The celebrations surrounding Tobi Amusan just proves that Nigerians will forget all their problems and rally around the flag with a little motivation 

Ayo Akinfe 

[1] For me, the last 48 hours have been a real eye opener as Nigerians of all ethnic groups, religious faiths and political affiliations buried their differences and celebrated Tobi Amusan with one voice 

[2] The last time this happened was in January 1970 at the end of the Nigerian Civil War. At the time, Nigerians of all backgrounds just embraced each other as if there had been no conflict. Parities were organised all over the country to welcome back Igbos who fled 

[3] Sports has always had that effect on mankind. Do you know that football was the only thing the Taliban could not ban in Afghanistan?

[4] Not many people know that in 1969, Honduras and El Salvador fought a four-day war over football. Yes, they fought what is known as The Football War, also known as the Hundred Hours' War! 

[5] In 2006, the Ivorian civil war ended as soon as the Elephants qualified for the World Cup and got to the final of the African Cup of Nations 

[6] What all this celebration of the last 48 hours tells me is that the woes of Nigeria are only skin deep. Give the people a bit of hope and they will abandon all the negativity and become optimistic 

[7] It kind of reminds me of how all the Oduduwa secession talk died in 1999 as soon as Obasanjo got elected 

[8] Likewise, once Goodluck Jonathan became president, all the bombing in the Niger Delta stopped. You will be surprised to know that during his tenure, Nigeria’s crude oil output rose to an unprecedented 2.7m barrels a day. Never before and since have we ever produced in excess of our historic Opec quota of 2.5m barrels a day 

[9] I put it to all of you that if Peter Obi gets elected as Nigeria’s president next year, Ipob will not have more than 500 supporters across the whole country. If President Obi is in office for two terms, we will not hear the word Biafra mentioned once during those eight years 

[10] I hope the presidential candidates are all noticing this. A little bit of effort on security, restructuring, fairness, economic diversification and equity, will make most of our negativity, secession talk and hopelessness disappear overnight