"Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." ---John F. Kennedy

First off, congrats to the Egyptians for their splendid tournament triumph. They have shown how it is done. An indigenous coach who knows what's up, an FA that is organised, and above all players who know the score. Aboutreka, Zidan and Zaky are names that would be mentioned for decades to come, while Yakubu, Yobo and Olofinjana would be forgotten somewhere along the lines. Mikel and Taiwo still have time...

I am still to get over the shock that in a tournament that Naija participated in, and 99 goals were scored, Naija could account for only 3, and one of them was a penalty kick! We have hit a new low. We needn't have bothered turning up...

There are theories out there which claim that the woeful performance of the Green Eagles is only a reflection of all that is wrong with the Nigerian state. From the first day that idea was pushed out on Cyber Eagles by one of our resident 'Biafrans' there I never agreed with it, and the four semi finalists in the AFCON just concluded bore me out in more ways than one.

This is not to say that there are a lot of things fundamentally wrong with our ability to organise anything in Naija, but relating a national tragedy like the debacle in Ghana to Naija's internal problems is yet another exercise in being an ostrich. Of the four semi finalists, only Egypt is in perhaps a better state than Naija in terms of standard of living and other economic and industrial indices, and we must point out that during the tournament, a Ghanaian (football is over, so they are no longer Ghananese) player had to be flown to Naija for an MRI scan. We heard rumours in Naija as far back as 6 years ago (if not earlier) that Ghana doesn't have power problems anymore (in fact one of those tales clearly stated that Ghana under Rawlings had just celebrated a year of constant power supply), but the Mali-Benin game put paid to those tales. The Ivory Coast has been wrecked by the fight between Gbagbo and the rebels in the North, and a lot of evidence proves that Houphet-Boigny was not exactly the father of the nation figure that legend suggests he was, but yet another egotistic and greedy leader, the kind of which our continent has sadly become infamous for. There is no need to even begin with the kind of crap that Paul Biya has done in Cameroon since 1982!

Despite all of this, there is something that footballers from other African countries seem to possess that our own do not, and that problem apparently affects all of us, we seem to carry our Nigerianess like it is a burden. Watch Mahammadou Diarra or Seidou Keita or even Frederic Kanoute (who wasn't born in Mali). They always play for their clubs with an arm band that has Mali's colours. This applies for the Senegalese players. Ivoirian players celebrate their Ivorianess, as do players from other African countries. Nigerian players? The only time Yakubu Aiyegbeni would want to remember that he is Nigerian is when he is refused a work permit by the Home Office. Then he would start running around to get the same incompetent NFA to bail him out. In another year he would qualify for residency, and after that I sincerely doubt that he would be bothered to turn up for Naija games. In any event he is one very indisciplined bugger as he was axed from Everton's game on Saturday because he apparently got lost in transit between Accra and Liverpool. The man's problem is that plain and simple he has no clue what the word 'discipline' means...

But that 'lack of love' for country is not a problem that affects only Nigerian footballers. It affects us 'mere mortals' as well. When you come out of Norbury train station in South London, there is a Ghanaian shop on the London Road just ahead of you, and on more than one occasion I have seen a large Ghanaian flag drapped out for the world to see. At Wazobia restaurant in Hendon, and Mama Calabar in Wembley, I have never seen a Naija flag. (We can forgive Mama Calabar as it is now run by a Ugandan). In much the same way I see people from other African countries proudly flying their national flag on occasion but a lot of Naijas don't even have a flag. I was a rare Naija flag during the Hogomany celebrations a while back. Why?

My best guess at the moment is that for the average Naija person there is a god which as far as we are concerned is higher than such 'base' things as country: self.

The average Nigerian (and that includes our footballers) is far more interested in being the personal top dog, being the biggest boy around, even if it is to the detriment of others around him, hell, even better if it is to the detriment of others around him so that he can oppress them with his status. How else do you explain a student of History in the university telling you that his aim is to work for an oil company (undoubtedly the largest salary earners in our skewed way of doing things)? He wants to hustle and get himself into an oil company where his skills aren't needed because he wants to be able to show off to those around him that he is a big boy. And this same mentality affects our footballers. Our footballers like ourselves have no clue as to what truly matters in life, which is what you leave behind. If they did, they would put in a lot more effort into their national team football.

I was livid when before the Nations Cup our team captain Joe Yobo and his Everton accomplice Yakubu Aiyegbeni failed to turn up in camp on time because they wanted to get Everton into the final of The Carling Cup! Two things: 1) what the fuck is the Carling Cup as compared to the African Cup of Nations? 2) after all said and done, did Everton get to the Carling Cup final? Has anyone ever wondered why people like Ryan Giggs and George Best are football legends only in the English speaking world, and even at that, only to the 'limited' fanbase that Manchester United offers? It is because they didn't make it in the international game. The reason we know them is because the English are good at hype, but nevertheless, the legend of George Best for example is already on the wane. The legend of Pele on the other hand is not. Neither is the legend of Diego Maradona. And the legend of Zinedine Zidane is assured. The common denominator here is that their legend status was achieved in their national colours, gold for Pele, blue and white stripes for Maradona, and blue for Zizou. Yet these men all had vastly more successful careers than Yobo and Aiyegbeni. Can anyone remind me what George Weah is best remembered for? Yes, you got it. His dedication to duty in a Liberian shirt! What of Nwankwo Kanu, a fellow Nigerian? He is the most decorated African footballer ever, even has more medals than media darling David Beckham, but people don't remember him for his Champions League win with Ajax, or his EPL wins with Arsenal. People remember him as the bloke who took down Brazil on that day in Atlanta 12 years ago...

While we are on the subject of 'over achieving' Nigerian footballers, Dan Amokachi is remembered not as the guy who scored the first ever UEFA Champions League goal, neither is he remembered as the guy who helped Everton win their most recent trophy, but he is remembered as Nigeria's bull.

As I said earlier, this is a Nigerian thing, not limited to our footballers, and that probably is where we have gone wrong as a nation. No one is interested in doing things for the country, no one is interested in leaving a legacy behind (except perhaps Olu Obasanjo), and that is the problem. From my point of view it is rather simple: if you acquire all the wealth in the world, one day you will die and leave it all behind, then people would forget you. You'd have made no impact. On the other hand if you in your own little way do things that make people happy, and manage to touch the lives of thousands, or if you are lucky millions, you will never be forgotten. The analogy I always used was this: no one remembers Croesus, but everyone remembers Cyrus the Great.

Just a thought.