Echoes of excitement are still rolling round in the wake of last Friday’s climax of the Nigerian National League (NNL) Super-4 at Remo Stars Stadium in Ikenne, Ogun State.
That, though, is in contrast with what transpired during the competition’s other round of matches, which took place on Monday and Wednesday – when the stands were empty and the environment dull.
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I used this same column last week to highlight my misgivings regarding those two days. So, we will not go down that same route this week. Rather than repeat us like a broken record, let’s look at that singular moment in history last Friday, which marked an exciting climax to the 2026 NNL Super-4.
The biggest image that would wow anyone who was not present physically at the venue last Friday would surely be the huge crowd that was seen in the stands. As fate would have it, I could hardly get a seat because I thought it would be the same lack of spectators that we witnessed on Monday and Wednesday.
I got to the venue just three minutes to kick off and had to sit in the second pavilion because the main stand was filled up already, and the security personnel had to lock up the gates to avoid overcrowding.
I had to rush over to the adjourning stand before that also got filled to the brim, with several spectators even having to stand while the game lasted. Before you could say ‘Jack Robinson,’ all four pavilions in the complex were full to overflowing.
At that point, anyone watching via live streaming would surely have wished to be there, to physically enjoy the fun on offer. The viewer would have muttered, “This Super-4 is very exciting. See the crowd that they have.”
Most importantly, NNL top shots would be beating their chest that they had found the key to wooing corporate sponsors at home and abroad, who love to see huge crowds before sinking the hard-earned money into public events.
Yes, it surely must have been a huge spectacle for TV, commercialisation and boosting Nigeria’s international image … especially for people who get carried away by appearances without asking questions about sources. They get easily won over by the values of ‘visualised deception.’
However, for the critical minded media guru or a stickler for proper and realistic content in public relations, there would always be questions about the origin of content – not just ‘the end justifies the means.’
So, rather than just gloat over the huge crowd seen at Remo Stars Stadium last Friday, the public relations guru would ask: How many of them paid at the gates to gain entry into the arena? How much money did the NNL make from ticket sales to the mammoth turn out?
The answer to both questions is ZERO – no payments at the gates, no monetary gains for the NNL from the huge crowd. On the other hand, it was the NNL that even gave out cash to the spectators through a raffle draw.
That reminded me about four grave mistakes I often committed during my glorious days as coordinator of the highly successful National Grassroots Dream Team –
1. We will go to corporate bodies and beg them to give us their branded t-shirts for free; our players would then wear them gleefully and count themselves special.
2. We would rush to attend events organised by corporate bodies just to feel part of the fun without thinking about appearance fees and branding implications.
3. We would gladly welcome corporate bodies to lavishly brand our events with their banners and trademarks all for free because we felt they were glamorising the day.
4. We failed to note the differences between sponsorship and donations when writing letters to corporate bodies and individuals whose assistance we tried to get.
On hindsight, several years later, I began to realise that all those so-called glamorous gifts and images should have been paid for. In the true sense of public relations, you should not settle for ‘audio impact’ or ‘visual deception’ because you want to impress. Only concrete values should be accepted – which simply means: How much did you gain from the venture?
Those are the questions we should ask the NNL, especially after the huge crowd they drew on Friday. More piercing questions, the NNL should provide answers to – was it the clubs that brought the crowd or the presence of Portable? Did Portable perform for free? Piercing questions whose answers are quite obvious for us all.
At the end of the day, the NNL settled for ‘visual deception’ to draw a huge crowd and gain global accolades without commensurate profit to show. Or, better still, they got corporate bodies to give ‘charity’ in the name of sponsorship in order to gain ‘audio benefits’ as against concrete dividends.
In that case, since they got sponsors, it means the NNL did not lose their own money. They got corporate bodies (as donors) to pick the bills. Portable came, a huge crowd gathered, TV cameras relayed huge visual content … and the end justifies the means. So, why should I complain? Must I cry more than the bereaved? May God save Nigeria…
