What did you expect?

  When I asked the cause of his illness, he said the Super Eagles were eliminated.  I looked at him and asked: “What did you expect?”I recall the column I wrote about the dwindling fortunes of our football and therefore, our fan base during the Beijing Olympics.  It was published in Weekly Trust on 19 […]

  When I asked the cause of his illness, he said the Super Eagles were eliminated.  I looked at him and asked: “What did you expect?”
I recall the column I wrote about the dwindling fortunes of our football and therefore, our fan base during the Beijing Olympics.  It was published in Weekly Trust on 19 September 2008, when I was still a master’s student at Universiti Putra Malaysia.  It’s apt to share it at this time of our football crisis. Enjoy.
“Back in Iran I watched Nigerians play during the world cup and I was impressed by their speed”, Leilah told me.  She had actually told me this several times.  Whether she forgets that she had told me before or she wants me to know how much she likes Nigerians, I can’t tell.
 Some people like Leilah know a thing or two about Nigerians.  Thus,  they’ve an opinion about us – however limited.  Some people, on the other hand, don’t know a lick about Nigeria or Nigerians.  So they don’t know whether to like us or hate us. And others have been badly chastised and victimized by Nigerians that they hesitate to open old wounds by giving their opinion about us.  With this group, one has to be careful  in teasing out the views they hold about Nigerians.
 I think the beginning of the end of the era in which people like Nigeria because of her football has begun.  Even those who still like our football do so in recollection of the past.   “Do you know Okocha? Do you know Rashidi Yekini? Do you know Amokachi?” Ali from Libya smiled with nostalgia as he gave me a roll call of our spent horses.  And as an afterthought he asked, “Do you know Kanu?”  Even Leilah couldn’t remember the world cup that she watched Nigerian players speeding.
 The picture of our diminishing fan club was clearly illustrated on the day of our final match against Argentina at the Olympics in 2008. At the hostel, before the match started, I went from room to room knocking and dragging people out their beds to come and watch the match.
Since there was no Argentinian in our quarters, I thought everybody will support Nigeria – after all I was their friend.  In time,  the match and – and to some extent – our friendship became a messy affair.  My friends were torn between two choices: to support their mesmerizing Messi or support the Siasia boys with Dooba.  They chose to go with Messi!
 When Petaia my Fijian friend came into the TV room and was asked which country he was going to support, he asked, “is Messi playing?”
I told them that they’re going to be disappointed because we’re going to win.  At the end, I was the one who got disappointed and became the butt of their jokes for a whole week after the match.
 When I asked Naufal, a PhD student from Iraq, why he didn’t support Nigerians, he said because Nigeria and United States of America were the two countries in the world that he didn’t like.  It was understandable if an Iraqi doesn’t like America.  But why didn’t he like Nigeria?  He couldn’t tell.  Even when I pointed it out to him that Nigeria eliminated USA in the quarter finals he was still ungrateful.
 So in the room, only four of us supported Nigeria; Yusuf from Kano,  Saiku (a Fulani man) from Sierra Leone, Hamad from Tanzania, and I.
Yusuf doesn’t watch football but because it was a special day, his patriotism set him to purpose to devote the time to watch the match. Hamad was actually a part-time supporter; he would support Nigeria for two minutes and support Argentina for three minutes.  But because of the paucity of supporters, I chose to count him among those with us.
Saiku gave his full support.  But he was careful in the beginning.  He said they had a saying in Sierra Leone that “Nigerians are difficult to support”.
The above picture shows that we are fast losing the only element that makes the world to tolerate us despite the colour of our skin and the iniquities of our con men.
 The lack of support for Nigerian football was first demonstrated at the Olympics during the match between Nigeria and USA.  As the spectators chanted ‘U! S! A!’ one wondered what Nigeria did wrong or what America did right that the Chinese should give them such tremendous support.
 The story is even worse when we move away from football.  I met a lady on Monday at the train station who said she didn’t like the character of a Nigerian.  Annie is a final year computer science student from Uganda.  I was surprised when she asked if I was a northerner.  “How did you know?” I asked.  “Although you’re the first northerner I’ve met, we’ve other Nigerians at our school and one of them is my boyfriend.”   “If you don’t like our character, why did you choose a Nigerian as a boyfriend?”  But like all matters of the heart, Annie found it difficult to answer that question.  So I made it easier for her. “Give me an example of what you don’t like about Nigerians.”
“They fight a lot.”  “Do they fight the locals and other international students?”  “No.  They fight among themselves.  It is usually Nigeria against Nigeria thing,” she said.
 I got the sense that the discussion I had with Annie changed her perception about Nigerians somewhat. As I was disembarking from the train she said, “It’s a pleasure to have talked to a humble Nigerian.”  Humble?
 I didn’t get the chance to ask why Annie thought I was humble.  But I think it’s because I asked her directions.  And that’s only because I was lost.  I’d no choice!