The triumphant Super Falcons and D’Tigress have eloquently demonstrated that what men can do, women can do better. Where the Super Eagles have occasionally failed to bring laughter and joy to Nigerians, the Super Falcons and D’Tigress have brought us laurels and lifted our spirits. While the Super Falcons have won their 10th WAFCON title by the Miracle of Rabat or Mission X, the D’ Tigress have won their African Basketball tournament for the 5th consecutive time and a total of seven times. Their victories have again united us. Sports stand as a great unifier. Sports unify Nigerians more than any other thing. It is in sports that Nigerians usually speak with one voice and truly see themselves as Nigerians.
The victorious female teams have also proved that diligence in one’s work has a way of rewarding itself. The recent generous reward and honour showered on them and their handlers by President Bola Tinubu are well-deserved. Each of the players in the two teams received $100,000, a flat in Abuja, and OON national honour. Their technical crew members also got $50,000 each, a flat and OON national honour. While some Nigerians applaud the reward, others criticize it for being excessive. Whatever is the case, it is good to reward the women for bringing honour to the country. It is a morale booster for other women to excel in their areas of specialization. Moving forward, we have apparently set a template for rewarding Nigerians, especially sportsmen and women who distinguished themselves. It will ginger them and others to do more for the country.
Such handsome reward can instill patriotism. It is going to inspire a generation of Nigerians who will be willing to do much and even die for the country. The President’s gesture has underscored and evoked Chinua Achebe’s proverb in Things Fall Apart, “if a child washed his hands he shall eat with kings.” The book of Proverbs 22:29 says: “Do you see a man skillful in his work? He will stand before kings; he will not stand before obscure men.”
The super Falcons and the D’Tigress have washed their hands and have been skillful in their games. They now eat with kings and stand before kings. The Super Falcons dramatic and inspiring victory at the 2024 WAFCON from being 2 goals down in the first half and beating Morocco, the host country by 3-2 in the second half is indeed miraculous. It is a demonstration of strength and resilience and the ‘can do’ spirit of Nigerians. It is not over until it is over. The D’Tigress success is also a product of strength and determination. It is also a demonstration of Nigeria’s resilient spirit. There is no champion without a story of resilience and bravery.
The deserving reward to the teams and their handlers by the president should be commended. It should not be unduly criticized. Rewarding them is a way of inspiring other Nigerians to be diligent in their work and be willing to do something for their country. It will inspire other Nigerians to be the best in all that they do. The gesture will inspire other young women and girls to have interest in sports. Those saying that the reward is lavish should bear in mind that past winners of the laurels were just rewarded with handshakes and perhaps a few tokens. This is indeed the first time that female teams will be handsomely rewarded. Hitherto, such was the preserve of male football team, the Super Eagles. What is good for the male team should be good for the females too.
The era of relegating everything women to the background is over. This is the time to project their achievements. They should not be muted. We have marginalized them enough in politics and other spheres, including sports. We shall begin to sing their praises and honour them at their moment of triumph. There are many lessons we can learn from the Super Falcons and the D’Tigress achievements. The first is the love for one’s country. They love Nigeria and put the country first in their games. They played for national pride and not necessarily for financial reward. What mattered to them most was to win trophies for Nigeria, to lift the Nigerian flag up and lift our spirits. The second is to love what one is doing and be willing to do it with great passion and commitment.
We saw that at play in Morocco and Ivory Coast. The third is that these women put their lives and all in their games. They knew what was at stake and heroically defeated their opponents. The fourth is that they believed in themselves and their abilities to win the laurels. The fifth one is that they worked as a team, a virtue lacking in our politicians and politics. Let’s use sports’ vision and philosophy to reform our politics and rebuild our nation and make it a champion in all sectors. For Nigeria to be great again, we must see ourselves as first and foremost as Nigerians.
We must be united and work as a team with a goal to succeed. We must be committed to the Nigerian project and be willing to die for our nation. We must believe in ourselves and our country. We must love our country and have passion to work for its greatness. Let’s start making Nigeria great by revamping the agriculture, health and education sectors. These sectors hold the magic wand for our overall development and well-being. If we get these sectors performing at optimal levels, the rest will automatically fall in line.
Beyond lauding and rewarding the present set of victorious Falcons and D’Tigress, the Federal Government and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) should address the grievances and complaints of past WAFCON winners who were not adequately rewarded. At the same time, the Super Falcons should look beyond WAFCON and win the female World Cup. This should be their next target. The Super Eagles should emulate the zeal and resilience of the Falcons and the D’Tigress and bring more laurels to Nigeria. They must qualify Nigeria for the next World Cup. We don’t want to miss the global mundial again.
