Posted by One of the more interesting aspects of some of the clubs I’ve frequented in London is the part of the night when the DJ does shoutouts to different nations – “Jamaica, make some noise!!” The Caribbean nations – Trinidad & Tobago, Granada, Jamaica, Guyana – always show up loud. But the loudest shouts usually occur for two African nations – Ghana and NIGERIA!
One of my coworkers is from Ghana and so yesterday, in advance of the Nigeria vs Ghana friendly that was to be played here in London in the even’, we engaged in a little friendly banter. The karmic result was typical for Maher – Ghana won 4-1, the first time they’ve beaten Nigeria in 15 years.
This morning, www.ghanaweb.com (which she so graciously showed me) had a picture of a dead eagle on its front page. An African coworker stopped by her desk and said simply, “I am not talking to you today!” One one of her compatriots walked into the office wearing a Ghana ski cap, smiling from ear to ear, proclaiming that they (us, Nigeria) would finally have to show some respect to the Black Stars.
I think it’s safe to say that even though I was only 6 years old when we left Nigeria, I’m still extremely proud to have spent part of my life living in that west African giant. I still remember being scared to death of the occasional stop-motion action flick of Sinbad that came to the theatre in Nsukka, of playing badminton at the courts (or rather, wanting to play and not being allowed by my sisters), trying to climb the mango trees outside our house, no speed limits from Nsukka to Enugu or that earth, that earth that I used to dig into when I was little.
For me, the outward manifestation of my Nigerian Pride is in futbol. I’m all for pan-African support but I expect the Super Eagles to be the class of the continent and they generally have been which is why I was so disappointed that they failed to make the recent World Cup despite finishing with a +14 goal differential in qualifying and tied Angola in Group 4. We lost the tie-breaker and Angola went on to their first World Cup Finals. But I expect better and I don’t care for any more excuses.
I don’t particularly care that ‘blah blah blah’ missed the game. I don’t care that so-and-so was out of form because of a recent injury. It doesn’t matter that we just installed a new coach. There can be no excuses for such a showing. A 4-1 loss is a disgrace. I am shamed today. Onward and upward!
