The weekend is almost here and as much as I love the anticipation of looking forward to Friday, I would be glad if the league organizes more midweek games instead of just packing games into Sundays like sardines.
All the same, huge things have been happening in Nigeria domestic football since the start of the season; A club won its first match on the continental stage after 27 years and a newly promoted side produced the first hat trick of the season among many other interesting things.
However, the reason why I picked up my pen today wasn’t to talk about the League calendar or the sparks of brilliance in Nigeria’s domestic football scene but the gradual decay of Enyimba’s reputation in the Nigerian media space.
Nepotism, Negligence and Nonchalance, the three Ns destroying Nigerian football
There is an entrenched lackadaisical mindset some sets of Nigerians have when they work at Government parastatals. We must have all experienced it in one form or the other, you go to government agencies, and they act as if they are gods instead of genuinely serving the public. Some even go as far as doing backhanded deals to cheat the system.
As time went on that attitude seeped into our footballing culture too and a lot of people might not have realized it but there is a certain nonchalance that you’d find around the administration of state-owned club, even at the national level the number of sports administrators travelling with a team is almost a squad on it’s own.
There is an adage that says “The devil you know is better than the angel you don’t know” however, when Enyimba talked about a rebuild last season, I expected some certain level of upheavals to be made because slight changes won’t take the club back to it’s rightful spot.
It’s early into the season to note if the changes are working but why did the club previously abandon one of it’s greatest weapons in social media? or was “media silence” the title of the rebuild?
Enyimba is that ship
Did you know Elephants are natural swimmers? The large mammals are capable of paddling with all four legs while keeping their trunks above water to breathe, but this time I am comparing the People’s Elephants to ships, because the club needs capable sailors and crew members to steer it to its destination.
My analogy is based off the club’s recent negative social media presence, Enyimba fans have been clamoring to know what was going on in the club since the beginning of the transfer window but the club administrators decided that their opinion did not count therefore they were left out of the loop.
The transfer window bustled with a lot of activities yet Enyimba failed to announce a single signing, rumours, blurry images and announcements from other clubs were what fans relied on to get information about the club they devoted their lifetime too.
Pre–season began and the story remained the same, it got to a point rival fans noticed the silence and began to speak up against the management of the club too. The club is supposed to be a frontrunner in Nigerian football but it is regressing by the minute in the hands of the current administrators.
A day to the season opener against Naija Tornadoes the club did massive unveiling of for over 10 players on their Facebook page as if they were signed that day, Enyimba fans were vocal as usual in the comment sections but it is quite laughable that this is what the club has become.
Normally Enyimba fans are not quiet people who subscribe to the status quo and mediocrity, but when I go on my Twitter feed and I see other NPFL clubs using their platforms for wonderful things, I wonder what Enyimba did to deserve such incompetent people at the helm of affairs.
On Thursday, Sporting Lagos announced Chowdeck as their back of Jersey and sleeve sponsor for the 26/27 NPFL season, despite being the main jersey sponsors of Shooting Stars Chowdeck also saw value in Sporting Lagos, apparently, they’ve been in contact since Sporting’s first stint in the 2024/25 NPFL season but they just sealed the deal after the club got back to playing top flight football.
There are probably many metrics that might have attracted the PR team of Chowdeck to Sporting Lagos but it does not take a lot to figure out that a stable social media presence and high fan engagement contributed to the sponsorship, not just any kind of fan engagement but positive ones, no brand wants to sign a contract with a club in disarray and that’s why I called the club a sinking ship.
Enyimba also has top investors in their corner like Stake but let’s be honest, one of the reasons why brands can’t cancel these deals easily is because of the legal stress involved and the compensation fee they would have to pay.
It’s not just the lack of bigger partnerships the club has to worry about, but the influx of new fans into the NPFL of which they might not be getting many due to the negative energy surrounding the club in the media space.
I know it’s quite early into the season to judge the result of this rebuild but the current Enyimba is like a ship with holes in it; it is bound to sink if something is not done about the problems affecting the vessel and this includes the incompetent crew members too.
Our goal is to see the Enyimba ship return to the peak of Nigerian football regardless of whether we like those in charge or not, but if the current administration thinks the club is a place to build their portfolios, then it’s time for the Elephants to march on without them!
