What we fear eventually becomes our reality. That’s what my philosophy teacher taught me some years ago. How dreadfully true that has now come to be for me as many of my fears about CAN 2010, expressed severally on this page, are, one by one, frightfully coming to pass!

Before coming to Angola I was afraid the championship would be very boring. That is the present situation. I am in Luanda with members of the Presidential Task Force. I cannot describe how bored we all are. We had to leave Benguella and return to Luanda just so that our presence does not become additional distraction or pressure for the Super Eagles. The players already have enough pressure from the result of the match against Egypt. The only comment I can make about that match is that, on the whole, the Eagles did not deserve to win. They played for the first 25 minutes, then forgot how to play and were outsmarted by the technically superior Pharaohs.

I had my fears about the entire Nations Cup. I was filled with a foreboding, an indefinable melancholic feeling. The reality started with the terrorist attack of the Togolese team in Cabinda as they travelled by road into Angola from their camping site in Congo Democratic Republic. That unfortunate incident has now become what the championship would be most remembered for. I do not know much about the 27-year civil war that ravaged the country, but what I know is that Angola has been going through the process of healing itself and the African Cup of Nations was designed to accelerate the process and to announce the country’s arrival once again into the mainstream of Africa. Angola has come into good money with oil exploration and the championship was a tool to drive rapid infrastructural development. The bill for this project was over 1 billion Dollars. Even then as I prepared to come to Angola some things just did not make me comfortable, particularly the old stories of un-detonated bombs and un-cleared minefields after the war. Then it happened! A team was shot at, three people lost their lives and one player is still in hospital! It was the worst possible start to the championship.

Togo Players Killed

The players were initially distraught, too pained by the deaths of their colleagues to continue in the championship. Then they wanted to boycott the championship. They later changed their minds. What would be the point of leaving if the dead would remain dead? Should their deaths not stand for something within the championship in order not to be wasted and in vain? The players decided to honour their memory by staying and competing so that the final laugh would not go to the terrorists. Then politicians thought differently and stepped in. The Togolese government ordered the players to return home! No amount of entreaty or threat would make them change their minds. The players returned home, and convinced their government of the meaninglessness of boycotting the championship and still losing all those lives when subsequent assurance of their safety had been given by the organisers. They proposed to CAF a day after the championship had begun to return to Angola and rejoin the competition. By now the organisers had had enough. They rejected the request of the Togolese. So, the championship is going on with only 15 teams, the place of Togo vacant like a gap between the teeth!

Togo Keeper Kodjovi Obilale injured

My other fear was about Angola itself. I had heard a great deal about how expensive the place is and how difficult and challenging the logistics of coping will be. I was disappointed. Things were a lot worse! Some said Angola is a very expensive country. They were wrong. It is the most expensive country in the world! Where else in the world would you pay over 600 Dollars for a single 4-star hotel room? Where else in the world does the international airport not have taxis? Yes, it was only until a week before the games that 5 taxis were introduced to the airport. Before then, you arrived Luanda International airport and you were on your own. If there wasn’t anyone to meet you, you were stuck! I asked the Nigerian Ambassador and he told me several stories of visitors that had been left stranded at the airport. Unless you had business to conduct in Angola and had arranged to be met anyone who came into the country was stuck at the airport. That’s why obtaining an Angolan visa is so laborious and frustrating. That’s why there isn’t a large influx of visiting supporters here and the grounds are filled with rented crowds of Angolans, paid by their government, to fill the stands.

Angolan Supporters

Transportation is a great challenge. It is exorbitantly expensive even where you can arrange one. In the absence of town taxis there are only private charter cars that cost a minimum of 300 Dollars a day. Town buses are available but only for those familiar with the territory and the routes they ply. A visitor can never get a hang of the routes as they have no sign-posts and bus-route maps or guides. The only language spoken here is Portuguese and conversation is nigh impossible. Very few Angolans understand any English.

The football grounds are all brand new facilities opened on the eve of the championship. Even the stadium stewards have not mastered the layout of the stadia. We ended up watching the first two matches away from the designated places we paid very high fees for. The first time we found ourselves seating in the popular stands. On match-day-two, after much protestation and reassurances, in an entirely different stadium, with premium class tickets, we were still misdirected to the cheap popular- stands! Somehow, we muscled and fought our way to more decent seats but still far away from where our paid seats were.

Unlike in previous championships, going to watch matches involving other teams in other venues is completely out of the question. The cities are very far apart (Angola is geographically bigger than Nigeria) and transportation between them is neither easy nor cheap. Unable to move easily within the city and interstate, unable to speak the language, the high cost of living, and the ‘danger’ that moving around on one’s own portends, (the Togo massacre is a constant reminder), we are all forced to stay holed-up in our hotel rooms, day after day, the memory of our painful humiliating first loss to keep us company. We also find ample time to pray (for that’s all we can do at this point) that, somehow, the Eagles will discover their wings again and fly.

I saw members of the Nigerian Football Supporters club from a distance in the stands in Benguella! I do not know how the group looked to those watching on television. Their outing at the match against Egypt must be the worst in their history. They found themselves seated in the ‘wrong’ place, next to the state box! They could not have been more than 30. Ordinarily even that number would have made an impact but not this time. The feeble noises emanating from their feeble horns could not rise above the din of the Vuvuzelas of the crowd of rented Angolans, paid by their government to fill the stands and create the ambience of a large crowd! Their noises and colours drowned whatever impact the songs and horns of the supporters club would have made!

So that’s it – the story of Angola 2010, so far. Those that are not here have not missed anything. As Nigeria prepares to play her second match today expectations here have been buoyed by the wonderful address of Rt. Honourable Rotimi Amaechi, Governor of Rivers State and Chairman of the Presidential Task Force, to members of the Super Eagles and their officials a day after the Nigeria/Egypt match. No psychologist could have done a better job. I sat through it and wondered what could be going through the minds of the players. His talk was uplifting, encouraging and challenging. It called on them to draw from the depths of their patriotic zeal, to draw from the last ounce of their strength and human capacity, to be driven by the call, hopes and prayers of 150 million Nigerians and to give them the pleasure of some good performances. Even if the team will fail let it do so fighting to the last breath. There is nothing wrong with stumbling. The greater challenge is rising up after every stumble, going on and getting the job done!

The other matches.

Stephen Keshi lost his job and got it back in 90 minutes of a dramatic opening match! It was unbelievable how the visiting Malians woke up from the dead. Four goals down, against the home team and the vociferous support of their President and 18 million Angolans, the Malians scored the last two goals in the last two minutes of added time to even scores at 4 goals each. It was incomparable drama! More was to come. Championship- favourites, Cote D’Ivoire, were lucky to escape with a barren draw against Burkina Faso! Malawi stunned the whole world when they scored three unreplied goals against World Cup-qualifying team, Algeria that did all the playing whilst Malawi did all the scoring! Benin Republic led Mozambique by 2 goals before the latter woke up, scored their own two and settled for a draw. Hard-fighting, bone-crushing Cameroon could not muscle their way past Gabon who held on tenaciously to their one-lucky-goal lead for over 60 minutes or so!

Most of the matches have defied all predictions and expectations. So far, I have seen enough to know that in truth Angola 2010 may be a great advertisement for the country of Angola, but surely it will hardly count as one of the great experiences of the African Cup of Nations. Having said that, there is still a long way to go yet and more shocks and surprises may still lie ahead to make me change my mind and fill the blank spaces in them about this championship!