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Nigeria’s U-20 women’s team, the Falconets today play Germany in the final of the FIFA U-20 World Cup.

Theirs has been a
fairy tale; the story of the rejected stone becoming the chief
cornerstone. Not many Nigerians knew when the ladies left Nigeria for
the tournament. It was near total blackout even in the media. For the
few Nigerians that were aware of their departure, they couldn’t be
bothered whether they were going to Mars of Jupiter.

But as things have
turned out, the young ladies have made good. Against all expectation
even among some women’s football coaches, they have made it to the
final of the tournament.

Whatever happens
today in Germany Captain Joy Jegede and her team mates have etched
their names in the record books as the first Nigerian women’s team to
qualify for the final of a FIFA World Cup.

As is always the
case, success has many fathers in Nigeria. The Nigerian government has
sent an official delegation to Germany to “cheer” the girls to victory.
I was apprehensive when, before the semi-final match against Colombia,
I heard that a “high-powered” delegation had stormed the World Cup.

The normal scenario
of overdressed government officials lecturing the ladies on the finer
points of patriotism came flooding my mind and I feared the Falconets
will be put under intense pressure by their presence. Thankfully, God
intervened and we eked out a 1-0 victory to fly into today’s final.

The selfishness of Bola Jegede

It is sad to note
though that while the ladies were sweating it out on the field, their
‘mother’, Bola Jegede, a member of the board of the NFF, decided to
abandon them at a critical moment of their participation in the
tournament. Jegede, who missed their first two games because she was in
Nigeria perfecting strategies for success in the forthcoming NFF
elections, left Germany on Monday, the day after our Falconets beat the
United States of America in the quarter-final. She probably felt that
having surpassed their previous performance, of a quarter-final placing
at the last three editions of the tournament, the girls had reached the
end of the road.

And so, to Nigeria
she came – to host members of the Female Football Club Owners
Association in Lagos. After the Falconets booked a place in the final
she made frantic efforts to return to Germany.

Jegede’s behaviour encapsulates the problem with football administration in Nigeria.

It is a story of
selfishness and insensitivity to the plight of women’s footballers.
Jegede has been associated with the women’s game for a long time being
herself at one time owner of one of the most outstanding women’s clubs
(Jegede Babes) of its era. While it may be right to say she has
contributed in a way to moving the game to a certain level, the point
must be made that in the last few years particularly during her time on
this present board of the federation, she has been unable to properly
represent the interests of women’s football on the board.

It is instructive
to note that it is with Jegede’s acquiescence that the NFF has treated
female footballers as second class citizens. I stand to be corrected
but I do not think it is anywhere on record that she has cried out
against this injustice.

Again, since 2002
when Pepsi, sponsors of the women’s football league pulled out, the
women’s game at all levels has been without sponsorship. One of the
reasons an individual gets on the board of any sports federation is to
influence the development of that sport. If after four years on the
board and there is nothing tangible to show for it then it is pointless
attempting to get back on it.

I ask the question, what precisely is Jegede hoping to accomplish on
the board this time around that she couldn’t do in the last four years?
If she cannot care for the well being of the players whose interest she
is supposed to protecting then why bother? The answer it seems to me is
that like practically every member of the NFF board under the deposed
Sani Lulu, her overriding interest is personal. A place on the board is
licence to travel around the global for competitions and rub shoulders
with those who matter in world football. That footballers play under
the most appalling conditions is an issue for which Jegede and her ilk
care nothing for.