The Nation Newspaper

Category: Columnists

Kalu and Abia politics

Of recent, the media has been inundated with the infantile vituperation of some journalists of Lagos based media trying to defend their benefactor, former Governor Orji Kalu, who likes to seek attention where none exists.

I have read the accounts presented variously by the media and I am able to decipher that they are all headed in one direction, to create noise in abundance. But it is not his fault, he wants to divert attention by mocking at our collective and corporate intelligence. Are those noise makers not aware that their benefactor is now gallivanting in a political valley and wilderness, and therefore seeking desperately to gain undue attention by telling them to attempt a comparison between him and Governor Theodore Orji?

No amount of money can purchase integrity because it is not a commodity. What I find difficult to understand is why Kalu thinks he can always fool all the people all the time. He is angry because he has failed to supplant the incumbent governor of the state with his former deputy; he was beaten flat in his own game. In as much as we want to set records straight, I will try to avoid replying him and his workers word for word because doing so will give him undue attention and comfort since his motive is mainly to be seen as someone who is in popularity contest with a sitting governor.

The rejection of Kalu both in PDP and Abia is not the fault of Governor Orji but his own fault and everybody knows why. Today, he is saying he left PDP because of Obasanjo, tomorrow he will say Jonathan is a bad man and the next time he will abuse PDP and Orji, all to no avail. Governor Orji was a civil servant and was later redeployed to Government House where he played the role of an administrative and intellectual back bone of Kalu’s government to the extent that he was considered good enough to become governor, at a time the EFCC and Obasanjo were at the heels of Kalu. This led to his incarceration since Kalu was under immunity while Ochendo (Orji) was presumed to have had prior knowledge of the financial recklessness of Kalu. Everybody knew Ochendo’s incarceration was a blessing in disguise because without it he could have failed in that election. The massive support he received was as a result of protest vote in Abia State and not because of Kalu.

Governance is soldier go, soldier come, and not a private estate of any man, who is trying by all means to reckon with the elites of Abia State, who have, in conjunction with the people of Abia, said with one loud voice, ‘enough” of politics of brigandage in Abia’.

•Onyechere is Special Adviser, Public Communication to Abia State Governor, Theodore Orji

February 10, 2013
Eagles on Iroko

Fair is fair. Even a government at bay deserves a lucky break, so it is understandable if Goodluck Jonathan decides to milk the goodwill redounding from the Eagles’ spectacular resurrection in South Africa. By an amazing and profound coincidence, the old eagles died in South Africa about two and a half years ago. Now, they are being reborn in the Country of Good Hope. It has been a moveable feast of fluid and flowing football. Messi beaucoup, boys!!!

Nobody ever gave them a chance. Snooper for one did not. After physically witnessing the epic fiasco in South Africa, yours sincerely vowed never to watch the miserable rogues again this life time. Sometimes last week, snooper was fumbling with the remote control wondering what time later that evening Stephen Kessi’s jaded journeymen would be dismissed by the dreaded Ivorians.

But the match was actually on. After watching for only a few minutes, snooper concluded that this was a new breed of Eagles. The boys have succeeded in unlocking the secret of their great ancestors. This was classy football at its sublime summit. After the brilliant dismissal of the Ivorians, the eagles went on to surpass themselves in a superlative shellacking of the Malians.

Last Wednesday as the eagles were putting the Malians through the grinder, the entire country went still. Not a pin drop was heard. All the major streets of Lagos were deserted. Nigerians have gone to worship the only god they worship in unison: the god of soccer. Even armed robbers and kidnappers suspended operations. After the “service,” the streets erupted in jubilation and wild celebrations.

Thanks again, boys for rekindling our hopes in a battered and beleaguered nation. Perhaps in the end, nothing can beat the description of the Malian goalkeeper who said that his team played Brazil and not Nigeria. To be compared to the greatest footballing nation in the world shortly after being dismissed as lax and laggard lame ducks is a tad short of the miraculous. so whatever happens this afternoon is a splendid bonus. Well done boys.

February 10, 2013
Intellectual Slavery and the Colonial Subject

A fool and his intellectual capital are soonest parted. As it was in the beginning, so it it is proving to be at this late and probably closing phase of western domination of the universe. As the Black month unfolds, it is appropriate to dwell on the issue of intellectual slavery and the mental constitution of the colonial subject. The greatest wars take place in the territory of the human mind, and it is the unchallenged domination of this vital front by the western imagination that is responsible for its six-century domination over the rest of the world..

There is a consensus among anthropologists that slavery has always existed in human society. It is an offshoot of warfare. Old Britain, for example, was a colony of the Roman Empire. People have always colonised and enslaved each other. But intellectual slavery, that is the mental colonisation or the deliberate and systematic inferiorisation of the other, has achieved its most potent form and formula with western imperialism and its variant of modernity.

Physical enslavement and actual colonisation can be savage and abusive of human dignity, but intellectual slavery, because it works insidiously at the level of the mind, is even more cruel and exacting. Once a people’s mind is conquered and enslaved, the dominion and domination naturally extend to other domains such as the political, the economic and even the spiritual. The mentally enslaved is thus comprehensively de-humanized, that is stripped of their humanity— which makes the work of the conqueror easier.

So it is, then, that today, the Black person, unlike the Chinese and Indians, has no viable religion of his own, no economic system, no political institution, no traditional epic genre as Isidore Okpewho has spent a life time refuting, no literature as they impishly and impudently told Wole Soyinka as a Knight’s fellow in Cambridge, no culture as they taught Chinua Achebe, and of course no history but a barbaric void as Lord Hugh Trevor-Roper grandly claimed.

Having been a combatant in the global theatre of mental decolonisation for over three decades, snooper is not often amused by the antics of the mentally colonised. But one must not fail to notice when some delicious ironies appear in the horizon to lift the universal gloom about the unhappy fate of the Black person.

Just as the Black month of February was unfolding, there on television was a group of retired Nigerian rulers together with the incumbent stoutly defending the government decision to spend billions of naira to commemorate the centenary of the amalgamation of the protectorates of Nigeria. There is a lot to celebrate about the amalgamation, they all chorused as if on cue and without any sense of irony.

It was a most beguiling and historic snapshot, particularly with the most combatively unenlightened among the lot railing and thundering with the usual combustible gusto. There may be a lot to celebrate about Nigeria despite everything. But the amalgamation was not a Nigerian event.

The “Dual Mandate” of Lord Lugard is a famous piece of fiction and a pious fraud since there is no evidence to show that the overrun nationalities ever gave their consent. It is a consecration of empire and imperial might, a testimony to its awesome power of colonial coercion and ability to territorialise and reterritorialise Africa at will.

If this singular feat of human supremacy should be celebrated at all, it should be by relics of empire glorifying the might and power of their ancestors and not the descendants of those who were herded in like human cattle. The celebration and commemoration of one’s own enslavement is a classic instance of mental colonisation and the most depressing example of Afro-Saxony in recent political history. By the same token, the Japanese ought to commemorate the arrival of Commodore Perry on their shores, and the Chinese the seizure of Hong Kong.

Yet as we have hinted, a lack of self-awareness and its ironic possibilities is a logical corollary of mental slavery. The Secretary to the Federal Government was widely quoted to have repeated Lord Lugard’s words with warm approval that Nigeria was “the product of a long and mature consideration”. Snooper will like to ask the burly and amiable Anyim Pius Anyim if any of his ancestors was present at the deliberation.

If the Nigerian officials had wanted to be fair to themselves and to history they ought to have gone a bit farther in time to the Berlin Conference which began in 1884 and effectively saw to the colonial partitioning of old Africa. It was in 1884 that Henry Morton Stanley, the footloose Welsh explorer who managed to fight on both sides of the American Civil War, arrived in Berlin clutching a raft of treaties with traditional African chiefs who had willingly signed away their possession in exchange for meretricious trash.

Next year, it will be 130 years since 1884, even though the Berlin Conference actually concluded in 1885. Since this tradition of frittering away immense natural resources has continued in Africa, particularly in Nigeria, we must not be afraid of celebrating and lionizing our worthy ancestors. Where it comes to a celebration of self-dispossession, the Nigerian government must accord this date a priority over mere amalgamation.

But there may be more mundane matters hiding under this grandiose nonsense. The goat eats where it is tethered, says a famous Cameroonian proverb. Even if one cannot discount an element of deliberate mischief in all this, it is noteworthy that virtually all the newspapers reporting on the centenary extravaganza published a curious picture of Anyim with his mouth apparently salivating with intent. It could not have been at the prospects of the giant Ohaozara yam or rice from his native Ishiagwu.

What will Equaino, Du Bois, Blyden, Martin Luther King, Cheikh Anta Diop, Azikiwe, Nkrumah, Macaulay, Senghor, Sapara Williams and all the avatars of the great project of mental decolonisation say about this desecration of history by the ruling elite in Nigeria? How will Frantz Fanon, the great psychiatrist of cultural deracination and political schizophrenia, describe the ruling class that presides over the current post-colonial anomie of Nigeria?

It should be noted that while this capitulation to neo-colonial slavery is going on in Nigeria, two great sons of the Third World, one a Nigerian, the other an India and both Nobel laureates in different fields, are engaged in stellar decolonising projects. Soyinka and Sen are two of a different kind, but both are united in their passion and affection for their respective countries and continent.

While in a new book, Wole Soyinka is deepening and refining his time-honoured quest and engagement with the recovery and recuperation of a noble and heroic African past as a weapon for confronting the neo-colonial devastation of the continent, Amartya Sen is chairing a committee in India to revive Nalanda, the world’s oldest university, after an 800 year recess.

Soyinka surely has his Marxist and neo-Marxist critics who accuse him of romanticizing Africa’s feudal and unedifying past. The debate and the fundamental flaw in this argument are beyond the purview of this column. But suffice it to note that the decolonizing project is more than a matter of life and death for its heroic protagonists. Exile, humiliation, torture and death have been their lot. The question is: why has it proved so costly proving to the rest of the world that all people are equal and that even if Africa is no longer at the cutting edge of civilisation, it was at least the cradle of current civilization as evolved?

The reason is the size, scope and scale of ambition of western modernity. For the first time in the history of the world, we have a vision of modernisation which can only expand and grow by denying or suppressing everything that came before it and by obliterating all that is parallel and contemporaneous to it.

Hence the costly struggle to re-establish the Egyptian foundation of western modernity and the momentous inspiration it derived from classical Islam. Once the link and the trail of human achievement are re-established, the myth of the primitive Africa savage is very hard to sustain indeed. And so by the same taken is the project of mental colonisation..

In 1809, more than half a century before the outbreak of the American civil war, the Abbe Henri-Baptiste Gregoire, sent a manuscript of a new work to Thomas Jefferson, a founding father and the third president of the United States. The book was a celebration and commemoration of essayists, writers and scientists of African extraction who had found their way to the west. It was titled, De La Litterature des Negress.

As we have had cause to note in this column, despite his principled opposition to slavery, Jefferson’s view of the intellectual capacities of black people was notoriously truculent and characterised by savage dismissals. In an infamous passage from his Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson noted thus of the African American: “It appears to me that in memory they are equal to whites: in reason much inferior, as I think one could scarcely be found capable of tracing and comprehending the investigations of Euclid; and that in imagination they are dull, tasteless, and anomalous.”

This remarkable diatribe was coming on the heels of the literary exploits of the trio Equaino, Cuguano and Sancho, former slaves of African descent, who seized late eighteenth century literary London by the scruff of the neck and were feted in all the leading saloons of England’s capital for their astounding feats of imagination. Being very well-connected to the metropolitan circuits of the old world, Jefferson could not have been unaware of the literary triumphs of these exemplars. Perhaps it was a case of prejudice compounded by deliberate ignorance. Gregoire’s treatise could have been a well-aimed and profoundly clandestine attempt to help Jefferson modify or moderate his unhelpful worldview.

But it was an uphill task. The same views resonate in the works of European intellectuals and philosophers such as David Hume, Emmanuel Kant, Friedrich Hegel and even Karl Marx. As far as Marx was concerned, India and the African continent lost nothing in the wanton destruction of their old culture by the European conquerors as it was a culture shot through with idiotic superstitions and morbid myths.

Nowhere else in human history had there been such a systematic and concerted attempt to cast a whole race as inferior. It was a pan-Western project of mental colonisation in which conservative, liberal, reactionary and radical intellectuals shared a unified vision of the world based on collective mental conditioning and the assumption of the “natural” superiority of western modernity.

The consequences of mental colonisation are still very much with us, despite the cessation of physical colonisation,. They can be seen in nation-states that are inferior and poor copies of the original, political institutions that are not up to scratch, political elites that are a miscegenated breed of thieving nuisance, economic systems that are uncritically and uncreatively borrowed without any thought for the local conditions and in borrowed religions that lack race-specific nutrients.

It will take a new intellectual elite with a new dream of Africa and a new visionary conception of human redemption to free the Black race from the clutches of mental colonisation. Before this mental revolution, all political revolutions are null and void..

February 10, 2013
‘Messi’ and the opposition hordes

It was billed as mission impossible by cynics who have seen past attempts at mergers and alliances by political parties fizzle at the altar of outsize egos and gargantuan ambitions. And, the speed with which four major opposition parties announced the formation of the All Peoples Congress (APC) was, to say the least, dizzying.

Of all the reactions to the event, the one I found most entertaining was that by the national chairman of the ruling Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Bamanga Tukur. At a time when Nigeria’s football team, the Super Eagles, decided to shock a jaded nation with its exploits in South Africa, it was not surprising that Tukur would succumb to a sporting metaphor to respond to an equally unscripted political development.

“If they have the strength why do they come together?” he wondered. “If you go for a contest you have the striker, you know Lionel Messi, PDP is Messi in the contest. They (opposition) are not a threat at all, it is better; it will inspire PDP to action.

For the uninitiated, Lionel Messi is the pint-sized Argentinean dynamo who plays for the top Spanish La Liga side, Barcelona. He is quick, consistent and skilful beyond belief. Those are not words that you would ordinarily use to describe the PDP – a lumbering, bumbling, unwieldy assemblage of disparate interests welded together for so long, by the sole fact that in 13 years it has remained the surest path to power at the center.

I didn’t expect Tukur to react to the news by saying he and his party men were shaking in their boots. Although, PDP’s National Publicity Secretary, Olisah Metuh, did issue a statesmanlike statement welcoming the merger, some leading members of his party have been to quickly dismissive.

On the face of it they have grounds to be so cavalier. In 2011, Muhammadu Buhari’s infant Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) and the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) went into a late-hour mating dance. The alliance effort was half-hearted, but more critically, it was grievously ill-timed coming as it did just a few weeks before polling day.

Many will also recollect another chaotic attempt at electoral collaboration in 1999. By the time of elections, leaders of the Alliance for Democracy (AD) who had dashed in and out of the nascent PDP and All Peoples Party (APP) for all manner of reasons, found themselves boxed into the South-West.

The only way to power at federal level was to cooperate with the then APP which appeared to enjoy some popularity across the northern states. It turned out the APP’s supposed strength was exaggerated. Some of its leading lights like Umaru Shinkafi whom the AD-APP alliance was depending upon were roundly trounced. More than incompatibility, the 1999 failure was more because the collaboration was rushed – leaving no time for adequate mobilisation of the people and familiarisation with the political platform.

Again, one of the reasons why such mergers and alliances had failed in the past was down to the presence of larger-than-life figures who led the potential partners, and whose ambitions stood in the way of genuine cooperation.

When they were alive the ambitions of the likes of Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, were considerable cogs that made any talk of cooperation between the defunct Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and Nigeria Peoples Party (NPP) little more than a pipe dream.

Many will see in the APC that same challenge given that Buhari still dreams of reaching the presidency. Some in the new partnership believe he remains a hard sell in other parts of the country, and prefer he anoints a younger individual around whom the new party can rally. But there’s no sense that the general has decided to sacrifice his aspiration. The only light at the end of the tunnel might be that the other parties have decided to live with the reality that the general will run one final time.

Of course, many PDP strategists believe Buhari can never win an election in Nigeria. That much has been said by Dr. Doyin Okupe, Public Affairs Adviser to the President. Since we are still throwing football metaphors and analogies around, I might just add that in politics as in sport anything is possible. The current Super Eagles team at the African Cup of Nations went there unheralded. Many expected them to be humiliated by Cote d’Ivoire. Today, they will be playing in the finals against another underrated and unheralded bunch of no-hoppers – Burkina Faso!

I suggest that rather than laugh and think that it will be business as usual, the PDP should be worried for all manner of reasons. Even if the opposition does nothing else, they have managed something major with the creation of the APC given their differences and the personalities who have agreed to subsume parties where they were once lords and masters, and join a bigger team where they will just be one of the major players. In Nigerian politics that is not something to sneer at.

Will there be disagreements? Of course, there will be. Will someone people suddenly make an about-turn when they fail to get what they hoped for? Depend on it! Will some people starting carping about a lack of ideological purity? Of course, they will.

But like the pragmatic former British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, once told his nitpicking colleagues in the then opposition Labour Party: even if you have the best ideas you can never do anything about them for as long as you remain in opposition. His message was clear: Labour had to downplay the ideological grandstanding and find ways to make themselves electable.

In the very existence of the APC today, Nigerian opposition politicians are finally waking up to the reality that PDP could govern for 60 years, as they have threatened to, unless they find a way to make themselves electable.

Another reason the PDP should worry is that the key pillars in the new party have strength in two zones with the greatest haul of electoral votes: North-West and South-West. With that as foundation and with pick-ups in other zones, they can easily make the constitutional requirement of winning one-third of votes cast in two-thirds of the states of the federation. Believe it or not, there is a clear path way to Aso Rock for the APC.

Lying like a time-bomb in the belly of the PDP is the President Goodluck Jonathan factor. Will he run or will he not? After the bitter zoning battles of 2011, and the unwritten understanding that he will govern for just one term, another bid by the incumbent is bound to fracture the party – to the benefit of a new, credible platform with a realistic chance of going all the way.

Another factor the ruling party has to be concerned about is PDP-fatigue. Across the world the electorate often gets to a point where they just become bloody-minded, tired of the same old faces, and would gladly throw them overboard if there is a credible alternative in sight. Margaret Thatcher was kicked out by voters after 13 years in power for similar reasons. Come 2015 the PDP would have been in power 16 years non-stop.

As a kid growing up in the 70s, I became familiar with a particular brand of analgesic called APC. The new opposition party can turn out to be Nigeria’s pain killer if its leading lights can show that their desire to get into power in order to implement their ideas is far greater than all their egos put together. That is the real challenge: forming the new party was the easy part.

February 10, 2013
Chime’s hide and seek

On Thursday, Enugu State Governor Sullivan Chime flew back to the country as quietly as he jetted out last September. His return brought relief on the one hand, and profound grief on the other.

I explain. Chime’s departure was on medical grounds, as everyone later came to know; so his return is good news. In fact, as this piece shaped up, part of the story was that he was eager to pick up from where he left off. I rejoice in the governor’s recovery, knowing that life, even for the rich and privileged, is in the hands of God. But I am deeply troubled by the fact that Chime and his managers failed to use the opportunity of his return to correct the grave mistakes surrounding his departure over four months ago. One reason for this is that neither the governor nor his handlers realised they were in error in the first place.

Leaving Enugu in the third week of September, the governor divulged little information beyond the fact that he was proceeding on his annual leave and that his deputy would govern the state in his absence. There was no indication of where he was headed. There was no word on how long he would be away. Neither was anything said about his real mission, his health. That was wrong and it brought Enugu people no joy, neither did it do Chime himself any good whether as governor or politician. Such executive silence was in utter disregard and disrespect of the people who voted him into power. Enugu people and the entire country were clueless as to the state of their governor’s well-being, just as they had no idea when he would be back home. Such behaviour of leaders suggests that the people they lead count for little and are not qualified to know their leaders’ health status. This is in spite of the fact that those neglected people provide the money with which the leaders feed and fund their privileges. It smacks of downright disregard.

Chime’s silence created a vacuum filled only by rumours and speculation, both unhealthy for the people, their governor and their state.

It was a grave error his administration failed to correct upon his return. The blunder of silence at departure would have been corrected on his return with full disclosure and a heart-felt apology. Such humility would have appeased the people and rallied them behind him with prayers and thanksgiving. Also, such humble dispositions have a way of not just winning the people over but also helping the leader to realise his immortality. For sometimes, leaders fall into error thinking they may possess some superhuman qualities. They imagine they cannot fall ill, but when they do, they think it best not to let lesser mortals know.

This is erroneous and harmful, for we all have a headache or flu now and then. Our economic strengths may vary, as may also our options of where to seek remedy, but ailment is no respecter of persons or status. The sooner our leaders came to grips with this fact, the less secretive they would be about their state of well-being.

“I have recently been told that I am one of the millions of Americans who will be afflicted with Alzheimer’s Disease… At the moment I feel just fine. I intend to live the remainder of the years God gives me on this earth doing the things I have always done…I now begin the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life. I know that for America there will always be a bright dawn ahead. Thank you, my friends. May God always bless you.”

President Ronald Reagan wrote those words in August 1994 as doctors diagnosed a disease without cure. Goodwill messages flooded his California home. He was aged 83 then, but lived for 10 more years before succumbing to pneumonia. Were Reagan a Nigerian, perhaps only his wife Nancy and one or two other people would have known what ailed one of America’s most memorable commanders-in-chief.

All over the world, the health status of national leaders is not such top secret, except in old Communist and totalitarian regimes. Former United States Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s health challenges are public knowledge. She has spoken of her concussion and blood clot near her brain. Chelsea, her daughter, has not held anything back. Neither has her father, President Bill Clinton who, himself, has well-known health issues of his own.

On these shores, things are remarkably different but Chime’s health secrets are nothing new. They only conform to an ugly standard set by even more powerful forces.

On November 23, 2009, then President Umaru Yar’Adua was flown out of the country and did not return until February 24, 2010. In the period, everything that should not happen to a country, happened to Nigeria. Amid concerns over his well-being, there were agitations as to the direction of the country, considering that no handover instructions were left. In fact, Yar’Adua’s aides made such capital of the fact that the ailing president could run the country from anywhere in the world. When his condition was very bad, his minders said it was splendid.

Late last year, the whole country was enveloped in a cloud of needless controversies surrounding the health and whereabouts of First Lady Dame Patience Jonathan.

When will our leaders demystify themselves and learn to value the people they lead?

February 10, 2013
The lost century

Those who said Nigerians are the ‘happiest people on earth’ obviously knew what they were talking about. This is one country where you find the e go better expression on everyone’s lips, no matter how bad things are. No one is willing to confess negative. And that has its basis in religion, the opium of our people. That, I guess, is the source of our perpetual ‘happiness’. The only snag is that I have not found any link between that ‘happiness’ and life expectancy because it is also a fact that people who are happy tend to live longer than those who have sadness all around them. If our happiness is genuine, then we should be among the people with high life expectancy. At 47- 48, the lowest in the West African sub-region, we cannot say we are doing well. Yet, we are ‘happy’.

That ‘happiness’ is apparently behind the Federal Government’s decision to celebrate the centenary of the amalgamation of the northern and southern protectorates to form what is now known as Nigeria, by Sir Frederick Lugard (known simply as Lord Lugard), in 1914. Although Nigeria as a country will be 100 years old next January, the commemoration of the amalgamation began on Monday, with the centenary anniversary dinner held at the State House in Abuja. We knew this was what the government would do when, sometime ago they started flying kites as to the importance of the amalgamation. As a matter of fact, what would have come as a surprise was if the government had decided otherwise. Anything that involves spending is welcome by our public officials for obvious reasons; there is always money to make, whether the country is mourning or celebrating. Forget about whether, as the government said, the events would be funded solely by the private sector. The fact is that we know how to waste money. Indeed, this is another laurel that is waiting for us to clinch.

With the government’s decision to go ahead with the celebration, the people who do not see any cause for celebration have been told they have no point. Yet, I guess if we were to subject the issue to a referendum, most Nigerians would have rejected the idea of celebration because there is no way it is going to affect their lives or meet them at the very point of their needs. But here we are, the nays have had it again; again on our behalf. However, now that those who should take the decision have decided that we must celebrate, the cost should be borne by the government. Obviously, the government quickly came out to say the celebration would be funded by the private sector to disabuse the minds of Nigerians that the celebration is meant to make some few Nigerians richer from the public till. This shows the level of distrust among the people, of the government.

But I prefer the government sponsoring the celebration not just because that is the right thing to do since it (government), is the one that sees the sense in celebrating the anniversary. Secondly, from experience, when our private sector bears such cost, it is the average Nigerian that they ultimately transfer it to. The private sector is no Father Christmas. Moreover, it has its own problems, many of which the government has not been able to solve. Also, we know the price we paid (and we are still paying) since the 2011 elections. Such private sector ‘assistance’ rubbed on us economically, it also cost us a lot in terms of moral rectitude; it has blurred our vision as we have not been able to think straight since then, acting as a corrupting influence on virtually all areas of our lives.

This apart, if the private sector bears the cost of the celebrations at the centre, what of the states? What would the states do with the Unity Square that each of them is expected to build in their capital which would be unveiled during the nationwide ‘unity rally’? Is it the private sector that would bear that cost too, and other programmes that the states might want to do? Yet, many of these states are having cash crunch. Yet, they would have to look for ways to fund these projects that have no direct bearing on their people. What do we need unity square for? How does that engender unity? As a matter of fact, when we say we are organising ‘unity rally’, it is an admission of the fact that there is disunity in the country. Yet, General Yakubu Gowon introduced the National Youth Service Corps Scheme in 1973 to enhance national unity, among other objectives. If that and other programmes have not succeeded in uniting us, then we should not kid ourselves that ‘unity rally’ would.

It is unfortunate that Nigeria’s case is like that of a hunchback who is carrying a load and people say the load is bent. Is it the load that is bent or the person carrying it? Many people believe Nigeria’s problems started since the 1914 amalgamation. I would not know whether to agree with them or not; and my point is informed by the fact that the country once worked within the framework of the amalgamation. But, whether we accept it or not, the country is no longer working. Without necessarily looking for an alibi for why the Goodluck Jonathan administration has not done well, I agree that most of the problems predate the present government. But we cannot divorce the government completely from the sorry pass in the country since the return to democratic rule in 1999, some 13 years plus, when the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been in power. That is why I find it comical when the president or some of his aides make allusion to the same statement that the country’s problems predate the present government. They conveniently forget that the present government is also a PDP government and, ipso facto, an offshoot of the Olusegun Obasanjo administration that begot the Umaru Yar’Adua government in which the present president was the Number Two Citizen. So, if they say we should not blame President Jonathan for our country’s problems, they should be honest enough to admit that the PDP has not been of much use to Nigerians since 1999. That is the import of what they too are chorusing.

Even former President, General Ibrahim Babangida, also said that the mistakes of past administrations are putting pressure on the country today. He did not say what the mistakes were or the past administrations that made them. Will we say those mistakes were those of the heart or the head? Again, the self-styled president did not tell us. Even then, we know. He was also quoted as saying that even Lord Lugard who did the amalgamation gave it a life-span of 100 years. Apparently, Lugard did not envisage that crude oil would be found in commercial quantity in the country then. If there is anything that is still holding this country together, it is not because the country’s leaders by and large worked towards its unity; rather, it is because of oil. We need to see the oil dry up first to see whether Lord Lugard was right or wrong.

All said, Nobel laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka once said his generation was a ‘wasted generation’. In the same vein, this century appears irretrievably lost, so, let’s look forward to the next. And, in order not to have the same verdict when that century ends, we have a lot to do. And this is not talking politics; it is not just about governance or winning (or fixing) elections; it’s about good governance which is as easy to identify (as obscenity), when we see one.

February 10, 2013
IBB: 20 years at war with history

It amazes me that Nigerians, particularly the media, still take former head of state, Gen. Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida (IBB), with all seriousness each time he speaks. Of course, as a man who led the country for eight years, the nation’s history cannot be complete without a mention of the self-styled evil genius. I also appreciate the fact that personalities make the news and the concept of personality could lose its meaning, if a man that ruled the most populous black nation in the world for eight years is not seen as one.

My grouse is that we still take his utterances so seriously, knowing full well that he is a general whose words are not his bonds. For eight odd years, he led a government whose directive principles were deceit, chicanery and graft. Shortly after he seized power from Gen. Muhammadu Buhari in a palace coup in 1985, he initiated a political transition programme with a promise to hand power over to an elected president in 1990. Nigerians believed he meant well for the country and gave him all the support he needed. But as the promised handover date approached, Babangida began to dissemble. He changed the handover date from 1990 to 1992 and later to 1993. Nigerians kept faith with his promise only for him to annul the freest and fairest election in the nation’s history through which Babangida’s close friend, the late Bashorun MKO Abiola, emerged as the president.

Yet the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election was only the climax of the numerous acts of deception perpetrated by IBB while he held sway as military president. For instance, he had hardly settled down in office when he turned the nation into one huge debating club, asking Nigerians to express their opinions over a plan by his government to take a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Nigerians were almost unanimous in their resolve that the nation needed not patronise the Shylock organisation so as not to become a puppet on its string. Unknown to the debating public, the IBB government had already taken the loan they were passionately kicking against.

Of course, Nigeria had to abide by the conditions the IMF had given for granting it the loan, among which was that the nation’s currency whose value at that time was almost twice that of the dollar, had to be devalued. That became the genesis of trouble for the naira. The Babangida government introduced the second-tier foreign exchange market, and, within a few months, the value of the naira against the dollar crashed from about 65 kobo to about N60. Today, a Nigerian in need of one dollar must be willing to sacrifice about N160!

It will also be recalled that the Babangida government almost stirred a serious religious crisis when it secretly dragged the nation, recognised by the constitution as a secular state, into the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC). It needs not be said that whatever mutual suspicion existed between the practitioners of Christianity and Islam was greatly accentuated by that act. It is, therefore, no surprise that some parts of the country are boiling in the cauldron of religious intolerance today.

Afraid of his place in history after he had to vacate Aso Rock with his tail between his legs in the height of the religious crisis provoked by the flagrant annulment of the 1993 presidential election, Babangida has persistently been searching for relevance in the nation’s socio-political space. It began with his pronouncement when he was forced to vacate the presidential villa in 1993 that he was only stepping aside. His proteges and bootlickers took that to mean that he would still return to power at one time or the other, and, therefore, sustained their loyalty to him. He became a regular face at public functions, particularly funerals, and made sure he added his voice to every public discourse in order to keep himself in the consciousness of the public. In fact, many believe that he knew he had no chance each time he threw his hat in the ring for presidential contest, but had to keep doing so in order to remain in the consciousness of the Nigerian public.

During a face-off he had with IBB last year, former President Olusegun Obasanjo had counselled that silence should be the best answer for the gap-toothed general. But no one seems to have profited from Obasanjo’s counsel. Hence we shouted it on the roof top when the man who, on account of his selfish ambition nearly plunged the nation into war in 1993, turned himself into peace counsellor at the launch of two books written in honour of former external affairs minister, Prof. Bolaji Akinyemi, in Lagos penultimate Friday. “Nigeria is precious enough to be saved and it deserves an investment of our time and resources to make Project Nigeria a success,” said IBB who, as the sitting head of state, had wondered the magic by which the nation had not collapsed. One cannot but wonder which Nigeria he would be talking about today, if pro-democracy activists had not rescued the country from him in 1993.

Haunted by his misdeeds, it is understandable that IBB is perpetually searching for relevance among a people that could consign him to the anthill of inglorious history. What cannot be understood is the obligation the media owe him to go to town with a story if he is pressed and needs to visit the gents. Considering that IBB plotted his way to power with aggrandisement as sole motivation, what message are we passing across when we pay such undue attention to a soldier who subverted the constitution to style himself president? That whatever means a man adopts to plot himself to the top is worthwhile?

It would have been better if he had seized power in order to better the lots of Nigerians, but many of us are living witnesses to the circumstances in which he overthrew the Buhari/Idiagbon regime that had rescued the nation from the thieving NPN government and was steadily returning it to the path of sanity. IBB is at war with history. Unfortunately, he cannot outlive it.

February 9, 2013
Kayode Fayemi at 48

Between 2007 and 2010 before he became Ekiti State governor, I wrote articles in his honour on his birthdays (February 9) but I deliberately did not write in 2011 and 2012 because I was waiting to see how he would fulfil his electoral promises to the people, which I had vouched on his behalf that he would do in those articles.

I am encouraged to write in his honour this year because he has kept most of his electoral promises and this has made us (his aides) very proud. Dr. Kayode Fayemi is the only governor till date who got into office in an unusual way. He fought a legal battle for 42 months to reclaim his mandate from usurpers.

The legal battle saw him going to court a record four times before he finally triumphed on October 15, 2010 at the Court of Appeal, Ilorin Division.

One unique character of Dr. Fayemi is his non- violent approach to the struggle to reclaim his mandate. It is on record that in the face of glaring provocation arising from the massive rigging of the 2007 and 2009 re-run gubernatorial elections in Ekiti State by the PDP, he consistently told his supporters not to resort to violence as he wouldn’t want to be governor over dead Ekiti people.

He had a formidable campaign organisation with able lieutenants and foot soldiers who were so dedicated and selfless that they became thorns in the flesh of the usurpers. Press releases backed with facts were adequately churned out of the campaign organisation as well as periodic press conferences, lectures and general mobilisation of A C N supporters.

There was underdevelopment of Ekiti under the regime of the interlopers. There was political upheaval, violence, uncertainty and anxiety almost on a daily basis until the illegitimate regime was brought to an abrupt end by judicial hammer.

On his assumption of office in October, 2010, Dr. Kayode Fayemi promised to restore the lost glory of Ekiti State but with a caveat that it was not going to be easy. Two years after this declaration, the state has witnessed an unprecedented turn around in many facets.

Going by his eight-point agenda as the cardinal roadmap to Ekiti development, he has touched all aspects of the agenda considerably. Dr. Fayemi took his time and carefully identified what he wanted to do and how to do it before launching his agenda fully.

He inherited a debt of N42 billion and many abandoned projects from his predecessor and a meagre N2.5 billion monthly allocation from the federation’s account which is the second lowest in the country. But with careful planning, prudent management of resources and an avowed commitment to the welfare of the people, he has been able to deliver, within reasonable limits, dividends of democracy to the people in an unprecedented manner.

In two years, Fayemi has turned Ekiti State around such that discerning observers say the job he has done could suffice for a four-year term. Just as the way he came to power is unprecedented so is his style of governance. Apart from his eight-point agenda, he has twice toured the 16 local governments to know what the people actually wanted and this is what he has incorporated in the annual budget of the state.

This has translated to sustainable development in all Ekiti communities. For instance, this is the first time in the history of Ekiti State that all communities would feel the presence of government through a project. There is no town where a secondary school has not been renovated in Ekiti State as all the 183 schools have been renovated; 2,820 youths have benefitted from the Youth Commercial Agriculture (YCAD), while cassava bread was launched in the state in August 2012.

The governor’s second agenda is Infrastructural Development. The Fayemi Government has commissioned 103 kilometres of roads in two years. All the roads linking the state capital to other towns and neighbouring states are all resurfaced with thick asphalt; this is apart from the five-kilometre road construction in all the 16 local governments of the state which makes another 80 kilometres.

Many rural roads have been opened up by the Bureau of Rural Development and Ekiti State Community and Social Development Agency (EKSCIDA), which is funded by the state government and the World Bank. EKSCIDA has executed over 180 micro projects in the last two years. Fayemi has done rural electrification of many communities in the state. Certain towns that have not seen electricity in the last 200 years have been connected to the national grid.

Dr. Fayemi knows that water is a basic necessity of life and he has been addressing the water problem with a multipronged approach. He has embarked on the construction of mini-water works in many towns like Okemesi, Ipole-Iloro, Efon, Ido-Ile and Maryhill in Ado-Ekiti. These are already supplying water to many towns around their locations.

These were commissioned in 2012 October. In Ado-Ekiti, Water has been extended from Ureje water works to Mary-Hill and this has supplied water to Okeila, Housing, Afao Road, Odo-Ado and Adebayo which have not seen water in the last 10 years. The second phase of the water supply is the sinking of boreholes in many communities as a stop gap measure pending the final laying of pipes to all towns in the state and the total turn around maintenance of the major dams of Ero, Egbe, Ureje and Itapaji to operate at maximum capacity.

MDGs have sponsored the constituency project of some National Assembly legislators which is the sinking of boreholes in about 26 towns. Apart from this, some of the governor’s aides have assisted in repairing and sinking boreholes in such towns as Ilawe and Igbemo Ekiti.

This year, there are positive signs that the water situation will improve drastically. Apart from the pipes that have been laid between years 2011 and 2012, another 26,000 length of pipes would be completed by the end of March. The new pipes are for the extension of water to new areas that would be serviced by the dams which are currently undergoing turn around maintenance for maximum output. The Ureje Dam is currently undergoing a turn around maintenance which has reached 50%, while that of Ero dam which one billion naira has been allocated, will commence soonest.

The good news about all these is the international assistance which the Fayemi government has attracted to the state. Ekiti is one of the 12 states selected by the World Bank to benefit from the Urban Water Reform Project.

Also there is an EU grant of N500 million yearly for five years which Ekiti State and two other states will receive under the Water Supply and Sanitation Sector Reform Programme. Arrangement is almost concluded with the African Development Bank (ADB) to assist the state in terms of water infrastructure.

As many as 20,000 elderly citizens were paid N5,000 monthly as social security. As many as 29,341 laptops have been distributed to students while 12,244 were given to teachers. The free health programme of the government captured about 60 percent of the population, while the free health mission has benefitted as many as 400,000 Ekiti indigenes many of whom have undergone free surgery for various ailments.

The Ire Burnt Bricks, which has been moribund for the past 21 years, has been resuscitated and will start producing in March. The company has the capacity to produce 20 million bricks in a year and will employ about 200 workers.

The transformation of Ikogosi Warm Spring Resort centre is another wonderful feat of the Fayemi administration. The resort has been transformed such that it can compete with any international tourist site apart from its unique feature as the only natural warm and cold spring in the world.

The government will embark on operation renovate all hospitals this year, while the urban renewal currently going on in Ado-Ekiti would be extended to other major towns of Ikole, Ikere and Ijero. One invaluable gift for Ekiti people is peace which has returned to the state since Dr. Fayemi assumed office. The peace is palpable such that the state is now attracting investors, especially since infrastructural development is going on at an alarming rapidity.

A visiting investor, who has not visited Ado-Ekiti in five years, said: ‘I can see a town bursting at its seams and in the process of exploding into a modern city. Obviously, there are so many infrastructure in place and this will encourage people to invest in the state with a lot of capital inflow’. Ekiti owes this and many other good things to the visionary and result–oriented leadership of Governor Kayode Fayemi.

Little wonder then that he won the Leadership prize as ‘Governor of the Year’. The Action Congress of Nigeria, Ekiti State chapter, as well as the party leaders, socio-cultural groups and many towns in the state are so proud of his performance that they have adopted him as their flag-bearer in the 2014 gubernatorial election.

This is a call for him to do more. As Ekiti people celebrate this enigma, who has brought joy to many homes and restored the lost glory of the state, I join them to wish him a happy birthday!

•Jamiu wrote in from Ado-Ekiti, Ekiti State.

February 9, 2013
Understanding PDP’s amazing audacity

The battle has been fierce, intense and unrelenting. All kinds of weapons –assault rifles, tear gas canisters, bazookas, hand grenades, cluster bombs and even unmanned drones – have been freely used on both sides. I refer to the raging civil war currently rocking the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). On various occasions, ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo has launched vicious attacks against the Goodluck Jonathan administration accusing the President of utter incompetence in tackling the Boko Haram insurgency. In one instance, Obasanjo recommended his drastic and ruthless handling of the Odi situation to Jonathan suggesting that the latter was soft on Boko Haram. We will recall that President Obasanjo ordered the levelling of the entire Odi community of Bayelsa State following the murder by elements of the community of Nigerian soldiers on official duties. During his last presidential media chat, Dr. Jonathan retorted that when he visited Odi as Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, all he saw were the corpses of innocent children and old people rather than the militants that perpetrated the crime. Undaunted, Obasanjo has launched further salvos at Jonathan in interviews on both CNN and the New African magazine questioning the incumbent’s competence in effectively discharging his role as the country’s Chief Security Officer.

A careful observer will note that in this exchange of brickbats, the two PDP leaders have been careful to distance the PDP as a party from their respective administrations. But in reality, what Obasanjo was saying is that the incompetence of the PDP government under Jonathan has been responsible for a precarious security situation that has led to the death of hundreds of people in many parts of Northern Nigeria. In the same vein Jonathan countered that a PDP government under Obasanjo in sanctioning the massacre of children, women and old people in Odi committed a crime that is difficult to dissociate from genocide. This is a severe self-indictment on the part of a party that yet boasts its capacity to cling to power at the centre for the next six decades. What really explains such amazing audacity?

Launching her own devastating machine propelled rockets from another section of the battlefield, a former Education Minister in the Obasanjo administration and one-time Vice President (Africa) of the World Bank, Dr. Oby Ezekwesili, accused both the late President Musa Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan administrations of wanton financial recklessness. Speaking at the Convocation lecture she delivered at the University of Nigeria (UNN), Nsukka, she alleged that both administration’s had frittered away $67 billion in foreign reserves and Excess Crude Account (ECA) left behind by the Obasanjo administration. This is again another devastating indictment of the PDP.

In the first place, if the PDP Obasanjo administration realized so much revenue that it could accumulate such huge reserves, why did it leave the country’s infrastructure in virtually all sectors in such a parlous state? Again, is this not an indictment of the PDP’s leadership succession processes? Did the party seriously assess the competence of Yar’Adua and Jonathan before imposing them on Nigerians through incurably flawed elections? Indeed, in his new book “The Accidental Public Servant”, former Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, revealed the very cavalier manner decisions are taken in high quarters as regards the leadership of this country. He claimed that Obasanjo, doubting the competence of Jonathan, wanted to back a Buhari/Ngozi Okonjo Iweala ticket for the 2011 election. If Obasanjo was unsure of Jonathan’s competence, how did the latter emerge as Vice-Presidential candidate under the old soldier’s watch? In any case, in his first coming as military Head of State, Buhari ran a highly nationalistic administration that stoutly resisted the policy dictates of the IMF and World Bank. How could he then be expected to work harmoniously with a Vice-President who is a dyed in the wool neo-liberal World Bank economist? Is this the kind of shoddy thinking that led Obasanjo to impose a most inept and mediocre leadership on the country following his exit in 2007?

In responding to Ezekwesili, the trio of Labaran Maku, Doyin Okupe and Reuben Abati only succeeded in further severely indicting both the Jonathan administration and the PDP. In the first place, they were completely silent on the substance of her allegations. What exactly was the $67 billion in foreign reserves and Excess Crude Account left behind by the Obasanjo administration expended on? With such gargantuan expenditure profile, how can we explain the abysmal level of poverty in which Nigeria is still mired? Rather, Jonathan’s aides insinuated without the slightest scintilla of evidence that Ezekwesili embezzled funds allocated to the Ministry of Education during her tenure. Why, as many analysts have asked, did they wait for Ezekwesili to make her damning disclosures before trying to taint her character and integrity? Are there other allegedly corrupt public officers that the administration is keeping mum over because they are of ‘good behaviour’? Has massive looting of public funds become so routine and normal under the PDP? In the words of Dr. Abati “They managed to leave the country in darkness, with less than 2000 MW; abandoned Independent Power Projects, mismanaged power stations…”. Mind you, the presidential spokesman is here referring to a PDP government! It certainly cannot get more entertaining.

Yet, despite its glaring non-performance and the washing of its dirty linen in public, the PDP remains supremely confident of its capacity to overwhelmingly win future elections and continue to steer the affairs of the nation. The PDP national Chairman, Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, is completely disdainful of the announcement by four political parties – Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP), All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) – to merge into a new party, the All Progressives Congress (APC). Reacting to the news, Alhaji Tukur jokingly told news men “If you go for a football contest, you have the top striker. You know Lionel Messi? PDP is Messi in that contest. They (opposition parties) are no threat at all. It (merger) is better. It inspires the PDP to action. In that contest, tell them (opposition parties) that I said PDP is Lionel Messi”. Unfortunately, the PDP in running the affairs of Nigeria since 1999 has not exhibited the brilliant skills of the diminutive soccer star in tackling the multifarious challenges confronting the country. But the PDP’s audacity as well as Alhaji Tukur’s arrogance and utter contempt for Nigerians is quite logical and understandable.

The lack of any reasonable linkage between governmental performance and electoral outcomes is clearly the reason for the PDP’s continued amazing self confidence. Even as their existential conditions have worsened steadily under the PDP’s watch since 1999 and Nigeria totters on the brink of state collapse, the PDP has won successive elections in 2003, 2007 and 2011 with the party maintaining a firm hold on the centre and the majority of states. It is thus all too easy for the PDP to conclude that Nigerians are incurably masochistic taking sheer delight in ever increasing misery.

No matter your perception of the PDP, you must recognise that it is serious minded in its pursuit of its mission of maintaining a strangle hold on power and sharing the bounteous national cake among its members while allowing those at the grassroots to scramble for the crumbs. Unknown to many for instance, the PDP has a training school for its cadres! At a time it was run by my former teacher, the exceptional political scientist, Professor Fred Onyeoziri. Any party that seeks to dislodge the PDP at the centre must aim to be better structured, more efficiently and transparently managed as well as stand on a higher moral pedestal in terms of its vision and mission. And as one of this newspaper’s columnists recently noted, the PDP is unlikely to approach the 2015 election in a fractious state. The contending factions, knowing what is at stake, will most likely resolve their differences at the appropriate time. Despite their current differences, for instance, the picture of ex-President Obasanjo praying fervently for President Goodluck Jonathan at the Aso Villa chapel on Sunday, February 3rd, speaks volumes.

Let no mistake be made about it. The PDP is a highly focussed party with a clear idea of its mission. It is essentially an elite cartel – a huge umbrella to protect diverse factions of Nigeria’s hegemonic elite from being beaten by the heavy rain of poverty that is the lot of their fellow country men and women. In merging to form the APC, the opposition parties must not seek to become just another mirror image of the PDP. Beyond individual jostling for positions, attention should be paid to the philosophical basis and ideological clarity of the nascent party. If the aim is simply to dislodge the PDP while Nigeria is left structurally and functionally disabled as she currently is, the country will have to seek redemption elsewhere.

February 9, 2013
Moving forward

Have the Super Eagles arrived? What is happening here? Could this be the Eagles that fumbled in their group matches? What are they trying to prove? Yes, the real Super Eagles have arrived. These were some of the questions on the lips of fans who watched the Eagles’ sparkling outcome against the Elephant of Cote D’Ivoire on Sunday at the Royal Rustenburg Stadium.

Before the Elephant’s game, the Eagles flooded the media with seamless promises that teased the fans to rally behind them. They promised to roast Burkina Faso but tottered to a 1-1 draw.

They begged the fans and raised hopes for a better show against the defending champions Chipolopolo, yet it wasn’t any better. The pundits looked forward to the Ethiopian tie with expectation and the Eagles didn’t disappoint with another never-wrenching victory.

The three games raised doubts about the Eagles’ chances against star-studded Elephants. What many didn’t recognise in the Eagles’ group matches was that the Burkinabes, Zambians to a little extent and the Ethiopians, were younger than our boys.

The Eagles tired out in 60mins and struggled through the last 30 minutes. Little wonder the late goals that raised doubts about the coaches’ technical savvy.

The Zambians and the Ethiopians hassled the Eagles to submission with their pace and raw talent. They had players who were unknown to the Eagles, unlike in the Elephants’ side.

The Elephants were star-studded but many of their stars are ageing. Their slow pace approach brought out the best from a hitherto tottering Eagles.

We need to drastically reduce the average age of the Eagles, if we wish to stun the world in Brazil 2014, like we did in our debut outing at the 1994 World Cup held in the United States.

Sunday Mbah’s sterling displays against the Ethiopians and the Ivoriens is a pointer to the limitless talents at the grassroots, only if our coaches can involve the domestic league clubs’ handlers in their scouting exercises.

What we see in the Eagles is their coaches’ quest to invite home –grown lads, players who have been recycled by many fumbling Nigerian clubs in CAF’s two inter-club competitions and media creations, whose spin doctors work for shylock agents who masquerade as scouts for European clubs.

Modern day football is played by young boys with plenty of energy and zest, not adults, who can’t run at top speed all through 120 minutes.

Younger boys are fitter, more daring, inventive and who can stand the test of time. They can be groomed to cope with any situation unlike the adults, who are burdened by the fixations of their past. They are the ones who talk about the need for the Eagles to have experienced players, as if they didn’t make the team as youngsters in the past. The important question to ask the coaches who field these experienced stars, is how do they expect these younger boys to blossom when they are being made to rot on the bench, despite the team’s average performances against Zambia and Ethiopia

As we prepare for the 2014 World Cup qualifiers, emphasis should be on strengthening the squad with talented young players, no matter where they reside, such as Syndey Sam, Nedum Onuoha Bright Dike, etc.

The coaches should be courageous enough to tell those not in their 2014 World Cup plans their decision to avoid any backlash in the media like we saw in the needless Osaze/Keshi twitter brouhaha.

The coaches must learn how to take criticism in the chin. They can’t love the country more than others. People have the right to air their views. What the coaches should learn is to take the comments they believe will help them and discard the rest.

Until the game against Cote d’Ivoire, the Eagles were an embarrassment to watch. Their style of play changed against the Ivoriens, perhaps because of the fear factor of not losing scandalously to them.

It could also be that the personal challenges between John Mike and Salmon Kalou, on one hand, and the awesome goals’ record of Didier Drogba, whilst playing for Chelsea last season, may have galvanised the Eagles to produce the scintillating shows they displayed against the Ivoriens and the Malians

The Eagles and their coaches need to call their relations in Nigeria in order to appreciate how their recent display have united the people and made us proud as a nation.

The power of soccer is awesome, such that Nigerians now fast for the Eagles to lift the trophy at dusk against the Burkinabes.

The adage that success has many fathers is legendary. Little wonder the blue-chip companies are falling over themselves to be part of the new dawn that the Eagles’ 2013 Africa Cup of Nations portends. The companies are promising cash and other incentives, which they hitherto claimed were scarce and blamed their poor finances on the country’s dwindling economy. Who could blame eggheads of these blue-chip firms? After all, nobody wants to identify with losers.

However, these corporate firms and philanthropists should stop their untoward ambush marketing style. They must be prepared to identify with our sportsmen and women at all times.

Sport is big business. It is a capital intensive project and those marketing it need to be encouraged. The mileage of supporting sports and its participants is awesome. It is immeasurable, given its international platform.

It is a totally different experience watching other nationals stand up in the 80,000-120,000 capacity stadium to respect our nation as our national anthem is sung.

Government alone cannot fund sports. In fact, government shouldn’t, as we witness in other countries where government provides the infrastructure and enabling environment for its citizenry to recreate and compete against the best in the world, whenever the need arises.

Sports can be used to reinvent other spheres of our lives in the country which appear to be comatose.

Mention must be made of Pamodzi Sports Marketing (PSM) for their initiative to attract sponsors to identify with the Super Eagles. Pamodzi convinced Globalcom, Coca-Cola, Guinness Nigeria, etc., to support our football.

Indeed, government should do more to encourage the blue-chip companies to support sports by giving them tax rebates and other incentives, given our unpredictable economy. I digress.

As the Eagles file onto the pitch on Sunday, they must give their best against the Burkinabes. They have raised Nigerians’ hopes. They cannot afford to crash them now. And they can’t afford to disappoint, not even themselves now. They have run a good race and there is no stopping midway, not until they have braced the tape. They must strive to lift the trophy. That is the tape they must brace and return home to the warm embrace of Nigerians. Go! Super Eagles go!!

Nigerians deserve to be called African champions. It has been quite a while- 19 years ago inTunisia. Good luck Super Eagles.

February 9, 2013