Buhari attempted to raise the morale of the players by talking to them before the crucial match. Nigerians claim it caused the defeat
By Ishaya Ibrahim, News Editor
At least 146,000 tweets have referenced President Muhammadu Buhari on Twitter, making him one of the top trends on the microblogging platform.
The reason Buhari is trending is his pre-match phone call to the hitherto unbeaten Super Eagles. They later lost the match to the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia.
On Twitter, Buhari’s phone call is being blamed for the Super Eagles defeat. Those who blame the president argued that the team had been unbeaten at the group stages until he chose to speak with them.
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Buhari had before the match, phoned the players in a video call, a tradition that was first started by late Nigeria’s maximum ruler, General Sani Abacha.
In the case of Abacha, after chatting with the players ahead of the finals of Tunisia 94, they ended up beating their opponent, Zambia, by two goals to one to lift the trophy.
Yesterday when Buhari had a zoom call with the players, he sought to raise their morale ahead of the crucial match. But many Nigerians claim the phone call cast a ‘bad luck spell’ on the players who played well but couldn’t just find the back of the net of the Tunisians.
A former aide to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on social media, Reno Omokri, said “Iwobi red card, Iheanacho yellow card. All the time they have been playing this never happened. Why is it that it is the day they spoke to Buhari that these series of unwelcome events rained on us! Energies are very contagious. Avoid negative people!”
He then added: “May Buhari not phone you on the day that is scheduled for your promotion and celebration!”
Convener of #RevolutionNow, Omoyele Sowore had tweeted some hours before the match: “Just heard Muhammadu Buhari just passed his bad luck to Nigeria’s Super Eagles! We are working hard to neutralize it. #RevolutionNow.”
After the defeat of the Super Eagles, Sowore tweeted: “#SuperEagles played very well today but that terribly dangerous call from Mr. FAILURE @MBuhari was the problem. Buhari is bad luck personified, if you doubt me ask The people of Nigeria. May Buhari never happen to you! #RevolutionNow #WeCantContinueLikeThis #AFCON2021.”
@gaiuschibueze said: “May Buhari never remember you, especially when you are close to your Breakthrough.”
A Ghanian, @malikofori, latched on the trend to pray for Ghana’s victory against Nigeria in the crucial world cup qualifier coming up in March. He said: “I pray Buhari calls every single Super Eagle player before the Ghana match, amen.”