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Baron Pierre De
Coubertin, the father of the modern Olympics, would have been laughed
to scorn were he alive in present day Nigeria.

Coubertin’s ethos
emanates from a purist’s conscience, one acutely aware that triumphs in
sport are pyrrhic, if not built with the fundamental blocks of
integrity and diligence.

His honourable
view, that “the important thing in life is not the victory but the
contest”, does not resonate in the consciousness of our sports
administrators. If it did, they would know that we, as a country,
should bury our heads in shame and have nothing to celebrate over
“winning” the African Youth Championship in South Africa.

Our “victory”, on
May 1st in Johannesburg, is a tragic testimony to our persistence in
folly, as the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) and Taoheed Adedoja,
the sports minister, hosted a lavish gala for the Flying Eagles that
“won” the championship with over aged players.

Two years have not
even passed since the Golden Eaglets fraudulently earned a silver medal
at the 2009 U-17 World Cup, with the Nigerian Football Federation
knowingly including two twenty something year olds – Fortune Chukwudi
and Stanley Okoro – in that squad.

Adokiye Amiesimaka,
an elder friend and learned colleague, presented incontrovertible
evidence to the country proving this. And, unsurprisingly, it has not
been challenged to this day.

His revelation,
made whilst that tournament was on, as I functioned as a member of the
official FIFA delegation, stirred the hornet’s nest, as the NFF
unleashed their rabid attack dogs on Amiesimaka.

“How can a sane person write something like that at this time?” asked Taiwo Ogunjobi.

It is ironic that
Ogunjobi, one of Amiesimaka’s detractors at the time, whilst a board
member of the NFF in 2009, is the one squirming under a criminal
indictment in a Federal High Court that could see him end up in jail.

In contrast,
Amiesimaka, a 1980 African Cup of Nations winner, served Nigeria with
distinction, dignity and honour. And the man certainly has cojones. He
is not shirking away from the onerous task of reminding us that
Nigerian football’s marriage to falsehood continues, making prescient
remarks about the current Flying Eagles class.

“Stanley Okoro, for
instance, has no business in that team. He cannot be anything less than
33 or 34 (and yes, he is the same player that was in the 2009 U-17
team!).”

“Olarenwaju Kayode
was my player in the Sharks feeder team in 2002, and played alongside
Fortune Chukwudi, so he cannot be less than 29 or 30…”

“Abdul Ajagun was
one of the highest goal scorers in the league. He was in Command
Secondary School in Kaduna and dropped out of school, in SS2, in the
1990s, and so cannot be U-20,” Amiesimaka points out.

A culture of silence

Six years ago,
whilst still a BBC journalist, I had documentary evidence, derived from
two different passports, that Obinna Nsofor, currently on loan with
English Premiership side West Ham, falsified his age whilst playing for
Nigeria at the 2005 African World Youth Championship in Benin.

Privately
confronting Ibrahim Galadima, the erstwhile Nigeria FA chairman, with
the evidence, he ordered – and ensured – that the player be dropped
from the team that went on to win a silver medal at the 2005 World
Youth Championship in the Netherlands. It was a rare moment when truth
prevailed.

Rather than engage
in hard graft and create teams from the depth of talent available in
Nigeria’s secondary schools – the only place where you can find players
genuinely within the U-17 and U-20 age bracket – national coaches
regularly pick ‘teenagers’ playing league football, when it is a
rarity, even in the most advanced football nations, for a 16 year-old
to be playing against seasoned pros!

The euphoria – and
the spoils – of victory, has seduced Nigerian officials into becoming
complicit in a poisonous, insidious culture of cheating, which steals
the opportunities of genuine teenagers, with the talent to make a
successful career out of football and build a great future for Nigeria.

Our culture of
silence or, at best, inaudible discontent on age cheating, which is
eating away at the fabric of Nigerian football, does us a terrible
disservice.

It is time for those who really care about our game to stand up and be counted.

As Usman Dan Fodio, the 19th century Islamic scholar succinctly
pointed out, “conscience is an open wound and only truth can heal it.”