AN adage says that ‘what an elder sees while sitting, a child might lose sight of even when standing.’
A bigwig in the game used the adage after watching the Super Eagles, Bafana Bafana World Cup qualifying clash.
I was with my family watching same game when the man beckoned to me, shook his head bitterly, saying there is anger in the land. “Anger, betrayal and hatred on rampage”, he said. I asked if I could quote him in my weekly column in The Pointer, but he declined. That is a story for another day.
From Asaba to South Africa, Nigerians showed their anger against the Super Eagles not playing to their satisfaction. They had thought the Eagles who were no longer super would at least be desperate enough to defeat Bafana Bafana even in their own backyard. The South Africans knew Nigeria had a ace up their sleeves, so they took them to play in a pathetic pitchto clip their wings.
With the setback recorded by both the Super Eagles and in other sports, I beg to borrow the words of the elderly fan “anger, betrayal and hatred”, all caused by failure.
Indeed, bad leadership in sports can severely disrupt lives of fans, decrease players’ productivity, lead to poor decision making and contribute to mental health issues like anxiety and depression. In extreme cases where a man plays god or goes about like an emperor, it could breed uncontrolled anger and result in aggression and violence.
When a leader refuses to listen to the voice of reason, failure is imminent, obstinacy beclouds reasonable thinking and makes it difficult for athletes to concentrate, and impairs self monitoring and objective observation. When a subordinate believes that he does not have access to the boss, with failure staring him in the face and his hands are tied, it could damage trust. It could even extend to their family, friends and colleagues, causing conflict and distance. Such is life when a man believes that no other individual exists. Power they say intoxicates because a leader could see himself as a demi god and when that happens, next is systemic failure as the Eagles story goes.
God according to the Bible, showed his anger towards evil and wickedness. God hates oppression. He threatened to destroy cities in response to how the people failed to obey His instructions. That you are given power does not mean you are the Alfa and Omega. Power is transient and temporal.
In the case of the Super Eagles, poor performance, anger on the side of stakeholders and fans is already building up and that could destroy whatever gains we had recorded in football.
Elections to the NFF Board is still far away, anger has made people to push for candidates that could replace the current President. Stories has it that some influential stakeholders who are not Nigerians are already mobilizing to support an ex Super Eagles player. Mikel Obi has started the fight by vowing to mobilise against NFF bigwigs if we fail to qualify for the World Cup.
It is easy to posit that the problem with the Super Eagles did not start today. It all started with recruitment of coaches favoured by corrupt football stakeholders. The choice of Finidi did not go down well with them and thus, they distanced themselves from the preparation to the execution of matches. They reasoned that their candidate was far better than Finidi but was deliberately ignored by the NFF. Coach Finidi who did not watch his back fell for a trap and failed woefully. Those who were waiting for this to happen used Finidi to convince Nigerians that nothing good can come out of home based coaches, whether an ex- player or not. Austin Eguavoen who had was holding sway in the absence of a real coach for the Super Eagles appeared not to possess the magic wand to turn things around.
The truth is that there is anger in the land which if not addressed may snowball into something that we may live to regret.
To avoid this imminent situation, those in charge of sports must repent from their sins and turn a new leaf..
Sports leaders must reconcile with ex-internationals to restore the fading glory. The boss must focus on identifying the real problem and clarifying the misunderstandings, collaboratively brainstorm and agreeing on actionable solutions.
This is not the time to make enemies and sidelining those that matter. The boss should focus on core issues and talk calmly to people for nobody knows all.
The NFF must establish an environment where staff feel comfortable and express feelings without fear of reprisal.
Anything short of this will bring doomsday closer.
