The General Overseer, Press Clips Pentecostal Church (PCPC), Columnist Pastor Mike Awoyinfa, in his sermon in the

Saturday SUN of 8 th February, 2014, both in the title and within the body, prayed God to make him a Mourinho. To his credit, it is in his character to sermonize, every weekend, with soul-lifting and change-inspiring prayer points on his back page pulpit. As a Saturday-Saturday Medicine member of the Church, not a church worker and therefore not known to the G.O., I feel safe, from time to time, to either say or refuse to say amen to whichever of his prayer points I so consider. Awoyinfa, who has had a successful (perhaps, trophy-laden) editorial carrier was so overwhelmed by the heroics of the guy who inspires me with his guts, with his humour, with his charisma, with his good looks, with his knowledge of football, with his knowledge of management, Chelsea FC manager. Jose Mourinho. The one who, for instance, nurtured the defunct Weekend Concord newspaper from the cradle with a team of mere eaglet editors and correspondents prayed God to make him a Mourinho. It should have been the other way round: Mourinho should be asking God to make him an Awoyinfa. However, if my General Overseers prayer is his wish, I say a loud amen. But G.O. stirred the rebel in me when he beseeched God to give Nigeria a Mourinho. To that I stubbornly refuse to shout amen. In fact, I reject it in Jesus name. God, give Nigeria not a Mourinho. G.O.s heros Nigerian version is the exact opposite of the kind of manager the country badly needs at the moment. Nigeria needs a manager genuinely equipped to do new things. Mourinho said: I love doing new things. But he never does new things; he only moves to new locations and that can never amount to doing new things. I would rather, God, you gave Nigeria a Vicente del Bosque who has not only done new things, but is also to date the only football manager to have won the Champions League in addition to domestic league titles (with club sides) and the European Championship and the World Cup (with a national team). Managing a national team is a completely different ball game from managing a club for more reasons than one. Sven-Goran Eriksson went a step further in doing new things by going back to a league division four club, Notts County, as Director of Football, with a view to taking the world's oldest league club to the top of the Premiership in a straight flight. He was on course before resigning following certain unfortunate incidents.

God, give Nigeria not a Mourinho. What the country needs is a real Special One who can squeeze milk out of malnourished, pooku lowo e cows rather than fat, overfed ones. The country needs a manager, a commander-in-chief, who can lead and motivate poorly-paid, poorly-housed and poorly-fed slumping police officers to restore lasting peace on the Plateau, an ill-equipped army to crush Boko Haram and a trembling EFCC to confront corruption. I would rather God gave Nigeria a Stephen Keshi who led a near-unknown Super Eagles squad, with boys from the low-rated NPL in critical positions, to capture the 2013 AFCON title, crushing, in the process, an almighty Ivorian team made up of what would easily pass for African European Champions League Eleven. Jose Mourinho would achieve that feat only by importing into the team Lionel Messi, Christiano Ronaldo, Frank Ribery, Eden Hazard, Gerard Pique, Bastian Shweinsteiger and David Alaba, younger brother of Taiwo and Kehinde, proud children of my G.O. God, give Nigeria not a Mourinho. The mouthy Portuguese can only lead another Goliath to conquer Goliath. The real Special One is he who can lead a Fulham, a Sunderland or a Cardiff, not Abramovichs multi -billionaire Chelsea, to crush Manchester City at the fearsome Etihad. Nigeria needs a manager who can lead it, as a Third World country that it is, to kick out the United States, Japan, Germany, South Korea, China etc. in technology, economy, security, education, health and politics. I would rather God gave Nigeria an Otto Rehhagel, a real Special One, who not only did a big thing and then a new big thing, but also led David to conquer Goliath on both occasions. The German magician, in 1998, led one ordinary German second division side called Kaiserslautern (I almost wrote Kaiserslaughtered!), without an Abramovich or Dollar Sheikh behind it, first to a comfortable promotion and then sensationally straight to the Bundesliga title (the first and so far only win by a promoted team) ahead of giants such as Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund. Six years later, 2004, this same man led tiny Greece, with no single player Nigerian youths who practically live at football viewing centres could recognize, to capture the European Nations Cup. In the process, the team accounted for the hosts, the defending champions and pretournament favourites and winning all its matches in open play. Mourinho would only have achieved the feat with a team already capable of such even with Madam Rebecca as coach, such as Germany, Spain and The Netherlands.

Give Nigeria, O God, not a replica of G.O.s hero. Mourinho is a serial consumer. His anointing is to consume what others have produced. He wanted Robin Van Persie only after he had become a finished product. He wants Radamel Falcao, but he could never have produced him. A major problem of Nigeria is we have always been a consuming nation. Nigeria needs, as manager, an anointed producer, not a serial consumer. Corruption has consumed what the country had in stock and the people are suffering and smiling because virtually nothing is being produced. The manageable being conjured by committed, patriotic and resourceful citizens is being heartlessly consumed by the greedy cabal that Mourinho represents. Mourinho is a winner! Yes, the G. O. said so. But let a producer come first. Let our economy flourish. Let our security be water-tight. Let out telecommunication services be perfect. Let our road infrastructure become firstclass. Let our hospitals be well-equipped and our academic institutions raised to world standard. Then we can invite a Mourinho to come and consume what others have produced. But for now, O God of Abraham, Almighty Jehovah Jireh, heed the cry of Thy poor son: give Nigeria not a Mourinho!

Published: Saturday SUN, February 22, 2014, Back Page, Press Clips column.