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If
the Super Falcons had not qualified for the final of the African Women’s
Championship, which ends today in South Africa, it would have come as a
surprise to Nigerians.

From the their match
against Mali, in which they posted five goals past their hapless West
African neighbours, the Nigerian ladies indicated their intention to
reclaim the title they “carelessly” lost two years in Equatorial Guinea.

Whether they win
today or not, they are safely through to next year’s World Cup in
Germany. It will be their sixth straight appearance. We must salute
their courage; tenacity and commitment. They have once again, rekindled
interest in Nigerian football.

Kudos must go to
Coach Eucharia Uche for having the good sense to cast her net wide to
include players for the U-17 and U-20 teams, which recently put the best
of Nigerian football on display on the international scene.

Thankfully, the
meddlesome James Peters has been fired by the Nigeria Football
Federation (NFF); else he would have claimed credit for the feat.

The performance of
our ladies in recent times deserves serious analysis by officials of the
NFF. The Maigari administration should see it as wake up call for the
football body used as it were to marginalising our ladies.

My belief is that
with the present Super Falcons squad, Nigeria may be on the verge of
global breakthrough. That is if the NFF rises to the occasion. In the
present squad, there is a healthy mix of youth and experience that has
been lacking in the squad in a long time. The last time we saw this kind
of composition was in 1999 when the team made it to the quarter final
of the women’s World Cup in the USA.

We can make good in
Germany next year if Maigari and his team do the right thing. The
Women’s World Cup can come to Nigeria if we provide enabling conditions
for the ladies. The first step in this regard is of course for the NFF
to begin to treat the ladies with respect.

The Falcons is our
senior women’s team. Regardless of whether the players in the squad are
16 years or under, they must be accorded the respect due the squad. For
many years, successive administrations of the NFF had treated the
Falcons shabbily, as if they were an irritant they were forced by
circumstance to put up with.

Where our men in the
Super Eagles were treated like royalty, our ladies received something
worse than second class treatment. Despite the men on occasion faltering
at crucial moments, the lion share of national football team budget
still continued to go to them. This practice continues even today.

Showing respect

The consequence of
that mistreatment of our ladies has been all too clear. Whereas we had
produced a plethora of world class players (Eucharia Uche, Nkiru
Okosieme, Okunwa Igunbor, Mavis Ogun, Nkechi Egbe, Florence Omagbemi,
Mercy Akide, Effionwan Ekpo, Ifeanyi Chiejine etc), we failed to make
any useful statement internationally outside our dominance of Africa
where the women’s game was well nigh rustic.

Things have got to
change. And the place to begin is in the allowances paid the players. I
think there is something sinister in the practice whereby members of the
Eagles get between 5,000-10,000 or even 15,000 dollars as match winning
bonus, whereas members of the Falcons get, on a good day, $1,000.

While it may be
argued that in terms of importance and prestige, the Women’s World Cup
does not measure up to the men’s, the truth is that the difference
between what our men earn and what our women get is too much. Maigari
must address this. What members of the Falcons should get as winning
bonus should not be, given their status as our senior women’s team, less
than half of what the men earn. If you ask me, I really see no reason
for any difference because in the end, the success or failure of any of
the teams reflects on Nigeria.

In addition to
upgrading their allowance, the NFF needs to start thinking in terms of
keeping the girls busy in order to ensure that the ladies are kept in
shape. This can be done in two ways.

In the first place,
the football house needs to start thinking in terms of organising
quality friendly matches for the team to afford the technical crew
opportunity to eliminate the weaknesses in the squad.

More importantly,
the Maigari administration needs to start repackaging the women’s game
in Nigeria such that the league and FA Cup, which suffer hiccups now and
then following lack of sponsorship, can proceed smoothly thereby
keeping the ladies in shape.