By Donu Kogbara
Twenty nine out of the 36 footballers who were selected to represent Nigeria in this year’s FIFA Under-17 World Cup tournament, have just been disqualified on the grounds that they lied about their ages and are too old to participate.
This discovery was made after the players in question “failed” a Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) bone scan test….which, according to my colleagues on Vanguard’s sports pages, uses a magnetic field and pulses of radio wave energy to take pictures of the body’s internal organs and structures…and can evaluate an individual’s true age by observing the degree of fusion of his or her wrist bones.
Since only seven of the original Under-17 squad have turned out to be eligible agewise, the Nigerian Football Federation is frantically trying to quickly recruit sufficiently talented replacements for the 29 players who have been axed.
I wish I could say that I was shocked when I read this embarrassing story.
But I just shrugged, hissed and shook my head because I’ve become wearily accustomed to the chronic dishonesty that warps almost every aspect of life in a country where everything is for sale and solid principles are extremely thin on the ground.
Frankly, having witnessed so much wuru-wuru in Nigeria, I would only have been surprised if all or most of the above footballers had passed the bone scan test with flying colours and proved that they were as young as they claimed to be.
I recently concluded that Nigerians would win gold medals on a regular basis if lying through one’s teeth was an Olympics event!…And that Nigerians would be unrivaled world champions if trying to gain an unfair advantage was a sport!
I have mixed feelings about the criticisms that Hilary Clinton, the American Secretary of State, directed at our leaders when she visited Nigeria two weeks ago.
On the one hand, this country is, undoubtedly, immensely disappointing in several ways; and Mrs Clinton was certainly not being unfair to the VIPs who are responsible for our collective welfare when she described our electoral system as “flawed”, condemned the widespread corruption and said that “lack of transparency and accountability has eroded the legitimacy of the government and contributed to the rise of groups that embrace violence and reject the authority of the state”.
Clinton was also being truthful when she bluntly pointed out – in the course of a town hall meeting in Abuja –that the poverty level has risen to 76 per cent in the past l3 years, despite our abundant natural resources…and that “the most immediate source of the disconnect between Nigeria’s wealth and its poverty is a failure of governance on the local, state and federal levels”…and that we would have had more decent hospitals, schools, etc, if the nation’s income had been well-spent.
Predictably, outraged government supporters are crying “foul” and claiming that Clinton’s rebuke was unjustified and based on “misinformation” she received from dubiously-motivated opponents of the Yar’Adua regime, including “failed politicians”.
As far as I’m concerned, the individuals who are so eagerly flying to the defence of our far-from-ideal ruling oligarchy are talking absolute nonsense. You can’t solve your problems if you slyly downplay them or simply pretend that they don’t exist.
Having said all this, isn’t it an etiquette breach for Clinton to come to Nigeria as a guest of our government and then publicly rap her hosts over the knuckles like a disapproving headmistress and tell the world that they are messing up?
If Chief Ojo Maduekwe, our Minister of Foreign Affairs – Mrs Clinton’s counterpart in this neck of the woods – went to Washington on an official visit, would American leaders react cheerfully and think that he possessed impeccable manners if he erected a pulpit and sanctimoniously lectured them about their many mistakes?
I have been to the United States quite a few times and can confirm that though it’s a helluva lot more impressive, comfortable and citizen-friendly than Nigeria overall, it isn’t Utopia by a long shot.
For example: America has a high crime rate and inadequate healthcare system. Meanwhile, American mobile phone operators are so greedy that they charge their customers for incoming calls. As for Los Angeles Airport, it is more chaotic than Abuja Airport. And let’s not even go into American foreign policy disasters!
Some of my friends disagree when I say that Mrs Clinton should have restricted her uncomplimentary views to private sessions with the guys who run the show.
“Anyone, even a foreign visitor, is entitled to highlight glaring inadequacies that make Nigerians miserable and put their lives at risk; and our leaders are so useless that they deserve to be publicly disgraced,” was one embittered lady’s opinion.
Ah well. Never mind. Let us pray that Nigeria will one day become a wonderful oasis that attracts more praise than contempt, both internally and externally.
donzol2002@yahoo.co.uk
Those that plays Nigerian under 17 team are normally people in their early 20s, those that plays the under 20 are always those in the mid 20s and we all knew that but pretend that we doesn’t know that we had been cheating.
That is why our age group teams are always flying in competitions because they are playing against people far younger than them.
Then when it comes to super eagle were anyone can play, we are nowhere to be seen flying. Why? Because by the time they become member of the super eagle, these players real ages are close to retirement in the real time (late 30s).
Many super eagles players claiming to be 28 years of age are all close to 40 years of age.
I should know because one of them is my cousin.
NFF should appeal this apparent racism. Everyone knows that the MRI scan is eurocentric. Blacks have different bone structure to whites. There are different parameters between Africans and Whites when comparing anatomy and physiology. How much research was done on Africans to ascertain the conclusion reached.
it’s a pity that our leader’s prefer being disgraced than doing the right thing,there are so many project in my constituency which have been abandoned and this people are member’s of the house of assembly and are still plannig to come back,my brother the best thing to do is to talk less and pray more,God bless you.
The fact that all previous Eaglets were overaged players is well known. This explains why we were always doing good at the junior level, but never at the senior level. Because at senior level, you cannot lie about your age or players. If only we could spend the time and money to train our young sportsmen and women.
Truth is very bitter my brother so i did not expect them to take it likely. However it must be told cos thats exactly whats happening
My dear Donu,What a write-up!I wonder why ,after graduation from golden eaglet to flying eagle and then to super eagle their performances dwindled.It must be true because all these resulted in the poor performance of our senior team to go places.What a shame.
Truth need to be told.Mrs Clinton has come to remind them of all what we have been saying.Our leaders are so wicked, senseless,greedy,lack of visions,theives,looters,corrupt and making life difficult for all nigerians making us to roam about in every nation of the world.All our leaders need to be hanged for murdering the sleep of all nigerians,
You know who you are. People with discerning mind also know who you are. So? Your cover is not srong.