VERY PROUD

What’s up people?

We are now entering the halfway mark this Ramadan folks. Hope all my brothers and sisters are still grinding it out and keeping with their DEEN this holy month. Before we know it Eid Mubarak will be upon us all very soon and the man up above will be showering us with his many BLESSINGS. AMEEN. Now; I have had a very interesting week to say the very least. Some good and the other parts not so fun but hey who said life would be easy. But it is somewhat difficult to try and get a good night’s rest when all that keeps popping up in my head is the image of Carmelo Anthony and the rest of the USA Olympic basketball team hitting one 3 point shot after another. I think my homeboy Krime put it best; “Nigeria definitely made history in basketball this week but only the wrong kind of history”. We shall now be forever remembered quite possibly as the most inferior and inept group of assembled athletes to participate in Olympic competition. I think the big irony in all of this basketball disaster was that not once did a Nigerian sports devotee such as myself feel cheated in the effort of the guys competing. Only if that could be said for the famed Super Eagles in football who have no ounce of patriotism and honor these days when they put on the GREEN/WHITE/GREEN shirt and represent our country.

Ok people; let me get focused…

So I think I just witnessed a new Braveheart moment after watching Nigeria play the United States in the Olympic basketball competition. I have said in the past how I loved the part in the movie Braveheart when Mel Gibson’s character William Wallace is repeatedly told to beg and ask for mercy for the sake of saving his life. Time and time again he refused, to the point when the crowd is pleading with him and he just finally bellows the word FREEEEEEE-DOM. Now that dude “Young William Wallace” is the TRUTH. 

You see that almost 100 point beat down we all just witnessed should be a part of Nigeria redefining herself as a country. At some point in time you have to face the music and take it on the chin in order to achieve growth. And quite frankly, one must go against the very best in order to assess how far the maturation process will take in order to achieve excellence. We should never hide or be fearful to have our flaws exposed if we ultimately want to strive for success. As a nation, we have failed miserably in this endeavor. We love to take short-cuts and look for the “Quick Fix” all for the sake of hiding our imperfections.

Nigeria is repeatedly looked upon by the global public often for what is wrong in government, terror like behavior and having some of the worst human qualities in people because of our propensity to mislead others. So it was very fitting and almost poetic justice like to sit there and watch basically the USA men’s team in a sense take out their and the world’s frustration on our poor American born players representing Nigeria so proudly in the Olympic games. It was almost as if they world was saying Nigeria you disgust me at the moment, so for that we are going to give you an old fashioned beating today and hopefully this will spark an ire in you in order to regroup as you need to rethink your priorities.

So it is now back on us and just like the basketball team did not throw in the towel in their plea for MERCY, I ask that the rest of us not do the same and continue to fight.

This is no job for one person.