Promise Kept!

It might have taken 30 years for the 1990 emblematic Indomitable Lions squad to be given houses promised them by the country’s Chief Executive Officer following their historic show in the Italy 1990 World Cup. At last, the structures are now in their possession and the beneficiaries, be they the players or their heirs; for those who have died, can now legitimately decide what to do with the houses whose keys were served them on August 27, 2020.
Owing to the popular saying that a promise is a debt, the Presidential gesture materialised by government through the Ministries of Sports and Physical Education and that of Housing and Urban Development therefore redeems a long debt owed the historic team. They who fought tooth and nail even when little was expected from the hitherto unknown team, to write Cameroon and Africa’s name in gold, on the global football records. This, as the first African country to get to the quarter-finals stage of the prestigious FIFA World Cup - a feat that gave the continent five places in the global football showpiece since then. 
Inasmuch as critics may pick holes with the duration of the promise before being materialised, the beneficiaries are at least happy that ‘better late than never.’ Soon after the announcement and even during yesterday’s key-handing ceremony in Yaounde, the vibrant players were all smiles. Logically so as those who were not comfortably lodged could now do so with the new houses and why not even serve as a source of income for others. 
Even more, the promptitude with which the dream came true from when the Head of State finally announced the materialisation of his promise (July) and the official handing over of the keys (August) makes the gifts even more timely. The gratitude poured the Head of State when the announcement was made and when they finally got hold of the keys is testament to the maturity of the 1990 boys which they showed on and off the pitch and even decades after. 
The houses now rightfully belong to them and they have the latitude to decide what to make of the Presidential gift. The smiles the gift brings to the beneficiaries and how it would boost their socio-economic lives are the more comforting both to the old lions that their efforts were not outrightly forgotten and to the present and future generations that no contribution to nationhood is insignificant or can go unnoticed. 
A veritable gesture that could and logically should galvanise other compatriots to strive for excellence in their respective spheres of influence. The Roger Millas, the Jules Denn...