Jumbo Bonus for Eagles

Nigeria Super Eagles stand to pocket a massive N700m (about $ 4.6 million) in allowances, appearance fees and win bonuses should they go all the way at next month's World Cup. Skipper Nwankwo Kanu had predicted Nigeria going far.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) have already proposed to the players a qualification bonus of 25% of the $8 million Nigeria will receive for featuring in the first round of the 2010 World Cup. In addition, the NFF have now projected they would also spend about N700m in daily allowances, appearance fees and match bonuses if the Eagles reach the World Cup final on July 11.

Each of the 23 players who make the final cut for the tournament will be entitled to a daily allowance of $200. A month's stay in South Africa would therefore mean that a player would receive $6,000 alone in daily allowances. The players will also be entitled to appearance fees as well as match bonus which graduate upwards as the Eagles progress at the World Cup.

Lars Lagerback will not receive any bonus in the first round of the World Cup. He would only receive a bonus when the Eagles reach the knockout stage of the championship. This will be the biggest pay day for the players in Nigerian football history, but they will have to earn it," a top official informed MTNFootball.com. At the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year in Angola, each squad member received about $80,000 in combined payments as the Eagles placed third in the competition.

How mad and misplaced! We are fond of putting the cart before the horse. Give only a fraction of such incentives to our young scientists and technologists, and watch Nigeria grow into an "African Tiger" in no time. Let us learn some lessons from the Asian Tigers. They faced their economies first before they showed some sane level of commitment to football, which has now become the opium of our youths and a great number of the elderly as well in Nigeria and the whole of Africa.

Indeed, football is serving the same purpose that beer was made by the colonialists to serve in some of the pre-independence African country at that time. There, the natives were made to forget their sorry state of colonial subjugation by subtly encourging them to drink alcohols. Our Nigerian leaders, in particular, seem to have borrowed a leaf from that, using football as a tool, to make us forget about our woes.

God, forgive us for we know not what we do.

PS: I know the opinion expressed above will incur the wraths of a few members here. I feel for them, but some truths need be told.