Congratulations to the Nigerian
Super Eagles for winning the
29th edition of the Africa Cup of
Nations. Let me also take this
opportunity to give credit not
only to their coach Stephen Keshi, but the players who did it
as they say, for themselves and
their fatherland. I was also proud of the selfless
leadership provided to the Malian
team by veteran Seydou Keita.
In fact, countless players stood
out for me and let me also
praise the likes of Jonathan Pitriopa, Mubarak Wakasu,
Aristide Bance as well as Victor
Moses and Mikel John Obi to
mention just a few. The leadership of African football
need to take a critical look at
what Keshi has achieved and ask
themselves why, despite
constant reminders about the
ability of locals, do we still fail to take pride in our own products
but continue to scour the
backstreets of Europe in our
desperate attempts recruit
"fong kong" coaches to take
charge of our national teams? Why do we continue to
marginalize indigenous coaches,
deny them material support but
are always prepared to pay
obscene amounts of money to
expatriate coaches, some of whom refuse to live in our
countries and prefer to stay in
Europe, only coming to Africa
during the week that there is an
official fixture looming? The same coaches seem to
resent living conditions in Africa,
yet find nothing wrong in the
color of the money they get paid
by Africans. There is an
exception though, and men like Claude Le Roy, Clemens
Westerhof and Herve Renard
have roughed it up in the
respective countries they are
working and have earned our
respect. But we members of the fourth
estate are equally to blame for
this mess. We tend to put undue
pressure on local coaches, refuse
to give them the respect and
credit they deserve and always hammer them at the slightest
opportunity and are the first to
demand the hiring of a
"foreign" coach. Ghana has won the tournament
a respectable four times and on
each occasion, they were guided
by an indigenous coach. They
came very close this time around
with Kwesi Appiah at the helm, but despite finishing fourth, I
understand my colleagues down
in Accra are already calling for
his sacking! Are we ashamed of our own?
Why do we always find it so
difficult to embrace our own
countrymen but instead try to
find fault with everything they
try to do simply because we know them and grew up
together in the same 'hood? Are we envious of what they
have achieved while we still
occupy the same positions at our
respective places of employment
where we are even considered
as part of the furniture? And now we are consumed by
resentment of our inability to
ascend the ladder of life and
therefore take it out on those
that seem to be succeeding? Is our obsession with European
coaches as Keshi is asking,
perhaps a reflection of our own
state of mind and inferiority
complex? Why is it then, that we
would rather entrust the fortunes of our national team to
an untried and untested
European coach without any
knowledge of Africa, than to a
local coach? If you think I am being a unfair
to federations across the
continent, then watch as local
coaches qualify their respective
countries for the Fifa World Cup
in Brazil next year and then get fired or sidelined because they
"are too inexperienced" to lead
their country at a tournament
like the World Cup. I am willing to take a bet that at
the end of the World Cup
qualifying campaign, there will be
countless so-called big name
European coaches waiting on the
wings to take over positions as coaches of us "gullible" Africans
where they will be paid millions
just for a four weeks job. Of course, indigenous coaches
are not angels either. And we
have heard of shameful stories
of favoritism as well as how they
collude with football agents that
"instruct" them to select certain players and they are
guaranteed kickbacks for playing
along. It's such a vicious circle; it
breaks my heart that we never
seem to learn. And perhaps that
is why it will take us maybe a
century to win the World Cup.
Brazil has won the World Cup more than any other nation,
check the nationalities of the
coaches that were in charge and
tell me if I am talking through my
hat! I hope Nigeria and the rest of
Africa will show a little more
trust and respect to the likes of
Keshi and his deputy Daniel
Amokachi especially now that
they have proved that if they are left alone to do what they
know best, they can deliver.