This is a serious question, so please don't take it the wrong way. Nigeria is about 50 % Islamic (CIA fact site: Muslim 50%, Christian 40%, indigenous beliefs 10%). Why was the U-20 match roster completely (from the 21 names) composed of non-Muslims (and I noticed that the team were all praying together in a Christian manner before each match). I checked the Nigeria roster for the WCQ against Angola, and no more than 2 or 3 (if that) of those names were Islamic. Is this an issue in Nigeria? Has the appparent divide in Nigeria become so bad that the make-up of national football teams has been affected as well? That is really sad if that is the case, as it doesn't seem the case elsewhere in Africa where there are variant religious populations.
beaches. nigeria has over 500 languages and 300 religions. when they gather together to pray, (regardless of whether garba lawal or taribo west prays) its for 1 same purpose. They rightly dont use quota system to select the teams. only on merit. in 1985 just 1 state from the 19 them provided 9 from 18 players in the roster for the U17 WC in china and they came back victorious. The next year, they tried with a policy of 2 from each state. failure. There is a tendency in west africa that the notherners are better in basketball and long distance racing ( higher altitude) while the southerners are more gifted in soccer and sprints. when the national team plays with perhaps a lineup of only christians from the south, the more ardent supporters are from the core muslim north. (the last match was in muslim kano). no marginalising. regarding the names, it is hard to fathom the religion of the yoruba names like adeleye,adeniji and adedeji, others like monday james, daddy or nothern names like kaita & sambo soga.
i think you hit on the point a little bit taiye taiwo is muslim,i think nigerian are learning about tolerance a lot.sambo is muslim,the south has always had better players players like garba lawal are few ones form the north.