When a Nigerian politician travels abroad, he takes a ride in a speed train and sees other types of trains and trams that are used as efficient means of mass transportation. He sees the conveyor belts at the foreign airports work perfectly and members of the Parliament, his counterparts in those countries visited, buy tickets and board the buses and trains. Of course, he enjoys all the efficiency at work.
But he returns to Abuja, Kano or Lagos and prescribes 100 mini buses for the mass transit system. He introduces second-hand luxury buses as the ultimate means of transportation for the people he is ruling and sets the buses on the same old and bad roads that have existed for over 10 years.
None of those so-called leaders ever thinks of introducing the kind of services they enjoy abroad to Nigeria. The same attitude runs through our football system and other sport federations. How long are we going to put up with the league not starting on any particular date?
How can we sit back and plan our holidays in European countries with various competitions in mind, especially the UEFA Champions League final? We have seen this happen over the past decades in perfection to ginger some spirit of quality imitation back in Nigeria. But it has never been there.
There were many issues hanging over the Nigeria Premier League, especially in the last three years. It got worse by the year. By midway this term, it was obvious that the league could not start by December 1 as stated unless we wanted to push things under the carpet as usual.
How on earth would anyone be starting the league without title sponsorship for the third season running? So now we are struggling or pretending to address the serious issues after the date the league was supposed to have started. What I foresee is that it will drag on indefinitely until we settle for an abridged league once again. This abridged system has done more harm than good to us and we keeping falling back into it.
Every time our teams lose out early in continental cups they blame it on the fact that the league started late. This is the usual excuse from players and club officials who also sit on the board of the Nigeria Premier League. We still cannot draw up a programme and stick to it.
If we cannot start by August/September as they do in Europe, why can't we maintain October or November? It is for this reason that players in the Nigerian league go for trials abroad while the league is still on. It is usually off time over there, whereas we are always far from the end in Nigeria.
What I don't like is that the Nigeria Football Federation had to wait until the last minute before discharging their duty as it concerns their affiliate the NPL. There were/are too many issues to overlook in the name of starting early.
And on another front, can any club in Nigeria tell me where I can buy their items. I have asked this same question many times and still nobody has told me where to purchase any memorabilia. Why would I continue to dress as a fan of Manchester United to watch a game by Kano Pillars? Why would an Enyimba home match look as if it is being played by Chelsea? This is surely another painful lesson from abroad. The club chairmen are regular visitors to foreign countries and they are able to buy a lot of these club items, but I have hardly noticed any of them planning to produce a simple T-shirt for their teeming followers.
There is hardly any year that Nigerian teams don't play against their North African counterparts and we see their supporters arrayed in colourful club Tshirts, whereas there is no such identity for Nigerian fans. These clubs managers are quick to point to foreign teams when they feel cheated in rules application, but they never try to copy any other matter that can help develop the team and the league.
My desire is that we apply the lessons from abroad and reap bountifully from this multi billion naira business called sport.
