Today’s headline is taken from a South African newspaper, Sowetan. It derived its name from Soweto, an abbreviation of South Western Townships, suburbs in southwest of Johannesburg, South Africa. In the 20th century, the Townships housed Black workers for the gold mines and eventually became a major symbolic center of the anti-apartheid struggle. 

No wonder the Sowetan newspaper has a left-leaning editorial tone, for its almost two million readership nationwide. Its posture is understandable as it was founded by a prominent South African businessman, physician and anti-apartheid activist, Dr. Nthato Motlana, who played a leading role in the anti-apartheid struggle. 

The ‘heads must roll’ was the concluding part of an Editorial the Sowetan did when news broke out that FIFA had finally reacted to the use of an ineligible player by Bafana Bafana in a 2026 World Cup qualifier against Lesotho. The pungent Editorial was written before the FIFA hammer finally fell on South Africa six days ago, causing them to lose three points and three goals that has made them fall to number two behind new leaders Benin Republic. 

That Editorial may have prompted the quick reaction by the country’s Minister of Sport, Arts and Culture, Gayton McKenzie who issued a statement on the points deduction a few hours after FIFA’s sanction. The Sowetan was very blunt on its demand from SAFA, South Africa’s equivalent of Nigeria’s football governing body, NFF. It wrote that: “The response from SAFA should be an admission of guilt and an inevitable forfeiture, but it can’t end there. 

Heads must roll”. The South African minister in a consolatory message to his country people wrote, “This deduction is but a bump in the road, and we believe that we remain firmly on track for qualification; our belief in the team’s ability to succeed is unshaken.” But the part of his message that should interest Nigeria and Nigerians is that his ministry will “lead a thorough investigation into the incompetence that led to this sanction. We are committed to uncovering the root causes of this failure and ensuring accountability. 

A comprehensive report will be compiled and shared with the public to provide clarity on this matter and prevent future occurrences.” That is how a responsible government reacts to actions or inactions of officials or organizations of the state. This concerns me because we had similar experiences of national embarrassments in the past. Each time the government promised thorough investigation but the outcome never ever got to be revealed and even when revealed, it was swept under the carpet. 

A few of the national embarrassments will suffice here. An official of the NFF once forgot the Super Eagles’ jerseys at their Obasanjo Farms camp in Ota, Ogun State when they had a Nations Cup qualifier against Burkina Faso at the National Stadium in Lagos. For fear of being walked over on home soil if the jerseys fail to arrive on time, the NFA ordered the players track pants cut for the match to proceed. The players looked awful in the cut pants and the embar- rassment before the entire world prompted an investigation into the matter. 

The culprit was never sanctioned.. At another time, the Golden Eaglets were almost disqualified on home ground because another official forgot their international passports at the Association’s Ogunlana Drive office in Lagos when they had a match against their Benin Republic counterpart at then Liberty stadium in Ibadan. 

One cannot also forget the issue of the missing $236,000 from the NFF Secretariat. A police inquiry was instituted, the culprit was identified but the police nor the NFF never made the findings public because the ‘thief’ had a powerful link in the system. And the most recent ones happened in Japan and France, incidentally during the Olympic Games in both countries in 2020 and 2024 respectively. At the Tokyo Olympics held in 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic, athletes had issues with their kits as enough wasn’t supplied, prompting them to spend time they should have used to rest or train for their events to wash their jerseys. 

After the Olympics, the then sports ministry promised to probe the circumstances that led to the short supply of kits to the athletes but it never did. And at the Paris Olympics, some athletes protested the non-payment of their camp allowances while one of the country’s medal hopeful, Favour Ofili was not registered for one of her events. 

The Ofili saga was actually investigated and the Mumini Alao committee submitted its report to the sports ministry but shortly after, the sports minister, John Owan Enoh was removed following the scrapping of the sports ministry. The National Sports Commission, NSC, which has died and resurrected many times was returned with a new mandate given to them. One expected that the handover note from the former sports minister to the NSC chairman, Mallam Shehu Dikko would include the Alao committee report. 

And that its recommendations would have been implemented to the letter. Burying reports under the carpet because of some sacred cows who mustn’t be touched is the reason why we keep recording national embarrassments in all spheres of our national life. This is why corruption thrives in all sectors. South Africa has always shown us the way. They jailed a former president, a thing that has never happened here. And now the Sowetan newspaper has started a campaign that heads must roll for the embarrassment of points deduction in their World Cup qualifier. If heads don’t roll in Nigeria for similar embarrassments and corruption cases, we will keep experiencing issues that demean us as a nation.