in his economy?  They will also say: It does not matter if we have the wrong people in the NFA, or coaching staff, we will always qualify for the second round”.  Is that why we went to the tournament?  I always wondered why the average Nigerian was actually a very small minded man in his “big manity”.  It was a woman, who explained to me last year, that the average Nigerian wants to be someone legitimately, but because he does not know how to come about it, he focuses on justifying and accepting things as they are. 

When you allow a system of unqualified leaders, you open the door to corruption.  When past criminals all over the world are allowed to run for office, win election by rigging, and actually stay their term, then the nation is as good as dead.  This is an unproven example of what I mean.  Foreign forces that want to control the country and its resources actually look for a Nigerian of low mentality from a major ethnic group and fund him to become president.  They now own him, and he no longer answers to Nigerians.  He then chooses a fool like himself to be minister of sports, then together, they stage one NFA election and then we have our football body for Nigeria.  How many of these sports people have represented Nigeria in current times at global and international levels or are experts in sports management?  After the gambling houses around the world have gambled in the billions, they send their soccer scouts out to guarantee the results.  So the scouts go to the incompetent NFA chairman and convince him without the Nigerian coach knowing the change that the game should be played in Bauchi at 2 P.M. under the sun against Angola.  He reasons that Nigeria will still do well and that they are wasting their bribe.  He forgets that Nigerian players play in Europe, but the Angolans are basically in a desert.  Then Angola goes to the world cup and Nigeria stays at home.

Nigerians are soon angry at the wrong things, like they always do.  They are mad at the coach instead of the incompetent NFA that choose the coach.   They demand a change of coach instead of a change in the NFA that chooses the coach.  They demand that they get a foreign coach, instead of demanding that the NFA sponsor Nigerian coaches and former Nigerian internationals for coaching courses and hands-on internship with European big soccer clubs.  So, the NFA brings any White looking man that is not even known in his country as a rated coach and place him over our Super Eagles.  They give him total control to do whatever as long as he gives NFA kickbacks – pay me later.   If NFA has millions to pay an unrated coach, why not use it to get the coach of Barcelona or Real Madrid, or even send some Nigerian coaches on paid internships or courses?  It is because they will not get kickbacks. 

So Nigeria is stuck with an “almighty” unrated coach who lives in Europe, spends 10 days a month in a country he is suppose to be coaching, does not watch the local league to find or develop good players for the national team, does not let the President of the country motivate his players ahead of a tournament, the NFA is so afraid of him and his kickbacks that no one opposes him, they sneak cell phones to players to speak with the President, and he carries an African side for a tournament to be played 30 degrees above zero to Europe to train at 10 degrees below zero.  It used to be Cameroon, now we can no longer beat Ivory Coast, Ghana, and Mali.  We used to get to the semi-finals, now we can hardly reach the quarter-finals. 

I honestly did not want Nigeria to qualify out of the group stage.  I wanted Mali and Ivory Coast to play a draw.  It is not because I do not love my country, but because the average Nigerian is a person that justify why it is good to put his hands in fire instead of observing what fire does to its surrounding.  I did not want Nigeria to get to the finals of Ghana 2008, and become a justified reference 20 years from now to promote mediocrity.  I do not want to hear another “big manity” tell the younger ones that it is okay not to prepare properly or lose many games, but still reach the finals.  I pray that if we do not put past football internationals and experts to run our football as from now that Nigeria should not only drop greatly in FIFA rankings, but should also not qualify for the next world cup.