ZAMBIANS CRUISE TO EXQUISITE VICTORY

(above) Unbridled glee for Zambia

By OMOSEYE BOLAJI

The latest edition of the Africa Nations Cup (Afcon) has of course
ended, with the form book being turned on its head in devastating
fashion. Surely not even one “pundit” predicted that Zambia would cart
away the prized Cup?

It was a rather “strange” competition from the beginning.
Extraordinarily, big guns like Nigeria, Cameroon, Egypt and South
Africa did not even qualify for the tournament. There was the fear
that millions of fans in countries like Nigeria and South Africa would
hardly be interested in the finals itself.

But largely, this did not happen for a number of reasons which we need
not go into here. Suffice it to say that as genuine, authentic
football-loving countries, by the time the tournament proper started
the usual interest began to fulminate. After all African giants (in
soccer) like Ivory Coast, Ghana, Senegal, even Tunisia – the first
African country to cause upsets at the World Cup – were there.

Other countries who were strong enough to give the best in the
continent a run for their money were also present; eg Zambia
(incredibly undermined by most), Angola, co-hosts Gabon (often tricky
opponents), Mali, even Guinea. Nobody expected Equatorial Guinea to
pull up any trees but this is exactly what they did by winning the
opening game of the tournament against Libya (1-0).Equatorial Guinea
did magnificently to get to the quarter finals.

But very unexpectedly, Senegal disappointed not only their own home
fans, but millions around the continent. They lost all their matches
with none of their star names shining; not least the celebrated Demba
Ba (of Newcastle in England) who made no mark whatsoever on the
tournament. But at least the two “firm favourites”, Ghana and Ivory
Coast made it to the semi finals.

Earlier, in South Africa the interest of most of the fans was on any
progress made by any of the Southern African teams: Angola, Zambia and
Botswana. Zambia impressively made it to the semi finals and many
South Africans were delighted about with this. Naturally most of them
wanted Zambia to win against Ghana in the semi finals but they did not
believe it would happen.

As for many Nigerians and other west Africans staying in South Africa,
though they wanted to support fellow west Africans Ghana in the semi
finals, it appeared that the “arrogant” stance of many Ghanaians in SA
put so many off. I know as a matter of fact that when I wished
Ghanaians “good luck” ahead of their semi final match (with Zambia)
the retort was: “Don’t wish us luck. We have already won! The only
thing is how many goals are we are gonna score against hapless
Zambians,”

Alas, Ghana lost the crucial semi final match with marksman Asamoah
Gyan missing another crucial penalty award that could have made a big
difference to the eventual result. It was a victory that many South
Africans celebrated to the rafters: apart from Zambia being a southern
African country, many of the players in the squad plied their trade in
the South African league. Their much respected captain, Chris Katongo
although no longer playing in South Africa had been a household name
whilst playing for Jomo Cosmos (in SA).

The Zambians, the pundits pointed out, played like a cohesive unit; a
veritable team. But would this be enough to pull off an upset against
the star-studded Ivorian team in the final? Nigerians and other west
Africans based in South Africa of course wanted Ivory Coast to win –
including this columnist! On my own part I genuinely believed that
aging Ivorian players like Drogba, Zokora, the Toure brothers etc more
than deserved to win something major after so many years of falling by
the wayside

For Zambia the final was a date with destiny, as it were. Here they
were playing in the same area where they had lost virtually a whole
team in an aeroplane accident almost 20 years ago. And the “gods”
favoured Zambia in the final as dreaded Ivorian marksman Didier Drogba
could not convert a penalty...and in the ensuing penalty shoot-out the
Zambians carried the day. It was a victory celebrated luridly in
Southern African countries. Congratulations to them!

THE DISTRAUGHT YOUNG MAN

By OMOSEYE BOLAJI

He was/ is one of the many young South African male friends I have. But upon seeing him this day my heart sank – the gentleman looked exceedingly crestfallen, melancholy and distraught. Even his voice was different! He indicated we should go to a private place to talk about something “very important.”

I took him to a quite decent place where drinks and food were sold. We sat down, and the young man suddenly said, steel in his voice: “Ntate Bolaji, I did not want you to be shocked when you hear the news. It’s sad, but I have little choice. I can’t take the pain again. I have decided to kill myself.”

I winced. I stared at the strong, fine-looking gentleman. Could it be that he had a killer disease of some sort? Why would the boy want to kill himself whilst in his mid 20’s? “I am sure that won’t be necessary,” I said. “If I won’t think of killing myself with all my health problems, why would you?”

He said: “You don’t understand. I am not sick, not that way. It’s that girlfriend of mine – the one I loved so much...the one I showed you before the last festive season. She has betrayed me! I loved her with all my heart. I made extraordinary sacrifices for her. Day and night I dreamed about her, cherished her; thought we’ll grow old together. I thought we were both religious and would only sleep together when we got married. But she has betrayed me.”

I must confess I felt relieved. So it was about a woman! I said softly: “Yes I know you worshipped the girl more or less, but surely if she has betrayed you that is no reason for even considering suicide. You are young; you have eons of good things to look forward too in future. Yes, I understand the terrible pain you are going through, but to consider suicide is not only cowardly, but childish. A man must go through these types of horrific disappointments in life; but not ever consider suicide.” I made my voice deliberately harsh because I knew he respected me a lot, and I wanted him to take his mind completely away from “suicide.”

I added: “Anyway, how did you know she betrayed you?”

The young man spoke up; excruciating anguish in his voice: “The whore not only confessed that she had been sleeping with this other guy...but she is now carrying his baby.”

I flinched. I remembered that just weeks ago he was boasting that his girlfriend was “a virgin like me” Although having met her I never believed this at the time, yet for her to be pregnant by another man was a terrible blow. But I tried not to show my shock; still looking stern as if it was “nothing much.”

But he was still talking, almost in a soliloquy now: “You know, many people warned me, Ntate. They said I was fool loving her so much, not sleeping with her, trusting her. They said so many of these modern girls are just prostitutes, just out for money. But I thought (he named her) was different! How can women be so evil and dishonest and greedy? I learnt the man she is pregnant for is quite comfortable...he already has two kids from two different women...now a third is on the way. Why do these girls worship money like this? Why are they so useless? So my pure love for her was worth nothing because I am still young and not loaded with money...”

His pain was palpable. It was now up to me to advise him. This I did, first giving him examples of two, three older people he knew who had suffered more or less the same fate in the past from their women. The boy seemed relieved that he was not the only one who had suffered emotionally etc like this. I told him, still sternly, that it was part of life to suffer debilitating blows every now and then; despite being the innocent party, or “victim. I told him he must work through the pain till after sometime nature “healed” him.

“I assure you one way or the other the woman will be punished for what she did to you by the almighty. She will be visited by great pain too in due course. It’s a law of nature. Also, it might not seem so now, but you will meet another woman you will love again, and maybe things will work out this time,” I added.

“Even though I will struggle on with life, I will never love, or trust a woman again,” he said.

I smiled. “Let us just take it step by step eh? No more thoughts of foolish suicide, eh?”

He tried a wan grin and shook hands with me. “Ntate, the world can be evil, but we must struggle on. To be honest, I never really wanted to kill myself... despite the great pain....”

THE EFFICACY OF YOU TUBE

By OMOSEYE BOLAJI

Many of my “detractors” dub me ‘old-fashioned, reluctant to enjoy the
fruits of latest technology, etc – actually all this is false. My
perspective has always been that we should not be slaves to
technology. Common sense, integrity, empathy must always have primacy.

After all our ancestors (even those in the western world) some hundred
years ago never had access to all these marvels we enjoy today; yet
they lived full lives! However, I was reminded of how wonderful modern
technology is the other day. I was in Pretoria city in South Africa,
briefly, meeting some young writers. One of them, who loves football a
lot, told me that he had read a book of mine (of essays). He said: “I
particularly enjoyed the few chapters there dealing with soccer. It
was wonderful the way you were praising a former great Nigerian
footballer…” he struggled to remember the name.

“You mean Segun Odegbami?”

He smiled. “Yes. The former winger, striker, for Nigeria – decades
ago. You praised him so much, even calling him the best player you
have ever seen in your whole life! Despite the likes of Pele,
Maradona, Messi,” The youngster grinned. “Surely sir,” he went on.
“That praise was too much. You were very young then, hence your
exaggerated worship of Odegbami,”

It was my turn to grin. “Is that so? Well let me tell you – I stand by
what I have written in that book – a personal opinion, yes, but one I
still believe; having published countless articles on world football
around the world,”

He said: “Such a pity it can’t be proved. That was over 30 years ago;
and where would we get old reels of the player in action? You said he
played in the late 70s and 80s, mainly in black Africa...”

“It can be proved, to a certain extent,” I said. “Even if it’s just a
few clips. I know as a matter of fact we can see him in action on
YouTube on the Internet”

“YouTube?” the young writer looked incredulous. “Isn’t that for music?”

I grinned again. “More or less everything is on YouTube,” I said.
“Movies. Sitcoms. Music. Sports. You the young ones should know that!”

So we went to YouTube on the Internet. I went straight to “Nigeria
winning the 1980 Nations Cup” section. As luck would have it, the very
first few seconds of the reel showed Segun Odegbami on a typical
fantastic run down the right flank, with his uncanny speed, feints,
and curling crosses. A few minutes later, the focus was on Odegbami
scoring his two cracking goals against Algeria in the 1980 Nations Cup
Final.

Afterwards, the young writer stared at me with some disbelief. “I
don’t think I’ve ever seen anything like that before,” he vouchsafed.
“What dribbles! And such incredible speed for such an omotelele (very
tall man)”

“That’s nothing,” I said. “You saw only a few minutes of him in
action. People like me watched him for 90 minutes in many games for
club and country,”

“A great player indeed,” the young man re-iterated, squeezing my hand.