Last week, world football governing body, FIFA, granted oil-rich Saudi Arabia the hosting right of the World Cup for 2034. This is coming shortly after Qatar successfully hosted in 2022.
This decision, like that of Qatar, has sparked controversy due to concerns over human rights in Saudi Arabia. Critics argue that the country is using the tournament to launder its image and distract from its human rights record. The bidding process was also criticized for lacking transparency.
Saudi Arabia was the only country to submit a bid, and the decision was made through an online FIFA Congress with minimal media scrutiny.
The 2034 World Cup in Saudi Arabia will feature 48 teams and is expected to be held in January or February due to the country’s hot summer weather.
The tournament will be hosted across five cities: Riyadh, Jeddah, Khobar, Abha, and NEOM. Qatar and Saudi Arabia are oil-rich nations like Nigeria, but you do not need me to tell you that whereas these nations have used their God-given resources to improve themselves, ours still remains a curse till this day.
In terms of football tradition and involvement in sports these nations cannot match Nigeria. In fact until the recent hosting of the World Cup by Qatar and the recent influx of great players to the Saudi league not very much was heard of football in these countries. That also explains the initial scepticism that greeted FIFA’s choice of Qatar to host the 2022 edition.
There were so many obstacles before Qatar from the issue of weather to the readiness of infrastructure, the country’s treatment of migrant workers, women, and members of the LGBT community. Additionally, there were allegations of bribery and corruption in the bidding process.
The 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar was a historic event, marking the first time the tournament was held in the Middle East and the Arab world. The event took place from November 20 to December 18, 2022, featuring 32 national teams competing in eight state-of-the-art stadia across five cities in Qatar.
But behold the world came and went with the Qataris giving a good account of themselves to the world. It was a spectacle to behold. They used the occasion to support the position of FIFA to use the beautiful game of football to break barriers and let it go out of the traditional Europe and South America.
This same belief of FIFA also saw South Africa host the World Cup in 2010, against all expectations. Again, it was a huge success.
For these Arab nations, these are deliberate moves to open up to the outside world and shed the toga of being seen only as religious enclaves. They are opening up to embrace the diversity and differences that make up the world. Of course, there are limitations to it all but it represents a marked difference from what used to obtain in the past.
Saudi Arabia, the foremost Islamic country, is deliberate about its push to embrace the world and that can be seen by the upsurge of footballers into the Saudi League. The foremost of these players being Portugal’s Ronaldo.
This momentum by the Saudis, if sustained, would before long see the Saudi league compete with some of the best in Europe in terms of recognition, endorsements and attractions. This would boost tourism, investment, infrastructure and sports development.
Although, some have argued that the reason the Saudi league is attracting this influx is because the Saudis are doing it for the purpose of hosting the World Cup. Well, at least they have the World Cup and they are the sole host, that speaks to the fact that the nations of the Arab world are rebranding, if you like, and are repositioning themselves for the top in all areas you can think of.
And where does this leave my dear nation Nigeria?
It’s reported that we have enjoyed over $300 billion from sales from crude oil since we discovered it in commercial quantities. What have we to show for it? These monies have been mismanaged chasing the wrong objectives like the construction of Ajaokuta Steel company that  remained moribund or they have been frittered abroad by our dubious leadership in safe havens.
Again, for Nigeria and specifically for northern Nigeria, this is enough evidence to the fact that we are headed in the wrong direction in our hypocritical approach to religiosity.
While the rest of the world is opening up and welcoming visitors to their territories, we are shutting ourselves out and allowing miscreants and bandits to unleash terror on visitors and destroying businesses, all in the name of religion.
Today, Kano State that has the potential to rival any state in terms of IGR is ridiculously destroying even mannequins in the name of religion. If these miscreants know that these objects are arousing them, why not just insist that they are always clothed before being displayed in public. That is how ridiculously low we have descended in the name of religious piety and bigotry.
Perhaps, the reason the Northern  elite are opposed to the new Tax reform laws of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not far-fetched, afterall. If all states are guaranteed revenues at the end of the month even when they contribute little or nothing to the common purse, then why will the governors stop living in Abuja and travelling abroad, every now and then?
If the state governments in the North get what is commensurate with their contributions would they be wasting resources building exquisite Mosques and spending billions sending pilgrims to Mecca and Jerusalem?
Come 2034 just like 2022 in Qatar, tourists and sportsmen and journalists would be thronging into Saudi Arabian hotels, shopping malls, tourism  destinations and nobody would be flogged for wearing spaghetti hand dresses or for taking alcoholic drinks, in restricted places or purchasing pork meat from designated areas.
Perhaps, the lessons of these nations for us, as is the case of Dubai, is that it would be a wake-up call for us to begin to think outside the box if we would make any development as a nation.
Any country that is desirous of making progress cannot remain rigid and closed as North Korea and Afghanistan and still expect to attract businesses and tourists.
Nigerians do not have any problems living together but our leaders would rather have us divided to fit into their playbooks of divide and rule while the community of these elite politicians are united in their evil and despoiling our land, commonwealth and resources.
For some of us, we may never live to see our nation host the world. It’s sad and shameful because the Qataris and Saudis cannot claim to have a bigger football culture nor can we say hosting the World Cup is rocket science, but because of a misfortune of successive failure in governance, many of us, rather sadly, would not be alive to see Nigeria host the World Cup. What a big shame
