The Drawing Board, I feel very sorry for you. Will Nigerians ever give you a break' Once again, the amusing people of the largest black nation on earth have kept banging on your door to disturb your peace. Each time you appear to be enjoying a little nap, they come again with their antics.I wonder why you have yet to crumble under the overwhelming pressure of 150 million (now 167 million!) contending coaches, analysts and commentators. You must be a typical Nigerian - tough, rugged and indomitable! Like the Beetle, there is no killing The Drawing Board. But please, dont contemplate relocating to Spain, The Netherlands, Germany, Brazil, Ghana or Cote dIvoire. They might not need your services more than once in a century. Nigeria is where the action is, regular and consistent patronage guaranteed!Not surprisingly, at least to me (I saw it coming), Nigeria failed to qualify for, let alone win, anything in 2011 and 2012. And expectedly, as usual, the dramatists shifted the pressure on to you! You saw, once again, the panel-beaten faces of administrators operating almost always in a glass house of confusion. It has been the season of sportscasters and commentators with their usual populist big-grammar analyses of world-class foreign coach, technical savvy and pedigree.Suddenly, our numerous football gurus, including road-side and beer parlour analysts, realised the problem with our football was not simply about coaching, having failed to qualify for ordinary African Nations Cup with the regime after their heart. In particular, I wonder how comfortable you have been under the bombardment of some ministerial committee to reform Nigerian football and its foreign coach-crazy consultants.And so, once again I offer my technical supportthe kind I obliged the brand-new sacked Super Eagles coach to whom, soon after his appointment a year ago, I wrote inter alia: I sympathise with you for having the giant problems of the Giant of Africa shifted from the so-called corridors of power onto your young, innocent shoulders In a country where our rulers employ football as a handy tool to divert attention from the calamitous consequences of their clinical misrule, I would be surprised if you did not realise that the burden that has been placed on you is clearly beyond you I strongly suspect you will succeed only if you could first transform your country into a socio-cultural, economic and political entity with citizens prepared to shed their blood at the mere sight of the national flag. (Letter to Samson Siasia, Wednesday, November 17, 2010; et al)The Drawing Board, hear the legendary Pele on Englands Wayne Rooney: I am a very big fan of Rooney. He always fights for the team. He is not too technical; his strength is his heart, just like Nigerias Rashidi Yekini. Hear also the Libyan team coach on the BBC after their dramatic qualification for the Nations Cup: the players; they give their lives on the field.There, for instance, will always be big boys. Remember, the small boys of today are the big boys of tomorrow. In the great Super Eagles team of 1993/94, newly appointed coach, SOK, (Stephen Okechukwu Keshiis he OK') was not only a big boy, he was in fact The Big Boss. What matters is what you do for your team and country with your big-boy status.The big boys of the Nigerian systemgovernors, ministers, legislators, etcuse their status not for selfless service, but to stuff their private accounts with hundreds of billions of naira and dollars. Why should the case of Super Eagles big boys be different' The great committed patriots of yesterday, who enthusiastically served Nigeria with all their strength, are, as octogenarian pensioners of today, left to die in the queue for their meagre but well-deserved entitlements! Why should their children be prepared to give their lives on the field' These were the problems Jerry Rawlings dealt with in Ghana to trigger the current wave of burning spirit of nationalism.Dele Akinola, 54, Obafemi Awolowo Way, Ikorodu, Lagos.
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