Whoever in the Sports Ministry gave our Under 23 team to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games the nickname The Dream Team was a plagiarist.

Eight years earlier, the Americans, fielding their best ever basketball team to the Barcelona Olympic Games had christened their all professional side, The DREAM TEAM, and had remained unassailable.

Nigeria’s so called Dream Team have not got the guts to scale past the African qualification for the London 2012 Olympics, as they failed woefully in the tournament in Morocco where three tickets were up for grabs.

The Dream Team V, turned into nightmare for Nigerians, elongating the series of failure that the NFF have been chalking up since 2010. Let us remind ourselves of the fact that Olympic football is developmental. For many decades it was reserved for amateurs in the communist countries in Easten Europe, Africa and Asia and recently upgraded into an Under 23 tournament with only three over-aged players allowed.

Even when we “won” the football gold at the 1996 Atlanta Games, can the then Sports Minister, NSC DG, NFA Chairman, Secretary General, the Chief Coach, all the players swear on oath that we did not cut corners?

Cutting corners, age falsification and other sundry vices have become part and parcel of our sports that we find it difficult to go straight and win. Hence the debacle of Morocco.

Was it not only three years ago, that the DREAM TEAM got to the final of the Beijing Olympics, but when you use over aged players, you may achieve some phyrric victories, but dig the grave for eternal dislocation.

For me, football has never been a big Olympic event, so I am not going to miss it. As a matter of fact, the failure of football to qualify for London 2012, should be good music in the ears of other sports.

If football had qualified, it will get the lion’s share, and all attention will be given to football while other sports are neglected. We are two weeks away to the end of 2011, and journalists will be frantically busy compiling end of the year review. I pity those who will look back on Nigeria’s achievement in football – we won nothing, lost everything and as we write this, we have NO SPORTS MINISTER!

In the midst of confusion, uncertainty and instability confronting our football, a respected voice has come out to pin point the source of the problem. Brigadier General Dominic Oneya (rtd) is a two time Military Governor, Kano and Benue States, a graduate in Physical education, ex footballer and former Chairman NFA. His assessment of Nigeria’s football should carry weight.

He told COMPLETE SPORTS last Sunday; Blame Lulu for Nigerian football woes. The whole problem, he said, started with the Sani Lulu board that did everything to shut out very credible people from participating in the running of football in Nigeria.

Oneya is spot on. With the undiluted support of the then Director General NSC, Dr. Amos Adamu, Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdulahi held on like a leech to the reins of power, and nobody could ever dream of dislodging him. Lulu and Co. may have been “removed” but the Alhaji Aminu Maigari board is like the cub of a Tiger. It is a Tiger.

Hard to say, there may be no peace in Nigerian football administration until certain people are done away with. But who will bell the cat? Since the crisis surfaced in 2006 towards the tail end of Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima’s turbulent regime, which led to Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the Germany 2006 World Cup finals, Nigeria have not enjoyed stability in the Sports Ministry.

The Federal Government kept changing Sports Minister so regularly they hardly have enough time to impact on the Ministry and on the key parastatal, the NFF. As we are in the Yuletide season, one can only pray that President Goodluck Jonathan will, this time around, take his time, scout for a sound technocrat that will man our Sports Ministry. In the past years, the Presidency tended to rely on politicians, who spend the better part of their time, gunning for governorship positions and little or no time to leave a legacy in the Sports Ministry.