By Ikeddy Isiguzo
NIGERIA is a lucky country. Any country so lucky should also know there is a limit to luck. One cannot be lucky forever or stretch it until it saps.Table tennis tells this story in its most disturbing terms.

Not a sport to get much attention (remember it is not football), it used to be Nigeria ’s saving grace in continental multi-sports contests (along with athletics and boxing) long before weightlifting took over.

Nigeria would take all the titles, or almost all. Nigerians would have forgotten is that leadership in table tennis had rotated between Nigeria , Ghana and Egypt .

How many will remember that Ethel Jack, whose dominance of the female game in the 70s had to be brought back from Ghana to play for Nigeria ? Can we still remember her exploits at the All Africa Games in Lagos from where the next set of players like Olawumi Majekodunmi emerged?

We had the men in charge too. Babatunde Obisanya, Kasali Lasisi, Atanda Musa, Sunday Eboh and the list went on.

Nigeria was spoilt for choice. Competition for team places was keen, but the game was neglected.

For years, before the collapse that we are witnessing, it ran on a tiny string maintained by the interest of Chief Okoya-Thomas, whose annual tennis fiesta in Lagos became the meeting ground to keeping the tempo of the game on the rise.

We won so many African titles; laxity commenced. Again, the victories did not enjoy the type of rewards that would have held the interest of players. Those who could went abroad for careers that finally took them off the game.

In 1981, Musa won the Commonwealth men’s singles title and paired with Eboh to win the men’s doubles. Very little was done, especially at the national level, to build on those marks.

The interest petered away, and one of the most memorial marks of that departure to doom was the table tennis practice hall at the National Stadium that went for years abandoned, roof almost blown off, the players managed practice sessions in the corners that were safe for a while from the elements.

Our successes in table tennis are no longer resounding. We are not number in Africa . We are on the verge of losing any serious stand in the top three considering what other countries are doing, sometimes relying on Nigerian expertise. The team from Congo Brazzaville has Nigeria ’s Lasisi as coach.

Egypt is tops and anyone who knows the Egypt will correctly predict that it will not let go because the seven medals from table tennis can make the different when contending for medals table positions.

Nigeria finishing behind Egypt at the African championships in Yaoundé, is not the problem. My concern is that something is wrong in Nigeria winning just one gold medal, the women’s team event. Egypt won four, Cameroun and Congo won a gold each.

Is anyone worried about the disappearing face of table tennis? It could have started with street table tennis boards vanishing years back for snookers tables. But if the authorities paid attention to the cracking foundation of the game, solutions would have been on the way before the fall we are witnessing.

Unfortunately, if table tennis did not receive attention when it was doing well, is it now that the authorities will accord it importance? Nigeria ’s chances of finishing well at the next All Africa Games are looking slimmer with the Egyptians turning the table on us.

It is so sad to watch table tennis go through this tunnel. I hope it will get to the end of the tunnel, and find light.

Sending Galadima To CAF
THE excitement about  the nomination of Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima to contest a seat in CAF has a dimension that has little to do with the man’s qualifications, which everyone is praising. Many are glad to see the back of Amos Adamu, whose seat is about to be filled. It appears unimportant whether anyone is mustering the resources that the election requires. Even if we lose the seat, we know it is not in Adamu’s hand.

Adamu is surprisingly protesting. I thought since he had matters with FIFA, he should have managed to finish with FIFA before riveting his span of interests.

I wish Galadima good luck. I pray Nigerian football will somehow benefit from his election when he succeeds.

Our Falcons?
EUCHARIA Uche had to defend the 8-0 drubbing the Falcons took from German in a friendly. The weather was freezing she said. We all know how cold it get by this time of the year, so?

Few of us expected the Falcons to defeat German, but that type of loss, the worst since a similar score line against Sweden 15 years ago, is unacceptable. The result is capable of ruining the team’s psychology for next year’s World Cup.

Why accept a game against Germany without thinking about the weather? Did we not anticipate Falcons will be tired after the African championship?

The result from Germany was failure of team management, not the weather.

Please email comments, condemnations, or commendations to ikeddyisiguzo@hotmail.com