The BusinessDay CEO Magazine May 2017

The BusinessDay CEO, May 2017 | 34
Realizing that a golden dream
was evaporating before his
eyes, he quickly faced reality in
his following statement
capturing his renewed attitude
“it's all about work and just
needing to get my things
together and get it right. I've got
to get in the work and figure out
what I did wrong”. And with that
he got himself in shape.
The Nigerian Super Eagles – Our 'Invincible' of old
I remember with nostalgia when all the immigration officers in the countries that I visited in the
1990's became very friendly upon sighting my Nigerian Passport, reeling the names of our
Super Eagle players and asking me if I knew them; Jay-Jay, Kanu, Amuneke, Keshi,
Okewchukwu, Taribo, Oliseh, Rufia, Amokachie, Yekini, Siasia, Ikpeba and the host of others .
These were the glory days of Nigerian soccer, where other teams' reverence of our players
conferred on us very deep respect as a country. Not so these days; we have managed to get
ourselves stuck in a losers' mentality to the extent that 'the giant of Africa' did not even qualify for
the last edition of the African Nations Cup in Gabon this year.
We managed to win the bronze medal at the Rio Olympics, but who remembers, after the
unbelievable story of our players being stranded in America and arriving only hours before their
opening match; what manner of organization? The headlines in the global media were enough
to make every Nigerian bow their heads in shame. The Mirror succinctly captured it thus
“Nigerian Olympic football team stranded in Atlanta hours before first game after unpaid flight
bill”.
You did not need to read the body of the copy to see how shoddy our organization could be.
How can we aspire to Gold with this attitude?
ITCHING TO FINISH THIS BUT ENSURE YOU LOOK OUT FOR THE NEXT EDITION TO SEE
HOW THIS ENDS.