There is no limit to what we can attain if the country maximises its potential
Members of the victorious Nigeria U-17 football team, the Golden Eaglets, arrived Abuja last week amidst jubilation by hundreds of soccer fans, who came to receive them. The Eaglets, coached by Nigeria’s former international, Emmanuel Amuneke, were crowned world champions November 8 following the final of the FIFA U-17 World tournament in Chile. The Nigerian team beat other global football power houses like United States, Chile, Australia and Brazil to get to the final where they humbled another Africa country, Mali by two goals to nil to win the cup in an all-African final.
Interestingly, that is not the only laurel coming the way of our country at this period as a 32-year-old, Mr. Wellington Jighere, had also done the nation proud in Perth, Australia, by beating 129 competitors to win the World English-language Scrabble Players’ Association championship. Instructively, he defeated an Englishman, Lewis MacKay with four straight wins in the best-of-seven final round. “It is the first time that an African has won in these world championships so I have to go and celebrate with them,” says Jighere who won a $10,000 cash prize.
It is comforting that in a season of anomie, there are some positive stories coming out of our country. In the football event, the victory of the Golden Eaglets marked the fifth time Nigeria would win the title after the triumph at China ’85, Japan ’93, Korea 2007 and UAE 2003. But what remains is the need to adequately reward the scrabble winner and the football players so as to motivate others. As this is being done, we should also begin to question the victories in age-grade football competitions, especially when some players who won these tournaments in the past did not grow or progress beyond this cadet level.
For instance, one had expected that some of the Eaglets teams who won the tournament in the past would have taken their dazzling form and winning formula as a team and graduate to the next level. But this has not been the case as only one or two players go on to make their marks for the country and foreign clubs. Only few of these players from the Golden Eaglets made it to the senior national teams and these include Nwankwo Kanu, Jonathan Akpoboriere, Rabiu Haruna, and Nduka Ugbade, amongst others.
However, the cheering news is that the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has recognised the importance of grassroots development of the sport, which was the reason FIFA inaugurated the competition over 30 years ago. At a dinner in honour of the Golden Eaglets in Abuja on Wednesday, football house disclosed that Amuneke has been given the mandate to remain and nurture the next Golden Eaglets, which will start preparing for the 2017 African and world championships by next year.
By doing this, the body is trying to encourage the growth of youth football as there is nothing stopping the Eaglets from aspiring and working very hard to graduate into the Super Eagles cadre in the future. As we therefore felicitate with the players, officials and Nigeria as a whole over the triumph, we however must not overlook the need for a sustainable culture, as this is the only way we can have a stronger and formidable national team in the future.
On the whole, what the victory at both the World English-Language Scrabble Players’ Association championship and the FIFA U-17 World Cup football tournament have shown is the incredible talents that abound in our country in all fields of human endeavour. The lesson therefore is simple: if we pull together and maximise our potential, there is no limit to what our country can achieve. Congratulations, Nigeria.
