11th February, 2013
Nigerians frustrated by years of waiting for their football team to again play to its potential erupted with screams of joy and celebration on Sunday as the country clinched the CAF Africa Cup of Nations at the expense of Burkina Faso.
Thousands who gathered near the national stadium in Lagos, the largest city of Africa’s most populous nation, to watch the final on two big screens hugged one another, danced with abandon and held plastic chairs aloft.
They counted down the final seconds and fireworks exploded above them after the 1-0 win by their Super Eagles over Burkina Faso was assured, giving the country its first Nations Cup title since 1994.
The crowd included some dressed in traditional Yoruba robes and hats, supporters painted in the national colours of green and white, and of course many with Nigerian flags.
At Ojota, football lovers were seen in groups dancing and singing, with music blaring from loudspeakers. It was not different at Mushin-Ojuwoye, Olosha, Idi-Oro, Akala and other places, along the Agege Motor Road axis.
The hugely watched match also brought happiness to the faces of residents of late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti’s old Kalakuta Republic tucked between Ojuelegba in Surulere Local Government and Mushin Road in Odi-Olowo Local Council Development Area, LCDA.
It is also home to the notorious red light district, Empire, where ladies of easy virtue said they were declaring a sex promo for their clients.
Violence, however, marred the widespread celebration at Benson Street, off Akerele, where some youths chased themselves with cutlasses and broken bottles over money bets.
Few metres away, there was a huge crowd at the Guinness Fan Park inside the Teslim Balogun Stadium, where the matches of the Nations Cup were shown through a huge screen since the competition commenced.
It was as though the whole of Lagos had poured into the stadium, as there was hardly a space to swing a cat. Musicians, like Soul Sultan, Kola Soul, Waje and Duncan Mighty, had entertained the fans. The situation was not different at the National Stadium, Opposite Teslim Balogun stadium. Ojez Club and other drinking joints within the sports complex had more customers to attend to because of the match.
Fadeyi, Onipanu and Oweh Street in Somolu Local Government bubbled with revellers and ecstatic supporters. Shops opened late into the night, selling food and liquor. Blue Spots, opposite Army Sports Camp, Morocco and Amigaf in Abule Ijesha, two fun spots in the area, were filled with revellers. They also witnessed a surge in the number of scantily clad call girls who waited by the roadside for potential customers.
Aje Street and adjoining areas, including the E-Centre, at Sabo, were also alive with people who celebrated Eagles’ victory. Adekunle, Olonade, Borno Way, Evans Square, among others, also Yaba LCDA, as well as Ojez Nite Club at Onike-Iwaya LCDA, wore the same festive mood. In many other parts of Lagos, jubilant residents could not agree more that it was indeed a well-deserved victory for the team and threw bangers and other fireworks that charged the atmosphere.
In Kano, the largest city in the north, a standing-room-only crowd crammed into a viewing centre in the Abdullahi Bayero district. A police cruiser came by and asked people standing outside how the game was going.
Smaller outdoor bars also saw big crowds in Kano, Nigeria’s second-largest city.
Perhaps fittingly, it was a locally based player, Sunday Mba, who scored the lone goal on, yes, Sunday. He had also scored the match winner against Côte d’Ivoire which happened to be last Sunday.
“We never expected them to get this far,” said a 23-year-old woman who identified herself as Betty as the time ticked away toward a Nigerian win. “There was just this disbelief everywhere.”
And next? Walter Samuel and his friends had a clear answer.
“This will continue,” said Samuel, who described himself as an apprentice shoe repairer, before adding in reference to next year’s FIFA World Cup: “We are taking this team to Brazil.”
—Fola Ademosu/With Agency Report