***From Nigeria ’98 to Morocco ’24
By Harry Awurumibe
Unarguably, Nigeria remains the most successful nation in the history of Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) formerly known as African Women Championship (AWC) when the biennial competition was first introduced by the Confederation of African Football (CAF) in 1998.
While the Super Falcons have failed to win on three occasions out of 12, they have consistently been a dominant force by winning the title nine times, a record unmatched by any other national team in Africa.
This dominance spans over 27 years, making Nigeria’s senior women’s football team’s performance truly exceptional as their success is not limited to a single era. Super Falcons have consistently been a top contender for WAFCON titles over 27 years, demonstrating sustained excellence.
A closer look at the team’s journey in the biggest women’s football tournament in Africa showed that in the past 12 editions of WAFCON, Nigeria has always emerged the Top Four countries and missing a podium finish only twice in WAFCON 2012 in Equatorial Guinea and WAFCON 2022 in Morocco when Nigeria finished in the fourth positions respectively.
The above intimidating records sum up the pedigree of Nigeria in Africa and world football since 1991 when CAF organised the first FIFA Women’s World Championship African qualifiers, and Nigeria defeated Ghana, Guinea and Cameroon home and away to emerge Africa’s sole representative in the championship held in China.
Four years later, Nigeria also went on to eliminate her opponents, including South Africa, in the final round of the African qualifiers to pick the only ticket to represent Africa in the 1995 FIFA Women’s World Cup held in Sweden.
The introduction of WAFCON in 1998 has not slowed down the Super Falcons as their desires to win more trophies have continued to grow just as the country’s achievements in women’s football in Africa, especially in WAFCON, will take decades for any other nation to achieve.
Meanwhile, Super Falcons’ total dominance and achievements clearly justified the argument of American poet and educator Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, who emphasized that success is not achieved through brief, sudden bursts of effort, but rather through consistent, dedicated hard work over an extended period, often unseen or unnoticed by others.
However, many factors have worked together to make the Super Falcons the Pride of Africa, Numero Uno, and Primus inter pares, a team you can not ignore in any important competition like WAFCON 2024.
Firstly, the Super Falcons are founded in a solid foundation, thanks to the combined efforts of early pioneers to embrace women’s football in the 1990s even before the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) now NFF, and Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) recognised women’s football as one of the national sports.
Indeed, it is on record that a mixture of mature ladies and young girls embraced football as part-time sports, but later, the narrative changed when club proprietors, sports philanthropists, corporate bodies, the Nigerian media and none governmental organisations like Youth Sports Federation of Nigeria (YSFON) began to promote the game in Nigeria.
With a huge population of over 200 million people and hundreds of thousands of young girls playing football in remote villages, towns, and urban centres in Nigeria, there is often an abundance of quality players for the clubs and national teams’ coaches to select a winning team in every competition Nigeria is involved.
This accounts for the strong showing of Nigeria’s Super Falcons; the U-20 team Falconets and U-17 team Flamingos, in CAF and FIFA competitions as the country boasts of talented footballers who are trained in their various clubs.
For example, Super Falcons have produced many legends who have bestrode African women’s football turf like a colossus dating back to 1991 when pioneers like Eucharia Uche who scored the first hat-trick in CAF-organised women’s football tournament in 1991; Chioma Ajunwa-Okpara, an Olympic Gold Medal winner;
first captain Florence Omagbemi, and the longest serving goalkeeper, Ann Agumanu-Chiejine (currently Super Falcons assistant coach).
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Also, the team has featured legendary players since WAFCON debuted in 1998, like midfielder Nkiru Okosieme, winger Rita Nwadike, striker Mercy Akide-Udo, midfielder Maureen Mmadu, striker Stella Mbachu, goalkeeper
Precious Dede and defender Onome Ebi.
Other African legends of Nigeria extraction are Super Falcons one-time goal-poacher Perpetua Ijoma Nkwocha, who won the tournament five times and also won CAF Women’s Footballer of the Year Award four times in 2004, 2005, 2010 and 2011and
Asisat Lamina Oshoala, a six-time African Women’s Player of the Year who is currently in camp with the Super Falcons ahead WAFCON 2024, kick off on Saturday, July 5, 2025.
Finally, the legacy of winning the next edition of WAFCON after losing the previous tournament is likely to continue in Morocco as Nigeria is known to have bounced back to win the trophy in 2010, after losing it in 2008 while they reclaimed the title again in 2014 after the Super Falcons failed to win in 2012 both times when Equatorial Guinea hosted and won on home soil.
Therefore, it will be the first time Super Falcons will go trophyless in two editions of the tournament should Nigeria fail to win the 13th WAFCON in Morocco this month after the country lost it in the 2022 edition held in Morocco.
This is even as Nigeria is seriously aiming for a record-extending 10th title in this month’s WAFCON with the NFF hierarchy under the leadership of Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau and General Secretary Dr. Mohammed Sanusi launching Mission X Campaign, a task which the Super Falcons are condemned to execute to further cement their place in African women’s football history, making them a true powerhouse in African women’s football.
