Immigration Attachee, Embassy of Nigeria in Cote d’Ivoire, Robert Terlumum Akpenpuun said the Super Eagles of Nigeria are the team to beat in the ongoing African Cup of Nations, AFCON in Cote d’Ivoire.
He stated this on Monday in his office at the Nigerian Embassy in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire adjacent to the Felix Boigny Stadium where the Super Eagles have been playing all their matches.
The former Chief Protocol Officer to the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF further said, “The expectation as a Nigerian, is very high, we are the team to beat, all eyes are on the Super Eagles, and due to the population of Nigerians here, it has become a rivalry between the host nation, Cote d’Ivoire and Nigeria. They don’t care about anything anymore but Nigeria all the way.
On the performance of the Super Eagles, he said, “Nigerians here are very happy with the performances of the Super Eagles. You know what it is when you are in a strange land, a lot of things will work against you. So the only thing that they know is that Nigeria is still the giant of Africa, the powerhouse of Africa and they are expecting nothing less than winning this cup. There is nothing short of it. That is the only way we can walk tall and they know that Nigeria is a nation to beat.”
On support for the Super Eagles:
“Nigerians here know what is at stake. They know that they need to support their own, that is why they are coming out in thousands. You can see the frustration on their faces, during the last match we played against Angola. The tickets were hoarded until the day of the match before they opened the portal. It was frustrating. Tickets for 5,000 cefa, went as high as 20,000 cefa but Nigerians were determined to support their own. They were there in the stadium and you could see that in the second half, the whole stadium was full to capacity of about 19,000 spectators.
On the culture and lifestyle of the people of Cote d’ivoire, Mr. Akpenpuun said, “I am just barely eight months here, I thank God for this opportunity given to me. When you talk about the lifestyle of Ivorians, they are people who are contented. This is a country where people eat garri, the garri we don’t value back home. Garri and ice-fish, a piece of it can last them the whole day. This is a country where people use coins to buy bread (begat), for about two hundred cefa of their coins, and they eat it with spaghetti, sometimes with ice-fish, chicken, depending on the person, and they are contented. They are not so crazy about certain things like our people.”
On the Economy of the country, the former Chief Protocol Officer said, “I don’t want to talk about the economy because you can see for yourself. It also depends on the angle you are looking at. Their people are contented and happy.”
For those who have intention of staying back in Cote d’Ivoire after the AFCON, the Immigration Attachee said, “Cote d’Ivoire is a West African nation, people are allowed to migrate. There is free movement, there is free trade. You just come and regularise your stay. When you come as a Nigerian, the first thing is to identify with the embassy by trying to get your consular card, nobody will harass you, it is a policing nation and just mind your business. And anybody coming here must have something to do, it is not like in Nigeria where people don’t have something to do. You must have something doing to sustain yourself and it is an expensive country. So you don’t just wake up and say your brother is in Cote d’Ivoire, I just want to go and stay with him, no it is not done that way, you must have a means of livelihood.”
