Because I believe and strongly too, that we are not doing enough to project our youth on world stage, I want to write this week on some events of last week that touched my sports heart.

Before that, perhaps I will not be forgiven for running away from what has become known as the “The Ethiopian Misadventure”.

I do not think I have anything fresh to add to what my colleagues and sports commentators have said or written already on this topic other than to say we will qualify for Gabon–Equatorial Guinea Nations Cup.

That we have to go through this tortuous journey every time is what baffles me. Without going too far back, there is no doubt that we bungled preparations leading to that match and the unnecessary Argentina friendly played a big part just as we foresaw.

I was in Tunis when Ade Ojeikere of the Nation posted me that result and I remember screaming that it “…was not good, not good at all.”

What gives me the confidence that we will qualify? Definitely it is not the belief that we will go to Madagascar and beat them or that we will pound Guinea when they arrive Abuja. Nothing, just natural instinct. Am I not a Nigerian? Here we get answers even when we do not solve equations!

I confess however that when I got to Dakar, Senegal while transiting to Lagos an article in the Newspaper Sud Quotidien swayed my qualification thoughts.

In it, the President of the Senegalese Football Federation Augustine Senghor, Mayor of Goree,(A lawyer ) argued that winning a football match was more than throwing eleven boys into the field to go and face the opposition.

He spoke about the famous draw in Yaounde against the Indomitable Lions and how the players had to play the match with their heads rather than their legs.

He said the players needed a refined mentality. That they were made to realize that they were stake holders in the business of qualification, they were told to imbibe a collective resolve, work for country and for each other, and carry the flag in and on their hearts. “….. The boys rose to the occasion. Patriotism took centre stage. You did not know who was a defender and who was an attacker. They were ready to die to qualify. The mental response was incredible” the Senegalese FA President said.

There and then I took a long look at our squad and wondered whether we had those players, that attitude, that mentality, that resolve that will come to play when physical ability fails.

Failure to find a comfortable response, I switched to another CAF qualification clause that says:

“The following teams will be qualified for the final phase of the 2012 ACN :

– The first team of each group.

– The second team of the Group where Togo belongs.

– The two best second teams of ten other groups.

The two best second teams of the group of four will be determine by considering their results with the first and the third of their respective groups without considering their results with the last teams of their groups in order to permit Group F (Burkina Faso, The Gambia and Namibia) to stay in the competition for the two best second teams.

In the case where Group k is reduced to four teams in the course of the competition, only the first team of the group will automatically qualify for the ACN. The second team will have to run for the three best second teams of the group.”

My interest lies in the phrase “ Two best second teams of the ten other groups”

Quickly I started studying all the first and second placed teams of the ten groups of four and my study was not very cheering.

Presently there are three groups where the difference in points between the first and second placed teams is just one point.

Worse, in Groups D and I the first and second placed teams are on the same points, going into the home stretch with just two matches to spare.

So? I heard the Technical Committee of the NFF had an emergency meeting in Lagos on Saturday. I believe they will rise with concrete decisions on how to qualify……..I believe. So I better stop worrying.

Meanwhile, is it true that we have decided to face Argentina again, a full strength Argentina squad barely two days after the bruising encounter in Madagascar? I reserve my comments.

Back to my original thoughts for the week, particularly the spectacular triumph of China’s Li Na at the French Open, an historic feat that gave a breath of fresh air to a world bedeviled by natural disasters and uprisings in the Middle East and the North of Africa.

My conclusion was simple. If Li Na could do it, if an Asian could break into a world considered a reserve of Europe and the US, so can Africa, Nigeria, only to be shocked the next day by Tunisian media who relegated Li Na to the back pages of sports and emblazoned on the front pages a certain Ons Jabeur the 17 year old who won the girls event in the same French Open.

Throughout my six day stay in Tunisia, the story was Ons Jabeur. The heroine who the Tunisian media say was not given her due. They even went ahead to condemn the Qatari television station Al Jazeera for having only interest in things negative in the Arab world.

The Tunisian government was not spared either. Now, the media is launching a campaign for the star to relocate to either Europe or the US if she is to have any future in the game.

In doing so they believe that at 17 she should be competing among the big girls. After all, at 16 in 1997 Martina Hingis had become number 1 in world tennis.

Back home, I kept on searching for an identity, looking out for Nigerians on world stage, only for Dare Esan to authoritatively spoil my day by informing that Oludamola Osayomi will not be competing at the Oslo leg of the IAAF Diamond league. I still tuned in and watched the Kenyans, Ethiopians, South Africans…..strutting their stuff.

Will I fail to mention a certain Amantie Montsho from Botswana, yes Botswana who won the 400 metres flat in 50.13 seconds?

Then came a relief as Ezinne Okparaebo lined out for the 100 metres dash. Nigeria at last. It was only when the introductions were made that I was shocked into the realization that she “was” from Norway!

THAT KANU TESTIMONIAL

Was amused to hear that Kanu has pulled himself out of the national team.

Is that the way it is done?

For all I know, Kanu must have organized a charity match to help raise funds for his foundation.

When Nigeria, when the NFF is ready to send this great son of African football off, pull him out, then they will organize a testimonial for him, perhaps with his assistance.

For now, we wait.

LIFE JACKET UNDER YOUR SEAT POCKET

Everyday we are harassed by “safety” demonstrations in airplanes. Some hostesses are very “humane” in preparing you for death, while others just give it to you raw. I am always fascinated by the person that says “ In the UNLIKELY event of loss of pressure, oxygen masks like this will…….”. others just eliminate the “unlikely” in the event.

In all of this, the one that fascinates me is the life jacket drama. Meanwhile, no airline has thought it wise to demonstrate a true life jacket scenario for us. They make it look ordinary, just standing there, whereas I know that in the case of a life jacket situation, the pandemonium that will follow the search for the life jacket can only be imagined than experienced.

Then I am told not to inflate the life jacket on board. That when I jump out, I should pull on the strings, and if it fails to inflate I should search for the tube and blow into it. …..they make me laugh.

Why must I wait for it to fail to inflate? Why don’t I just blow into it directly? Besides where will I be when I jump out of the aircraft to have the luxury of my two hands and my lips, tugging at the inflation chords and so on?

Looking at the pretty lady going on and on, herself not believing what she was saying, I said to myself “ in the unlikely event of having to evacuate this Royal Air Maroc aircraft, I was going to inflate my life jacket right here BEFORE jumping into the unknown.”

I also said to myself that should I land safely back in Lagos, I will give GOD all the glory for journey mercies.

See you next week.