Weep Not Child written by one of Africa’s celebrated novelists, Ngugi Wa Thiong’o published in 1964, was the first novel from East Africa to be published in English.The book was actually written in 1962 while he was in Kampala, Uganda under his former name James Ngugi. A name he was to later drop when he started abhoring everything associated with the white-man arising from experiences from colonization. The book was celebrated at the time in African Literature as the story explored the colonial education sytem and implications of land loss in Kenya in particular and other parts of Africa through the instrumentality of colonialism or apartheid as in South Africa.
The theme centred around the Mau Mau uprising and its implications on a Kenyan family, no wonder, the story is told from the eyes of a child, occasioning the title: Weep Not Child. Before I forget, this is not about literary work, but the title seems relevant to Nigerians after another World Cup heartache.Until 2030 again, I say weep not Nigerians, do the needful and stop celebrating failure and mediocrity.Now is till morning yet on creation day, the time to really weep will be when the global community begin to enjoy the feast of world cup football and Nigeria is missing.
From June 11 through July 19,2026 the global community will be glued to their television sets or gather at different stadia across three nations, United States of America, Mexico and Canada for the 23rd FIFA World Cup.It will be the greatest sporting event,outside the Olympics, but the greatest football event ever.
This will be the first time the mundial will be hosted by three countries, US, Canada and Mexico; and it will be the first time 48 nations will be participating as against 32 that took part at the 2022 world cup in Qatar.
For 39 days, football lovers will be treated to exceptional football skills in 104 games with new stars expected to be born, unveiled or already established stars celebrated among pantheon of football gods. Friendships, even marriages could be consummated during this season; tourism will boom,and the economy of these nations will, undoubtedly, be reflated, same for the participating nations, clubs and footballers, who will benefit from FIFA largesse.
Regrettably, the world’s most populous black nation, the self-acclaimed giant of Africa will be missing this spectacle for the second time back-to-back.As some have argued, not for lack of talents, but due to ineptitude, indifference on the part of football administrators, and more so for a country that institutionalises and celebrates mediocrity.
Nigeria will not be at the mundial because of a country that prefers the worst of them leading the best of them; Nigeria will not be at the world cup because professionals and those with the capacity and competence are sidelined for empty-barrels, whose only capacity is one connection to one government official or traditional ruler.Nigeria will be missing at the greatest football showpiece ever organised by football world governing body because there are no consequences for failure, fraud, corruption, malfeasance and maladministration.What a country.?
The former Premier of the then Eastern Region, Dr Michael Onunaka Okpara once said” First fool no be fool, second fool na proper foolish”. The import of this statement simply speaks to learning from our mistake and ensuring we do not walk that path again, more so, if it has to be the same route. The Holy Writ described David as the man after God’s heart because it was recorded for him not to have repeated any mistake twice after going to God for forgiveness.Sadly in Nigeria, what we have is people repeating same mistakes over and over again, pressing self destruct button and yet reaping the harvest of their disaster.
In the last 12 years, Nigeria’s football has nose-dived with serious implications on the abundant talents who have taken to football as a means of survival and changing the historical narrative of their families. The composition of the present board of Nigeria Football Federation from 2014 till date has remained same people managing our football, or worst case, about 80 to 90 percent of the people have been there since 2014.
For those who argue for continuity and institutional memory as a guide to better performance, you may need to explain how within the period under review, we failed to qualify for Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON back-to-back in 2015 and 2017, and the world cup back-to-back in 2022 and 2026. Within this period we have struggled to even qualify for Under-17 Nations Cup in Africa for men,where we had won the FIFA U17 World Cup five times.Even when we qualify, at the continental level, we fail to pick the global ticket, same story with the U20 men, though far better than the U17 that should serve as the nursery for both the U20, U23 and the senior national teams.
What is the relevance of continuity or institutional memory, if it can’t guide and serve the purpose of correcting the mistakes of the past. After-all, past experience should be a guide post and not a hinge post, in our case, it seems to be a hinge post.
When in 2022,the Super Eagles failed to pick the World Cup ticket against a half baked Ghanaian Black Stars in Abuja, Nigerians were promised “heaven on earth” to pick the next ticket even with games to spare. Sadly, we are in 2026 another world cup will be holding and Nigeria will not be part of the showpiece and nobody is bothered or worried or even concerned about the failure.
For those who will be quick to argue that Nigeria is not the only football giant that failed to qualify for the world cup or cite Italy as a good example of a powerhouse that has missed the mundial three consecutive times.Italians can take solace in the president of the federation, Gabriele Gravina and the Coach, Genaro Gattuso resigning over the failure.Even for the sake of argument, for a football crazy nation that only look up to sports as their opium, more so, with massive funding from government as never seen before, do we have any business relaxing at home when the beautiful game spectacle begins in June? The answer is a big NO.
The tragedy of the country called Nigeria is absence of consequences for failure,rather you are elevated and drums rolled out to herald your new position.Regrettably, we a people we have lost every ink of moral value, integrity, principles and scruples at all levels.People do not care about the consequences of their actions on the nation and the number of people whose livelihood depend on the success or progress being made in that sector.
In 2010, Nigeria was almost at the verge of missing out of the first senior world cup to be hosted in Africa and advisers to President Goodluck Jonathan made him realise the import of Nigeria being part of that global gathering on African soil.He set up the Presidential Task Force under the leadership of then Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi, who pulled all the strings, most importantly, galvanised the players with improved welfare package and today the rest is history.The legacy of that project is the Sunday Dankaro House of the NFF, which was built from proceeds of that PTF project.
Sadly, we could not pull the same magic to ensure the country picked one of the nine automatic tickets to Africa, plus one outstanding through intercontinental playoff.
How do we explain that a year when 10 countries emerged from Africa at the world cup, Nigeria was absent?How do we continue to pride ourselves as the giant of Africa when we can’t pick one out of ten slots Africa has? To think that Cape Verde, a country with less than a state in Nigeria could qualify, yet the most populated country on the continent of Africa failed, says a lot about our administrative capacity.Except for Cameroon, Nigeria is the greatest casualty of the 2026 world cup from Africa.
We deserved better but were undone by administrative arrogance, and ineptitude. We failed to hire a coach when we should, playing politics with the collective destiny of a people, and ended up prosecuting the qualifiers with four coaches and the end result is failure.The performance of the team all through was uninspiring especially the matches that Victor Osimhen missed, and my heart bleeds for him in particular for missing out on another world cup, while praying he does not end his career like George Opong Weah and Abedi Pele, two great talents who could not glamourise the world with their skills at the biggest stage, the mundial.
The greatest tragedy was not missing the world cup but trying to give false hope to Nigerians when in actual fact the Federation knew there was nothing more to play for or cry about.Sadly NFF kept assuring gullible Nigerians of an appeal against DR Congo using ineligible players against Nigeria in the continental play off.Many Nigerians held unto to this deceptive ploy, probably contrived to buy time and for the pain to heal, when the NFF themselves knew they did everything wrong, even with the so called petition to FIFA.
The petition was filed out of time, the required fee accompanying the petition was not paid and the petition was also sent to a wrong email address.Yet, out of respect, probably for the size of Nigeria,nothing more, or maybe, given our penchant to always play the spoiler against our people, FIFA reminded the NFF of the gross errors in their petition.The Football House kept quiet until it became obvious to even the blind to see that DR Congo was the continental representative at the intercontinental play off in Mexico.It was then the NFF woke up jumping up and down and flying the kite of an unknown appeal until after the play off and DR Congo picked the last slot for Africa.
Rather than apologise profusely to Nigerians and own up to another failure, the Federation kept grandstanding and carried on as if nothing happened, while plotting another return in September 2026 after another coronation of winners. Do you blame the administrators, the answer is the obvious.? In a country where nothing works and there are no consequences for failure and ineptitude but reward as failure is a badge of honour just as stealing, fraud, corruption and impunity are badges of recognition.
Nigerians will have to wait till 2030 to know if they will be lucky to be part of the world cup or they will cry once again and yet move on, since we love to institutionalise and celebrate mediocrity.Indeed, like Chinua Achebe noted, “there was a country’, and Alan Paton echoed in his work,” Cry The Beloved Country”
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… Post Script:
The FIFA World Cup 2026™ will be the organization’s largest event to date, featuring 48 national teams. Eleven U.S. cities will host 78 matches including the final in the New York New Jersey Stadium. This historic event coincides with the United States’ 250th anniversary, presenting a unique opportunity to showcase American dynamism, world-class hospitality, and sporting excellence.
The World Cup will be hosted across the United States, Canada, and Mexico, featuring 48 teams and 104 matches over 39 days.
Below are some key details about the 2026 World Cup schedule.
· The 2026 World Cup will be the first to take place with 48 teams, expanded from 32 in 2022.
· For the group stage, teams will be divided into twelve groups of four teams.
· The top two teams from each group plus the eight best third place teams will proceed to the (new) Round of 32.
· All matches after the group stage will be knockout format.
· A total of 104 matches will be played, up from 64 at the 2022 edition.
· The 2026 World Cup groups were finalized following the Final Draw on December 5, 2025 and the final qualifying matches on March 31, 2026.
· The games will take place in 16 venues throughout Canada, Mexico, and the USA, with the US having 11 venues.
· The 2026 World Cup Final will take place on July 19, 2026.
Below is the full group-by-group breakdown for the 2026 World Cup.
Group A: Mexico, South Africa, Korea Republic, Czechia
Group B: Canada, Switzerland, Qatar, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Group C: Brazil, Morocco, Haiti, Scotland
Group D: United States, Paraguay, Australia, Türkiye
Group E: Germany, Curaçao, Côte d’Ivoire, Ecuador
Group F: Netherlands, Japan, Tunisia, Sweden
Group G: Belgium, Egypt, Iran, New Zealand
Group H: Spain, Cabo Verde, Saudi Arabia, Uruguay
Group I: France, Senegal, Norway, Iraq
Group J: Argentina, Algeria, Austria, Jordan
Group K: Portugal, Uzbekistan, Colombia, Congo DR
Group L: England, Croatia, Ghana, Panama
–By Victor Iroele (viroele04@gmail.com)
