Please let's not yakubu again oooo

Seems the latest trend in Nigerian is forming new dictionary words from the name of people who screw up.

After our final world cup match with South Korea, the latest one was YAKUBU after Yakubu Aiyegbeni's miss. A miss from a player I insist should never have made it to the world cup but then that's subject for another post.

The first definition of the word to yakubu means to utterly squander once-in-a-lifetime opportunities, especially one that will cause pain to/mourning among millions of people

Nigeria has a couple of golden opportunities at the moment and I am afraid in advance that we might yakubu all of them.

Sticking with the football theme, after our woeful showing at the world cup which to be honest wasn't totally unexpected, we have a once-in-a-lifetime chance to rebuild our national team based on time tested principles. Nobody (except Nigeria) goes into a competition like the world cup hoping just for miracles. Our oft venerated squad of 1994 was built over time through careful preparation, selecting only the best and playing together constantly. The nucleus of the team played either in our own local league or had just broken into Europe. They were hungry for success and in 1994 after many years of trying they got it.

In my opinion, now is the time for us to look at the formula from back then and inject it into building a team that do not act as if they are doing us a favour playing for the national team. We need a coach who understands our players and our system, who can't be bought and who has experience excelling on the international stage. For me at the moment, only Samson Siasia fits the bill. But will the rogues at our football association give him the role instead of shelling out outrageous sums to yet another "white man" who will most likely fail at the next hurdle? I fear they will lead us to yakubu again...

Will we also yakubu our chance for free and fair elections in 2011. Our president died and we have a man in charge who is changing the dynamics of Nigeria's political space. He has done a good thing by choosing to head the electoral commission, Professor Attahiru Jega, a brilliant thinker with integrity and a man notorious for having a mind of his own. Agreed he has just 6 months to work which makes the task before him daunting but will our political class lead us to yakubu what has the potential to be a breakthrough election...

FOOD FOR THOUGHT!!!

Posted via email from Femi Longe's Zone