It’s 4:30 pm Sunday and I had just dropped from the bus that conveyed me to the tarmac for my Arik Air flight to Kano. I was particularly glad considering my flight had been rescheduled twice on that day already and I could have missed the flight but for my Uncle’s insistence on dropping me earlier at the airport. I was more ecstatic that I was making a trip back to my “Home” after 8 months. I was clearly in Cloud 9.
As we proceeded for the final security screening before boarding the plane, I noticed the overwhelming presence of some officials and players of the Kano Pillars Football Club also waiting to board. The man just in front of me on the queue turned to a man on a Kano Pillars jacket saying @ “Congratulations”. I cut into the conversation that, “what are you congratulating them for?” The fellow with the massive build, who probably is the coach, chipped in, “We won”. I enquired from him on what they won. “The league”, he replied, albeit uninterestingly. Unknown to me, the Kano Pillars had just won the Nigerian Premier League for the 2011/2012 Season.
He must have felt embarrassed that after a momentous feat as winning the Nigerian Premier League, a fellow Nigerian man could still ask, “Won what?”
For the rest of my flight to Kano, which was routed through Jos,
I had a sense of ignominy not just for myself but for a whole lot of other Nigerians who have gotten so ensnared with the tang of the foreign football leagues without even a thought or consideration for our own products. I preach Nigeria every other day but did not even know when the Nigerian Premier League Season started talk less of knowing who the Champions are.
I had a sense of ignominy not just for myself but for a whole lot of other Nigerians who have gotten so ensnared with the tang of the foreign football leagues without even a thought or consideration for our own products. I preach Nigeria every other day but did not even know when the Nigerian Premier League Season started talk less of knowing who the Champions are.
More embarrassing was the fact that I had the privilege of being seated amidst the players of the new Champions of the League but I couldn’t recognise even the least of them. It hit me hard that I would probably have been falling head over heels to get an autograph if they were the just relegated team of the English Premier League. However, I did not know their names talk less of even knowing their faces.
The overjoyed players talked and ‘gisted’ euphorically throughout the flight about their favourite highlights of the just concluded season. I just sat glued to my seat and rueing my very marked unpatriotic spirit.
Anyway, I there and then took the decision to begin to follow up on the Nigerian Premier League. I will even make it a point of duty to watch some of their matches when the new season resumes. By the way, I read today that the new season starts in October.
Hopefully, I’ll find myself on the same flight again next year with the Champions of the season and I will be able to not just immerse myself in their discussions but also get an interview from their captain and probably, get a signed autograph from their key player.
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