Hearts go out to the homeland for Efe’s Brazil-bound Nigeria

THE horrors unfolding in their homeland will never be far from the thoughts of Nigeria’s football heroes at the World Cup, according to Efe Ambrose.

The nation is under attack from insurgent Islamist terror group Boko Haram, a war highlighted on a worldwide scale by the kidnapping of more than 200 schoolgirls.

Over the past six weeks the group have been responsible for atrocities against civilian life on a near daily basis in villages and the capital Abuja, leaving many hundreds dead.

The onset of the national team’s participation at Brazil 2014 can, says Ambrose, at least bring some kind of focus shift for the millions of football-daft followers in the country.

And he has promised them the players will not fail to remember the troubles besetting those they have left behind when they compete against Argentina, Iran and Bosnia-Herzegovina in Group F.

Ambrose (left) said: ‘When Nigerian teams play — not only in the World Cup — everyone watching forgets about their worries. It’s a great feeling to know you can do that. Nigeria will come to a halt when the World Cup is on. But when we’re playing nobody will forget about the girls or what is happening elsewhere in Nigeria.

‘This isn’t something anyone should take their eye off. It’s something that needs attention. As footballers, we can use our position to tell the world and the people of Nigeria: “Bring back

our girls” and highlight the story.

‘It touches you because it could be my sister, or your sister, and it would be horrible to hear your younger one has been taken away. The area where the girls were taken is in the northern side, not too far from where I grew up.

‘But it doesn’t matter where it is — once something like that happens it touches everyone in Nigeria and all over the world. All I can say is that in my country and all over the world, football preaches peace and keeps stability in the country.

‘The government and the people in Nigeria always try to use football to preach peace and show people how the game can bring love.

‘With Nigeria going to the World Cup it will switch the attention back to football and allow the government to deal with the terrible situation.’