How Eagles disappointed President Jonathan

BY BEN AGANDE, ABUJA.
That President Goodluck Jonathan is a great lover of sports is a fact that even his greatest critics cannot deny. When the Nigerian contingent to the Olympic games in London brought shame to the country through their woeful performance, an outraged president Jonathan summoned a Presidential Summit on sports where far reaching decisions were taken.

But as usual, implementation of policies is always the big problem in Nigeria. The summit was good and the ideas and decisions it generated were rich. But implementation has fallen below expectation. It is something that the President may also look into although there are many other sectors deserving his attention too.

President Jonathan

As a demonstration of his renewed commitment to ensuring that those who perform in sports are properly rewarded, President Goodluck Jonathan in February this year shocked members of the Super Eagles with a cash reward of N5m each for the 23 players, and N10m for coach Stephen Okechukwu Keshi while his assistants – Daniel Amokachi, Sylvanus Okpala and Ike Shorunmu got N5m each and other officials of the team got N2m each. This was when the Nigerian Super Eagles won the African Cup of Nations in South Africa.

Apart from the cash reward, the President also approved the allocation of a plot of land each in the Federal Capital, Abuja and crowned it with national awards of Commander of the Order of the Niger (CON) for Keshi; Order of the Federal Republic (OFR) for captain of the side Joseph Yobo; and the three assistant coaches, while the other players were awarded Member of the Order of the Niger (MON).

A very elated President Jonathan whose smile seemed more illuminating than the brightly lit Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa assured Coach Keshi of his support as the national team coach while tasking that the responsibility of taking Nigeria to the World Cup 2014 is one that must be achieved.

“I want to thank the Super Eagles for their efforts and winning the trophy after 19 years of waiting. In fact, the win in South Africa is the biggest gift of Nigeria’s centenary celebration. I can assure Keshi that he has my full support as coach of the Super Eagles but he should understand that the task has just begun because the next target is the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. We must qualify for Brazil.”

For a president who has promised to ensure that no expenses would be spared to ensure that members of the nation’s sports teams are properly motivated and rewarded in order to ensure that they attain their best, the qualification of the Super Eagles for 2014 world Cup in Brazil is the perfect step towards the realisation of the dream of crowning Nigeria’s efforts at world sporting events with the ultimate glory: winning the world cup for the country.

So when the Super Eagles filed out against Iran Monday for their opening match of the Mundial, President Jonathan, full of expectations, rushed through his business of the day in office and retired home to watch his Eagles demolish the under dog Iranian side. To demonstrate how serious he took the match, President Jonathan invited vice president Namadi Sambo to leave the comfort of his Aguda House residence and join him in savouring the expected victory of the Eagles against the ‘lowly Iran’. The presence of some ministers and other highly placed government officials at the ‘Presidential Viewing Centre’ completed the gathering for the ultimate victory that many Nigerians including the president had anticipated.

But from the blast of the whistle, it was obvious that all was not well with the team that many Nigerians, including the president had invested so much hope on. The sloppy passes, the lack of determination to fight for the ball, the poor shots at goal and the glaring inability to convert chances to goals against a team that had, before the beginning of the world cup, enjoyed the status of under-dog, the general poor play of the Eagles rudely deflated the high hopes of Nigerians.

According to one of the officials who watched the match with the president, ‘the high spirit that the president brought into watching the match gradually reduced to disbelief that the Iranian  team that most football pundits had dismissed as not capable of threatening any of the  teams in their group could so casually demystify our Eagles like that”.

For the president, after holding his head in disbelief at some of the near misses and shaking his head at the not too impressive performance of the team, the President neither lost hope nor assured his guests on any wonderful performance. At the end of the match, he reportedly stood up, walked to the Vice President, shook his hand and as father of the nation told him ‘this is not good enough. But it could have been worse. Thank God we got a draw and did not lose. I hope that they would learn their lessons and do better in subsequent games”.

For the Super Eagles, today’s game is an opportunity to prove to the president and indeed Nigerians that the hope they invested in them is not and will not be in vain.