They gave us more than goals and grit they gave us a reason to pause our daily struggle and feel something close to national pride. For once, it wasn’t bad news or broken promises leading the headlines. It was the Super Falcons undaunted, unbought, and unshaken reminding us of the kind of Nigeria that still exists in fragments.
While millions of Nigerians wonder how to survive another week without fuel, food, or a paycheque, the federal government found over a billion naira in record time to reward footballers. No debates. No delays. No NLC strikes,No red tape. Just a swift, generous gesture that says more about our priorities than our patriotism.
Sometimes, it takes a goal on foreign soil to remind a country how far it has drifted from home. The Super Falcons lifted our spirits. Our leaders responded with their wallets. And somewhere between the applause and the cash, the deep rot in our system was laid bare.
A place where joy is rationed and hope often lives on life support, the Super Falcons gave us a rare moment of collective pride. They soared not just with their boots, but with grit, grace, and unrelenting spirit. They didn’t just play football, they played for identity, for womanhood, and for Nigeria’s forgotten glory.
The presidential gesture lavish, swift, and unfiltered. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu announced that each Super Falcons player would receive $100,000, a three-bedroom house, and the technical crew would pocket $50,000 each. Not to be outdone, the Nigerian Governors Forum added ₦10 million per player to the reward bucket.
Rewarding excellence is noble. Celebrating these women for their stellar performance is more than deserved, it’s overdue. For too long, Nigerian female athletes have lived in the shadow of institutional neglect. The Nigerian government only seems to find urgency, empathy, and generosity when the cameras are rolling, when the applause is deafening, and when the headlines are sweet.
Where was this lightning-speed largesse when ASUU held chalks in the air for months, begging for end allowances while our universities decayed?
Where was this speed when ASUU waited a full academic calendar for withheld salaries?
Where was this generosity when pensioners died on verification queues with nothing but empty stomachs and unpaid gratitude?
Where was this national urgency when doctors went on strike, schools shut down, and IDP camps cried for soap, not football?Where was this three-bedroom energy when pensioners men and women who served this country in their prime collapsed in queues waiting for stipends that never came? Where is the reward for doctors, nurses, and security personnel working in perilous conditions, paid in promises and sent off with thoughts and prayers?
Millions of Nigerians are currently stranded in an economy gasping under the weight of subsidy removal, with no structured palliatives, no minimum wage review, and no price control on essential goods. Petrol prices have skyrocketed, transportation is a luxury, and food insecurity is clawing into every household. Yet, with all these economic landmines, the government had no hesitation in dishing out over a billion naira in one breath.
This isn’t just about rewarding the Super Falcons. This is about the symbolism of governance. It’s about a government that doesn’t blink when splurging on optics, yet stammers when asked to feed its people. It’s about a country where merit is episodically rewarded but systems are left to rot. It’s about how we weaponize generosity for PR, while our children learn under mango trees and hospitals bleed out of equipment.
No one is saying the Super Falcons shouldn’t be celebrated. In fact, celebrate them more. Immortalize them. But let’s not be a country that rewards individual success while institutional decay festers. Let’s not scream “well done” to our sportswomen while our teachers, engineers, and civil servants wallow in silence.
Nigeria doesn’t lack money. Nigeria lacks priorities.
And if governance continues to be defined by performance bonuses and not structural reform, we will keep dancing to the drumbeats of momentary victories while the soul of the nation starves.
We clap today for the Falcons. But tomorrow, we must ask.
Who claps for the rest of us
This is the Mathematics of Misplaced Priorities
The Super Falcons made Nigeria proud. They played not just for medals but for memory. They gave us something our leaders have long failed to deliver dignity on the global stage.
The reward is not the problem. The timing is. The priorities are. The message it sends is.
We celebrate excellence in a system that strangles it daily.
The government found billions in a heartbeat to celebrate a football victory, but still can’t find the conscience to cushion citizens against the crushing weight of subsidy removal. No palliatives. No wage increase. No controlled market prices. Just vibes and tributes.
Teachers haven’t been paid in months
Hospitals are temples of trauma,
Roads double as death traps, Security is a roulette game, our leaders still think generosity is governance.
This is not national pride. This is political performance art.
What message are we sending to millions of unemployed youth? That the only way to be seen or rewarded in Nigeria is to dribble a ball on TV?
We are not saying don’t reward the Falcons.Reward them. Name a stadium after them if you must.But don’t pretend this is nation-building. This is optics. This is sugar on a nation that hasn’t eaten in days.
Nigeria’s problem has never been lack of money.
It’s that the money goes where the cameras are.
The same government that dropped billions in bonuses is still ‘deliberating’ on minimum wage. Still ‘considering’ food subsidies. Still ‘negotiating’ with reality.
This is why people are tired. This is why the country is bleeding brilliance and exporting youth. Because here, institutions decay while individuals are crowned.Here, you get rewarded only when you win abroad never when you serve at home.
And so, while we clap for the Falcons and clap, we must, let’s not forget who’s still waiting in the dark.
The civil servant.
The teacher.
The nurse.
The farmer.
The pensioner.
Until Nigeria learns to reward its backbone, not just its headlines, this celebration is just another chapter in the book of national contradictions.
Yes, the Falcons flew. But the country is still crawling.
The announcement of a $100,000 reward, and somewhere in the fine print, it was stated that the naira equivalent of that sum would be paid. So why mention dollars in the first place? What’s the point of that dollar headline just for the foreign currency swag? Is it to make the gesture sound grander than it actually is? This isn’t FIFA or CAF handing out the prize it’s the Nigerian government. And the naira, not the dollar, is our legal tender. At this level, shouldn’t the optics be better thought through? It’s not a major blunder, perhaps, but it does reveal something about how we present value in this country. We know the naira equivalent of $100,000 by the CBN rate, so why not just state it in naira with dignity?
And then there’s the bigger question. One hundred thousand dollars for winning WAFCON? That’s over 150 million naira. Of course, we’re proud of our team and they deserve to be rewarded but while we celebrate, let’s not lose our sense of proportion. Nigeria isn’t just hungry for sporting victories it is hungry in the real, stomach-churning sense. This is a country where the new national minimum wage is ₦70,000, and even that barely buys a bag of rice. So when the government sprays money like confetti in a land of scarcity, it begins to feel tone-deaf, even insulting, to the millions who work hard and still go to bed uncertain about their next meal.
Recognition is good, but wisdom in prioritization is better. We must learn to celebrate without becoming insensitive. In a nation this broken, even rewards must come with reflection.
There’s a house as well that costs up to 100m in value as of today.
I’ve calculated that a government worker that earns 300k a month will not rack up $100k USD for 35 years of service.
This is the mathematics of misplaced prioritie.s
Stephanie Shaakaa .
08034861434
