I want to confess upfront that I am not a football-person and as such, I did not follow the AFCON competition, whether in the beginning, in the middle or in the end. My thinking is that I would not be breaking my head, and making deadly emotional investments to watch people who earn in a day, more than I would earn in a year. So I face my face and spend my time wisely! Indeed, it was after my morning prayers on 12/2/24 that I checked my WhatsApp messages and saw that the cup decided to go with Ivorians.
One wicked commentator quipped: ‘If na you nko’? How can you prefer Nigeria to Ivory Coast? One thing I noted was that most of the commentators, full-blooded Nigerians, believed that the Eagles did not score so well and that it would have been unfair for us to have won the game.
A few blamed the referee while others harped on the remote control which the Ivorian Goalkeeper tied to his waste. Some even blamed the bloated official delegation, which went to watch the finals with about 7 private jets; from a country that is simply on all fours and had turned beggarly of late. However, we lost and in Nigeria football, you either win or you win! No time or sympathy for losers!!!
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The fact that I am not a football-person does not mean that I do not study the game, for serious and jocular purposes Thus on 11, 18 and 25 February and March 3 2004 ( 20 years ago) I did an incisive analysis of the lessons which the theory and practice of management could learn from the game of football.
The lessons include playing by the rules and punishing offenders to avoid demoralising others; the importance of teamwork and team performance; the principle and practice of empowerment; strategy; objectives; corporate retreat (half-time); coaching; and body language. The series was titled ‘Management and the Game of Football’ and was published by BusinessDay. Ten years later, I wrote on ‘Nigeria, their football, and their coaches’( BusinessDay, 18/2/14) where I x-rayed the frightening turnover of coaches, and nine months later, I wrote on ‘The Keshi Treatment as a Gbogbonise’( BusinessDay, 4/11/14) where I examined the ignominious sack of Kesh as if that would solve all the ills of Nigerian football.
They had coerced him to take foreign assistance, but he ‘no gree for anybody’( no be today!) and eventually sacked him so as to engage a foreign coach! Our survival is still far away until we start consuming local content, Igbo-Made or Made in Aba! There are other locally manufactured items, but over the years, Nigerians, including Nd’Igbo, have reserved the most descriptive terms for Igbo-made products. I don’t know why.
The author discusses the use of football to teach management and address current issues. They mention the recent appointment of Stanley Nwabali as the Minister of Defence by the BAT, a move that surprised the author, who was surprised by the sudden change of guards, as the new minister was an “Okoro man” and an “Idle Civilian.” The author provides more details about the recent changes in Nigerian politics.
The author attempted to link an appointment with our KFR ranking but discovered an April Fool’s joke in February when Nwabali, the Eagles goaltender, defended the goalpost in a unique manner. Others, possibly following ‘okoros’, suggested that those who played the game at night did not understand the meaning, etymology, and Zodiac implications of the name Nwabali, which meant ‘child of the night’.
The semi-final encounter in Nigeria’s football qualifier was the most deadly, with two people from Igbo-Ukwu dying due to emotional investment in football. The tragic incident involved Cairo Ojougboh, a youth corper, Deputy Bursar at Kwara State University, High Chief Osondu, a business magnet in Ivory Coast, Mikail Osundiji of Abeokuta, and a young man named Lucky at Ago-Palace. The tragic event highlights the country’s history of emotional investment in football.
They all died with immediate effect because the game did not immediately go their way. If only they had calmed down; if they had lived, they would have savoured the victory of that particular dicey tie. Anyway, as Prof. Ginigeme Mbanefo told us in Year One Economics class at the good old UI in 1977, something must kill a man. It may be football; it may be a spouse or other members of the family; it may be a sidekick or a business partner; it may be police or military bullets; or most likely, kidnappers, bandits, and UGM.
Following the deadly qualifier, Nigerians devised new methods of watching the Nigerian-Ivorian match, such as reducing volume, covering the screen, and having the BP monitor permanently attached to the arm. Many people avoided the match, and public awareness on how to watch the match increased. Fortunately, no loss of life was reported. Prof. Ezeilo, who would have to spend five months at the professorial bar to buy a ticket for the finals, chose not to watch the match.
Read also: Beyond the pitch: Unmasking Nigeria’s economic anguish Post-AFCON
Well, we lost, and some of us descended on the players or this BATified government. Some people wondered why we sent that huge, noisy, and distracting delegation to watch the match. Some believed that the statement by the NFF that the Eagles would win for BAT was the cause of the tragedy. Others showed the Eagles coming home with ‘I better pass my neighbour generators (a caricature of our precarious energy situation).
Some players were seen leaving the AFCON Cup with IDP-like luggage, watching the final match on the INEC portal, where Nigeria won 2-1. Ivorians were asked to go to court, but few choose to do so. Shehu Sani advised the team to leave the AFCON Cup and face the Cup of Garri, which is currently available at an incredible price.
However, the best from the games was an ‘unknown Nigerian’ who listed lessons from this AFCON. I don’t know the person, and space constraints will not allow me to restate those lessons here, but I owe him a big bottle of water!
Let’s wait for the next AFCON, the World Cup, or even the Olympics. There will always be competition going on!
Ik Muo, PhD, Dept of Bus Admin, Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye. 08033026625
