Leadership (Abuja)
Ikpo Igbinoba
8 November 2009
opinion
Abuja — Over the years, the expressions, the Nigerian Spirit and the Nigerian Factor have come to enjoy universal acceptance. Today, Nigerians and foreigners who are conversant with the way things work in this country understand those expressions thoroughly. And understanding those expressions is indeed an asset because it develops one's capacity to receive and absorb what could have broken the heart and put one on the verge of a complete mental breakdown. The expressions have come in handy to explain weird situations and happenings which ordinarily could have defied rational thinking.
They are expressions we all live with and live by as Nigerians on a daily basis in all our respective and collective endeavours. Just let me give an example each for the Nigerian Spirit and the Nigerian Factor for the purpose of clarity. How do you explain the survival of a worker owed several months of salaries, with huge debts to settle, house rent, school fees etc and the sword of deregulation of the oil sector with its consequential run away inflation dangling over his head? The answer is simple: the Nigerian Spirit.
No further explanation. Then how do you explain the action of a serving Minister who awarded contract for the supply of computers and grassing of practice pitches to himself and failed to deliver and he is still walking tall and seeking attention for what he has not achieved? The answer too is simple: The Nigerian factor. That is the final answer. No more explanation. If there is anyone especially among our visitors who is still confounded with certain events which occurred in Nigeria while he was here, he should adopt those expressions to crack the mystery. That is a winning formula.In one sentence the expressions Nigerian Spirit and the Nigerian Factor explain without stress and grandiloquence the oddities that are peculiar to us as a people. And we have a whole lot of such oddities, like scarcity of petroleum products even though we are the sixth largest producer in the OPEC cartel, like a huge population of the very poor while some of our compatriots are on the billionaires list and so many other such oddities. Yet fresh oddities manifested before and during the 13th FIFA U 17 World Cup Nigeria 2009. Some of our visitors were really alarmed but I think having spent over ten days and had contacts with those knowledgeable about the Nigerian Spirit and the Nigerian Factor they must have grown wiser. And with the tournament now at the knock out stage and tension almost hitting a feverish pitch, I consider this period the most apt to share such oddities to lighten the tense mood.
Let's start with the Nigerian spirit and there is just one incident to illustrate that. From the beginning of the tournament, nobody gave the Golden Eaglets a snowball's chance in hell. And there were very good reasons for not having faith in the team. Though their predecessors won the tournament in South Korea in 2007, this present bunch was not even good enough to survive the African Qualifiers. If we were not hosting, Nigeria would not have sent a team to the tournament. The team itself was plagued with a lot of controversies. Three sets of coaches, the MRI tsunami which wiped out the first string team, and other petty squabbles within the Nigeria Football Federation provided enough recipe for disaster. And true to expectation, the Golden Eaglets trailed 3-0 against a turbo charged Germany in the first half of their opening match. But when all hope was lost, the great comeback began. The Golden Eaglets did not only survive that encounter, they have moved ahead to the quarter finals and are looking good to caress the trophy which they are defending. How do we explain this? The Nigerian spirit. Now, for the Nigerian Factor in this event, can we exhaust the incidents in this category in one day? Impossible. From the beginning, the World Cup's budget almost put the country in flames.
The Local Organising Committee prepared a hefty budget of N35.5 billion for a juvenile competition and there was uproar. It was scary enough to force the Presidency to threaten to back out of the event. But after several meetings, the budget was drastically reduced to just over N9 billion and the same committee which prepared the huge budget accepted the new one without complaining. How? What? The Nigerian Factor. During the preparation several trips were made by FIFA top shots, the Ministry top dogs and the LOC chiefs. And as the zero hour approached the media raised alarm that the venues were not ready. Yet, the Sports Minister Sani Ndanusa swore by Vulcan that Nigeria was set to host a hitch free tournament. The President Umar Musa Yar Adua promised the best ever tournament in the history of the World Cup. FIFA head for the competition Jack Warner was blowing both hot and cold at the same time depending on the side of the bed he woke up from. It was only on of the eve of kick off that the true facts began to emerge. Pratice Pitches were not ready, scoreboards were not ready, volunteers were already protesting, teams that were already on ground were threatening to pull out because of the disorder. In fact hell was let loose. What was responsible? The Nigerian Factor.
Then the accreditation crisis. In major events, the accreditation of journalists is usually the lightest of tasks because it is done on line. FIFA the owners of the World Cup sent out confirmation slips to accredited journalists two weeks before kick off. But with a few days to the end of the biennial event some journalists accredited are still pounding the doors of the LOC for their accreditation cards. Why is this so? The Nigerian factor. We do not need to repeat the hell those who got the cards went through. Yet in the midst of the mayhem, the tournament kicked off in Abuja amid pomp and ceremony. Interestingly only a little above five thousand fans were at the National Stadium. With the hundreds of millions spent on mobilizing Nigerians for the event through the Marketing and Mobilisation sub committees of the LOC why was the stadium almost empty? The Nigerian factor.
The hitches had just started unfolding. A match was in session in Kano involving the United States team and the lights went off. How was this possible after a prominent member of the LOC had taken the contract to fix the scoreboard and the light? The Nigerian Factor. Two days after, the Sports Minister Sani Ndanusa very good at administering "medicine after death" hurried to Kano with the media in tow to put things in place and ensure that the incident did not recur. Why was this so? The Nigerian factor. For now we should enjoy a good laugh because in the coming weeks, there would be revelations that would make Nigerians weep. Sordid details of how after the looting of our common wealth in 2003 by a gang of crooks through the 8th All Africa Games, another set took advantage of the 13th FIFA U-17 World Cup to perpetrate the same evil.The next few days will be very interesting for this tournament off the pitch and on it. on the pitch because that day of reckoning is at hand when the masquerade would be unveiled.
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