After losing 0-1 against Egypt at the African Championship Cup finals in Ghana last year (February 2008), fanatics and connoisseurs of Cameroon's football alike joined in asking that Song Bahanack be ejected from the squad. He was invisible in his position as the last defender before the keeper.

The back stopper and team captain of the Lions was seen more times playing an offensive role than anyone with soccer acumen would have cared for. It is this indiscipline that has left Song Bahanack wondering from club to club and never settling anywhere for more than two seasons. Yet, he has succeeded in making himself irreplaceable as a teammate and captain of the Indomitable Lions, in a country that has plenty to offer at the local and international level.

Dubbed the "King of Arsenal" at the close of the 2007/2008 English Premier League Season, Emmanuel Adebayor resurrected himself from Arsenal's injured list to defend the colors of his native Togo against star-studded Cameroon in the Group A World Cup elimination match. And the King, an only star of The Togo Hawks, lived up to the hype by scoring the lone goal of the encounter barely 11 minutes into play. In spitehis fragile state, Adebayor provided the kind of presence the team coach, 62-year-old former Belgian International Jean Thissen, was hoping for in a home match that was played away from home.

The Hawks were playing hosts to the Indomitable Lions at the Ohene Djan Sports complex in Accra, Ghana where the Lions lost to the Pharaohs of Egypt last February. There is little doubt that the Ghanaians were in favor of Togo, especially given that the Lions shattered their dreams of favorite to play against Egypt at last year's African Cup finals in Ghana. Togo are on a four-match home ban after violence broke out at the end of their 2008 African nations Cup qualifying campaign where angry supporters attacked players from opponents Mali for knocking out Togo.

In the meantime, I could not help but lift my glass in celebration as the Lions lost to the Hawks. As a Cameroonian, an amateur soccer player and former Sports reporter at the Cameroon radio Television (CRTV), I have raised and lost my voice protesting the fielding of Rigobert Song Bahanack and other fossils that won't leave. Rigobert Song started playing with the Indomitable Lions in 1990...That is 19 years today!

Look around in any active sport and tell me how many surviving athletes are still actively playing the game some 20 years later. It begs for some questions to be asked and for some observations to be made. How old was Song when he joined the Indomitable Lions? Was he 18, which is the minimum age at which a player can play International soccer? If he was 18 years old then, is he 37 today? No! Rigobert Song is listed by the Indomitable Lions as born on July 1, 1976! That makes him 32 years of age. So, was he lying in 1990 or is he lying today?

Falsifying the age of athletes is nothing new in sports. The Chinese Olympics just ended and one remembers all the brouhaha about some Chinese female gymnasts. Such cases are replete the World over. It is magnified in several-fold in Cameroon. Song's case in just one in a national team that has been aging for a very long time now and nobody seems to be interested in doing something about it. There is also no way you can cheat age. And age is what is catching up with Rigobert Song. He was solely responsible for the victory goal that Egypt scored against Cameroon at last year's African Nations cup finals. He could not keep up with the extremely agile offensive lineup of the Pharaohs.

So I rejoice because when Cameroon loses to qualify for the once-in-a-life-time 2012 World Cup in South Africa, the wrath of the people will come full circle. Cameroonians already have nothing to look forward to in the world of politics. One man, President Paul Biya and his party have hijacked power for the last 27 years and turned Cameroon into a nation of mendicants. Without any leaders that they can count on, the people have invested their energies into the national past time - soccer. Even King Biya has often basked in the political capital afforded him by the victory of the Lions. He has also exploited the calendar of the team to pass unpopular Decrees.

It is possible that the 2012 World Cup campaign of the Indomitable Lions can be an immeasurable distraction to the political calendar in Cameroon. The 2011 upcoming Presidential elections are seen by some as a possible game changer in Cameroon. I personally do not think so. Pundits are all banking on "hear-say" admonitions of Pope Benedict VI to President Biya, asking that he not seek another term. President Biya was handed over power in 1982 by Cameroon's first President, the late Ahmadou Ahidjo. He organized the first multi-party elections in 1992 and stole the victory of opposition leader, John Fru Ndi. After the five year mandate ended in 1997 he changed the constitution to a seven year mandate that was renewable once. He renewed it in 2004. That term comes to an end in 2011. But the rubber stamp parliament of President Biya's ruling party, the Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM), handily amended the constitution to eliminate the terms and to make Biya President for life.

Iwonder whether it is in the DNA of the country to never know the righttime to quit and to pass on the relay baton. We admire American politics but fail to take actionable steps that will guarantee a respected system of governancebefitting of the people, their heritage and their potential. Our kids look up to NBA stars and what the NBA is doing, but we do not askourselves why Jordandid not play till he was forced out of the game. It is about giving others an opprtunity to shine. It is recognising the fact that our value is seen at best in those that we train to be better than us or tobe as good as ourselves.Rigobert Song and his age mates need to know that it is time togo.They do not have to wait a day more. We do not need for them to qualify the team for the World Cup. Let us see the young group fight on their own and get eliminated.

(originally Published On the Chia Report)