By Joel Popoola
Nigeria’s African Cup of Nations campaign has kicked off with an impressive win against the much fancied Egyptians – despite a number of key players being missing.
Star striker Victor Oshimen was already absent with injury when defensive mainstay Leon Balogun lost his own fitness battle and withdrew from the squad. Then there’s the saga of Emmanuel Dennis.
Despite not appearing for the Super Eagles since 2019, the Watford striker has been in impressive form in his first season in the English Premier League, scoring 6 goals and creating 4 more in his last 10 games.
But his selection for Afcon – and almost immediate deselection – has caused something of diplomatic incident.
Of all the predictions made for 2022, the breakdown of diplomatic relations between Nigeria and a small town in England is one few people would have made!
When Dennis was named in Nigeria’s AFCON squad on New Year’s Eve he immediately tweeted “Proud to get a call up to represent my country… Naija boy” followed by a heart, the Nigerian flag and an eagle.
Watford in turn tweeted back “Well deserved!”
Almost immediately the Nigerian Football Association announced that Dennis would not be going to the tournament – accusing his club of “baring fangs”.1a
In response, Watford made clear that Nigerian had made an administrative error and simply not officially called the player up.
International football rules state that “Associations wishing to call up a player must notify the player in writing at least 15 days before… the player’s club shall also be informed in writing at the same time”. Watford argued that as the Nigerian football association had failed to follow correct procedure, Dennis’ call-up was invalid.
Nigerian Football Federation President Amaju Pinnick effectively admitted this was correct, blaming former manager Gerhard Rohr and stating:
“There are statutory provisions regarding inviting players… Rohr submitted the first list on the 15th of December, that was the origin of the problem”.
Interim Nigeria manager Augustine Eguavoen however stirred the pot some more, pinning the blame squarely on Watford, stating:
“Dennis said he wants to come but his club was threatening him”
Eguavoen later backtracked slightly, implying Dennis was to blame for his omission:
“It boils down to individual players, you have to fight for it”
Some reports have even suggested that Dennis himself declined the call-up, having been told he would only be a substitute.
The atmosphere of mistrust this whole situation created could well have motivated Senegal to insist that their own Watford player Ishmaila Sarr honour his (correctly administered!) call-up despite being injured since mid-November, forcing him to fly from London to Dakar and on to Cameroun… only for Senegal to acknowledge that he really was injured and to send him home again!
Whatever the truth of the matter, any social media post from Watford is now immediately submerged beneath a tidal wave of furious Nigerians.
And the whole time one person has been almost entirely absent from the conversation – Emmanuel Dennis himself. He could have settled this issue with a single tweet or Instagram story setting the record straight.
It is a lesson Nigeria’s politicians would do well to heed – clear communication, direct from the source is the only way to delivery credible and definitive information in the digital age. On social media, your name is the watermark of quality that differentiates “fake news” from “real news”.
At the digital democracy campaign I lead we’re trying to give politicians the platforms they need to communicate direct with the people they serve.
We have created a free app – Rate Your Leader – which puts verified voters in direct contact with their elected leaders, allowing them to build two-way relationships of trust and transparency and to work together to improve both our communities and our country.
Rate Your Leader lets politicians know what is happening in their areas and what matters most to the people who elect them. It’s abuse-proof technology also ensures all communication is courteous and civil – something Watford and Nigerian football fans alike could clearly benefit from!
If politicians using Rate Your Leader are responsive and authoritative, and explain the decisions they are taking clearly and satisfactorily, their voters can give them a positive rating. If people see that neighbours who have interacted with their local politicians have all rated them highly, that builds trust in our leaders. And that in turn builds trust in our system.
This is surely preferable to staying silent, and let a thousand keyboard warriors fire claim and claim at each other, creating nothing but chaos, confusion and suspicion instead?
Joel Popoola is a Nigerian tech entrepreneur, digital democracy campaigner and creator of the free Rate Your Leader app.
