Equatorial Guinea deserves a huge pat on back

Last week I explored the chances that once action gets underway on the pitch the dark cloud that characterised the build-up to the tournament would momentarily be lifted.

Groups A and B have hardly disappointed to that effect, with the first matches leaving the pools as open as a lottery.

Yet from the Ebola epidemic that saw Morocco withdrawal from hosting after Caf refused to postpone the 2015 Nations Cup, to organisational shortfalls in Equatorial Guinea – the eventual hosts, the tournament would not have vouched for worse publicity.

Some teams were forced to change hotels shortly after arrival in Equatorial Guinea’s biggest city of Bata.

Congo changed theirs because they did not have enough rooms and Burkina Faso, simply because they found too many media personnel in the same lodgings for their liking. On their part, Tunisia spent their first night in another host city - Ebebiyin without electricity, while some training fields have also been criticised by some coaches.

Fast forward to Estadio de Bata, most of the social media reactions were unanimous with the verdict on the opening ceremony compared to previous tournaments – boring. Now, whether it was boring is dependent on where you watched from.

For the close to 50,000 (way over the official 35,700 seating capacity) spectators inside the stadium, it would be hard to tell them it was.

Not after American-Senegalese singer Akon, whose full name is better left out due to space; and Cameroonian singer Mani Bella lit up their occasion!

But bar the aforementioned and a few local dance acts, where the commentator struggled to put up a complimentary poetic line to sync with the performances, it was a rather below-par show.

Yet for an amazingly and hastily put together event, this was a half-decent, honest opening ceremony, which was not over-elaborated and one that didn’t feature many boring speeches.

If any stones were to be thrown at the hosts Equatorial Guinea for it, the pelting should be saved for Ebola.

Not even Morocco - whose highly sensitive tourism industry (country heavily depends on it) make their fears for not hosting justifiable, and Caf – who had to organise the event at all costs, deserve the pelting.

For Equatorial Guinea, who had ironically been disqualified for fielding an ineligible player, they rescued Africa after other countries approached late by Caf refused to host. To understand Equatorial Guinea’s rescue act, just imagine Fifa failing to host the World Cup! Catastrophe.

Every time I wanted to tweet castigating the less fancy opening ceremony, the reality overpowered me.

We are talking about one of the smallest countries with slightly above 600,000 people that had – never mind co-hosted with Gabon three years ago – just over 50 days, where previous hosts needed four years, to prepare for the event.

What Equatorial Guinea need now is – well, continued positive criticism – but more importantly, a big pat on the back for saving the entire continent the uncorrectable embarrassment it would have suffered.

Ssentamu up against himself and precedents

Yunus Ssentamu dropped some good quotes in his interview with the Sunday Monitor at the weekend after sealing a move to Tunisian side CS Sfaxien.

It is refreshing especially that the former AS Vita and Vipers striker understands his job description.

“My job is to score goals and I will do that to make Sfaxien fans happy,” he said.

But it is his response to how he would confront challenges faced by his predecessors Emmanuel Okwi (Etoile du Sahel in 2013) and Jackson Mayanja (Esperance in 1995), who had stints in Tunisia, that had me stop to ponder.

“Well, it’s a big challenge there but I have studied and taken some advice from players like Okwi on the demands of Tunisian football,” he added.

While Mayanja’s knee troubles just a few months into his tenure with Esperance ruled him out of several matches, forcing him and club to part ways in 1995, Okwi’s reasons of acrimoniously leaving Tunisia were less emphatic.

The reason his advice to Ssentamu, which the now Sfaxien striker did not categorise, will be taken with a pinch! You will only hope it is not advice on how to successfully become homesick or advice on how to revolt against your employers before you even give them reason to fight for you.

You will also hope that the advice is not one of how best to abscond from duty, a trade Okwi – who defended his going AWOL from Du Sahel by saying the Tunisian side had breached his contract – did so successfully.

Hope is even more desperate when you consider that Ssentamu himself is a specialist in absconding from club duty, a vice his most recent side AS Vita, will attest to.

Ssentamu’s quality and positional sense in the final third of the pitch is not in question as the 20-year-old demonstrated with his well-taken three goals in Chan and his two in the Caf Champions League for Vita.

But he enters a territory where Ugandans before him have failed.

Coupled with his questionable character (those close to him accuse him of behaving like he has already achieved), Ssentamu comes up against the odds which he must beat if his move is to be celebrated.

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