Come down from the clouds

Dear FIFA

Even though you have more members than the UN (205 vs 192), at the end of the day you administrate a game which at it's most basic is 20 players chasing after a pig's bladder (the goalkeepers are for the most part spectators) that they kick away. So I don't know what gives FIFA the right to dictate to sovereign countries how they should run their respective football associations/federations. FIFA is not the byword for good governance and it is to all intents and purposes a cabal. If FIFA imposes sanctions against either France or Nigeria, then FIFA will have an insurrection on its hands.

1 Win, 2 Losses, 1 Draw

Bafana Bafana did the continent proud with their draw in the opening game, the Super Eagles acquitted themselves well, despite their chaotic preparation (plus ça change!!), against the tournament's likely winners, the Desert Foxes narrowly lost after another goalkeeping howler, but it's the Black Stars who have taken the continent's pride to stratospheric levels with their win - this was a nice touch.

Nigerians, you must be very proud

Today, I heard on World Business Today that Nigeria is about to pay off her debt, due in no small part to the efforts of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to the London Club, having made previous arrangements to pay off her debt to the Paris Club, on the back of high oil prices for her deliciously named Bonny Light Crude. It's wonderful to know that Nigeria is finally making sure the proceeds of her enormous wealth benefit the country and ultimately, her wonderful people.

Nigeria gets an unnecessarily bad rap (just like Colombia) because a handful (1 in every 6 Africans is Nigerian) of her extremely intelligent people engage in nefarious activities. As someone who has visited the wonderful city of Abuja, TWICE, I speak from first hand experience. Abuja is how an African capital city should be and one can see that the emphasis was definitely on the planning - I shall wax lyrical about Abuja in a later blog.