Football is the most popular sport on planet earth. In Nigeria, football is worshipped and played by a lot of people including me.
Most people are ardent followers of the English Premier League & support teams like Manchester United (Red Devils), Arsenal (Gunners), Chelsea (Blues) & Liverpool (Reds). People roam the streets every weekend to have a glimpse of their team in action on TV. The speed at which premier league football is engulfing Nigerians and the world at large is alarming. You’d see people wearing belts, jerseys, watches, caps, boxers, pants etc just to represent their clubs. Na Chelsea fans do am pass sha. Okada & kabu-kabu drivers are not left out; they decorate their bikes & buses with stickers of their favourite clubs.
I can still recollect back then in 2001 when it was all about Arsenal & Man United, the EPL was less popular, hence there was no news of violence even when these two football heavyweights clashed but now, the story is quite the opposite.
Alas! After the UEFA Champions League final in Rome (May 2009) where Manchester United was trounced, outclassed, outplayed, annihilated, humiliated & taught the game of football by the Numero Uno club in the world at the moment, FC Barcelona, an angry fan in Port Harcourt , Nigeria drove his bus into a crowd of people leaving six people dead &two wounded in the process.
My questions remain “Is this rage worth it? Dem sabi u? Dem dey pay you? These players collect a specified amount of money at the end of every week, match bonus after every match & an extra bonus for taking part in a competition like the UEFA Champions League yet na we dey kill ourselves over nothing.
How do we cure ourselves of this madness abeg?
Random Thoughts Of A Nigerian Youth 