AFCON Final: Of Prophets, Pundits, Analysts And Thieves 

ONWUASOANYA FCC JONES

I have been reading a lot relating to predicted outcomes of Nigeria’s final match in the AFCON coming up later today. I always take my time to read through predictions by this who rightly identify themselves as sports analysts or soccer pundits, because unlike the self-acclaimed prophets and seers, these pundits do not misrepresent God nor insult our sensibilities.

I have predicted a few football matches correctly in the past. In fact, as soon as the group stage matches ended, I predicted, and as long as I know, I was one of the first people to go public with this prediction; that the grand finale would likely be between Nigeria and Ivory Coast. The accuracy of a few of my soccer predictions neither makes me a prophet or even a football pundit, because even though I like watching football, I am ignorant of many basic rules of football, including, offside measurements.

At a time when everyone has understood the commercial profitability of social media, many clout-chasing deceivers are capitalising on the gullibility of the majority to sell themselves as what they are not. This is why we have a large number of impostors claiming to be pastors and prophets, and gaining undeserved attention to their charlatanism.

One of the affairs of men in which I doubt if God would want to intervene is sports. If God has to take sides with one team against the other, that would put a doubt on His impartiality. Football like every other sports could have specks of luck in it, but it is mostly about the most prepared team winning the contest. God will not tell anyone who will win the match, but a good football pundit might make a good guess of who might win, after taking into consideration, the playing styles, injuries, bookings and head to head record of the competing teams. Yet, the permutations of even the best football pundits in the world are rarely accurate.

While there had been rare occasions where self-acclaimed prophets accurately predicted outcomes of football matches and sporting events, there is no reliable statistic to prove that there is any self-acclaimed prophet who has consistently predicted a football match’s outcome accurately for a given period of time. Even TB Joshua whose accurate prediction of a particular AFCON final match was recently resurrected, is also known to have made some wrong calls in the past.

While it is practically impossible to dissuade many people from falling victims to false prophecies and their purveyors, it bears reiterating that anyone who comes out to tell you that he was told the outcome of a football match or any sporting event is a thief. Even on the rare occasions when such predictions come true, it must not be used as a criterion to measure that individual’s Godliness or otherwise, because even though God knows the end of a thing from the beginning, He does not interfere and would not cheapen Himself by giving messages about such things.

By the way, I look forward to the Super Eagles recording a resounding victory against the Elephants in today’s grand finale. I expect this match to be the best these Eagles have played in this tournament and if I am allowed to play the pundit, I will tell you never to put your money on the match going to penalties, as it is sure to be decided within regulation time.

THE EAGLES SHALL SOAR!