One cool evening, not very long ago, my friend and I, both elderly, sat under the eaves of a provision shop, sipping the drinks we had ordered. My phone rang and I was deciding whether or not to answer the call. I saw the caller’s name and chose not to answer because I didn’t want to break my conversation with my friend. I could always call back. When I turned my attention back to my old friend, he told me his youngest son had just passed by with his friends. He said the young man had just completed his National Youth Service and was doing nothing. According to him, he asked him to give his elder brother a hand in the school he was running. But he refused, saying he had something better to do. “What’s it?” he asked the boy. “Something that’ll bring good money fast,” the boy replied. “And what’s that?” “Something to do with the internet and computers.” I turned in time to see the young man and his friends turn a corner further down the street. My companion didn’t have a good education but his native intelligence told him his boy wasn’t up to anything good.
I forgot about what my friend told me about his boy as soon as we parted company. But it came flooding back last week when the Confederation of African Football Federations (CAF) held its annual awards for this year in Morocco. Three young Nigerians and our senior women football team were among the awardees. Victor Osimhen, 24, received the award of African Player of the Year (2023). He beat Morocco’s Achraf Hakimi and Egypt’s Mohamed Salah to the award, the first by a Nigerian footballer for 24 years. In his acceptance speech, Osimhen, who plays professional football in Europe for Italian side Napoli, said, “My football journey has been a rollercoaster of highs, tough lows and emotions. The goals, echoes and jubilation of victories keep me going, even when the critics, hate and pain of defeats hit me hard in the chest.” Last season, the Nigerian helped Napoli win the Italian league cup, their first for 33 years. He placed 8th in the race for the prestigious Ball d’Or, the only Africa to have come that close.
Another Nigerian, a woman, Asisat Oshoala, won the African Woman Player of the Year for a record extending sixth time. Last season, Oshoala won the treble including the Champions League with Spanish side Barcelona. On the domestic front, she got the Pichichi for being the joint-top scorer in the league – 27 goals. She also scored once as Nigeria reached the World Cup round of 16. She was also nominated for this year’s Ballon d’Or prize. Another, Chiamaka Nnadozie, became the African Woman Goalkeeper of the year. And the team she played for, the Super Falcons, were declared the team of the year, after a marvellous showing during the 2023 Fifa Women World Cup co-hosted by Australia and New Zealand.
A delighted President Bola Tinubu promptly sent out his congratulations. He said, ”Watching the great ambassadors of Nigeria stand atop the podium as the African Footballers of the Year, in the men and women categories, on Monday night in Marrakech, Morocco, has strengthened our belief that with hard work, perseverance and the help of God, everything this nation needs for greatness is within us and available to us. I commend Victor and Asisat for not forgetting their roots and days of humble beginnings in the game they love so much and for acknowledging the role of indigenous coaches in shaping their careers. I join all Nigerian fans in praying that this well-deserved honour will be the beginning of a continued journey filled with success, triumphs, and the fulfilment of all your football dreams.”
Contrast the expansive joy of Nigerians as a result of the great feats achieved by those young athletes with the pain of that lone parent whose young son has chosen to “bury” his talent and enter the underworld of crime. The two groups hanker after greatness. They want to make a name, but using two different paths. The sportsman and sportswomen have chosen the “narrow way” strewn with briers of challenges including disappointments but which will ultimately lead to victory. The young man, on the other hand, has opted for the “broadway” of ease and comfort but the outcome is known to the father, definitely not his son. He will only later realize it to his utter horror, coming face to face with defeat.
While I was growing up, my father would only send me on long distance errands, like taking a message to a friend in a faraway village. “A long distance, surely, will take some time to cover but it won’t draw blood from your body,” he would say. “The joy of delivering the message is immense.” But he would warn, “don’t take a shortcut, it may help you to reach your goal faster but it is full of booby traps, of uncertainties.” Those of us who heeded his word of time worn wisdom, always assuredly, had good stories to tell in the end. The sweetness of success dwarfed the travail of the long tortuous journey.
Two years ago, the United States government published names of some 50 otherwise educated young Nigerians who were conning innocent Americans out of millions of dollars using the cyberspace. A crime both there and here in Nigeria. Those youngsters, now exposed, could only hide their faces in big shame. Unlike their fellow citizens, like the CAF awardees this year, whose success, achieved through hard work, everybody is celebrating. Industry and patience always pay handsomely. But crime? Never, always, always.
