OLUWASHINA OKELEJI DESPITE being Africa’s most successful side by far, with more continental titles than their male counterparts, the Nigerian women’s national football team have been denied the respect befitting their hegemonic dominance and treated as an afterthought.  This culture of disrespect is not new. It goes back close to two decades at least and has seen the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) deploy a number of deplorable tactics – from scapegoating to gaslighting and using the divide-and-conquer approach to devastating effect – to shirk their responsibilities and browbeat successive national teams into submission. As Africa’s sole representative at the first…