Lagos — Before Coach Shuaibu Amodu took his bunch of Super Eagles to Angola, the NFF set for him the challenge, a target, that is, of reaching the semi-final of the Nations Cup. Perhaps, the FA took into account the fact that last time around, namely at Ghana-2008, the Eagles, parading almost the same boys that qualified the country for Angola and South Africa-2010, only managed to reach the second round or quarter-finals, before they were eliminated by the host-country.

Despite being led by a so-called top coach from Germany, Berti Vogts by name, the team's performance in Ghana equaled the worst in twenty-six years and thirteen Nations Cup tournaments-the country's most embarrassing outing at the CAN since the 1982 edition in Libya, when the Green Eagles were bungled out of the competition at the group stage.

But, unknown to the NFF and their supporters, they had not really set for Amodu any hard task by mandating him not to fall short of the semis. In other words, if Amodu, after managing to scrape past a stubborn Zambian opposition, had not won Algeria in the clash for third place, he would still not have been adjudged to have fallen short of the semi-final target set for him by the FA By virtue of that, this bunch or gang of Super Eagles exceeded their target by winning bronze at the expense of the Desert Foxes. So, why shouldn't coach Shuaibu Amodu and his lads be congratulated? After all, they surpassed the expectations of the soccer house and some Nigerians.

Well, there is one reason why we shouldn't be shouting over the rooftop for capturing the bronze medal at CAN-2010. The reason is that Nigerians still see their country as a continental giant in soccer, rightly or wrongly. It's the same sentiment that has informed the impression by many football-loving Nigerians that qualification for the World Cup is a birthright. And do you blame them, when four out of five attempts to reach the Mundial, since 1994, proved successful? Not even the seven-time winners of the Nations Cup, namely Egypt, have been as many times lucky with World Cup qualification in recent years.

In essence, winning the Cup of Nations twice, in 1980 and 1994, is simply not good enough. Winning runners-up spot in three editions most of which we should have been victorious, in 1984, 1988 and 1990, actually falls short of what we think we are. Winning bronze in seven Nations Cup outings doesn't really make us the giants we suppose ourselves to be.

There's probably something gone wrong with out our mindset, and that has been much in evidence, following the lone goal victory over Algeria Desert Foxes, during the game for third place in Angola on Saturday, January 30. It's a mindset, a mentality, that we certainly did not have in Morocco-76, when Nigeria got their first bronze medal at the championship, let alone at Ghana-78, when the Green Eagles won the country's second ever third place contest, or fourteen years later in Senegal, followed ten years afterwards at Mali-2002, then Tunisia-2004, Egypt-2006.

Between our first Nations Cup triumph and the second was a gap of fourteen years; and between that 1994 victory in Tunisia and Angola, where we made second runners-up, has been a whooping sixteen years. While the likes of Egypt have now achieved a record seven trophies with the Cameroonians and Ghanaians evenly sharing eight titles between them, Nigeria, with all the talent and material resources at our disposal, has no business lagging behind, unless, of course we are not what we claim we are. That's why Nigerian football needs administrators that are not only committed to the national cause, but, know how to run the game in our country.