OJUJU THINGS! JUJU SCARE ROCKS SUPER EAGLES' CAMP!!!

Barely one week to the kick off of the 2013 African Cup of Nations in South Africa, Nigeria’s hope of winning the championship for the third time has suffered a major setback. One of the senior players who does not want his name in print revealed to Express Sports on phone from Faro that the story in the Super Eagles camp is not a palatable one and could endanger the team’s chances of going far at the Nations Cup.

“This team has been politicised’’, he bemoaned.

“A lot of things are wrong in this camp starting from the administrators to the coaches. What is more worrisome is that  desperate players do everything humanly possible to ensure they displace their rivals for shirt. Everybody is scared and this is not a good omen for our football.

“As I am talking to you, there is problem in the camp. The team is divided and the coaches themselves are not helping matters due to their commercial interest. I’ve just realised that all the criticisms made by Osaze about Nigerian football on his twitter handle were true. The only mistake he made was the manner he went about it.

“We are not a united team here. There is so much envy and jealousy among the players in camp and it has created fear in the team as we no longer trust ourselves. Honestly, these have gone a long way in killing the team spirit. As it is now, I feel like returning to my base  with my luggage. If not for patriotism, I believe protecting my career is more important to me than featuring at the Nations Cup. Afterall, if anything happen to me while playing for Nigeria, nobody will care about me anymore. What happened to some of the ex-internationals is serving as a good lesson to me. It’s not a do or die affair.

 “Everything is virtually wrong and if things continue to happen  the way it is happening now, Nigerian football will never move forward. The joy of flying the green and white colours of Nigeria has diminished.I can assure you that can of worms will be opened after the Nations Cup irrespective of the outcome of the result’’.

It would be recalled that Taribo West, a  one tine Nigerian defender, confessed spending a large chunk of money on rituals in Senegal in order to keep his place in the Super Eagles during his playing days. His claim was buttressed by erstwhile teammate, Emeka Ezeugo. According to him, there were players who believed in juju and when he joined the national team in 1987,there was juju everywhere with players hanging all sorts of amulets, to curry favour with the powers in their changing room.

Only recently,President General of the Nigerian Football Supporters’ club, Dr Rafiu Ladipo admitted carrying Super Eagles juju for over two and half decades.

Nigeria will open their Nations Cup campaign against Burkina Faso in Nelspruit on January 21 before squaring up with the Chipolopolo of Zambia four days later.