The nineteenth edition of the World Cup in South Africa has finally ended. The tournament in its eightieth year was successful held on an African soil. Thank God there wasn’t any major hitch during the tournament. The organization of this year’s soccer festival in South Africa was met with some initial resistance and reluctance by some countries in Europe, courtesy the bad press by self seeking journalists who continue to paint our continent in a negative light. The issue of crime, HIV/AIDS and xenophobia were on the lips of most of these journalists. Thanks to the foresight of Sepp Blatter, the hard work of Danny Jordan, the South African people and government, the prayers of the entire continent, we have all witnessed one of the best soccer festivals on our continent. The grand opening ceremony of the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa proved most skeptics wrong. The artistic performance and the well rehearsed performances by the South Africans made the whole world marvel; others are still wondering whether this wonderful event really happened in Africa and South Africa of all places. It made some people to revise their notes on Africa, whiles others still adopted the wait and see attitude. Thank God those prophets of doom did not see their prophecy coming true. The South African authorities did all they could to ensure an incident free World Cup. The death of the great grand daughter of the Madiba Man Nelson Mandela was one of the sad events that occurred during this exciting event in Africa. It is very unfortunate such a calamity should befall one of the greatest Africans to lead South Africa. Mandela made his country great through his inspirational and purposeful leadership to his country and the continent as a whole. In a big event like this, one or two accidents are inevitable, but it was unfortunate it had to be a close relation of the man that most Africans adore. The death of that little girl was a sacrifice that the entire continent made to make this happen. May her soul rest in peace, and to all those who had to go through one pain or the other to see South Africa accomplish this dream. I say THANK YOU and congratulations. You did not disappoint the continent when we called on you. The road to the 2010 World Cup has not only been tortuous but also uneasy. Thankfully the South Africans were up to their game. The Finance Minister of South Africa, Pravin Gordhan is reported to have said on FIFA.com that the country spent a whopping 33 billion rand for the last seven years to make this happen. The expenditure was on stadia, improving infrastructure, security personnel and equipment to ensure an incident-free World Cup. The hosting of the World Cup also created an estimated 130,000 jobs and contributed 0.4 per cent to the country’s GDP injecting 38 billion Rand into the economy. The successful hosting of the event is worth the investment. The infrastructure if put to good use and maintained routinely would still be available for generations unborn to use. The government would have to take advantage of this success to promote tourism and foreign direct investment. Like all other successful events, this year’s world cup had its fair share of the controversies. The vuvuzela, a small plastic horn, was the trademark of this tournament. The ubiquitous plastic horn was the toast of most fans at the stadiums and fan parks. It finally made its way to most homes and was very handy during the celebration of a goal; others also blew them harder to cheer their national teams on. For those of us watching the game on TV, we developed some kind of ambivalence to this little music instrument, when everything seems to be going well for our teams, we don’t mind blowing it to the discomfort of other viewers, but when we are not happy with the performance of our team, we see this device as a nuisance which should be thrown away, we also complain of it drowning the commentary from the commentators. The vuvuzela was not left out in the criticisms by the foreign press. While some people wanted it banned completely, most Africans were not for that. In fact it became their new found love during the tournament. Different reasons were given for its ban, some proponents for its ban argued that the players find it difficult to hear each other on the field and the referees as well. Interestingly for the African teams, the vuvuzelas served as the extra power that urged them on. It energized them to die a little for the continent. Unfortunately five out the six African teams failed to qualify for the second round despite the vuvuzela support. Thank God the authorities did not yield to the pressure of the few who wanted to deny Africa the patent that came with the hosting of South Africa 2010. The vuvuzela has come to stay and don’t be surprised to experience the “poooonnnn” in a stadium near you during a soccer match. It is also going to feature in Brazil 2014 because the African presence is here to stay.Just as we have all fallen in love with the Mexican wave so would the vuvuzela register its presence in any international football game. The Jabulani ball which cost $149.99 online was not left out of the blame game. Some goalkeepers and players complained about the ball initially. I am told the ball was made available to all the 32 nations which participated in the world cup to use it in their games. If that is true, then how come we had players still complaining? While some players were complaining, others felt quite okay with it, no wonder we had some beautiful and astonishing goals from some of the top strikers who featured for their country. Another controversy that reared its ugly head at the just-ended tournament was the way some referees handled their matches, the performance of some of these referees was not up to standard. Fortunately, FIFA was ever ready to sanction such referees and prevent them from officiating in subsequent matches. The introduction of technology and an amendment of some FIFA rules came to the fore, courtesy the England goal against Germany that was disallowed and other bad decisions by some referees. The pride of Africa, Ghana Black Stars also had to bow out of the tournament with the help of a certain “hand of God” in the person of Luis Suarez, who denied them a perfect and a clean goal when he turned himself into the second goalkeeper of the Uruguayan team. The subsequent penalty miss by Asamoah Gyan brought a lot of pain and grief to African homes and the Black Stars’ camp as well. This has led to an agitation and subsequent suggestion by connoisseurs of the game for FIFA to amend its rules for such fouls to be accepted as a goal. I think it is a welcome idea which FIFA should consider, by amending the rules; FIFA would save a lot of fans the pain and grief that comes with some of these actions by players who cheat in such competitions. Paul the Octopus did all it can to also get some of the recognition that came with the World Cup. The octopus which managed to consistently predict eight out of the 64 games is hitting the headlines of most newspapers and websites. What is so mystical about an octopus choosing one out of two flags to predict a game of football? If this had happened in one African village where a soothsayer had predicted the outcome of some games in this World Cup, our own people would condemn it and term it as animism, fetishism, satanic and all the evil that is associated with the African. What did the Germans do with their octopus? They publicised its antics to the rest of the world. Next time you visit Germany and you are fortunate to be around the abode of Octopus Paul, what would you do? You would definitely visit him and spend some few Euros to see him. For me the lessons I have learnt about this octopus thing is that, we can make something out of nothing. Africans should begin to see the positive side of life and do all they can to use it to their advantage. The poor performance of five out of the six African teams was a bother to most Africans. The worry of most people was how African stars plying their trade in top European leagues put up a lethargic performance at their own backyard. It came as no surprise to me when the “KAITAstrophic” performance of the Super Eagles and the greatest miss in a World Cup so far by Yakubu Ayigbeni caught the attention of the first citizen of Nigeria who reacted by suspending the team for two years, thank heavens FIFA intervened and everything seems to be under control. The performance of the Bafana Bafana team was also not that impressive but they consoled their fans and Africans by beating a former world champion France in their last match. Thanks to the confusion in the French camp that led to some French players revolting. Ivory Coast, Cameroon and Algeria failed to keep the African dream alive. ”BaGhana BaGhana”, the African team that got to the quarter finals made Africa proud. The unfortunate killing of some soccer fans who had gathered to watch one of the matches in Somalia and the recent killing of over 70 Ugandans by some spineless, impious and blood-thirsty religious fanatics is something that should be condemned by well meaning citizens of the world. How on earth would somebody kill his fellow brother to make a religious or political statement? What is the crime of those innocent human beings who were just enjoying a game which for once united the African continent? It is a big shame to have such characters in our fold, going after innocent souls who might not even have an idea about what informed their government to contribute their country’s troops to stop violence and war in another country. These militants or whatever they call themselves should know that the God that we all serve forbids killing and for them to carry out such a dastardly act on innocent souls shows how illogical they can be. If they want to attack people, they should attack the army and not innocent civilians who do not have arms and ammunitions to defend themselves. But because they are cowards and are afraid of people with equal might, they have turned their “madness” on innocent souls. May the souls of all those who lost their lives during this momentous occasion rest in peace. It is my prayer that the good Lord keeps their souls and to their families. I wish them well. The World Cup in South Africa provided all Africans the opportunity to raise their shoulders high and be proud of the continent; these few incidents did not take away the shine out of the tournament and am glad it didn’t. The best team won the tournament and South Africa has made the continent proud. What are the lessons that the rest of Africa would be learning from this event? South Africa has taught the rest of Africa that there is nothing impossible in this world and with determination and self motivation Africa can rub shoulders with the rest of the world. For me, although Spain won the world cup, Africa won the hearts of the world. The winner of this game is Africa. By Mustapha Jimah Email: mustaphajimah@gmail.com