The victorious Super Falcons of Nigeria at the 11th edition of the African Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) in Ghana are the face-saving squad that rescued the once upon a time giant of Africa in football, Nigeria from a big shame at the recently held Confederations of African Football Awards 2018.
The awards which was held glamourously saw Egypt and Liverpool hitman Mohammed Salah emerging the best African footballer of the Year beating the duo of Sane and Aubameyang to clinch the most coveted laurel in the continent.
The other categories were also won by different countries while Nigeria’s Wilfred Ndidi lost out the Young Player of the Year award. In totality, no Nigerian individually picked up any award save for the Super Falcons who emerged queens at the female mundial in Africa in late 2018. This however pointed to the fact that Nigerian football may be heading into doldrums. It is however baffling that while the head honcho of the country’s football association/federation Amaju Pinnick was busy for the entire year battling Chris Giwa for the leadership of the NFF, the country’s football kept gotten rottening. The country’s league (NPFL) was also seriously affected as it could not be concluded before the trophy was handed over to eventual “champions” Lobi Stars of Makurdi.
This is a clarion call however to the Presidency to know that football is a veritable tool to remove the Nigerian youths from social vices and focus more on the Nation’s soccer and all other sports in general.
Meanwhile, Nigerian over-ambitious politicians keep organising soccer competitions last year, just as a campaign strategy, but never did anything to correct the delabitating status of the country’s soccer.