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At noon on Tuesday, October 23, 2023, sitting alone in front of the “Wall of Fame” at the Nigeria Institute of International Affairs, NIIA, Lagos, I am thinking.
Many parts of the world are in chaos and crisis from the limitation in our human ways.
I am staring at the names of former Nigerian athletes who were honoured recently, etched forever in Gold letters on the wall built specially to mark a selfless deed and a forgotten moment in history.
Next Saturday, October 28th 2023, the spirit and further significance of the 1976 Olympic Games boycott by 27 African countries in Montreàl, Canada, will once again be evoked during the biggest global sports event of 2023.
At the Stade de France in Paris, the final match of the 2023 Rugby World Cup will take place between New Zealand and South Africa!
The significance of both countries meeting again on a sports field can not and must not be lost to those with a sense of history, a small part of indelible chapters in the story of the Black person on earth, dark chapters for 5 Centuries (till now) in various forms and shapes – enslavement, segregation, apartheid, racism, colonialism, neo-colonialism, exploitation, and injustice.
There is an umbilical connection between the rugby match in Paris on October 28th, 2023; the cost of local fish in Wasimi, a little unknown hamlet in Nigeria; mourners of young protesters killed in Soweto, South Africa almost 50 years ago; thousands of suffering and dying Haitians in their failed Black country; and even recent World Cup bids for the FIFA World Cups!
All these are connected, but it takes special ‘eyes’ to see them.
The Rugby World Cup Finals this Saturday morphs with events in sports history and, most importantly, with whatever will happen when the All Blacks of New Zealand line up against the Springboks of South Africa to rekindle the spirit of some of the darkest times in human history that the world must never forget, as a guide into a New World Order using invaluable lessons from softpower sports diplomacy.
Why should all of these be of interest to Nigerians? Why should South Africans, and, indeed all Africans and persons of African-descent, listen and watch this week’s edition of “90 minutes with Mathematical”?
Because the dots of history are to be connected by:
Professor Eghosa Osaghae from Lagos; Dr. Biki Minyuku from Johannesburg; and Idorenyin Uyoe from Atlanta, Georgia.
Together they shall join me to do justice to this unusual excursion into the bowels of African history, sport and international diplomacy.
No one should miss this illuminating, informative and compelling edition of “90 minutes with Mathematical”.
From 7:30 am (GMT + 1 hr), this Saturday, October 28th, on Eagle7 Sports Radio, 103.7fm in Abeokuta, and online to the rest of the world on
http://www.facebook.com/eagle7fm
http://www.instagram.com/eagle7fm
http://www.twitter.com/eagle7fm1037
https://youtube.com/@eagle7fm
https://eagle7fm.com, and eagle7fm.com
Or tune to Radio Garden and select Eagle7 Sports Radio
This is powered by AIRPEACE AIRLINE, one of the fastest growing commercial airlines in Africa.
Dr. Olusegun Odegbami, MON, OLY, AFNIIA.
SB E-news
SB events magazine.
www.sbenews.com.ng
sbeventsmagazine@gmail.com
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