This is an analysis of the decline of the Nigeria Super Eagles. Because it is in depth, I shall be posting it in parts. Part I itself is somewhat long. I beg for your indulgence.  I hope for a meaningful discourse from the forum.



The current state of decline of the Super Eagles of Nigeria, as evidenced by the team's mediocre performances and its meagre achievements in recent times, is not a recent phenomenon but a situation that has developed gradually. At its zenith, the team, through its extremely talented players and its meteoric rise in the 1990s, exemplified to the world the depth, the richness, and the dynamism of African football. This caused Pele to predict that an African team would win the world cup before or by the turn of the century. The team’s achievements in the 1990s led Nigerians to dub it the giant of Africa, a metaphor that expressed their pride in the team and perhaps alluded to the latent greatness of the nation. But owing to this present state of decline, only the delusional would persist in thinking that this moniker is still an apt metaphor for the team. In the following, I will argue that, in fact, a level of delusion afflicts and clouds the judgment of Nigerians (be they administrators, coaches, players or fans), leading to a failure to come to terms with this state of decline. In analyzing this decline, I hope to expose what we did wrong as a nation, leading to the squandering of our potential, vis-a-vis what we did right to cause our rapid rise in the 1990s. This should show us what to avoid in the present and in the future if we are to progress, and what to emulate if we are to replicate or surpass our past success.

Black Power Rises

Pele's prediction, which he has since retracted, was not based on the Super Eagles' success alone. Four years earlier, at the Italia '90 World cup, Cameroon had shocked the world by reaching the quarter final of the competition. They defeated the defending champions, Argentina in the process, and gave England a stiff fight in the quarter final. It was a good decade for African football. Teams like Zaire and Zambia were no longer minors. In terms of the abundance of talents in the continent, Zambia presents a case in point. Having lost her entire first team in the months leading to the 1994 Cup of Nations, Zambia was able to rebound, assembling quickly a new team, which would defy the odds and reach the final of the 1994 Cup of Nations. Her fellow southern African neighbour, South Africa, having been admitted into African Football, after the abolishment of apartheid, was set to challenge any country for dominance in Africa. South Africa showed her seriousness by winning the 1996 Cup of Nations and by placing second in the next edition. At the youth level, Africa was not doing badly either: just before the turn of the decade, the Nigeria under 20 team had confounded the world, at the 1989 competition in Saudi Arabia,  by coming from four goals down to beat the USSR, in what Nigerians would call the Dammam Miracle. She would eventually play in the final, losing to Portugal, the great team that produced the likes of Luís Figo. Ghana, in turn, would emulate Nigeria four years later by reaching the final of the same competition. Indeed in 1996, Nigeria would become the first African country to win an Olympic gold medal in football. At the under 17 level, Africa won the competition twice in the decade: Ghana in 1991 and Nigeria in 1993, playing the former in the final. The future looked bright, and Africa seemed set to dominate world football in the next century, and with her success in the 1994 World Cup and her 1996 Olympic victory, no country was better poised than Nigeria to lead Africa into this new frontier.  All, indeed, looked good, or so it seemed.

Giant Deflated

Signs that things were not as they seemed began to surface in Nigeria's build up to the 1998 World Cup. She lost all of the three friendly matches she played before the competition. Her lost to Germany in the first friendly match by a slim margin of one goal appeared to be the normal result of football; a team cannot win at all times was the common wisdom. Comments by the German manager, Berti Vogts (Nigeria’s future coach), after the match were revealing. In essence he contrasted the team-approach of his country with the individualistic mind set of the Nigerian team, which, though dazzling, was not sufficient for victory as the outcome of the match denoted. In any case, Nigerians were unfazed by this defeat, although hope had been high for a Super Eagles victory.  Concern surfaced, however, after a second defeat by a wider margin (3:0), about a month later, at the hand of Yugoslavia. The concern turned to dismay, and then to consternation and outrage, when the Super Eagles were trashed, 5:1, by Holland in the third friendly match. The poignancy of the situation was made more acute in the light of the fact that only a few months earlier, Nigeria had celebrated the appointment of a "world class" coach, in the person of Bora Milutinović, who had been appointed after the departure of Philippe Troussier. With the employment of this "world class" coach, Nigeria seemed set to surpass the success of the 1994 World Cup. It was understandable then that Nigerians would be concerned about this string of loses just before the World Cup.

Reports surfaced of cliques and rancour in the team. Analysts supposed these three defeats to be a result of this fact. What else could be responsible, when we had by all accounts world class players and a "world class" manager? Berti Vogts’ prognosis, referenced above, did not seem to have caught the attention of anyone, certainly not the attention of the coach himself, or of the football administrators. And when Nigeria shocked Spain in their opening match at the Stade de la Beaujoire in Nantes, France, at the World Cup, all seemed well. This was confirmed by the Eagles’ second victory over Bulgaria, a one-nil defeat of the later. If we would eventually lose the third match against Paraguay by a 1:3 margin, it was attributed to our having fielded the second eleven for the match. But the disease that had been eating quietly away at the team, which had caused the three defeats before the World cup, would resurface to deliver a devastating blow to the nation's ambition of surpassing its achievement at the 1994 World Cup: The Eagles were trashed 4:1 by Denmark. This was the beginning of the team’s decline.

But this decline would not be apparent until eight years later. Our performance in the 2000 Cup of Nations seemed to indicate that all was well. At this time, we still had players who were at the top of their game, although some of them were arguably at the beginning of their twilight. Johannes Bonfere displayed his technical insight in the match against South Africa by fielding Tijani Babangida on the left wing instead of his customary right wing position, disorganizing the South Africans’ expectation. Two first-half goals by Babangida, one in the first minute of the game, justified this decision and silenced the boast of South Africa once and for all. They had claimed to be the new giant of African football not Nigeria. This claim was naturally the result of their previous four-year success at the Cup of Nations, two editions from which Nigeria had been absent.
In a broader perspective, these two absences from the Cup of Nations, owing to Abacha's politics, contributed to the decline of the Super Eagles. In the first place, we had fewer chances to compete. Whereas had we participated in the two competitions, we would have had the opportunity to maintain competition fitness, plug loopholes where discerned, and perhaps try new players. In the second place, it cost us two opportunities to stamp our dominance on African football, giving South Africa the room to challenge our superiority, and allowing Cameroon to later surpass our achievement. The foregoing, I believe resulted in our having a collection of top players, who could not however cohere as a team, hence the 1998 debacle.

The first real indication of our decline surfaced in the 2002 Cup of Nations, where the Super Eagles struggled, to be eventually toppled by the Teranga Lions of Senegal in the semi final, a team that had almost done the same to us two years previously in Lagos at the quarter final stage of the competition. The 2002 dismal performance resulted in the sack of coach Amodu, who had taken over from Berti Vogts and had secured our qualification for the Korea-Japan World Cup, who was however unable to instill any sense of purpose in the team's style of play. The situation was little better at the 2004 edition. But since we managed to beat Cameroon in the quarter final, Nigerians accepted that as victory. By now, President Obasanjo's attitude towards the team had changed. Previously, his attitude of indifference towards the Eagles had been palpable. He seemed to consider the players spoiled brats.  This time, however, he celebrated the team's underachievement with a state dinner. Nigerians resigned themselves to what they had. After all, the team's style of play had improved under Chukwu, notwithstanding the fact that her level of play was a ghost of her former style.

Two quick lessons may be drawn from the above. First: Nigeria cannot rise above the interest of its leaders. As abhorrent and regrettable as the military regimes were, it cannot be denied that Nigeria had her highest achievements in football during these years. For example, Anthony Ikazoboh, arguably the best NFA chairman ever and Samson Emeka Omeruah, another successful sport administrator, were both military officers. Whatever they did seemed to have worked. Second: The gradual decline in the Super Eagles’ level of play led Nigerian to lower their expectation of the team, with the sad result that they celebrated the team’s underachievement at the 2004 Cup of Nations and persisted in the belief that Nigeria was still the giant of African football, even though the situation showed the contrary. This sad situation culminated in our inability to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. The mystique of the giant had been shattered at last.

I shall be posting Part II of the essay in a day or two. Please, leave your comments.