Who would you support if we faced Nigeria today?

The toll of Côte d'Ivoire’s come-from-behind triumph over Nigeria in last Sunday’s 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) final was devastatingly personal not just to Nigerians but a great deal of Ugandans.

The unapologetic embrace of the Super Eagles during the nearly month-long football tournament ought not to come as a vulgar surprise if anything because Uganda has had something of a soft spot for Nigeria since time immemorial.

It is hard to put a backstory to this love affair, but such is the complexity of the teasing mystery before us that in 2000 a bunch of Ugandans cynically willed Nigeria’s under-23 team to success at the expense of their own side.

It was startlingly awful in every conceivable way watching them hail Julius Aghahowa’s goals and cartwheel celebrations at Nakivubo Stadium. The Super Eaglets eventually soared above the Kobs behind Aghahowa’s brace in a hard-fought 3-2 win.

The praise and reverential respect Ugandans have for Naija is sometimes deserved—but not always. In 2007, Abedi Pele offered a measure of just how Uganda had been Naijacked.

Before that, while discharging duties as a ballboy during the 1978 Afcon, the Ghanaian was left transfixed after he saw power evaporate with each minute Nigerian defenders attempted to shackle Phillip Omondi.

The Ugandan attacker’s genius and creativity were key to ensuring that the Nigerian rearguard went about its business with modest success. Never, Pele told the attentive audience he found in the Ugandan press corps, had he ever encountered the very embodiment of poetry in motion. Omondi’s talents, he added, were inexhaustible.

The celebration of individual accomplishment during that media briefing in November of 2007 culminated in Pele’s request that a moment of silence be held in honour of Omondi who died in 1999. It was impeccably observed.

Omondi’s sterling performance during Uganda’s 2-1 upset win over Nigeria in the 1978 Afcon semi-final is widely regarded as the most astonishing moment of individual brilliance a Ugandan footballer has ever mustered.

So much so that it made a ballboy’s faith synonymous with ambition, his devotion with perseverance, and his sacrifice with self-interest. That ballboy went on to win the 1982 Afcon title.

While it remains to be seen whether Ugandan football will ever produce a generational talent like Omondi, it is instructive to look at the moments when it has been Naijacked with searing clarity.

Whenever Ugandan football is riven by doubt and division, its own tend to choose the Naija equivalent over it. All of its offerings are met with a certain degree of resistance as was the case on February 19, 2000.

Not even Hassan Mubiru’s volleyed opener on 14 minutes triggered a change of heart. Aghahowa’s three goals at the 2000 Afcon had already cast the dice. The vast majority of Ugandans who squeezed into Nakivubo knew which corner they stood in.

The Naija brand admittedly had a certain appeal. While Hakim Magumba was serviceable without being anywhere near the Omondi class, eyesores like buying the national kit at the downtown market a stone’s throw from the stadium served as exasperating setbacks.

Fast forward to 2007. There were few Ugandans, if any, in the Naija corner when the Cranes faced off with the Super Eagles in a 2008 Afcon qualifier at Namboole. It did not count for much that, a little over 12 months back, the West Africans had placed third at the 2006 Afcon. Why? The Lawrence Mulindwa administration had added a great degree of flex to the Cranes brand.

This was not only in the visual sense, but also on the field of play as the brace of penalties dispatched by, first, David Obua, and, later, Ibra Sekagya attested in a marginal 2-1 win.

Quick question: If the Super Eagles came up against the Cranes today, what would the state of affairs in the terraces look like?

Your columnist is willing to bet his bottom dollar that the vast bulk of Cranes fans would unabashedly rally behind the likes of Victor Osimhen and Ademola Lookman.

Another quick question: What does this say about the current health of Ugandan football? Over to you, dear reader.