Uwuma Precious
News had it that the 1 point-Argentines danced on their city streets after Nigeria earned 3 points. Nigeria ranks ahead on the table, but this age-long disregard and dismissal of our team as a nonentity give the Argentines the impression that they stand a better chance at qualifying than the Eagles! If the Eagles have self-respect, the match against the Argentines isn’t about the World Cup anymore, it is now about national pride and honour. Nigeria should and must beat the Argentines just for honour. There should be banners on the Nigerian stand screaming WE DIE HEERRRRREEE!!
But our compatriots are literally dying here! For nothing other than the sin of being Nigerians. What are honour and national pride when death roams unrestrained? Who cares for national pride when the nation cares nothing about instilling joy and pride on her people beyond the shared transient hoorah following triumphs in football games?
How do we set up our TVs cross our legs and sing our country to victory when out there are fresh red earth graves mocking our patriotism? Can we say there’s no connection between the game today and the deaths in Plateau and that those calling for a boycott of the games are wrong? Would we have set up our TVs, lined up our Coca-Cola or beer bottles to cheer the Eagles today if our loved ones were among the slain? Can we just wave away this death, pray the Eagles to win so we can rush out to the social media to drown the mournings and wails for action and justice with celebrations and analysis and further predictions? How much value do we actually place on lives in Nigeria? What is the duration of our empathy? Do we even sincerely feel for these deaths? Will the Eagles even wear black bands today -assuming such symbolic gestures truly matter- or match into the field as if oblivious of the murders in their country? Would Ahmed Musa, say to have natal connections with Jos not play as if the dead in Plateau are common house flies?
4:40 AM on September 5th during the 17th Olympics in Munich 1972, Black September, a Palestinian terror group sprayed the Israeli compound in the Olympic village killing 11 of the 28 Israeli athletes. The surviving 17 refused to participate in the games and just left for Israel. Prime Minister Golda Meir vowed revenge.
“Everyone involved in this massacre, wherever they come from, wherever they hide must be brought to justice -killed- to deter future attacks of that nature against Israelis anywhere” she vowed.
She formed Committee X with herself as head and Michael Harari was commissioned as chief assassin and one by one everyone, 20-35 persons connected (even remotely) to that attack was identified, haunted down in countries as far flung as Poland, Italy, Lebanon, etc and killed, 11 bullets (one for each of murdered Israeli athlete) pumped into each of them, save those killed with bombs. The assassinations were elaborate and in typical James Bond fashion.
One guy had a pressure bomb planted under his bed as he went out to buy an evening paper. He was blown to pieces as he slept.
One evening, a call came stating that one of the guys was in an apartment building in Beirut. Ehuda Barack, later Israeli PM was on his bed with his wife when he got a message from his handlers. He told his wife he was going to the garden for fresh air. Minutes later, he was in a boat to Lebanon. More minutes later he was dressed like a lady fleeing the murder scene in Beirut, a trail of death behind -many innocents. A few hours later he was on his bed, his wife thinking he just came from taking fresh air outside.
But the most spectacular killing was that of Ali Hassan Salame aka The Red Prince, who couldn’t be killed until after Meir’s death. Ali Hassan was previously traced to Norway, studied for weeks and when the time was right traced to his apartment alongside his girlfriend and shot dead, again 11 bullets pumped into both of them.
In the morning the news came -the man killed was a Moroccan who happened to resemble Ali Hassan and the lady with him was his wife! International outraged got Israel running for cover. But did that stop the hunting? No! Meir only asked Mossad to change tactics and continue the killings until all 35 of the PLO/Black September operatives died.
Now, Ali Hassan loves the ladies, so the Israelis dug into their history and developed lessons from an erotic misadventure between Sampson, one of the Judges and a beautiful Philistine named Delilah. A beautiful female Mossad operative was set up to run into the Red Prince as if by chance on a beach in Lebanon. The Red Prince immediately hit on her and they started dating for months while she studied him until his habits were accurately mapped out. In no time, he was served the Delilah treat as a bomb exploded in his car and Operation Wrath of God came to end with all the perpetrators of that Munich attack served the justice promised by PM Golda Meir. Since that, neither Fatah, Hezbollah nor Hamaz ever dreamt of such audacity against the Israelis since then. The message was too loud -Israel doesn’t play. Not with a single Israeli life.
Why a country went through such elaborate trouble, even murdering innocents, just to avenge the death of 11 citizens, not only informs why Israel is a developed country today despite its lack of resources and Nigeria is shamefully and helplessly Third World despite its huge mineral resources but also why citizens will take up arms, fly to far-flung corners of the globe and in the name of their national flags, engage in very bloody battles against men who never offended them personally in any way.
A country is measured by the premium it places on the lives of its citizens. Patriotism isn’t the product of anthems, coats of arms or chants of loving one another under the banner or unnegotiable unity. Nationalism and Patriotism are the gratitude of citizens to a country that has their backs as enshrined in the Constitutional injunction that makes the security and welfare of the people the primary purpose of government. A country that cannot fulfill this, is not meeting a geographical expression. Those who mouth nationalism and patriotism are either deluded idiots or beneficiaries of the aberrant structure.
Nigerians have no business playing against the Argentines today with the hope that people from Plateau will by sheer patriotism chant their support for the Super Eagles. I personally have become indifferent to their performance. If I wish them anything, it is a resounding defeat in the hands of the Argentines! If I can’t stop the killings, at least I can reject the disingenuous suggestion by supporters of the president and the ruling party that the killings are politically motivated -as if that excuses the president as they intend- and instead stand among the mourning and tell. Was I a player in the Super Eagles, my World Cup ended after the press statements by MACBAN and Femi Adeshina. I will not play for a country with no respect for human lives. In America, a group of sportsmen protesting the government’s response (or lack thereof) to the murders of blacks took the knee when the anthem was played prior to a game, but would the Eagles even wear the traditional black hand bands today and demand the stadium stand even for a second to protest the unmitigated deaths in Nigeria?
