Nigeria in 2018: Probably The Worst Place To Be Born Or Live

July 19, 2018September 1, 2018 / Adeola / Leave a comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

The headline can be controversial but l must write about this.

There is no official declaration of war in Nigeria but have you taken a trip around Nigeria lately?

A lot of people are in denial of the true state of things in Nigeria. In particular some people make a lot of money and wealth in Nigeria and they think that is a shield from the true nature of things. There is also another category of Nigerians who travel around the world and when they are in Nigeria they have the money to splash around and they think that Nigeria is the deal.

I am putting myself in the position of the ordinary Nigerian. The one who is unemployed due to no fault of his. I am putting myself in the position of the Nigerian who is totally disconnected from the meaning of true governance. I am putting myself in the position of the man and woman who is suffering immensely because of every N1 that is stolen or every N1m that disappears from the treasury of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Based on my position l have come to a conclusion that Nigeria is probably the worst place to be born among the countries not officially at war.

I wish l could take a trip with anyone who disagree with me. Such trip can be divided into sub-trips. We can take a trip in Lagos and visit all the local government areas. We can take a trip and travel in Rwanda, Ghana, Sweden, Togo, Benin, England and any other place not officially at war. Then we can put together our findings and make a conclusion of which country is the worst to be born or live. I am ready for this challenge anyday anytime.

If you have an emergency in Lagos, there is a 98% chance that you will die. The reasons are: you cannot make a journey of 10 minutes in 10 minutes to the hospital. It may take you 1 hour. A journey of 20 minutes can take you 4 hours. So you chance of survival is very slim.

There are other reasons and mainly health care is a mess. The best evidence of this is the regular travel of Nigeria’s politicians overseas for treatment. The other problems are that you need to be wealthy to have access to quality health in Nigeria. Emergency situations in Nigeria commonly result to deaths.

In everyday Lagos life, it is a struggle. Even some war torn ountries don’t ecperience such struggles. I encourage you to look for a video of Daddy showkey on the internet and see how it was impossible to reach Ajegunle from Ojodu. He never made it !

Nigeria is hiding the tru nature of life in Nigeria from the rest of the world. Nigerian celebrities are not doing enough, most of them are concerned about making money and not losing the patronage of the corrupt money that gets to them daily.

Nigerians are living are slaves in Nigeria and people are compromised. This is not right. There was a useless eelction recently in Ekiti where both APC and PDP were bribing the electorates. You can go one weeping for Nigeria and the level of deceits is unimaginable and the people are just rolling by rather than collectively revolting and taking back their country.

I will post some headling for you here and these headlines are normal, regular, not unexpected and they are okay because there are no more outrages in Nigeria. The people have become zombified and accepting a wrong type of existence.

I have never in my life seen a country with so much suffering and problems where the people are passive and resilient.

The government is a total failure at all levels and it is shocking to me that Nigeria has not been declared as a disaster zone herself. I visited Nigeria and l know what l am talking about.

I keep asking people “how can we be living like this”? There are no definite answers and people keep praying and hoping rather than coming together to stop the nonsense in the land.

Mr. Buhari’s government is full of lies and propaganda. Everyday hundreds of Nigeria die for various reasons relating to security, health and transportation. National emergencies should be declared instead of all these lies.

Headlines like these are no longer causing outrages or condemnations among Nigerians. They have come to accept terrorists and terrorism as part of the Nigerian existence. The herdsmen are commonly never apprehended and justice is never served.

In several parts of Nigeria there is lack of urban or rural planning meaning that EIA, Evironmental Impact Assessments are not done or they are ignored. If the government knows the meaning of planning then deaths like these can be prevented.

This is a rare acknowledgement that Nigeria is not safe as stated by Mr. Buhari. The problem here is that Dogara and his colleagues are carting away millions of dollars monthly as salaries and allowances. He is also part of the corrupt elites in Nigeria and people like him and Saraki should be prosecuted but the judiciary is weak and lazy. With politicians who are dishonest, Nigeria will remain one of the worst places to live on earth.

Emergencies are never declared and dying in Nigeria is not treated as a serious problem. No outrage when a soul is missing. Imagine 49 dead and property destroyed yet no national package on prevention of future flooding. Nobody was sacked and nobody took responsibility. Any kind of rain can result to flood in NIGERIA due to poor planning and lack of respect for human life

What has the APC government done to end the massacre and genocide across Nigeria? Nothing ! There are a few communities and villages taken over by the herdsmen in Benue and we have not heard that government troops have gone in to arrest the herdsmen. We have not heard that APC has reverted the communities back to the original owners. Is Buhari and APC not commiting war crimes in Nigeria?

Nigeria is one of the worst places to live and headlines like these tell the story. Which agency at the state and federal levels are monitoring building standards? A passerby or a young child or anybody at all could have perished with this building. We have seen and heard so many stories of collapse buildings. If there are things around you that could end your life abruptly, you are living on the edge!

Lagos in particular needs a permanent solution to the trailers, tankers dilemma on the roads. The tanker drivers and their owners are to date above the law and that is so ridiculous and shameful. In a lawless country things are done anyhow without consequences. Many trailers are involved in road accidents and many people have been killed like it is a ritural that must happen. Until the next disaster the Lagos state government goes underground and does nothing to prevent re-occurence.

What a sad loss! Nobody cares in Nigeria..! People just act like nothing happened and only the families affected by a tragedy bears the brunt and pains. It’s so typical Nigeria not to care anymore!

There are now so many terrorist groups in Nigeria and this one beats me. They may say they are not a terror group but that a rumoured attack is attached to a group simply in my own world means that you represent terror! For the attacks that these monsters have perpetrated, what has the APC done to ensure that they are arrested and brought under the law? Nothing!

Nigerians don’t believe in the judicial system so they take the laws into their hands. If somebody wants you dead all they have to do is to shout thief thief on you in a market place and you will be dead in split seconds. People are angry at the wrong things! The politicians are looting billions daily and they are living big and fat. Nobody is outrage at them. People kill their own kinds easily rather than turn them to the police. They don’t trust the police, they don’t trust the law system. Jungle justice it is!

BOKO HARAM was never defeated in 2015. Buhari lied! Buhari should have been impeached but Nigerian politicians are birds of the same feather. Nigeria needs to adopt a new system of government. The unitary system is not working and terrorism is a falliout of failed govenrment. The earlier Nigerian adopt regional government, the better. But the need to equip the military and the need to put a stop to BH is urgent.

Poverty and lawlessness go hand in hand in Nigeria. People risk their lives to make ends meet. It is a sad situation!

This is what you get when the government fails to provide safe and comfortable means of transport for the people.

Nigeria’s failed health system is amplified by the regular visit of Mr. Buhari to London. In the 1950s Nigeria was the hub of health tourism. 3 years after the APC came to power the government still cannot provide health care for Buhari. This is a shame l am so pissed off. You are a BIG fool if you try to justify or rationalise Buhari’s trip abroad for treatment.

Buhari has not hidden his love for the North. He is better off as the president of the North rather than the president of Nigeria. The security problem in Nigeria is largely due to Buhari appointing his kinsmen into all the key military positions in Nigeria. Buhari is not fit to be the president of Nigeria even for one day. Disgraceful!

This is Nigeria!

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We need to do something in every aspect of the Nigerian life. I mean every aspect and all these lies about the good life is propaganda. We need to come down to the level of the every day life of the common people and see their sufferings. It’s a hopeless situation everywhere you turn and we need a real change.

Nigeria is a failed country. We need a reset button and we need a new lease of life. We need to get rid of both APC and PDP and try something new. We need new hands and we need new ideas. APC and PDP members are changing camps as they like and that means they are just crazy and have no solutions at hand.

I m particularly angry at young people who cannot use their age and advantage to change the status quo. Many young people are behind APC and PDP and that is a great mistake. People have lost their senses because they want to make money and become part of the elites and oppressors club.

The meaning of life is lost in Nigeria and my conclusion is that Nigeria is the worst place to be born or live permanently in the world in 2018.

I did not write this eassy to destroy Nigeria. I am writing this because l want us to educate ourselves and l want us to love Nigeria and help her recover. We cannot continue to lie and deceive ourselves that things are alright. They are not and we are not alright. I am certainly not alright coming back to a shameful country like Nigeria every now and then.

we must talk and write about these things that are not working. We must stop to be selfish and stop thinking only about ourselves.

We all deserve to live decent lives. NiGERIANS deserve quality lives and we must do all we can to get to that level no matter what it takes.

You can tell that l have never been afraid for my life because life is transient and no matter how good or bad we are, it ends one day. But whilst it last, it pains to see Nigeria this way. It hurts badly!

This Is Your Lagos? Shame On You APC, PDP, Buhari, Fasola And Ambode!(PhotoNews)

July 13, 2018July 13, 2018 / Adeola / Leave a comment

Many roads in Lagos states ought to be shut down as disaster zones. There are accidents, deaths and several untold hardships on these roads daily. Those who are responsible for these roads ought to be arrested and prosecuted for crimes against humanity.

By Adeola Aderounmu

I took all the pictures you see in this essay between June 26 and July 10 2018.

Civilian rule returned to Nigeria in 1999. This means that Nigerian politicians in both the ruling APC and the opposition PDP have spent together 19 years in governance and still cannot put right what the military gangsters destroyed.

So the systemic failure in Nigeria today is due largely to the lack of performances since 1999. We can argue that the stretch is longer but that is another discussion for another day.

Lagos is heavily littered. The government needs to step up waste management system. Somebody should care about health care in relation to waste management and disposal.

The state of the federal roads in Lagos state which is the economic capital of Nigeria is very appalling and disgraceful.

The state of the roads in Lagos state is heart breaking, depressing and sorrowful. (I will treat some parts of Ogun state in another essay).

I do not share the notion that a certain government is trying or that a certain governor is working. That’s all bullshit!

In the last 19 years at least, there are no more tenable excuses why the roads in Lagos should be so terrible.

Sincerely if l could make the decision, l will block all the roads you see in this essay. Human beings should not be allowed to travel on these roads. They are permanent death traps and l wish someone in the the world somewhere has the power to shut down all these dangerous roads in Lagos and elsewhere in Nigeria.

Roads in Nigeria are usually of low quality. They get bad before rainy season and worse during the rain. There are rivers on many roads in Lagos. This is Badagry expressway near the okokomaiko axis

Federal roads in Nigeria are amongst the worst roads in the world. Shame on Buhari and Fasola. Shame on previous PDP government

Nigerian roads easily destroy cars and reduce their life span.

Very bad roads in Lagos. Is this actually a road?

Bad road. What a useless government!

Whoever is responsible for these roads since 1999 ought to be arrested and prosecuted without delay. Since 2015, Mr. Buhari and Mr. Fasola are solely responsible for the federal roads in Lagos and they should be tried for crimes against humanity for all the deaths that continue to occur on the federal roads.

Without delay, the Badagry Express Way should be shut down!!! That is not an expressway. It is not even a road!

Mr. Ambode is culpable too because he is the number one citizen of Lagos state for the past 3 years! What has he been doing? Don’t tell me he is trying! He is not the governor of Lagos Island, is he?

If there are reasons why Mr. Fasola and Mr. Buhari have not constructed and maintained the federal roads in Lagos, why is Mr. Ambode not talking about it to the media and to the world just like l am doing now.

Badagry expressway has no defined lanes. You drive where you find a space and this means facing opposite traffic ofen times.

Badagry expressway

Badagry expressway. How express is this road?

Trying to navigate a way.

Smoky and gangerous plus l was faced by an oncoming traffic driving along Oshodi-Mile 2. Trailers and heavy traffic means driving on one way is a common trend.

Lagos roads are commonly dirty

Badagry expressway. Very very bad road!

A trailer fell on the road due to the bad state of the road and big pot holes. Lagos roads are the most dangerous roads l have seen all my life!

The trailer could have fallen on people or other cars. But this was a single incident causing obstruction to the already bad situation

Drving in rivers or on roads? Can we ask Buhari or Fasola? Vehicles face one another and there could be up to 8 lanes in multiple directions!!!

These roads are the consequences of every N1 or N5 stolen by government officials! May you never find peace if you support a government or the governments causing these type of hardship. May your generations suffer!

This commercial bus is going no where. In the middle of the road, tyres are off. A potential cause of accident!

A commercial bus broke down along Badagry expressway and the passengers wait for refund. Look at the road. LOOK AT THE FILTH! Is Nigeria really a country?

Confusion and commotion

Dirty Lagos. Don’t tell me Ambode is working or trying. One dirty street means nobody is working! Somebody should be facing prosecution for allowing the people dump waste on major roads.

Bad road. Badagry express road.

Can we call this a road? Who will answer , Buhari or Fasola?

Is this a road Mr Buhari, Mr Fasola Mr Ambode?

Crazy traffic in Lagos due to bad road

For one month at least, l’m going to pay for this essay on instagram and facebook. Then l will see what reactions we get. If possible, l will continue to sponsor the advertisement for this essay just as long as the problem remains and l will keep a tab on Lagos to see current situations.

How on earth can this be the situation and there are no outrages? What is wrong with Nigerians? What is wrong with Lagosians?

All the roads for transportation, state, local and federal must be in perfect shape and good maintenance. No road must be left untouched because the people of Nigeria deserve the best that life has to offer. You can’t do 50% of the roads. You can’t of 99% of the roads. The 1% left undone can cause death and other unwanted scenarios. You must be perfect. All roads must be fixed and that is the work/function of government.

The government is not doing the people any favour by doing what it is supposed to do.

Mr. Buhari, Mr. Fasola and Mr. Ambode must put their heads together now and put politics and election aside for once. Lagos roads and all roads in Nigeria must be fixed. It is your job. It is your work. No one is begging you. You are servants to the people and serve you must or get the hell out of the offices you occupy.

What l saw of Lagos roads revealed to me that on the long run, Nigeria must do away with the useless and senseless unitary system of government as soon as possible.

This part of festac town has been erased from the map of Nigeria. 4th avenue with faeces and sewage taking over the community for several years now.

Forgotten part of Lagos in Festac. The smell on this road is more or less a biological weapon against the people.

Festac Town. From glory to grass! Smelly stinking 4th avenue!

Somewhere about Ajao estate in Lagos as we drove to the airport. Lagos is giving wealth to Nigeria and the suffering is massive in Lagos. I cannot comprehend the shame and scandal in Lagos

I do not expect Mr. Buhari to know the roads l travel in Lagos. Even a federal minister knows little about the roads in Nigeria. But a governor and a local government chairman will know better. Therefore it is best to review how power can be taken away from that useless office in Abuja and taken back to the grassroots where people can see and solve their problems regionally and locally. It is just pure common sense!

Someplace in Lagos…bad roads everywhere. Did you say your governor is working? I say you have a governor for Lagos lsland, not a governor for Lagos! Certainly not a governor for Lagos mainland, not a governor for Iyana Iba, Okokomaiko towards Agbara Industrial Area. Dirty, messy Lagos!

I have been writing about the ills in Nigeria for almost 2 decades and l could go on here again in this essay but let’s save the tautology and hope that my message is clear: FIX ALL THE ROADS IN LAGOS AND END THIS SHAME!!

aderounmu@gmail.com

@aderinola

My Random Reflections @ 46

July 12, 2018July 11, 2020 / Adeola / Leave a comment

For my random reflections at 46, my thoughts are varied (as usual) and the physical and emotional pains l feel are real. I cry many times for Nigeria. I’m living through some of the saddest days of my life as a Nigerian as l continue to see the disconnection between the people and the government. I kept a mental image of the country Nigeria ought to be and l compare it with the reality that l face everyday as a Nigerian-born and my heart bleeds, profusely.

My Random Reflections @ 46

By Adeola Aderounmu

A trailer fell on Lagos road due to the bad state of the federal roads. (c) Adeola Aderounmu, Lagos. July 2018.

This is the 11th edition of my random reflections. I have done this for a decade to mark the celebration of my birthday. However it is hardly a celebration now because as l take a look at my country of birth Nigeria, all that comes to mind is the tragedy that befell the country.

Today’s Nigeria is a far cry from what the founding fathers dreamt of. Nigeria in 2018 is mostly in the hands of criminals who people wrongfully tagged as politicians.

The things l will write about today are repetitions (more or less) of what l have written about in almost 20 years.

Nigeria had gone a full cycle. Western Nigeria especially had gone from being one of the best places to live in the world (during the 1950s) to probably the worst place to live in the world today. This can be argued depending on the writer or speaker.

If you think about the fact that Lagos of the 1950s was ahead or at par with London and Paris in terms of development and compare the 3 cities today, you may perhaps decide on which part of the argument you want to pitch your tent.

Many Nigerians are growing up without the knowledge that western Nigeria was the tourist destination and medical health center for other commonwealth countries in the 1950s. The University College Hospital in Ibadan was among the best places to receive medical help at that time.

Many people have grown up not knowing that Nigeria was meant to be a super power based on regional government. It was on that path until the mid-1960s when things began to fall apart. The 1966 military coup and the civil war from 1967 to 1970 set the tone for what Nigeria is today.

Nigeria is now ranked as the poverty capital of the world.

The way things are now in Nigeria should bring tears to the eyes of anybody who has some sense and emotions.

You ought to be very, very sad if you can compare living in Nigeria with living in another country like Sweden.

If you travel on Badagry expressway and remain a normal person, you deserve some accolades. If you wake up early to go to work and return late at night, you need a thumb-up. If you are sick and manage to remain strong through it, you are the man/woman. If you struggle between thick and thin to put food on your table, for yourself or for your family, that is an everyday miracle.

The stories of our struggles in Nigeria are endless. The people running the government of Nigeria at all levels ought to be arrested, prosecuted and tried for crimes against human dignity as well as crimes against humanity.

The people of Nigeria need to get up one day and march down the entire country with a resolution that never again shall we be slaves in our country.

There is no justice from the Judiciary. There is no justice from the security agencies. There is no where you can turn to in Nigeria and find peace and equality for all men and women.

It is almost wrong now to describe Nigeria as a country because for a country to exist the welfare of the citizen must be paramount.

Nobody cared about my welfare in Nigeria. My basic right to education was long gone. Job creation and availability are not guaranteed as both public and private enterprises provide their own electricity and security.

A lot of enterprises, big, small and medium have closed businesses as they could no longer bear the cost of running businesses. Many have closed because of the raids from criminals and other gangs of unemployed youth.

Nigeria is as lawless as it can be. I can give examples of lawlessness from every office, organization and institution in Nigeria. I can give uncountable examples from walking down the streets and driving on the dangerous roads.

Most parts of Lagos are dirty and stinking. The roads, especially the federal roads are terrible and the worst in the whole world. Don’t believe the juicy images from Victory Island or Ikoyi. This is Lagos 2018! (c) Adeola Aderounmu. July 2018. Lagos

My frustration about Nigeria and how we got here knows no bound. My anger against how people behave, act, reason and talk is unquantifiable.

There is no plot for Nigeria at the moment. We sail to nowhere led by vagabonds!

One of the most painful things about Nigeria today is the lack of unity among the people. On the political stage, this lack of unity keeps the useless unitary system running from 1966. Nigeria will never make it as a country with the senseless system of government.

You must be a senseless person to operate or partake in a senseless system of government. Nigeria is a joke in the comity of nations and this system of government where one man sits in Abuja and tries to control everything in and around the country is the most telling on the intelligence of the most populous black nation in the world.

We are a bunch of jokers!

The unity that Nigerians need is the acknowledgement that the system of government needs to be dismantled without fear or war. The unity that Nigerians need is to trace their steps back to when Nigeria was among the global pacesetters in development and good quality of life.

Without that unity, Nigeria will remain permanently as the representative of the poverty capital of the world. For those who think this is unreal, my suggestion is for you to take a flight to Lagos and drive from the airport to Mile 2. From there take the ride of your life along Badagry expressway to Agbara and continue your journey to Atan towards Ota.

If you don’t find the pieces of evidence that Nigeria is a massive (s-hole), l’ll refund you for the ticket and trouble.

For my random reflections at 46, my thoughts are varied (as usual) and the physical and emotional pains l feel are real. I cry many times for Nigeria. I’m living through some of the saddest days of my life as a Nigerian as l continue to see the disconnection between the people and the government. I kept a mental image of the country Nigeria ought to be and l compare it with the reality that l face everyday as a Nigerian-born and my heart bleeds, profusely.

aderounmu@gmail.com

@aderinola

Mourinho’s Second Season At Manchester United

June 14, 2018June 14, 2018 / Adeola / Leave a comment

Mourinho’s Second Season At Manchester United: Why there was no trophy!

By Adeola Aderounmu

I am an unusual fan.

When l was a little boy growing up in Nigeria l knew the names of many football teams and many of their football players. In the days of Leventis United and ABIOLA Babes, l rock. And for the Nigerian national team, l knew their shirt numbers and their names from Best Ogedegbe to Segun Odegbami and Christian Chukwu.

Nigerian football died literarily the same way the Nigerian economy and many other glorious things died.

So instead of writing about Nigerian professional league which is on the rise again (l hope) but suffering severely in terms of marketing and profit compared to foreign leagues. Of course we left things in the hand of very bad people and very ignorant people. We have issues in Nigeria. Serious ones!

So don’t be mad at me for writing about Mourinho and Manchester United.

I am an unusual fan because l hardly follow a team for long. Rather l get stuck with some managers and over the past few years it has been Mourinho and recently Zidane.

Mourinho was supposed to be the man lifting the premier league trophy in 2018 but he made some terrible choices along the way. In the second season, still struggling with some half-baked players and some of the world’s most expensive players, Mourinho still had the chance but he was a bit disorganised.

A couple of things went wrong for Mourinho.

One of them was that he never had a nucleus team. No team can win anything without having a nucleus. Jose Mourinho did not establish a starting 11 under the 2017-2018 season. This is very bad for a coach. Mourinho should have had a good idea of his starting 11 for the league, for the champions league and for the league cup.

There are always injury concerns that affect the stability of a team. In the absence of injury you still need to establish a nucleus for every competition you play.

In one outstanding game, Mourinho’s Manchester United defeated Liverpool and with the way he had played the season, he could have used the same team to dismiss Sevilla.

But Mourinho decided to change the team. It is not as if l am contradicting myself but since Mourinho’s team was not a steady one he could have used the momentum of the Liverpoool game to dismiss Sevilla. But Mourinho more or less threw the game away at Old Trafford.

In the next season Mourinho needs to make a better plan and take the risks with the players he has. Build a nucleus of players for each competition and stop the excessive rotation of players after every game. For the premier league especially, he needs a team of 11 and a balanced group of replacements on the bench. You can’t win the premier league with unsteady selections.

The other problem with Mourinho is that he spent a lot of time planning the technicalities for the big games and doing nothing for the small games. It was the small games that sank Manchester United in the 2017/18 season. Hudderfield, Newcastle and other smaller teams stole victories from Manchester United. Some get draws! The worst was the lose to West Brom who were already hopeless.

Jose Mourinho, you cannot win the premier league when you lose to teams facing relegation. Mourinho and Manchester United must spend as much time and energy on the big games as the small games. They all count.

Another sensitve issue in Manchester United is the team ego. The team has many big players who want to hold down certain positions in the team. Mourinho must have this sorted out during the pre-season and in training. A player should not come on or off the pitch grumbling or unhappy. As l player l need to know where and how l fit in the the coach’s plan and do my job on the pitch.

I was following Mourinho at Chelsea, at Madrid, a bit at Inter. He has down a full cycle and is now at Manchester United. What Mourinho needs to do better is not complete without talking about his defensive style. He needs to be more ruthless and Manchester United really needs to train about how the players can work more for the team than for self-glory. When you attack, the players need to look for one another in order to maximise their advantages.

Often Manchester United fall deep in own half instead of finishing up a game they are poised to win. If you have a better team you need to show it more in attacking and less in counter attack.

Jose, now you know that someone is following you first and the team second.

Good luck to you next season and l will be watching you and the style you bring.

By the way, victory or no victory, l get inspiration from you as a coach and as a school teacher l adapt some of what l see in what l do but l try not to change too many things so that my students don’t get confused. Teachers always stick to the plan!

aderounmu@gmal.com

Nigeria And The 2018 World Cup

June 14, 2018June 14, 2018 / Adeola / Leave a comment

Nigeria And The 2018 World Cup

By Adeola Aderounmu

I have just watched the first match of the 2018 world cup, Russia 2018 with the host country white-washing the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia with 5-0. Some people were already questioning the qualification/eligibility of Saudi Arabia based on their poor performance.

It was a victory that the Russians needed to stamp their authority as the host of the competition. Afterall Korea went all the way to the semifinal when she hosted the competition albeit getting all the help in the world from the FIFA referees along the way.

Anyway l want to spend the little time l have now on the Super Eagles of Nigeria, their NIKE shirt maker and the friendlies they lost.

ONCE again Nigeria is one of the hopes of the continent of Africa. The good news is that Nigeria lost her 2 friendly matches in a run up to the world cup. A 1-2 lose to England was the first wake up call. It was good news because Nigerians now know that their hopes should not be beyond the abilities or the capabilities of the boys representing them at Russia 2018. If Nigeria crashes out in the group stages, there will be no serious hypertension.

In fact l wished the health authorities in Nigeria can sound a note of warning about the health implications of getting too emotional about this worldcup. I learnt my lessons far back in USA 1994 during my last year at the University of Lagos.

We were African champions and we were the 4th best team in the world. That team had the potentials to be the world champion. All is history now.

When the Super Eagles match out in this tournament, they will face Croatia, a very technical team, Iceland, a team that sent England home at Euro 2016 and Argentina, a familiar foe.

The Super Eagles are parading the youngest team at the tournament but the players are full of experience. Mikel Obi and Victor Moses will team up with Onazi and Iwobi to lead the team to glory (if they choose glory).

The boys should not be carried away by the colours or admiration of their jerseys. NIKE is smiling to the bank despite doing a very useless job on the provision of the national wears. NIKE is asking me for a feedback on the way my questions have been answered concerning the messy work they did with the national team jersey and its availability globally. This will be my feedback, a blog entry.

If you go to leading football stores/ websites around the world, you can buy the national team jerseys of the world best teams and national teams. But you cannot buy the original of that of Nigeria at the retail price before and after June 1 2018. In my opinion, this is a very useless development. If the world loves the super eagles jersey, it was the responsibility of NIKE to see to it that the world gets it.

But no, they can produce any amount they like and they can decide not to produce more when the stock that was released on June 1 ran out globally after 20 minutes.

What does NIKE care about the feelings of Nigeria? Absolutely nothing!

NIKE has no respect for Nigerians and the supporters of Nigeria football if that means that whe whole world support Nigeria.

Today l can still buy the national team jerseys of leading football clubs in the world, but not that of Nigeria that just even drop her position in FIFA’s ranking.

I know NIKE tried to explain it but it is not acceptable. The reasons fell flat.

You don’t prepare for rain by waiting for the rain to start. I learnt that before l was 8 years old.

Money they made, yes. They also opened the market for fake products from China to Ibadan. Good for those in that line of business. But the responsibility of making the products available wherever and whenever was damn bad. I will leave it like that though l have more to say about it.

For the games, Nigeria must watch out for the ICELANDERS. They are formidable and they will punish any team for the slightest mistake. That is their greatest strength. They lay low and allow you to make a mistake and that is it. Their second strength is in set-pieces. They don’t like to waste them.

So Nigeria cannot go to sleep for one minute playing a wise team like Iceland.

For Croatia and Argentina, Nigerians just need to hold up their heads and remember that they play week-in and week-out at the same levels with these players in different leagues in Europé. They are the same people and should not be given the kind of respect that will make the Nigerian team look inferior. Just do it! Isn’t that what NIKE wants whether we the supporters get the jersey or not?

I am going to sit back and watch as many matches as l can. I hope the referees don’t make me switch off my tv with some useless decisions. These happened in many games before and FIFA need to stop influencing results. The corruption in FIFA must not be brought to the field of play or to gambling companies.

Some of us just want to relax and see the beautiful game. A part of us is attached to our country’s team and the other part just want to be part of the greatest sport event on planet earth.

aderounmu@gmail.com