As I sit on my desk typing out on the key board of my computer, I cannot help but try to imagine what on earth is going through the minds of FIFA chiefs right now.
The World Cup is just five days old (eight days old by the time you read this) and they have already been through so much trauma to last them a life time.
Do they regret coming here? Do they wish the World Cup would just fast forward and end their night mare? Can somebody help me here and tell me what is going on in the minds of the FIFA chiefs?
Ok. I agree. I raise up my hands in admittance. Before the World Cup started I harassed people on the social networking site, Face book because they were looking out on only the negatives of Nigeria’s hosting.
I also made my thoughts known on various sports shows across the country that Nigerians should see the positive more than the negative in our hosting of the World Cup.
But please, people, tell me, how can you see only the positives when the negatives keep following you around the whole place?
I remember Nigeria hosting the FIFA Youth Championships in 1999 and reports of huge sums of money walking away “with no assistance”
I also remember the power failure in one of the centers, I remember various state governments borrowing computers to equip the respective media centers to impress FIFA and how the media centers were empty shortly after.
Really a lot of things that shouldn’t have been happened at that World Cup but what happened? The world did not give up on Nigeria.
They brought the All Africa Games to Nigeria in 2003 and please let us not talk about that one because I was there.
Did Nigeria win the games? Or was there, as they say in local parlance, Wuru Wuru in the final medals table? I hear the Egyptians are still complaining up till now that they won that AAG of 2003.
What happened? Did they let us rest? No!
FIFA insisted on an African quartet- the Confederation Cup, the Youth Championship, the U17s and of course the World Cup but why Nigeria? Why?
And this Jack Warner chap, is he as straight forward as he should be? How come one day is he complaining about Nigeria and the next he is praising us to the high heavens?
The Warri center always claimed they were ready even though we saw rains turn the Super Eagles game into Water Polo but what happened? They claimed they had worked on the drainage.
Then Kanu took his Heart Foundation Game to the same Stadium and what happened? Water Polo and the more shocking was that a member of the LOC who should have known, rather than blame their inadequacies, blamed rain doctors for sabotage.
We still believe in Nigeria that there are certain people with powers to determine when it should rain and when it shouldn’t so I wouldn’t blame that influential member of the Warri LOC or whatever it was called then.
But Warri continued to claim they were capable until the gun shots somewhere close but they convinced the FIFA chief that the shooting happened five hours away from the stadium and five hours away should be Owerri, Uyo or some other state and not Delta State.
FIFA believed because they really wanted the World Cup in Nigeria and Warri but the day they were supposed to do their last inspection the rain makers “drew the rain” and the Stadium was so flooded that folklore say Jack Warner almost drowned at the stadium gates.
Warri was off the list but not Nigeria.
Jack Warner later said we were ready and even apologised for ever saying some centers were not ready but what have we seen so far?
In Kaduna State, I read in the Guardian Newspaper of Tuesday, October 27 how a commissioner physically manhandled a journalist who made the mistake of asking at the secretariat for his accreditation tag holder.
Funny thing was that as soon as the commissioner started beating him, his security aides joined and even threatened to destroy the AIT camera as they were recording the proceedings.
They probably forgot AIT are the host broadcasters.
In Kano, there was power failure twice in one match.
Some of us might argue that power failure happens every where and it has even happened in a UEFA Champions League match.
That is true so I won’t want to dwell much on that, but power failure in a World Cup match? Let us think about this.
In Enugu, a game was stopped because it rained.
Because it rained? Did Noah (of the Bible Sunday school stories) visit the town?
No he did not. It only just happened that somebody did not check on the drainage situation at the Stadium.
The water was nor draining out and formed air or water bubbles on their new synthetic pitch.
I tried to search history if the rains have ever stopped a FIFA World Cup game since after the Second World War and except I am poor at searching out the internet, I did not see any such thing, so this must be a first.
In Lagos the government had to buy up all the seats at the stadium to ensure people fill them up, in Abuja people decided to stay away and even when the government threw the gates open in match day 2, only about a third of the seats were taken.
FIFA, please leave us alone.
Unless there is something untoward going on that we do not know about, leave us alone. We do not want to host the World Cup; we do not want to host any event because we do not have what it takes.
Yes we have the money to build stadia and buy equipment but we do not have the organisation to run any serious event.
Like I said earlier, the World Cup is just five days old. We are yet to see the mother of scandals.
At this rate nothing will surprise me anymore about Nigeria and this hosting, but what is the worst that can happen?
Could angry MEND members storm a venue and kidnap someone? Maybe a player will drown in a stadium flood? Maybe a country will miss a game stuck in traffic?
I just cannot think up the next disappointment but I know it will come much sooner than later.
But I certainly am not holding my breath.
Obaseki please tell us
I read a report in one of the Sunday papers two weeks ago revealing how the Nigeria Premier League is run.
The reporter who did that story must have got his facts right or else he would not publish.
But what bothers me now is that he claimed Chief Oyuiki Jackson Obaseki used these words, “Any person saying so is an idiot… tell the person that he is a fool… tell the person I said he is a big fool… Do you even know how a league is run? I do not bother reading your newspaper because it is nonsense… I can’t read that useless paper…bye bye. Don’t talk to me. Nonsense!
Did Obaseki really use these words?
Then I think it is wrong.
It would make sense if the chief answers to the allegations against him rather than resort to insults.
I am confident Chief Obaseki will call me before the end of the week to react to this.
My take is that, those are not the words to use on people, especially journalists who want to hear your side of a story.
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