By Ojulari Kemi
“He that honours a prophet will get a prophet’s reward’’, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has honoured the word of a famous Nigerian prophet, Primate Elijah Ayodele, which is seriously paying off for the federation.
Yesterday, the Super Eagles had a qualifier game against Sao Tome And Principe at Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo. It was one of the most entertaining football matches the Eagles have played at home.
The match ended 6-0 in favour of the Super Eagles team, it also solidified the team’s bid to qualify for the 2024 African Cup Of Nations coming up in Ivory Coast.
Home games for the Super Eagles team especially have always been played at the Moshood Abiola Stadium in Abuja. The last World Cup qualifier played against Ghana at the stadium ended on a really bad note; the team couldn’t secure a victory and a riot situation took place, leading to the death of one of the officials of the match.
Shortly after that, Primate Ayodele advised the NFF President, Alh. Ibrahim Gusau to sack the coaches and most especially, leave Abuja stadium whenever the team wants to play a serious game. According to the prophet, MKO Abiola stadium is not a point of victory for the Super Eagles. He asked the NFF to check other parts of the country whenever the team is about to play any serious match.
These were his words; “NFF should sack all our coaches and get new, experienced ones that can move our football to the next level. Nigeria needs to go to the world cup, AFCON, there is no excuse for it. The president of NFF should sack these coaches. Moshood Abiola Stadium is not always a point of victory for Super Eagles, the NFF should check stadiums in Lagos and parts of the country.’’
In response to his counsel, the NFF wrote to the Confederation Of African Football (CAF) to approve Godswill Akpabio Stadium, Uyo for the occasion of the AFCON Qualifier between Nigeria and Sao Tome. It was approved for use and in the end, the Super Eagles got a resounding victory.
It is also worthy of note that Primate Ayodele before the match said that Super Eagles will ‘rubbish’ their opponent in the match. Just as he said, the opponents were rubbished with a humiliating victory but maybe this wouldn’t have happened if the NFF failed to listen to the prophet’s counsel.
AFCON will begin next year and definitely, Primate Ayodele will give more spiritual advice to the NFF during the tournament. The last AFCON was a disaster for the Super Eagles team because they failed to listen to advice. Even before the tournament began, Primate Ayodele already said the Nigerian team would not go far and they didn’t, their participation ended abruptly and on a sour note.
The NFF has started reaping good tidings by listening to the prophet’s counsel, They should keep it up, who knows, the Super Eagles team may win the trophy next year.
