By Ernest Osogbue
The Super Eagles team B, the CHAN Eagles or home based Eagles as the case may be, recently crashed out of the African Nations Championship, following a 4-0 bashing by Sudan. The team had lost its opening game 1-0 to Senegal, before crumbling to Sudan. Before now Nigerian teams had consistently fumbled in continental championships. Leading football stakeholders to wonder what the matter was.
To find the answer, we must dial back to August 2021, when Shehu Dikko sat in front of a group of journalists at the media center of the MKO Abiola National Stadium. The event was the SWAN Forum, an interactive event created by the Sportswriters Association of Nigeria SWAN, to give opportunity to sports administrators and other top government officials, as well as operators in the private sector to have a one on one with journalists.
Before Shehu Dikko’s appearance on that August day in his capacity as the chairman of the League Management Company LMC, the SWAN Forum had been dormant due to the squabbles within the FCT SWAN. After winning a factional election, Bumi Haruna wanted to prove his mettle as the authentic leader of FCT SWAN by reviving the very popular SWAN Forum. He did well by choosing Shehu Dikko as the first guest on the hot seat.
To be sure, Shehu Dikko was very popular in FCT SWAN circles. He had a group of followers within the association who would do anything for him. Despite some giving him the cold shoulder, due to his perceived arrogant disposition, he still managed to maintain a core following due largely to the fact that Abuja sportswriters preferred him to his nemesis, Amaju Pinnick. Pinnick’s relationship with Abuja sportswriters, was akin to the relationship between oil and water, both of which could never mix.
At another level as well, Pinnick had denied Dikko the presidency of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, in 2014, following high level politics at an election held in Warri, and bankrolled by the then Delta State governor, Emmanuel Uduaghan, who happened to be Pinnick’s cousin. This perceived injustice further endeared Dikko to a section of the Abuja sporting press, which felt that Dikko, who was well qualified and capable of being the NFF president, had been done dirty.
The August 2021 SWAN Forum was, therefore, an opportunity, not only for Dikko to reaffirm and reassert his popularity within the ranks of the Abuja sporting press, but also a chance for him to flex his muscles ahead the upcoming NFF elections in 2022. After the official introductions by Bumi Haruna, the forum commenced in earnest. Dikko went on to express his belief that the 2020/2021 NPFL season, which had just concluded, was the best ever season in the nation. His reasons: highest number of away wins, least number of penalties awarded, highest average goals scored, and these were achieved despite the devastating effects of Covid-19. According to Dikko, while most African football leagues had placed footballers on half pay, due to the Covid situation, the NPFL had kept players on their full remunerations. The league, according to him, therefore, deserved commendation.
When the issue of why Nigerian clubs were performing poorly in continental championships was raised, that was when Dikko went into his full element. It is to be noted here, that since Enyimba FC of Aba won back to back CAF Champions League titles in 2003 and 2004, no significant impact had been made by Nigerian clubs in the competition or in the lesser CAF Confederations Cup. The journalists who believed that Dikko had the wherewithal to reverse the negative trend, wanted to know what his plans were, in making Nigerian football clubs competitive again on the continent.
Dikko had surprisingly dismissed CAF club competitions. What value does winning the CAF Champions League bring to the nation, talk less of the Confederations Cup? He asked rhetorically. After all, South African clubs prioritized local championships over CAF competitions. According to Dikko, he was looking beyond Nigeria doing well in CAF club competitions. His target was to use football as a means of foreign exchange earnings for Nigeria. For him, Nigeria should be competing with Brazil in terms of footballer exports annually. All the major clubs in the top European leagues have at least one Brazilian footballer. By Dikko’s estimation, and going by the abundance of football talents in Nigeria, the country should be more competitive in the transfer market and rival Brazil. Outside national championships like the AFCON, WAFCON, and others, CAF club competitions offered less than the export of footballers, according to him. Dikko’s target, therefore, was that Nigeria should target to have as many footballers playing in top European clubs as Brazil.
In September 2022, just over one year after Dikko’s appearance at the SWAN Forum, the LMC, which he headed, was declared illegal by the federal government. His sports management career was deemed to be over, until his surprising appointment by President Tinubu as the chairman of the National Sports Commission, NSC. This followed the dissolution of the Federal Ministry of Sports Development, in the wake of a disastrous showing by team Nigeria, at the Olympic Games in Paris.
From all indications, Dikko may not have had much time to actualize his vision. Be that as it may, it is obvious that the seed of the vision had been sown. Nigerian players are all over the world today, though, they may not be playing in the top European clubs as envisioned by Dikko. The lure of the dollar and the make it quick syndrome have led many footballers into moving to just about any country, even before their talent matures. Lebanon, Afghanistan, India, and other obscure countries are places where you could find Nigerian footballers plying their trade. In terms of the current home based Eagles, most of the players who qualified the team for the CHAN had left the country even before the championship began.
This is the big dilemma faced by Nigeria. Despite Brazil exporting football talents regularly, the country continues to do well in continental championships. Brazilian clubsides have dominated the Copa Libertadores, the CONMEBOL version of the CAF Champions League, since 2019, winning every title in that time. There’s equally a large sprinkling of local talents when the Brazilian national team files out for international competitions, which is not the case with Nigeria.
It follows, therefore, that while Dikko may have had good intentions, the lack of structures and proper planning may have derailed his vision and left the NPFL, floundering. This has resulted in the poor performance of the CHAN Eagles, leading to a disgraceful performance at the current championship. While it would be remiss to place the entire blame of poor performance of the Nigerian league on Shehu Dikko and his ambitious plan of matching Brazil, it is believed that he must share in the blame. This is because he had the opportunity to reverse the trend but preferred to go on a wild goose chase, knowing fully well that the economic situation in Brazil, as well as the football structures in place were completely different from what obtains in Nigeria.
