By Yinka Odumakin

“Yakubu is 25 but a Nigerian 25”—Everton Manager, David Moyes in 2008.

“I don’t see Nigerian football getting out of the quagmire, the problem it is in, today, is because corruption is getting deeper and deeper. From time to time we get flashes where we do well in some competitions with overage players and we celebrate.
That was one of the issues I looked at; we can’t keep using overage players. We used over-age players for junior championships, I know that. Why not say it? It’s the truth. We always cheat. It’s a fact. When you cheat, you deprive the young stars that are supposed to play in these competitions their rights.”— NFA Chairman, Anthony Kojo Williams, in 2000.

JULIUS Agwu is one of my favourite comedians in Nigeria .I love his feminine voice,the crispness of his jokes as well as his delivery. Anytime I am boarding a flight and I call my wife,I usually say “abodu ala o”.I picked that from Julius.He cracked the joke about a flight attendant going around the lounge to announce an aircraft boarding because the public address system was not working during the renovations of the Enugu airport .

The Igbo lady was saying: “A Lagos abodu ala o” There was a passenger billed to fly that plane who did not understand a word in Igbo and therefore sat put while other passengers went to join the queue. About an hour later he went to the A… counter and asked why they had yet to make a boarding call only to be told that the plane had since departed “I went round shouting abodu ala” came from the flight attendant as if every passenger must understand her native tongue.

But his joke that is relevant to what I am discussing today is the one where he talked about some Nigerian team training for an age-grade competition near his house and how he went to one of the players to ask for his age and the response he got was: “Our coach has not given us our age”.

We have just “conquered” the world again in Chile and the drums are rolling in celebration of our lack of character and integrity as a people. Our infinite capacity to conspire in falsehood and pretend that all is well when the reverse is the case is once more being demonstrated even when we don’t blink in reciting our

NATIONAL PLEDGE:

“I pledge to Nigeria my country To be faithful,loyal and HONEST”

We say these and all the other lines(read LIES) even when no one believes in them. We have mastered the art of saying something and doing another because the very foundation of our country is a concrete of lies. Every action we take is built on falsehood because we just can’t do it right. Cheating our ways to corner undeserved advantages has become a national culture because we have not been able to construct a national vision.

After 55 years we still cannot count ourselves because an accurate census would minimise our ability to cheat. Our examinations have become a farce as parents even buy questions for their wards and pay for admissions. We beat traffic rules if there is nobody in sight to enforce them.Our politicians forge certificates to contest elections. Our vote counts conflict with actual vote cast. Judges take bribes to pervert Justice. Priests and Imams negate moral values. The “how “ no longer matter to us and yet we pray that our country should succeed .

We can occasionally have some fake success but not good success because we break all the rules of success as natural cheats. We deploy kids to vote in elections where adults should participate when we want to cheat internally and assemble adults to go and compete with kids globally when we want to cheat internationally. This is why we are celebrating 22 men who went to an unequal competition with only whispers about the actual ages of our boys.

Physical appearance
Mere physical appearances of our boys should tell any honest person that the suspicion about true ages of some Nigerian footballers which made FIFA to ban the country from all international fixtures for two years after finding that the birth dates of three of our players in the 1988 Olympics were different from ones used by the same players in previous tournaments is still very much with us.

Nigeria has over the years paraded promising “ youngsters” who mysteriously failed to fulfill their potential in the senior teams. Phillip Osondu was the best player at the 1987 Under-17 World Cup, after which he was signed on by Anderlecht, only to drift out of the game and into janitorial work after questions were raised about his real age. Femi Opabunmi shone brilliantly when Nigeria played in the finals of the Under-17 competition in 2001 and was officially the third youngest player in the senior team when he featured in the 0-0 game with England during the 2002 World Cup. But by 2005 he had expired doing only part-time soccer in some unrated team in lower rungs of the French league.

Adokiye Amiesimaka questioned the inclusion of Golden Eaglets captain Fortune Chukwudi during the 2009 Under 17 championship . Amiesimaka in an unusual candor bared his mind after Nigeria’s opening 3-3 draw with Germany at the Abuja National Stadium on October 24. “In the 2002/2003 season, I was chairman of Sharks Football Club of Port Harcourt. I decided to have a feeder team of fresh school leavers not older than 20 years.

One of my key players then is the current captain of our so-called Under-17 Golden Eaglets. By his own admission at that time, that is seven years ago, he was 18 years old…If we are not utterly irresponsible, how can he be eligible for this tournament when he is not less than 25 years old now?” Amiesimaka wrote in the Punch newspaper. Chukwudi played till the Eaglets final match and fizzled out thereafter. But since corruption is official in Nigeria,there was no whimper from our officials .
I read on The Cable in June this year of how Taye Taiwo’s twin sister allegedly celebrated her 39th birthday the day Taiwo was doing his own 27th.There was also the story of Samson Siasia cutting the cake of his 30th wedding anniversary at the age of 47!

About the most hilarious was that of Dele Ajiboye who exposed the lie over his age when he featured in the Under-17 tournament in 2007″.In the chat(with Soccer Star) the Golden Eaglets gold medal-winning goalkeeper in the FIFA U-17 World Cup in 2007 inadvertently revealed he was older than he claimed eight years earlier. When asked about his role model as a professional goalkeeper, the Kwara United keeper revealed the person without much fuss. “I have many role models.

Anyone I learn from is my role model,” he said. “I could remember when I was still a young boy, I do watch Peter Rufai and I learnt a lot from him.” Ajiboye is 25 now and 17 in 2007, but we doubt he was referring to the Peter Rufai of 1998 World Cup. Nobody learnt anything fruitful and meaningful from Rufai of 1998. Even Ajiboye at age eight couldn’t have learnt anything worthy from the fumbling Dodo Mayana except, of course, how to make cheap goals look spectacular. Then, we are assuming Ajiboye was referring to the Rufai of 1994 Africa Cup of Nations and World Cup. But in 1994, Ajiboye was four!”
James Spencer in an article traced age fraud in the Premier League to African players: “Age fraud came to prominence in the Premier League from the mid-1990s onwards, as clubs began looking more and more at emerging African players. Several former Premier League players from Nigeria alone have been suspected of such misrepresentation.

Nwankwo Kanu is a legend of African football and became a cult hero in England playing for clubs like Arsenal and Portsmouth. The tall forward won the Champions League with Ajax in 1995, but was always suspected to be as much as nine years older than his stated age. Speaking in 2010, Harry Redknapp jokingly exaggerated that Kanu was 49, though given how he described ever increasing ailments and the need for treatment, there seemed to be a shred of authenticity to his words.

Former Newcastle United striker Obafemi Martins was also at the centre of an age row. The player had spectacularly burst onto the scene with Inter Milan as a youngster, but failed to make the most of his talent, suggesting he could already have been much older than stated. In 2005, while Martins was still in Italy, the Nigerian Football Federation claimed he was actually born in 1978, though his player registration stated it was 1984.

National failure
Similar stories also exist for both Jay-Jay Okocha and Taribo West who plied their trade in the Premier League for Bolton Wanderers and Derby County, respectively.

Throughout his career, Okocha was rumoured to be 10 years older than his official age. Following his departure from Derby in 2001, West allegedly told Partizan Belgrade that he was only 28, though given the state of his body the club had strong suspicions that he was 40.

It may not occur to us that our national failure is the sum total of all these little acts of dishonesty .I recall a Dutch-journalist friend of mine who I was driving along the Airport Road in 1998 and saw a fellow peeing on the road. He looked at the guy and said to me: “If that man cannot see anything wrong urinating on the roadside,he would do other 1000 things that are not right and would not see nothing wrong”.

We shall engage in this hollow rituals of celebrating our “victory” but we know in the inner recesses of our minds that is all a fluke because we didn’t do it right. Scoundrels posing as patriots would even abuse this writer for writing the truth. That majority is wrong should not desist the minority that is right from saying it as it is.

The truth must be told even if heavens fall: It is only righteousness that exalts a nation.
cc; lalasticlala ,ishilove
http://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/11/papa-eaglets-and-our-cheating-culture/

If FIFA is not careful enough, Nigeria will go to U-17 championship with Grey Hair players.

End time cheating

.

Ok

Hmm

End time

lasisi69:
End time cheating

GERRAHERE

U-17 indeed

who cares? we already won.

Which one is NIGERIAN 25



DO YOU NEED LAPTOP LIGHTS? CHECK MY SIGNATURE

Buhari is a cheat and their role model; they are only looking up to him - Lai Moh'd

Mtcheww......U get time

End time something

Agreed, we cheat, but don't make it sound like only Nigerians are culprit. Most south and North American countries too cheat. Even the mexican team we played sometime ago had some clearly over aged players among them.
And what's the use of the MRI scan? Why did FIFA incorporate it into the screening process? If fifa is okay with the results of the scan i don't see why anybody should be worried. Some peeps should stop proving more catholic than the pope abeg. Even FIFA is very corrupt

U

Help me thank GOD for life ooo.. Today boy done turn man(not daddy o).. HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me, GOD bless my new age.. I know u guys are CAPABLE, somebody should surprise me with gift... If u no fit send cheque abeg I go need ur connections to any soccer scout/agent.. Thank you..
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Nwa nne show the boy some love kwanu..
Osanobua brought me this Far

Nigerians Opening our Yanshes since inception of Kwaruption..

Naija dey try now, abi una no see that mali guy


My sister was lyk, if this guy is 17 den am 22

OnankpaBa:

GERRAHERE

we are use to lasisi madness

browsing cheat

I could remember the final Nigeria Played against Spain in 2007, Akinsola and Chrisantus lead the team from front... Akinsola claimed to be 16 years during the tournament but the dude got 2kids at home already, Never knew life was so easy in Nigeria a 16 year old kid would think of starting a family. Check the Spanish team that lost that final match to Nigeria We got David Degea, Asier Illarramendi, Bojan Krkić, Nacho,and many more and they still playing active football in top class teams while you can't point to a Nigerian player of that set playing in a good European club... Hazard and Benteke played that same tournament, but where are the Tella Golden Boys?

Dragonking:
This is why we don't move forward...We are the same ones that always plot our downfall....The eediot that wrote this article has forgotten that of recent, before the tournament starts, all players will undergo an MRI scan first to determine their true age...So if the boys underwent the scan by FIFA and they were successful, why should this nincompoop come and write this trash Nigeria is it own enemy I swear. **spits**

Bro forget Fifa scan, i know alot of players who take fruits and water only for a month or more just to scale through those tests, could remember some years back when a dude was on who wants to be a millionaire, the guy said he was narrowly dropped from U20 camp cuz he couldn't settle some officials but when Frank asked his real age the dude said he was 42, now tell me how long this dude will play before hanging his boots

"the sum of our national failures"....apart from the timing. .I didn't care to watch a single match...saw a preview of the boys wear face powder and concealer to make them look young and I got disgusted.



Anyways check this..



https://www.nairaland.com/2740386/shelves..beautiful

[size=15pt]This is why we don't move forward...We are the same ones that always plot our downfall....The eediot that wrote this article has forgotten that of recent, before the tournament starts, all players will undergo an MRI scan first to determine their true age...So if the boys underwent the scan by FIFA and they were successful, why should this nincompoop come and write this trash Nigeria is it own enemy I swear. **spits**[/size]

Overaged players no longer exist in the Nigerian setup.

The problem is footballing development.

now you singled out your own country as the one that cheats can you say that other countries doesn't,have you thought about it in another dimension that we Africans especially Nigerians are good in the junior category of football or is it hard to totally swallow and celebrate any positive achievement by this country.
do you know the common word every team we want to play from the beginning of this tournament in 1985 give as our strength,the word PACE they find it hard to combat
try to watch super eagles matches and you will notice they are slow and lack commitments in games but these eaglets have pace,teamwork and total commitments in all their games haven't you wondered why its so.its not only because the lads wants to get foreign contracts but simply because they are still young and African man is stronger and faster at his younger age
Nduka Ugbade the erstwhile captain of the first eaglets is still alive goggle him and look at his current pix then tell me if he wasn't at the range of 17 in 1985.in 1988 it was a Nigerian just like you ve been doing now that told FIFA we have over aged players in our squad thereby denying some youths then a means of livelihood yet you quote national pledge here as if you are loyal to your nation
There is cheat everywhere but NAIJA IS AWESOME AT U-17 LEVEL IF YOU DONT LIKE IT STOP WATCHING THEM don't tell me that you believe all the white men in Chile are 17.

simple truth.
that's why most of them fail before their peak.
eg Julius aghahowa,Pius ikedia,victor agali,the babayaros,Wilson oruma etc