Orkula Shaagee
When I was nominated by the FCT chapter of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) to cover the maiden edition of the CAF U-23 Championship, which serves as Africa’s football qualifying event for the London 2012 Olympic Games, the first thing that came to my mind was how to operate in a Muslim country, without running foul of the laws.
I also thought that social life in Morocco would be at its lowest ebb.
But I was impressed with the quality of life in Morocco, and how organized the country is.
A taxi in Morocco takes only three passengers, and no amount of persuasion could coerce any driver to take more than three persons. But the Mercedes taxis can take as many as six passengers.
Throughout our stay in Morocco, I did not experience a second of power outage. There is no presence of police on the roads to harass drivers. But the driving rules are obeyed to the full.
From Tangiers to Marrakech is 100 kilometers per hour by lorry or large bus, and road users drive according to laid down rules and regulations.
It was surprising to Nigerians that there were no pure water sellers, gala or Okpa sellers, at any of the toll gates we passed.
Morocco is not an oil producing country, but there are no cases of fuel scarcity, as vehicles are driven in at any time of the day to buy the commodity without hitches.
The country’s main source of finance is agriculture, with tourism as the second revenue generating source.
Travelling to Casablanca Airport through Rabat to Marrakech reveals this, with large farm lands lined up by the roadsides. The same thing applies when you travel along the Tangiers, Rabat to Marrakech road.
The trip to Morocco from Abuja was initially fraught with difficulties. Before we finally made it, it suffered one postponement like the championship itself, which was shifted from Egypt in October to Morocco in November, 2011.
The trip was again on the verge of being cancelled for the second time, when on November 29, the NFF officials told the travelling delegation, made up of journalists and state football association officials, that the journey has again been shifted to December 1.
Some of us, who had left our houses with the conviction that we were travelling that day, left the NFF Glass House secretariat disappointed, on hearing of the postponement.
While in the office that same day, I received a call from the NFF that we were still going to make our journey to Lagos enroute Casablanca that afternoon. We (I and the other three journalists) did not leave Abuja until 9:00 pm when we boarded the Aero plane and arrived Lagos by 10:00 pm, where we headed straight to Legacy Hotel and Suites along Allen Avenue, for our accommodation for the day.
We left the hotel as early as 5.00 am to the Murtala Mohammed International Airport for our flight to Casablanca, which did not take off until 7:05 am to arrive Casablanca at 11:05.
We were received at the Mohammed V Airport in Casablanca by Nigerian embassy and NFF officials, from where we travelled 3 hours by road to Tangiers where the Dream Team played its first two group matches, which they lost to Morocco and Senegal.
While in Tangiers, we lodged at the Complexe le Printemps alongside some NFF officials, state football association chairmen, and two of our colleagues, Ben Alaiya and Tony Ubani, who joined us from Lagos.
Our accommodation, an apartment built by the government of Morocco and sold to citizens at a low price, was situated by the sea side. It is a 34 minutes trip by boat to Spain.
Having arrived late, we were not able to send stories that day.
The next day, I left to the Dream Team camp at Hotel Andalucà a alongside other Nigerian journalists, where we were able to send our stories and conduct interviews.
It was while there that I had an interview with NFF President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari who said that the Dream Teams outing in Morocco, was a disgrace to the country. Maigari had said the team got all that it deserves to win the soccer event, but he was disappointed that the Federation could not get a corresponding benefit on the investment made on the team prior to the championship. According to him, the team’s three months camping in Nigeria, and another ten days in Ghana before the Morocco championship, were some of the pre-championship efforts by the federation to make it excel in Morocco.”It is so disappointing, disheartening, so sad and painful. Over a period of time, I have never seen this kind of disgrace, because I never expected this team to put up this kind of performance. It is unbelievable. But like you rightly said, that is football.”The board of the NFF, in its usual manner, made everything possible to ensure that these boys excel, and you can see that they have been in camp for over three months, and were provided with all that they asked for, and then a board member led them to the Ghana camp for ten days”, Maigari stated.
He also blamed over-reliance on foreign-based professionals for the team’s woes in Morocco, saying the federation’s plan is to encourage grassroots football development in the country where young and talented players will be discovered and nurtured for greatness.”Over reliance on foreign-based players, contributed 100 percent to this disgrace, and on many occasions I said we should not rely on ready-made materials. They didn’t play Nigerian football, because coordination was not there, team work was not there, no technical approach and there was no tactic whatsoever”, he concluded.After sending my stories I returned to Complexe le Printemps, had a bath, ate dinner and slept. It was on this day that the Dream Team left to Marrakech, venue of their last group A match against Algeria.
On the third day of my stay in Morocco, I left Tangier as early as 7: 15 in the morning (6: am Moroccan time) with NFF officials and other journalists, for a nine hour journey to Marrakech, where we resided at the Saada area of the city.
Saada is a lively area for socialites, who enjoy parties and night clubbing. There are many black Africans in Saada, most of them being Liberians, Senegalese and Libyans, who fled their fatherlands during times of war.
I remember that at the Saada Shoprite, I met three Liberians, one of them, Moses Dean, was happy to meet a Nigerian. He told me “we are West Coast brothers”, and that he will always remain grateful to Nigeria, for providing peace and stability in his country.
According to him, he once lived in Kano along Zoo Road, and knows much about Nigeria. He said he fathered a child with a Nigerian lady from Port-Harcourt.
Dean and two of his Liberian brothers, later had group photographs with me and my Nigerian colleagues, Andrew Abbah, Michael Obasi, Salisu Ibrahim and Maxwell Nwachukwu.
While in Morocco, I realized that citizens of the country love Nigeria as a country, and its people. They recognize Nigeria as the big brother.
During the two matches that I watched where Nigeria played, Moroccans were always behind Nigeria, providing support to the Dream Team to win and advance to the semi-final stage.
It was surprising that during the match Nigeria played against Algeria, another North Africa country in Marrakech, Moroccans were fully in support of the Nigerian team against their North African brothers.
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The people of Morocco are generally accommodating and love visitors. Out of the three Moroccan cities I visited, Marrakech is the coldest, especially in the night, but I was at home in Marrakech, with my black African brothers who are ready to assist.
Despite the unique living standard in Morocco, there also exist beggars and slums. On our way to Marrakech from Tangiers, I saw slums on the way. At Attijariwafa Bank, where we went to change dollars to Dirham, the local currency, we saw beggars with their faces covered, who approached us for alms, which we obliged.
I remember that one of the two female beggars ran after me and asked to be given money. She even called my name when she heard Andrew Abbah mention it.
A banker at Attijariwafa Bank, who received a gift of an NFA cap demanded for our signatures as autograph, after which he quickly wore the cap.
Thereafter, we went to the Grand de Stade at Marrakech for the Dream Team’s last group match against Algeria, which they won 4-1.
Again, like in their second group match at the championship against Senegal, Nigerian journalists, NFA officials and other members of the Nigerian delegation became members of the supporters club, with Tony Ubani of the Vanguard Newspaper leading the group.
I later attended the post match press conference where Dream Team Coach Austin Eguavoen announced his readiness to quit the national team job.
I returned to the team’s hotel at Palmeraie Golf Palace, Marrakech for interviews with the players, Coach Eguavoen, Stephen Keshi and a member of the Senate Committee on Sports Alkali Jajere, before heading to my hotel at Saada, to prepare for our return journey back to Nigeria the next day.
In the morning of Saturday, five of us, I, Andrew Abbah, Michael Obasi, Maxwell Nwachukwu, and Salisu Ibrahim, went to the tourists market at Ganza Market where we got some souvenirs and gift items, before going to Palmeraie Golf Palace where a bus took us to Casablanca for our flight to Lagos. We started our journey back to Nigeria on Saturday; a day after the Dream Team crashed out of the championship, but arrived on Sunday morning.
We took off at Mohammed V Airport in Casablanca at 1:45am on Sunday aboard Air Maroc and landed in Lagos 6:45 am, after packing out of our apartment at 3:00pm on Saturday.
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The journey to Morocco was a good and fulfilling one, except for the fact that Nigeria crashed out of the championship, and will be missing in the football event of the London 2012 Olympic Games.
The experience in Morocco contrasts the Nigerian case. Having enjoyed all the good things in Morocco, I received a bitter experience at the Murtala Mohamed International Airport in Lagos on arrival, where I changed 100 dollars and the man shortchanged me by N5,500.
My colleague from the Sun Newspaper, Romanus Ugwu who changed 200 dollars and was shortchanged by N13,000, later approached the man and his money was returned. But I did not go back and lost N5,500 to the fraudulent dollar changers.
