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AFCON 2013: The earlier the better for Nigeria and Super Eagles.

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The move that dropped Cote d’Ivoire at the door step of their home is one many of them never expected. Before the match a lot of us thought that Nigeria was condemned to face Cote d’Ivoire but little did they know that it was them that were condemned to face us. They don’t know the force of power that were coming in. But at the end of the day, a lot of Nigerians were surprised.

The truth is that for once, after the 2010 world cup, we saw the kind of Super Eagles that we know, the kind of Super Eagles that Nigeria use to be proud of, in the 80s and in the 90s. That was the first time we saw the Super Eagles took the hard win, the hard character and the hard determination. Playing with that Nigerian fighting spirit. You know when the chips are down, when you push a Nigerian to the wall, you never will expect what you will see. The kind of team that saw Kanu Nwankwo of under 17…let me take Mikel Obi for example, that match was the first time i saw a Mikel that playing with high level committment, going all the way to face Yaya Toure, fighting for every ball and if not for Mikel that very day, we may had lost that game. In the 86 minutes Latana Troure was face to face with goal keeper Vincent Enyaema, that would have been a cital of a goal but from no where Mikel came and pushed the ball away. We saw Emmanuel Emenike fighting for every ball, making attempts to goals until he got one. We saw Victor Moses handling the ball like no other in the world of football. That’s the kind of Super Eagles we want to see, people who are hungry to deliver for their country, that is what made the difference.

Believe it or not, the presence of Kanu Nwankwo and J.J Okocha helped gingered the boys to show ultra-touched performance. Come to think of it, those are the kind of people that ought to be around these players. At every point in time they are the types of people who should be around these boys, motivating them, and not politicians from National Assembly. Those House Committee Chairmen from National Assemblies, all those are distractions, what are they going to tell the players? These people should make enabling laws, like i said, if i may digress a little, the National Assemblies has not helped us for the last 12 years of our democracy when it comes to sports, because nobody has talked about making legislations, the National Sports Commission Bill is there that will bring fund from the private section to sport, if we have fund from the private sector, government will not shoulder the responsibility of funding sports alone. That is what the National Assembly should concentrate on doing not when we have competition they go to South Africa to go and cheer the team, no, it is the likes of Kanu, the likes of J.J that will tell them, be a gentlemen, you can do it, we did it for Nigeria.
You saw the way Daniel Amokachi was celebrating after that goal, he felt oh! this is the way we did it, you can see it in him. And if you look at the way Emenike played that day you will remember how Amokachi used to do it.

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In as much as we performed extremely well in our last match, we definitely know that something is still wrongly placed, our defence. Our defence is not right. Make a flashback on the equalizing goal that came in from Didier Drogba’s free-kick and Tiote’s node, you don’t give room for your opponent to be alone because any free header will send you packing. Drogba saw that three of his team mates were unmarked inside our area, Yaya Toure was unmarked, Kolo Toure was unmarked and Chek Tiote was unmarked.
I am not going to teach Stephen Keshi his job, however i know we are in this football thing together and so i think the Super Eagles coach need to wake up and do something concerning the defence, the earlier the better because we are going to be facing a very tactical Mali team.

My prediction is that the game today will end in favour of Nigeria. What is your prediction?

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Jeff Okoroafor is a leading member of a new generation of civic advocates for government accountability and democratic change in Nigeria. The Citizen Affairs Initiative is a citizen-driven governance initiative that enhances public awareness on critical issues of service quality in Nigeria. It encourages citizens to proactively seek higher standards from governments and service providers and further establishes new discussions in communities about the standards that citizens should expect and deserve from those they have given their mandates. Jeff is the Managing Director of SetFron Limited, a multimedia development company that is focused on creative and results-driven web, mobile app, and ERP software solutions. He is the co-founder of the African Youths Advancement and Support Initiative (AfriYasi), a non-governmental not-for-profit organisation that provides tertiary education scholarship for young people from low-income homes in Nigeria. He is a Fellow of the Young African Leaders Initiative and the United Nations World Summit Awards. A Strategic Team member of the Bring Back Our Girls movement, and a member of the National Technical Committee on the Establishment and Management of Missing Persons Database in Nigeria. Jeff holds a Bachelor and Postgraduate diploma degrees in Computer Science, and a Certificate in Public Administration from Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration, GIMPA.

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