I don’t even understand it any more.
Nigeria was destined to win the 2013 AFCON. I believed it with all my being.
Then it did not happen!
It is very significant that the federal govt still went out of its way to reward the team as if they won! That, is very significant, because the Eagles were rewarded even for not coming first!
But why?
I was there at the stadium in Ebimpe. We were cruising to success. Then it happened!
Paseiro? Okay, fate has determined his fate. He is leaving with adequate rewards for his effort. But no more! Let him go! He is not good enough for the future. No sentiments, just the bare facts.

Now, I have learnt of 6 Nigerians that died from watching the semifinals and final matches of the AFCON. It is unheard of in my entire relationship with Football. 6 persons and still counting, from the tension of Nigeria not winning? What does this sacrifice of innocent lives mean? We will never know!

In the past 24 hours, I have learnt that a teacher in my own school, a gentleman we all call ‘Ten-Ten’ because of his love for football, died as he was watching the Eagles start to lose to Ivory Coast.
I also lived in the house of Chief Labiyi in Oke Ado in Ibadan. He was the former Principal of Ibadan Grammar School. Wale and Jide were Chief Labiyi’s children. Wale died last week whilst watching the Super Eagles lose to Cote D’Ivoire.
I learnt about these two deaths in the past 24 hrs. This adds to the 4 other Nigerians that were reported to have died whilst watching the disappointment of the Super Eagles’s performances between the semi-final and final matches.

There is something about those matches and the seeming ‘sacrifices’ made by these 6 (and possibly more) Nigerians that loved their country so much, and died under the pressure of wishing for the country’s success.

I am just leaving Ibadan.
I arrived Nigeria and have not gone home in Lagos to see my family members. I drove straight to Ibadan to be a part of the burial ceremony of my friend and colleague, Phillip Kweku Kolawole Boamah, who died some moths ago. Phillip was a Ghanaian football player that played for the national team of Nigeria and was part of winning Nigeria’s first continental club football trophy in 1976.

His death and burial were a solemn reminder of our collective mortality.
I am grateful to the children who organized a very dignified and befitting funeral.

Yet, it was a reunion of some sort.

At the end of the event, a few friends from those years back in the day in Ibadan, came together to share ‘communion’ of lunch and drinks in remembrance of Philip.

In the picture are old Comradès in the business of fun in Ibadan - from left of picture- Tokunboh Adejumo (my in-law), Godwin, Yours truly, Gbola Bakre, and Pius Aludo, leaving qn old ‘joint’ for our reunion!

I am still thinking and working out the connection between that and Nigeria’sloss at AFCON. Was losing a price to pay for what could have been a bigger ‘disaster’? We will never know, will we?