Victor Osimhen scored twice against Ghana. The stadium erupted. Nigerians celebrated on social media in a way that only football can produce — a national unity that transcends ethnicity, religion and region for approximately 90 minutes at a time.

And yet. Nigeria last won the Africa Cup of Nations in 2013. We have produced some of the finest footballers of their generation — Kanu Nwankwo, Jay-Jay Okocha, Austin Jay Jay Okocha, Nwankwo Kanu, John Obi Mikel, John Obi Mikel, Victor Osimhen — and somehow we remain a country that qualifies for AFCON and then implodes unexpectedly against a team we should beat.

The structural problem

The Nigerian Premier Football League is a ghost of what it was in the 1990s when Enyimba and Julius Berger could attract 40,000 fans and produce players who went directly to top European clubs. Today, most serious Nigerian footballers leave for Europe before they are 18, developed entirely by foreign academies and shaped entirely by foreign coaching philosophies.