For 200 million people, football is not a sport in Nigeria. It is language. It is prayer. It is the one thing that makes a Hausa trader in Kano, an Ijaw fisherman in Bayelsa, and an Igbo student in Enugu shout the same word at the same time: “Goal!”
And for too long, that goal has not come.
Nigeria has missed World Cups. Missed AFCONs. Missed age-grade tournaments we used to dominate. We have watched smaller nations with smaller budgets overtake us. We have watched our boys and girls leave for other countries to play, because home offered them no pathway.
Enough.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has now directed a comprehensive reform of Nigerian football. It is not a memo. It is not a press statement. It is a directive.
