Can Nigeria make its dominance in Youth Tournaments count?

The Flying Eagles of Nigeria on Sunday night defeated hosts, Senegal, in the final of the African U-20 Youth championship 1-0 to claim Nigeria's 7th championship title in the prestigious competition since its inception in 1979.

Bulbwa's excellent finish in the first half was enough to give Manu Garba's team the victory in a pulsating game.

The Nigerian team leaves the tournament unbeaten in 5 matches after defeating their hosts in the opening match 3-1, thrashed Congo 4-1, held to a 2-2 draw by the Ivory Coast and defeating the black satellites of Ghana 2-0 in the Semi final.

The Flying Eagles will now go on to play Brazil, North Korea and Hungary in the group stage of the FIFA World Youth Championship to be held in New Zealand in May this year.

While Nigeria's victory in Senegal was sweet, the big question remains: can we transmit this success in age grade competitions to the Super Eagles where victory in tournaments really counts?

It's a question that only time will tell at this point as we start the rebuilding process of restoring our national team to the top of African football. Our success in the AYC competition with 7 titles is in stark contrast to the Super Eagles who have only won 3 African Cup of Nations titles.

The primary aim of age group tournaments is not to attain victory in a competition rather, it is to discover and develop raw and exceptional talent that could go on to replace tired and ageing players in the national team.

This over the years, unfortunately, has not been our primary aim and as a result, it has affected the Super Eagles. The Super Eagles have failed to dominate Africa over a sustained period the way countries such as Egypt and Cameroun have. 

Though Nigeria failed to defend her AFCON title which she won in Tunisia in 1994 in South Africa in 1996 because of a last minute withdrawal from the tournament as a result of a dubious political statement by the country's then dictator, General Sani Abacha, Nigeria has failed to put up any serious title defence after becoming champions of Africa. In 1982, Nigeria was knocked out in the first round of the African Cup of Nations. While Stephen Keshi's AFCON winning team of 2013 failed to even qualify for the tournament in Equitorial Guinea where they were supposed to be the defending champions.

You would suspect that if there was a fluid progression of players from the U-17, U-20 and U-23 junior teams to the Super Eagles, the way Keshi's squad struggled for form during the last AFCON qualifiers would have been avoided.

The mere fact that since Keshi took over from present U-23 coach, Samson Siasia, he has not been able to discover one natural right back for the national team let alone a back up, shows a flaw in the way we run our teams. Efe Ambrose a centre back by trade filled that void pretty well since Nigeria was not regarded as a force to be reckoned with after we failed to qualify for the AFCON of 2012. We carried the element of surprise and probably the tag as dark horses albeit one of the favourites in South Africa in 2013 where we peaked after the group  stages and at the right time. Before anyone could take notice, we were already champions.

After the World Cup, teams did their homework on Nigeria and they spotted one or two vulnerabilities in Keshi's squad which they exploited ruthlessly. The end result was we were bundled out during the qualifiers. That we failed to qualify for AFCON isn't new but the performance of the team throughout the qualifiers was not the stuff you would expect from a reigning champion.

Nigeria has failed to replace players like Okocha, Yekini, and even Stephen Keshi himself with equally outstanding players after they quit the game.This may be where our problems lie. Even though we have won a lot of bronze and silver medals at AFCON, Nigeria has failed to defend her title or even retain it. This complaceny has to end.

We should look at in form players when selecting players for the national team. There must be a system put In place to monitor the progress of youngsters as they climb up the ladder. The Nigeria Football Federation should collaborate with corporate sponsors and establish football academies to complement the few already existing ones in the country. 

Moreover, a paradigm shift must be made by the NFF with emphasis from winning at all costs at age grade competitions to talent pursuit and discovery so that the senior national team can be competitive.