Hosting a game for rich Americans.

last updated 8 January 2015

Nigeria

Editorial

The Nigerian government has taken waste to an offensive new level, said the Lagos Vanguard in an editorial. It agreed to host a sporting event in the capital, Abuja, next February, at a cost of $5 million. If the sport were soccer, beloved by all Nigerians, the expense might barely be justified. But the First Annual Eddie Robinson Motherland Classic is to be an exhibition of American football. Nigerians don’t play American football. We don’t even understand the rules. And why should we bother to learn? “What should be our concern in a sport that is drug-ridden and that is not even on the Olympic calendar?” If the American athletes were professionals paying their own way, an exhibition might be mildly interesting. Instead, they will be students from historically black colleges in the United States. Nigeria can’t afford to shell out precious foreign reserves for American university students when we can’t even school our own children. “If the Americans want to elicit our interest in their game, they should bear the entire cost.”