WORLD CUP MISS AND THE TRAIN ATTACKS: DIDN’T WE GET WHAT WE DESERVE?
By Chukwuemeka Livinus
The world cup qualifiers have been concluded and Nigeria got eliminated by Ghana in Abuja at a time terrorists struck and killed dozens on Abuja-Kaduna bound train. What a double tragedy!
A simple approach could have helped us avert these two disasters: SURVEILLANCE. First, I don’t think Nigeria’s couching crew had time to do due surveillance or spied the Ghanaian team. Spying and watching clips of opponents is a common practice in modern football, but our tacticians seemed to be more interested in gathering star players forgetting that tactical football is germain in Africa than big name football. Again, surveillance and intelligence gathering which prevents terrorists attacks to a large extent, is being seen as option by our security agencies in stead of a top priority.
The terrorists are now teaching our government and security agencies the age-long maxim which says: “prevention is better than curing”. In fact, minister of Transportation, Chibuike Amaechi captures it better: “I am devastated and I honestly don’t know what to tell Nigerians anymore; the process of procuring the integrated security surveillance and monitoring solution has been tedious, if the processes were shortened, we would have saved lives,” he said.
Back to the infamous match which we lost on away goal rules, the Nigerian team should have worn black armband and even observe one minute silence in honour of the dead. That way, they would have played with passion and sense of dedication to the country which was lacking in the team. That didn’t bother us because all we cared for was to grab the world cup ticket.
But alas, even the way Nigeria played in the match from beginning till 75 minutes suggests they unprepared. The team became serious afterwards but it was too late. This reflects how we behave in this country, we like reacting to issues in stead of being proactive and preventive. Had the coach made those substitutions he did much earlier, Nigeria could have secured her world cup ticket.
Nigeria don’t deserve to go to the world cup, Ghana does because they are succeeding where Nigeria is failing and it is even better for us not to be there in Quater than to go and disgrace ourselves even more. The Nigerian people don’t know how to cry again, and the nation seems to be in the mood of ‘don’t cry for me because I deserve it’.
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