That the Super Eagles have finally crashed out of the 2026 World Cup is no longer news. As a commentator would claim before a goal is scored, I saw the elimination coming and contrary to the claim of their coach, Eric Chelle that D.R.Congo used juju to eliminate them, the real juju that eliminated Super Eagles would be unveiled here to serve as a deterrent to the administrators and their likes.
A Ghanaian artist, Dan Boadi in his popular song titled “Money is the root of all evil” was actually referring to the Super Eagles in that song.
This phrase can also be found in the Holy Bible, 1 Timothy 6:10 which says, “For the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil”
For point of emphasis and for the reads of this column, the Super Eagles Coach, Eric Chelle after the defeat of his team which played below performance claimed a D.R. Congo official engaged in “voodoo rituals throughout the penalty shootout of Sundays CAF World Cup playoff final.
“During the penalty session, a guy of Congo did some voodoo. Every time, every time, every time,”So this is why I was a little bit nervous after him. When asked exactly what he saw, the Super Eagles boss replied” something like “he gestured with his hands, Ï don’t know if it is water or something like that”. Chelle also claimed the repeated actions distracted his players and contributed to his angry reaction after the shootout ended.
Former Minister for Sports, Solomon Dalung equally revealed that Nigerian Football is hunted by the ghost of corruption and hypocrisy. Dalung disclosed that the glass house people are happy when the teams under their care crash out of any competition on time.
According to him, all bonuses and allowances are calculated upfront. Therefore, administrators profit more when the team crashes out early, because unearned funds are neither retired nor accounted for. All this bothers down to corruption.
Prior to the match playoff in Morocco in one of my conversation with Professor Hope Eghagha, I told him that the Super Eagles would not qualify based on my experience and he asked why.
The simple reason I gave him was that experience has taught me that each time players agitate for money before a crucial match; the end is not always palatable. I referred him to my time with Warri Wolves Football Club, Delta Force Football Club, Asaba and Delta Stars Football Club, Ughelli.
I spent 3 seasons with Warri Wolves, 2 with Delta Force and 1 with Delta Stars, all as Chairman. In all the years, once my players come up with money matter, we always lose.
In Bauchi, within hours of arriving the city, my players stormed my room demanding for bonuses and I reminded them of our previous experience which made us to lose valuable points. The players spent quite some time with me and when they left, I knew we had lost the match.
Back to the Super Eagles, the moment the players broke the news of their strike based on non-payment of bonuses and allowances, I knew they had lost it.
The players cannot eat their cake and have it. Money is an inevitable “juju “which can do and undo. Therefore, rather than blaming the D.R.Congo officials of using voodoo, the real voodoo that sent Eagles out of the world cup was their ill-advised demand for bonuses on the eve of that playoff.
The truth is that if you combine the forces behind the strike with corruption as claimed by the former Minister, Dalung, you would have known that nothing good can come from Nazareth.
It is therefore pertinent at this juncture to tell the Malian Coach of the Super Eagles that if voodoo works in Mali which I doubt, it does not work in Nigeria and I don’t think it is responsible for the loss of the Super Eagles.
The real cause was the demand for bonuses and allowances which should not be allowed to happen in future because as the Coach, he cannot tell me, he is not aware of the plan to go on strike before the players carried out their act.
Often, Coaches connived with players to demand for such money, knowing fully well that after the match, it would be difficult to ask for it albeit to say here that I am not in support of administrators holding on to money that belongs to players.
Still on the issue of money, the Nigeria Football Federation which held on to the money meant for bonuses and allowances could be said to be the worshippers of the voodoo which sent the Super Eagles out of the world cup.
Money is truly the root of all evil, it can kill, destroy and eradicate the entire structure of football with the power it possess and that one of the reasons they went for a coach from a country who believe voodoo play a part in football.
The claim of voodoo and the embarrassment which has been described as a serious, shameless act by foreign journalist that voodoo was responsible for the ouster of the Super Eagles from the world cup is laughable.
In a normal and sane country, the coach and his technical crew, the Nigeria Football Federation officials would have resigned their appointment immediately and cover their faces with shame, having lost out of the world cup twice now.
While several people have called on the Presidency to take drastic action so as to save our football from further destruction, I doubt whether anything of such will take place because of ethnic colouration which has been used to rubbish the argument by the genuine few.
In the words of Ernest Osogbue, maladministration, un-seriousness, inconsistencies, incompetence and a lack of focus combined with the voodoo of money to rob Nigerians of the joy of having their national flag hoisted and their darling team, the Super Eagles, feature at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The most painful aspect of the whole scenario is that Nigeria was actually placed in a relatively easy qualifying group with Lesotho, Benin, Rwanda, Zimbabwe and South Africa.
Unfortunately, official greed and lack of focus prevented the NFF from kicking the qualifiers on a serious note. All through the qualifiers, different issues prevented the Eagles from operating at their optimum.
