THE failure of Nigeria's senior soccer team, the Super Eagles, to qualify for next year's African Cup of Nations football tournament is a major blow to millions of fans, just as it underscores the high level of decadence afflicting football administration, indeed all sports, in the country.Penultimate Saturday, the collective psyche of one hundred and fifty million Nigerians at home, and in the Diaspora, was dealt a devastating blow when the Super Eagles failed to win an all-important qualifying match against visiting national team of Guinea at home (Abuja National Stadium) to automatically qualify for the Finals, to be hosted jointly by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon next year.Having lost the away leg 1-0 in Conakry and trailed Guinea by three points, Nigeria needed a two-goal margin victory to tie the Guineans on points, but with a superior goals difference. Even with one-nil, the Eagles would have gained enough points to emerge as one of the two best losers.But they conceded a late equaliser for a 2-2 draw, which meant Nigeria will not be counted when Africa's best 16 footballing nations begin their quest to win the 29th edition of Africa's biennial competition next year. Nigeria last failed to qualify for the Africa Nations Cup Finals in 1986. We had won the cup twice: at home in 1980, and in Tunisia 1994, the same year Nigeria first qualified for the World Cup (USA 94) Finals.Nigeria's performance against Guinea was unexpectedly lackadaisical at a time the team received the best motivation ever, in terms of paid pre-game allowances and post-game promises. Besides, the team was being handled by one of our own past heroes, Samson Siasia, who won the African Nations Cup Gold medal in 1994 in Tunisia, and played his part in Nigeria's fabulous USA'94 World Cup debut in the same year, taking Nigeria to number five in FIFA's world rankings. No other African nation has ever been ranked as high.Winning the Olympic gold subsequently in 1996 amounted to Nigeria's most glorious moment in sports. But our ouster for the next Nations Cup must represent our worst moment.The 'worst moment' did not descend on the country suddenly. It had been long in coming, but the football authorities conveniently failed to take appropriate redeeming action. Their ineptitude has roundly decimated all our teams (club or national), which have since been in a free fall. Not surprisingly, the mass media are agog as to why things got to this stage, in a country where football has been a symbol of unity. Suddenly, the cruelest jokes are centered on the Super Eagles.This is hardly the time to heap blames, even if football cannot thrive outside the general rot in the country's governance. The country must lend itself to the harsh truth, in order to return it to the path of glory and honour. Certainly, the country is living on past glory, and the structure for success in just about any endeavour is simply not in place.Nigerians have grown more disillusioned and disenchanted with their leaders. They lose confidence by the day because government does not inspire them to root for or die for their once beloved country, in an era when much of the national financial resources are frittered away in corruption, while the governed are neglected.Absence of governance is manifest in our football, where conduct of elections into offices is being challenged in the courts, which rulings are routinely disregarded.With the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) constantly on each other's throat, it will remain a wild dream to expect the local league to produce quality youngsters who would one day take over from so-called 'tired legs'.What is left of our psyche when our patriotism is taken away' A wise government would pay attention to sports as a tool of governance, especially in Nigeria where football has been the singular most unifying factor for all Nigerians.At this time, the country needs to be driven by somebody, in such a manner that Nigerians would once again take pride in their country, and want to 'die' for their nation.Although some people have called for Samson Siasia's dismissal as coach, his sack will go to no issue against the existence of more fundamental problems of football administration. But the Coach must share in the blame for his team's abysmal failure in Abuja, caused in part by his questionable human management skills. He should not be singled out. The entire football structure needs re-structuring into a system with knowledgeable and totally committed, not travel estacode-crazy opportunists to run it.The coach cannot work in a vacuum, when surrounded by mediocre and pretenders to football administration at both grassroots and national levels. Football is big business: fun, showbiz, art, and most importantly, a veritable PR for the country. Artistes perform better when large crowds are on hand to appreciate and applaud them. Our footballers are no exception.We must find ways to attract capacity crowds all over again into our Stadia.There is hope, as the qualifying series for the 2013 Africa Nations Cup is around the corner. Preparation for that should start right away. There is no time left to cry over split milk. Equally important is the assignment for our U-23 national male team, which is involved in an eight-nation African qualifier to next year's Olympic Games in London. To qualify, we need to finish among the top three, failing which we will have to vie in a play-off against an Asian team.As for the Super Falcons, they need to a draw away in Yaound, Cameroon, after managing to beat the Cameroonian Lionesses 2-1 in Abuja. Nigeria's badly needed resurgence should begin with hard-won berths for London 2012 Games.
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