Siasia and Super Eagles

On the eve of the African nations Cup qualifiers in Abuja against Guinea, what is becoming a usual task came my way, an international radio station pulled a call through to me on Friday asking me what are the chances of the Nigerian Super Eagles. Pointedly, I told the Reporter, “my mind deceives me to watch how the Super Eagles of Nigeria will make the nation unhappy with the outcome of the game.” He then asked me for a possible scoreline, I volunteered:  “I do not see the Eagles soaring. I saw their wings clipped. My crystal ball showed a slim 1-0 score line which Guinea scored.”

A younger colleague who heard the published version of the interview called me, he accused me of not being patriotic and nationalistic to which I replied in a blackberry instant message: “Baba, I dey. Waiting for Siasia’s Eagles like I said. My mind deceives me to watch them. Can they play well and win well? No. or win but play badly? Yes. Uhm! Or will the table turn on our face with a slim goal. Yes.  If they try better, disaster still looms somewhere.”

As soon as the match finished, he pulled a call through to me seeking for why I chose to use “your acidic mouth to nail the nation because I am always afraid of things you say about sports in this country. Consistently, you have proved some of these things so aptly.”

I only asked him. Can a bad person suddenly become good? To which he said, ‘what if he borns again? I only laughed. Man is inherently a very consistent being. The religious ‘born again’ syndrome has never changed a man. Those who attempt change only left their beings to adopt new beings. There is vectoral dislocation which normally is resisted and sustained but is not natural.”

Now, Samson Siasia, for those who have heads and can remember, I said it shortly after he was appointed on Brila FM and on African Independent Television (AIT)’s SportsFile Saturday morning programme “is not a coach. He is the creation of the Nigerian media. He is primed to fail.”

I remember that there was a programme on Brila FM where my voice was repeated and so many of the fans who called in cursed and rained abuses on me. Some accused me of beefing Siasia and being jealous. Many of my friends who heard the programme begged me not to go against popular public tides. I remember telling Mrs. Oyekale, radio curses have never been known to have potency.

THE FACTS OF HISTORY:

1.       Samson Siasia took the Jos University Teaching Hospital (JUTH FC) of Jos to relegation as its Chief Coach;

2.       Samson Siasia took his native Bayelsa United FC of Yenagoa to relegation a Chief Coach;

3.       Kumbi Titiloye who is now the administrator of Kwara Football Academy (KFA) in Ilorin introduced Simon Kalika to Siasia in 2005.

4.       Samson Siasia helped the Heartland FC of Owerri that played in the previous season’s African Champions League final to a disastrous first round exit without winning a single match. That is the only game he has since 2005 played without his talisman, Simon Kalika! Had he brought in Kalika, he would have performed better.

5.       Our mutual coach in Maiduguri, Sebastine “Sabara” Imasuen is still alive in Benin-City. I do not want to remind him of the day, a player, he imported from Julius Berger FC of Lagos made him to shed tears due to the problem of discipline. Not too long, Sabara moved on to the national under-17 where he hit stardom as a coach. Our friend moved on to the senior national team. As a mafia, we all have fresh memories of their activities against coaches like Shaibu Amodu.

6.       The Nigerian sporting media remains one of the core problems of the sports industry. They have consistently fed their reading, listening and watching public with misinformation and disinformation. The created the Siasia phenomenon as the Eldorado. What are their new defences? Siasia must have been sabotaged! I am waiting to read. Was it not on their sports pages he told us: “I am 10 times better than Amodu”? Has he met any one of the three era of Amodu’s records in the national team?

7.       I siddon look. Waiting on Siasia’s employers, the Nigerians Feeding on Football (NFF) as led by Aminu Maigari. In saner climes, they are supposed to wake the nation on Sunday morning with resignation after sacking Siasia. No. they will rationalize and continue the maladministration of Nigerian football as usual! You want to ask of the NSC and the Sports Minister? Please, go to sleep again.