Chris 'Nofan

[Peter Obi @PeterObi]

Beyond Football: The Match for a Better Nigeria

This weekend, Europe comes alive again with football. Millions of Nigerian youths will be glued to television screens, streaming matches, debating tactics, celebrating victories, and admiring the organisation, discipline, and excellence that make European football the envy of the world. But here is a question worth asking: Why can’t Nigerian football be just as good?

The answer is not a lack of talent. Nigeria has produced world-class footballers who have excelled in Europe because they found systems that reward merit, invest in infrastructure, ensure security, and are governed with competence and accountability. Great football does not exist in isolation. It grows where there is good governance.

The stadiums, academies, transport systems, healthcare, security, electricity, and institutions that support football are products of leaders who make the right choices and citizens who insist on accountability. Nigeria has the talent. What we have lacked is leadership that creates an enabling environment for that talent to flourish.

As I have decided, in the next 150 days, to engage Nigerian youths wherever they gather—in town halls, campuses, online spaces, and even football communities—my message is simple: The future you admire in Europe can be built in Nigeria. But it starts with your vote.

Imagine a Nigeria where our local league is competitive, our stadiums are full every weekend, our clubs attract sponsorship, our coaches receive proper training, and young footballers no longer see emigration as their only path to success.

Nigeria will not emerge through wishful thinking. It will emerge when young Nigerians decide that elections matter as much as football matches. Every goal scored in Europe is a reminder that excellence is possible. Every well-managed league is proof that systems work when honest leadership is in place.

The 2027 presidential election is therefore more than a political contest. It is an opportunity for Nigerian youths to choose the kind of country they want—a nation that exports talent because it is respected, not because its citizens are escaping failed governance.

Cheer for Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Barcelona, Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, PSG, Inter, AC Milan, or any club you support. Enjoy every match. But when the final whistle blows, remember that the greatest match awaiting Nigerian youths is not in Europe. It is in Nigeria.

It is the match for good governance. It is the match for jobs, security, education, sports development, and national renewal. And unlike football, where only twenty-two players are on the pitch, every Nigerian youth has a place in this match.

Stand up. Mobilise. Vote. Defend your vote.

If Nigerian youths can passionately follow European football every weekend, they can also passionately build a Nigeria where our own football—and our nation—becomes a source of pride.

The journey towards better Nigerian football begins with the path to good governance. And the path to good governance begins with the decision of Nigerian youths to stand up and be counted in 2027.

Every weekend, starting today, I will come to you with a reminder of January 16, 2027, and our future. We can create world-class standards right here at home.

It’s in your hands, and that new Nigeria is POssible. -PO

[Ochi @OchiJnr]

Peter Obi.

There is a strange thing happening in Nigeria. A quiet man, unpolished in speech, has become louder than every microphone raised against him.

He doesn’t speak queen’s English. He is not an orator. But when he opens his mouth, something ancient in the Nigerian spirit stirs, because real recognizes real. He speaks the way a father speaks to his children when NEPA fails and there’s nothing left to perform: plainly, urgently, truthfully.

A billionaire, yes. But somehow, impossibly, he feels the pulse of the hawker in Kano, the graduate without a job in Enugu, massacre survivors in Benue, the okada rider dodging potholes in Lagos. The poor recognize him not because he pretends to be poor, but because he refuses to pretend they don’t exist.

The ruling class doesn’t know what to do with him. They cannot buy his silence. They cannot bury him in scandal that sticks. They cannot shrink his profile, at home or abroad, no matter how many microphones they hand to his critics. And when they attack him online, millions rise before he even has to speak, an organic army he never had to build, from every tribe and tongue, because you cannot manufacture what people give freely.

He is not perfect. He is not the messiah some have made him. But he is proof that a nation this bruised can still recognize sincerity when it sees it, still reach for hope when it’s offered honestly.

And by the grace of God, and the vigilance of long-suffering Nigerians who refuse to look away, he will be Nigeria’s next President and Commander-in-Chief, Peter Obi.

[CHIZZY_BB @CHIZZY_BB]

@msolid118 Are u saying if u have the funds, you can’t support her ? 😳

[CHIZZY_BB @CHIZZY_BB]

@Akasiriike Your papa

[OB @CFC_OBED]

look at the goal of the month nominations for December 2006 😳

[Chris 'Nofan @nofan4d1]

#NewProfilePic

[Chelsea FC @ChelseaFC]

Cundy was all of us. 😅

You can listen to Ben and Jason every matchday, only on the Chelsea Official App! 🎙️🔉

[Chris 'Nofan @nofan4d1]

This is beautiful.

[SHAYEE 𒀭 @tiier_1st]

This is reason why they don’t like Chelsea fans: they have released champions of the world songs for morning & night https://t.co/aZGoqh00ur

[Chris 'Nofan @nofan4d1]

Sorry chale 🤣

[code micky @code_micky]

Chelsea scores PSG to silence the world😭😭😭

[Chris 'Nofan @nofan4d1]

@ejan1a It’s coming home brother. They wrote us off even before PSG qualified for the finals. e don shock them 🤣

[Chris 'Nofan @nofan4d1]

@FT_thread Mahrez should be on the list. Boy’s got one of the coolest first touch.

[. @IceColdChelss]

Man United took Chelsea’s Europa League spot to lose to Tottenham fucking Hotspur in the final. Disgrace of a football club

[Odun Odubanjo @OdunOdubanjo]

My first 18 months at Shopify were rough and I was almost fired.

It was my first big co experience and I was a PM without control of my roadmap.

To make things worse, I took on a complex, cross-functional problem going into year two and by Q2, none of the projects had shipped.

While my team and I were advancing our projects, their sheer complexity caused them to take more time to finish. I was on my way out.

Outside of these circumstances, I wasn't getting much specific feedback. But then I got a new manager who was very blunt with me: "Odun, you're doing great work, but the leadership folks don't get it"

Given I had spent most of my prior career as a founder, I realized I didn't have the stakeholder management skills needed to manage up especially at a company of that scale. If I was going to turn the perception senior stakeholders had of me around something had to change. Urgently.

I started being more transparent about my work - sharing progress, challenges, risks through video demos and docs across company and levels. I highlighted our projects in product reviews and All-hands. It was uncomfortable, but it had to be done.

Slowly the perception shifted and once those projects started shipping the turnaround was complete.

So much that Kaz, my VP at the time and current COO praised my team's ability to ship at All-Hands and when I wanted to leave I was asked to stay.

I learnt a few lessons from this experience which I have taken into my current journey as a founder managing customers, teams, investors, and advisors:

1️⃣ Communicate early:
Carry stakeholders along early on projects. Set the right context, share the why and the goals you're trying to achieve to win their support and buy-in.

2️⃣ Communicate completely:
Both the good and bad. No one expects the journey to be perfect. In fact you're expected to make mistakes if you're being innovative and moving quickly. Hiding the truth is what is dangerous.

3️⃣ Communicate effectively:
Leverage the right content, medium and channel at the right time to communicate through the project lifecycle. Timely slack updates, one-pagers, slide decks, video demos etc. Outside of shipping, this is the real execution.

If you're putting in the work, make sure you put as much time into showing and communicating it to those who it impacts. Otherwise its as good as the work not getting done.

[Chris 'Nofan @nofan4d1]

@badboy_jerry We have had lots of world class strikers in the past, in terms of goals, Jackson is still better. This is his first season remember.

[Chris 'Nofan @nofan4d1]

@RAVIKUMARSAHU78 Dollar

[Chris 'Nofan @nofan4d1]

@OdunOdubanjo Weldone Odt . Super proud of you bro

[Chris 'Nofan @nofan4d1]

@Omolomo_o Hold on a bit. 😂

[Chris 'Nofan @nofan4d1]

@10Alytics Scholarship

[Chris 'Nofan @nofan4d1]

@10Alytics DATA

[Chris 'Nofan @nofan4d1]

@CodeByPoonam @mdjunaidap 👋