Wednesday19th November
2014 could have passed as another day, but alas, that was not to be as
it marked another day that Super Eagles failed to qualify for African
Cup of Nations which is to be hosted in Equatorial Guinea. Incidentally,
it would be the second time the Eagles will be failing to qualify for
the Nations Cup hosted by Equatorial Guinea. This has since been dubbed
a jinx and the flop yesterday confirmed that indeed it has become a
jinx which the Stephen Keshi tutored side against all expectations
failed to break.
In 2012 when Equatorial Guinea co hosted
the championship with Gabon, Nigeria was missing. Countries that
qualified and competed in that edition were Equatorial Guinea, Gabon
(co-hosts), Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Libya, Mali,
Morocco, Niger, Senegal, Sudan,
Tunisia, Zambia, and Burkina Faso.
Interestingly, when Equatorial Guinea
hosted the Africa Women Championship (AWC) in 2008 and 2012
respectively, Super Falcons failed to make it to the finals, crashing
out in the semi finals and fourth place respectively. It was the
second time the Super Falcons failed to lift the trophy which some say
had become their birth right after winning a record nine times including
the recently ended Namibia 2014.
When Equatorial Guinea took over as
hosts after Morocco pulled out citing fear of Ebola, the fear of
possible failure and continuation of the jinx gripped Nigerians,
especially those who are aware of the jinx and the need to put a stop to
it. But with yesterday’s crash, the jinx no doubt will continue at
least until 2017 when another edition will be held by a yet to confirmed
host. Already, 2019 has been awarded to Cameroon, 2021 to Ivory Coast
and 2023 to Guinea.
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