Lagos — The pain and the agony continue as Nigerians rue the early and premature departure of the Super Eagles from the first FIFA World Cup on African soil. Mothers and fathers who have had premature births, football pool players who are used to betting and losing, and insurance agents who are used to explaining losses would have developed high-tension shock-absorbers and would not dwell too long on this slight national inconvenience. Slight because it is as unserious as the royal rumble in the House of Representatives (no insult meant but we have had fights in the House of Representatives between Horrible – sorry, I mean Honorable - members before).

But we miss the point by dwelling too much on such simple issues. Winning is not everything – making history is; and on this score we did not disappoint. Not only did we make history, we helped our neighbours to make history. It is better to make history for the wrong reason (provided it is within the ambits of the law) than not to make history at all. As G. K. Chesterton said, “A life spent in making mistakes is a lot more honourable than a life spent doing nothing.” But I understand your pain. Surely this was supposed to be like playing at home and we were supposed to have home advantage and do better than we had done in past tournaments. Well, we may not have done too well but we did historic things and gave the world so many things to remember us for.

For a sampler, historians would record that Greece scored her first goal in the history of the World Cup, after several attempts, against Nigeria. Greece also recorded her first ever World Cup victory in the history of mankind against Nigeria. We did Greece a favour and this would go down in Greek history alongside the exploits of Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and others. That is something to remember, isn’t it?

South Korea has never qualified for the round of sixteen in the checkered history of the World Cup. Now historians in that country and in FIFA would properly document that history was made when the country qualified for the first time in the South Africa hosting of the global sporting event by holding Nigeria to a two all draw. The South Korean coach has already extended his thanks to Yakubu Aiyegbeni for the favour done his country by not scoring when he had the best chance to score in the annals of the World Cup. Nice, because we buy so many cars from them and now we have written our names into their history books.

Another notable history would be Sani Kaita’s red card. It already has a place in history as the silliest ever foul in the history of the World Cup. No one exactly knows why Kaita went ga-ga at the Greek player outside the pitch and kicked him. His claim that the Greek hit him with the ball is quite pathetic, but it sounds like a lie – video replays did not show any such contact. Kaita, by his own admission, claims that this was the second time he was shown the red this year. You see, this Kaita is in the wrong line of work – he has all it takes to be in the House of Representatives. He is a street fighter and I know that sooner or later he would end up as a Speaker in the House of Representatives. Keep an eye on him.

I blame Coach Lars Lagerback and the Nigeria Football Federation for their naivety though. The Constitution stipulates that those who have been convicted before should not be allowed to play the game of politics and contest for posts. They should apply such wisdom to football and not ask “red-card scourged” players to play in sensitive games for Nigeria. They should design a form and ask potential players to fill the form and answer the question “Have you been given a red card before? If yes why were you given the red card? And how long ago were you given the red card?” I see you are nodding already… I understand! That way, Kaita would have been screened and he would not have given us the “leg-break” against Greece.

Then on to Yakubu Aiyegbeni’s miss which has already been described by Coach Lars Lagerback as the “worst miss he has seen in his entire life.” The British Broadcasting Corporation described it as “incredible.” It involved hitting the ball away from a yawning net from four yards, with the goal keeper displaced and no defender in sight. Yakubu opted to go for the harder task of making history than simply placing his leg for the ball to bounce on and become a goal.  His ingenuity in somehow managing to turn his leg and kick the ball out has gone into history as the “worst miss” in the history of the World Cup. From the position Yakubu was, even our dear and beloved late President Umaru Yar’Adua, at the height of his sickness, would have scored with a simple touch of the ball. But Yakubu opted to make history than score.

The preparation for this World Cup was the worst in the history of Nigeria – if not the world. The team played only three friendly matches with teams that were not as good as Bayelsa United or Kano Pillars. Saudi Arabia the first country the Super Eagles tackled in a friendly did not even qualify for the World Cup. Colombia the next country the Super Eagles traded tackles with did not also qualify for the World Cup. This simply means that these teams were not quality teams and not in peak form because they were not preparing for any competition.

The only country which qualified for the World Cup that the Super Eagles played with was North Korea. And for the records, North Korea made history when it was drubbed 7- 0 by Portugal. This has gone down as the second heaviest defeat in the World Cup since Germany beat Saudi Arabia (another country Super Eagles had a warm-up match with) 8- 0 in the 2002 World Cup. Nigeria obviously was the least prepared team in the competition and played the least number of friendly matches in the buildup to the world’s biggest sporting event. But yet we made histories – or did we not?