LIKE BARCELONA LIKE NIGERIA


We all thought the game would end in similar fashion as the one we had watched in the past. We envisaged the Catalans ripping the Capital club apart. We were expecting a mesmerizing performance from the three musketeers of Xavi, Messi, Iniesta. All the odds were against the Mourinho boys. The bets were in favour of Barcelona. But alas! Otherwise is the case. The world best was rendered insignificant. The midfield maestro-Xavi was incapacitated. The clean passes of Iniesta “disobeyed” him; often a time they never get to their destination. All thanks to the excellence defence of Madrid.
Oh Puyol! I pity the old man. I never knew he could dance Azonto. I hope Mrs Puyol is an excellent masseur because her massage prowess would be needed last night. Dimaria-esque injury inducing dribble should be banned. It is unfair to soccer. What is wrong with Pique? I shake my head in pity. His defending, attack prediction, positioning and aerial duties have been on the decline. Where was Pique when the young man-Varane nodded in the third goal? His defending is beginning to dwindle since he started dating the Spanish musician, Shakira. “Hmm! Na true o, I don see sey hips don’t lie”. I wonder what she has done to him.

Has Barcelona gotten to the end of the road? Is this the end of the greatest club team of all time? We thought AC Milan defeating Barcelona at San Siro was a fluke but now we know better. Been defeated in that fashion is a bad omen. Many clubs now understand how to play them-convert your set pieces, stay calm, let them bring the game to you, disposes them of the ball close to your box 18 and play them on a lethal counter attack. What is wrong with Barcelona? Are they beginning to lose their football influence? Is their tiki-taka becoming ineffective?
In the words of my friend, Fatiha, “Barca lacks plan B”. I can’t but agree with that. “Barcelona is a mono football club”. They are one-sided. They are not dynamic. They lack versatile game plans. They have only one game plan-tiki taka with a false nine. When their tiki taka game plan is prevented they are rendered weak and ineffective. Surprisingly, any time I watch Barcelona game, I remember the most influential country in Sub Sahara Africa; I remember the country that praises herself as the giant of Africa; I remember my great country Nigeria.
Nigeria is a country blessed with lots of mineral, agricultural, human and intellectual resources. But just like Barcelona, Nigeria depends only on crude oil for her survival to the detriments of other sectors. A visit to the Ajaokuta Iron and Steel Company will give an insight into how deep the rot that has eaten deep into our solid mineral sector. The agricultural sector has been left in the grip of death. Gone are the days when Cocoa farmers were the crème de le crème of the society. Gone are the days when groundnut pyramids were descriptive features of Northern Nigeria. The past it has become, when Nigeria was the highest producer of palm fruits.

When did we become Barcelona? How did we get to this position of having no plan B? What would happen if our plan A (crude oil) fails us?
As we have seen from the case of Barcelona, greatness can’t be sustained by having just one game plan. They got to the pinnacle of club football by sticking to just one game plan-tiki taka but they are beginning to decline because of the lack of other plans. Nigeria has achieved greatness and relevance from Crude oil but the truth is crude oil won’t last forever. Even now, developed countries are beginning to shift their attention to renewable fuels. God forbids that the USA, china, India stop buying our Crude oil tomorrow. I wonder how Nigeria will survive. To avoid losing our relevance and influence in Africa, our leaders must diversify our economy. They must invest hugely in the agricultural, solid mineral and manufacturing sectors. Such investment must also be accompanied by appropriate fiscal policies.

Crude oil is good; tiki taka is a joy to watch but the best is having multiple game plans and various revenue generating sources. May God bless Nigeria!

What a silly analogy. It can only come from how us Nigerians have an arrogant overestimation of our worth and importance. We are now so attention-seeking, perhaps because no one pays us any attention any more, we make ludicrous comparison bereft of any contextual integrity.

Barcelona is a football club playing football as it should be played and as puristically desirable as possible. They are allowed to have an off day or even a bad patch playing football as everyone who wishes the game well wants it to be played.

What on Earth can then make anyone compare a footballing philosophy built on excellence and bearing fruit, with a trophy-laden club cabinet as evidence, with a nation that is a pathetically poor example of misrule, lack of leadership talent and the concept of fielding Winston Bogardes everywhere instead of available Lionel Messis? OP, make your point without trying to drag a model of excellence into our morass. Otherwise we might as well conclude Selfridges having a poor month means the Store is now to be compared to a vegetable stall in Karachi owned by an illiterate thief. Barcelona , as a football club, is not in trouble. Meanwhile Nigeria, as a Nation, is.

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I don't really understand your arguments.Are you saying Barcelona as a club has more importance and worth than Nigeria?
Go through my post again, I am not downgrading the performance of Barcelona over the years.They are fantastic club and have carve a niche for themselves in club football.But trying to overstimate their worth to the extent of rating them above a country like Nigeria is ludicrous.