By Paul Bassey
I regret not signing off properly last year. Do I care?
The most important is that here we are in the magical year 2010. By the grace of the Almighty we are alive to start another journey of providence to sports heaven(?)

I graciously seize this opportunity to thank family, friends and readers of this column for very touching wishes as expressed through text messages and mails.

Some of those messages were so ingenious I wish I could reproduce them here. Maybe I will, someday.
The sport year 2009 was as memorable as it was challenging. Internationally, it was the year of Barcelona, of Lionel Messi, of Kim Clitjers, of Roger Federer, of Cristiano Ronaldo.

The year 2009 was the year of a certain Usain Bolt, shooting out from the blues and taking the world of track and field by storm. That was the year South Africa put up an incredible football World Cup draw in Durban that silenced those still in the opposition as to the organizational prowess of the Africans.

I will remember 2009 as the year the great Tiger Woods fell from grace to grass (One of my friends has been insistent in asking WETIN HE DO ?) in like vein, 2009 is also the year Andre Agassi woke up and decided to taint an impeccable tennis record with a confession that he doped (This oyibo sef ).

Brazil can claim 2009 as its greatest sports year ever outside its five World Cup triumphs. Imagine winning the bid to host the FIFA World Cup in 2014 and topping that with an unprecedented IOC vote as the next host of the Olympic Games after London!

It was in the year 2009 that Ghana made the Black Continent proud by historically winning the FIFA Junior World Cup.
If you think I am trying to run away from Nigeria you are mistaken. In 2009, Nigeria emerged the champion of  African Beach Soccer World Cup elimination. In 2009, Engineer Habu Gumel restored Nigeria’s pride at Olympic level when he was elected into the most prestigious sports board on earth, that of the International Olympic Committee, ( IOC ) .

Nigeria had three teams to the league stage of CAF Club cups, a feat no African country was able to achieve. The three clubs got to the semi-final stage and one of them had to lose in the final of the Champions League. Alas!

The Vuvuzela made a very bold entry into the sports history of the world when it drove players and officials crazy, yet FIFA could do nothing about it. For me this was a victory of sorts in a country where supportership is limited to a band of green and white clad, Globacom sponsored individuals whose songs the crowd are not involved in.

Take Vuvuzela to Anfield and see how it will struggle to compete against 50,000 spectators whose voices are raised in unison to sing “You will not walk alone”.

I will also remember 2009 as the year Dr. Amos Adamu made good his election promises by resurrecting WAFU through the staging of competitions.

Africa Independent Television (AIT ) should stand up and be recognised for instituting a credible soccer awards that spells hope for stakeholders of the sport.

Of all these, the greatest achievement in the sports history of this country in the year just gone by was the qualification of the Super Eagles for South Africa 2010 World Cup.

NFF President Lulu and his board, Coach Amodu Shaibu and his crew must all have heaved a sigh of relief as they survived the heat of the football crazy people of this country.

I do not care how they did it, I close my ears to the stories behind our qualification, what is key for me is that they qualified and deserve kudos for it, because if they did not……….?

I agree that 2009 was not only about the positives. I should be able to cite some contrary cases, maybe take them at federation level.

Track and field: A popular Chief Solomon Ogba beat a serving governor at the polls and hit the ground running. Went into some satellite competitions and ended up at the World Championship in Berlin where reality hit him hard as Nigeria recorded her worst outing in history given the spate of doping scandals that accompanied our poor showing.

Boxing: Since he became president I have not seen or talked to my friend George Taylor. In the midst of an unparalleled cash crunch, I heard he sponsored some boxers to Italy, saw them beaten black and blue, brought them back in wheelchairs their heads bowed, bloodied, bandaged in defeat.

Basketball: At the Oliver Tambo airport in South African, I ran into our girls who had sneaked out for a continental competition and came back trophyless. I met a bitter president who bemoaned lack of funds and wished for a better deal. Since then the eloquent Tijani Umar has functioned more on the pages of newspapers ……..

Tennis: Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Tennis can wait, the Honourable Minister is busy.
Which other sports do we have?….. Plenty? Which plenty?….2010 will be the year of REALITY. There will be no place to hide.

For those federation chairmen who thought that the best thing to happen to them was to fly into Abuja and attend meetings plotting to install the minister as NOC president, good luck to them in 2010.

For the NFF, reality even comes sooner than expected as the Nation’s Cup kicks off in a few hours. The Nigerian press has been busy celebrating injuries to key Egyptian stars Aboutrika and Amir Zaki. For me the emphatic elimination of those players is a more positive tendency than our situation where injured players are listed with the hope that they will recover in time for the cup.

2010 is the year of the World Cup. Whereas qualified countries are playing friendly matches and have lined up others we do not seem to be bothered.

This is the year of the Commonwealth Games. Pray can any one tell me what we have done so far by way of preparations?

What are the sports that we will present? Who are the stars so targeted to make us proud?

Exposure to the cable TV station Super Sports brings sad memories of a country that is dead sports wise. Through Supersports I get to see how the South Africans are forever playing and organising cricket, rugby, boxing, tennis, football, golf, cycling, motor sport…..establishing foundations and strengthening academies. I am talking about a fellow African country, one that has crowned its track record with a nod to host the prestigious FIFA World Cup among other World Cups.

Are we still looking for tools to re-brand this country?

The cross over fever is over. We are in 2010. The year of reality, the year that will provide no hiding place for pretenders.

Abeg, let no one spoil my year. Happy survival.

See you in Angola.