Dynamics of Football in Nigeria.

Growing up in the peaceful University town of Nsukka in the eighties, my love for the game of football developed tap roots. Then again, if you grew up with parents who lay emphasis on academics then you understand how difficult it was merging the interest in football and academics. There were already people older then, whom I will constantly go to the Akanu Ibiam stadium to watch. Okechukwu 'Kabongo' Olerum, Fabian 'Gboko' Ugwu, Kalu 'Kalusha' Okpara, Onyebuchi 'Rocky' Adindu, Izu Owen Ogbonna, Ogonna/Chika Okeke, Badaru Umar, Uzo and Emeka Okorie amongst many more, were people i watched their game with keen interest. At the home front, my mother never spared the rod any time she felt I was giving more time to football than I allocated to my school books. But i took the koboko with all joy. Day dreaming about the game i had earlier always had a way of soothing the pains from my mothers cane and my sisters' jeers. My father? As long as I wasn't doing badly in school he didn't mind. In fact any weekend he was around he always came to my games. Then at home he will point out areas he felt I wasn't good at. He never agreed to my face that I could ball. But when overhear him brag to his friends about his son and his brilliant balling I always laughed.
I had very brilliantly gifted footballer friends whom we all shared the dream of going neck deep into the game after schooling. Osinachi Enekwe, Chukwuemeka Okolie, Chidubem Obio, Uchenna Igbo (blessed memory), Christian Eze, Nnamdi Odenyi were some of my childhood friends that had the potentials and the heart to play the game. Unfortunately, for one reason or the other, most of us are all seated in our various offices today, pot bellied. Not because we didn't give it our tightest shot, but because of 'the system'.
   The system in the country doesn't encourage controlled growth in the game. From a brief stint in the Nigerian League to an even shorter stint in Egypt, I gave it my best shot. So also did many of my friends. Now here are the intrigues; I graduated from the University in my early twenties, after my youth service programme in 2007 I pursued a career in football. A career that would have been illustrious if not for injuries and poor management. By 2009 I was asked to report to the Under 17 camp whilst they were preparing for U-17 world cup and fight for a place in the team. U-17! I was seventeen years of age almost ten years before that year. Note however, that i actually did not report to the said camp more because of an injury i was nursing than sanctimonious reasons. So I ask; how will football and academics merge? People have researched this and come up with solutions. But the ogas at the top wouldn't allow things work the way they should. This is one of the reasons I say that Kojo Williams is the best NFF President that never was. He would have ensured age integration in Nigerian football. Our Yemi Tella U-17 winning side of 2007, where are they? Christantus Macauley, Matthew Edile and co. Your guess is as good as mine as to why they have disappeared off the radar. They are either nowhere or in one obscure league somewhere in the world. I remember playing in the first edition of Shell Cup for secondary schools. That should be an avenue to scout players for U-17. Thank God we have gone past the times when we used to scout U-17 players from the Nigerian League. It was wrong, it is wrong and will forever be wrong! Show me a player,seventeen years of age playing in the local league and we will check how many seasons he has played in the league. Unless of course he started playing football from his mothers womb.Look at a player like Mikel Obi. He grew through the ranks. And at the right times too. That is what it should be. Yes, an over aged player will have more experience than an under aged player. But keep playing an over aged player against much younger and hot blooded players then rheumatism and arthritis will set in like a boss.
   Now that the NFF have been made an independent statutory body, efforts should be made at developing football at all levels,starting from the barest grass root. An enabling environment should be provided in primary, secondary and tertiary institutions to make academics and football (sports generally) co habitable. In my humble opinion, if Wayne Rooney had been Nigerian, he would have either been a graduate of engineering, a garage tout or a footballer for BBC Lions of Gboko and this would have been his tenth season with the Gboko side. Why? The discouragement that comes from playing in the Nigeria league and worse sill, the hard nut case of living in Nigeria.
  From all indications, Amaju Pinnick seem to be working towards a better Nigerian footballing community. Hopefully, we will get there.