Takoradi, Jan. 30, GNA - The Super Eagles of Nigeria has called their teeming fans to stand solidly behind the team in its determination to win the ultimate at the ongoing Ghana 2008 African Cup of Nations. "We owe our fans the duty to give of our best and prove that we are currently the best on the Continent," Mr Peterside Idah, Media Officer of the Nigerian national team, told GNA Sports in Takoradi on Wednesday. Mr Idah said the Team's encounter with the Black Stars at the quarterfinals stage would be a motivation for the team since "playing with Ghana had always been a motivation on its own". "We are going to black-out the Black Stars to the surprise of connoisseurs and fans and to prove a point," he said in reference to Sunday's encounter.
On the general performance of the Super Eagles in the tournament, Mr Idah admitted that he did not believe that they could qualify to the quarterfinals due to the lacklustre performance of the team. He said Cote d'Ivoire did his team a "technical favour" by beating Mali in the last "Group B" match in Accra on Tuesday. Mr Idah said the Super Eagles had to step up their game to ensure victory over Benin only after they had heard that the Elephants were ahead of Mali after the first half.
"Come Sunday and we are going to prove that the recent 4-1 victory of the Black Stars over the Super Eagles was a fluke", he said. Nigeria accounted for Benin 2-0 in their last "Group B" encounter at the Essipon stadium on Tuesday to give them a quarterfinal berth in the soccer competition.
Mikel Obi and Yakubu Ayigbeni found the net for their side in the second half of the game after an uneventful first half. In a related development, Nana Kobina Nketsia V, Omanhene of Essikado and Chairman of the Sekondi-Takoradi Venue Organisation Committee (STVOC), has stressed that the major winner of the ongoing competition should be Africa.
He said he believed that football could be used to accelerate the efforts for continental unity, adding; "the joy about soccer is that we throw away all our differences and think about ourselves as one people". Nana Nketsia was speaking during an interaction with foreign sports journalists at the Essipon stadium, near Sekondi on Tuesday. The interaction was organised to assess the performance of the STVOC since the beginning of the tournament on January 20.
The journalists complained about lack of transport arrangement from the hotels in Takoradi to and from the stadium before and after matches. They also spoke about poor sitting arrangements where fans sometimes evaded the areas allocated to the media, thereby causing a lot of embarrassment.
Nana Nketsia promised to address the issues immediately and asked the journalists to approach his office in case they encountered any difficulties.
