The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • APC: How politics underdevelops Nigeria

    APC: How politics underdevelops Nigeria

    By Segun Ayobolu

    Rising from an emergency meeting of its National Executive Committee (NEC) On Thursday, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) called on President Muhammadu Buhari to immediately convene a national conference to deliberate on and proffer solutions to the country’s current grave security crisis. One would expect the PDP to go further and offer its own concrete proposals on how to more effectively secure lives and property across the country. For, the crisis we confront transcends partisan, ethnic, religious or other sectional colorations. In the final analysis, all of us are potential victims and there is no way we can play politics, worship, work, play or do any worthwhile thing without a safe, secure and stable country in the first place.

    But the PDP at least deserves commendation for addressing its mind to the security challenges and adding its voice to the calls for urgent action. Pray, where is the voice of the national leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in all of this? It is all funereal silence on the APC front even as President Muhammadu Buhari is under fire from all sides including APC lawmakers for his perceived failure to rise to the occasion and stem the daily regression to anarchy.

    Will the few overly ambitious elements in the APC, who exploited their closeness to and professed affection for President Buhari to manipulate the presidency into agreeing with the plot not only to destabilize but to illegally sack the comrade Adams Oshiomhole-led National Working Committee (NWC) of the party, agree that they did not just the incumbent administration but the entire country a great disservice? It is unlikely. For them, it does not matter that the attendant intra-party instability is a key contributory factor to distracting the Buhari administration from focusing on decisively addressing the grave security crisis that, consuming scores of innocent lives across the country on a daily basis, casts a heavy pall over the otherwise impressive achievements of the government in the areas of infrastructure renewal, diversification of the economy and poverty alleviation for the most vulnerable segments of the populace.

    At a time like this when the country is to all practical purposes on a war footing, the National Executive of the ruling party must be at the vanguard of mobilizing and coordinating its members in both the executive and legislative arms of government to respond coherently and productively to the crisis at hand. Alas, the APC has at its helm at this critical moment an unelected, unconstitutional and illegitimate Extraordinary Caretaker and National Convention Planning Committee that has, in the last few months, dissolved elected party structures at all levels and embarked on re-registration of old members and admission of new ones.

    Of course, going by the party constitution, membership registration is not rocket science. It is a routine affair that goes on continuously at ward levels as new members are registered and exiting members are delisted. This should surely not consume the enormous time, money and energy that the APC interim national executive has expended on the exercise at a time when all hands should be on deck to effectively tackle challenges that threaten the country’s very existence.

    Since the forthcoming utterly unplanned, unanticipated and unscheduled ward, local government and state congresses as well as National Convention of the party are part of deliberate machinations by particular fractions and caucuses to seize control of its structures to place their members in prime position to fly the APC’s flag for various electoral positions in future, the next few months will predictably be further distracting and enervating for the party at a time of grave national emergency. This is particularly so as the intra-party crises in some of the states have indeed deepened since the new developments in the party.

    Just how costly is the ongoing focus on politicking rather than governance by a ruthless caucus bent on seizing control of the APC to further their future political aspirations? A good answer to this question can be found in the invasion and capture by fighters of Boko Haram and the Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) of Geidam, a town in Yobe state, on Friday, 23 April. The terrorists reportedly attacked and took control of the town in eight trucks, cut down masts of communication companies, murdered several residents and caused over 2000 people to flee the community. Some may wonder what exactly is strange about this kind of incident that, after all, has become routine across the length and breadth of the north. The point is that the governor of Yobe State, Mr. Mai Mala Buni, no matter how much he denies it, has been distracted from focusing on his job and the single-minded implementation of his electoral mandate by his tasking appointment as Chairman of the APC’s interim national caretaker committee.

    The unsavory situation in which the APC finds itself today is needless. Forging the legacy parties that merged to wrest power from the PDP into a cohesive and coherent whole is no easy task. It will require all the mental energy, focus, organizational and strategic ability of the party leadership particularly at the early phases of the party’s existence as is the case with the APC now. Mistakes will naturally be made and feathers ruffled as coalition partners strive to understand each other and evolve better organizational coherence and philosophical resonance. Rough edges of programmatic as well as ideological platforms must be continually strengthened and harmonized. The difficulties and hiccups that arise cannot be resolved through unconstitutional power grabs as currently being attempted, but by allowing the continuous exercise and institutionalization of intra-party democratic structures and processes.

    No governor in any part of Nigeria today, no matter how peaceful and stable his state may be, must be saddled with the additional burden of performing the role of leading his party as interim national chairman – not even for a minute. The masterminds of the present contrived crisis within the ruling party clearly did not rigorously think their action through. If they had, they would not have picked a governor from the North-East, the epicenter of the current terror and insurgency, to preside over the affairs of the party for what is turning out to be an indeterminate period. Governors particularly in that region must be alert on their duty posts round the clock.

    In addition to the security challenges that have taken a heavy toll on the economy particularly the fertile, agricultural food basket regions of the north, the coronavirus pandemic has severely affected the country’s major revenue source, crude oil exports. The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) has given notice to states that, as a result of the crippling burden of the oil subsidy it bears, its humongous contribution to the Federation Account may drop to zero for some months. Every governor must thus be fully preoccupied with making his state financially viable in order to continue to enhance the wellbeing of the people. At a time of national security and economic emergency as we have now, the ruling party cannot afford to allow petty politicking, driven by selfish ambition, to override serious and purposeful governance. Despite Yobe state’s immense agricultural and natural endowments, she is one of the poorest states in Nigeria and the ruling party should ensure that Mai Mala Buni can speedily begin to concentrate fully on the job he was elected to do.

    After two decades of unbroken electoral governance since 1999, it cannot be confidently asserted that Nigerians are materially better off today than they were in the preceding military dispensation even though it remains true that the worst democratic rule will always be better than the best despotic governance. One of the reasons why democracy is so far not being the handmaiden of development we expect it to be is the continued prevalence of what the late Professor Claude Ake described as “the overpoliticisation of social life” even though he used this term within the context of despotic rule in post-colonial Africa.

    As Ake put it with characteristic vividness, “Because of their insecurity, the political class placed a high premium on power. They accumulated power by all means, did everything to secure it and to prevent others from gaining it. As rulership became permanent, politics became Hobbesian: power was pursued by all means and kept by all means and the struggle for power became the overriding concern”. This attitude and disposition to power has not changed even within the framework of the democratization of politics and it is the fundamental reason for the current ongoing attempted hostile takeover of the APC by a faction of the party. Incidentally, it was the crisis engendered by this kind of attempted ‘totalizing’ control by a hegemonic faction of the PDP that ultimately led to the end, in 2015, of its 16-year hold on power at the centre.

    Thus, intra and inter party electoral contests are difficult to distinguish from warfare. Hardly does one election end before politicking for the next one begins leaving scant room for governance. Whether they are bandits, terrorists, insurgents or secessionists, those committed to the ruination of Nigeria have a common purpose and work in, admittedly unintended, concert. Ironically, those who have the most to gain by the continued existence of the country, as the elected custodians of state power, do everything to undercut, undermine and repress one other in the quest for power dominance with scant respect for the constitutive and regulative rules of the game thus greatly aiding the destructionists in achieving their objective. Until ceaseless and lawless power mongering ceases to be a distraction from and an obstacle to focused, productive and purposeful governance, politics will continue to underdevelop rather than develop Nigeria.

     

  • Mourinho needs a reset

    Mourinho needs a reset

    By Ade Ojeikere

    I admire Jose Mourinho despite his shortcomings. Mourinho is human and should be prone to mistakes. He is impatient with unserious players and he won’t fail to draw the line between those he wants and those who should look elsewhere for a contract when the season ends. Such characters with strong mien take no prisoners. Little wonder he has fallen out with the perceived untouchables everywhere he has worked. How won’t he when he’s the boss?

    Mourinho’s move to Tottenham was a huge mistake. He didn’t need to hurry into a new job. If Mourinho eagerly wanted a job out of boredom, he shouldn’t have chosen to work with Spurs’ owner. This relationship was destined for crises. It was only a matter of time. It was a story of a manager who, too convinced of his own genius, became trapped in the past and of a chairman who was one of the few people in football unable to see it.

    Going to handle Spurs, for Mourinho, was a paradigm shift because he was inheriting a club that plays with a flair, not the tightly-knit Mourinho style which is usually anchored on counterattacks. He may have seen Son as one player to perfect that formation based on his speed. But Spurs had become a great team after losing 2-0 in the final of the European Champions League to Liverpool. Breaking that squad which Mourinho was definitely going to do was bound to cause trouble. It did with the dropping of Dele Alli, a cult hero in the North London side.

    “I have already spoken with him and I asked him if he was Dele or Dele’s brother,” Mourinho explained. “He told me he was Dele. ‘OK,’ I said. ‘Play like Dele’.

    “I think he is potentially a fantastic player. Now I have to create a tactical situation he is happy with, give him the right dynamics, and prepare him physically well because he has had important injuries and he is not on the top of his form.

    “…… he needs to go through a process that will bring the real Dele back because the real Dele is the one who in the last few years has impressed us all.”

    Mourinho ought to have known that with Levy, there was only one winner – the owner of Spurs. The Portuguese started well with Ali being his goal scorer until their relationship turned sour for reasons best known to them. Ordinarily, Mourinho would have replaced Alli, if Spurs was a big-spending club in the transfer market. It would have worked for the Special One. However, Mourinho must be ruing the opportunity he had to trade Alli to PSG since he has turned out to be the manager’s albatross in this latest sack saga.

    Falling out with Alli and Gareth Bale, blaming his players, out of the top four picture and an embarrassing Europa League capitulation to Dinamo Zagreb, no doubt put Mourinho in this mess. Alli was dropped from Tottenham’s match-day squad for the first time in the second weekend of the Premier League season back in September. It led to months of Alli being in exile, and nearly led to two separate departures to Paris Saint-Germain over the course of this season.

    Bale’s return to Spurs ought to have been an added fillip to the squad. It ought to have lifted the mood in north London and give Spurs belief they could compete at the top.

    But claims about Bale’s fitness, form, and dedication made by Mourinho about the Wales winger came to a head in February when the Portuguese coach claimed the 31-year-old lied about saying he had a good training session on social media.

    Those claims were similar to that of Mourinho’s row with Luke Shaw at Manchester United. Mourinho once said about Luke Shaw after Manchester United’s 1-1 draw with Everton in 2017: “He was in front of me and I was making every decision for him. He has to change his football brain.

    “We need his fantastic physical and technical qualities but he cannot play with my brain. He must accelerate the process. Twenty-one is old enough to have a better understanding. He has a future here but Manchester United cannot wait.”

    Read Also: Why did Mourinho struggle with Spurs players?

    In fact, fall-outs with his whole squad accompanied his most recent exits at Real Madrid and Chelsea too. Terminating José Mourinho’s contracts early has cost his clubs over £50m in the past, according to club accounts.

    Mourinho has had four of his contracts terminated early since he first joined Chelsea – Chelsea in 2007, Real Madrid in 2013, Chelsea again in 2015, and Manchester United in 2018.

    The cost of those early terminations is listed in the accounts of each of the English clubs in question. They come to a combined total of £50.97m – Chelsea (first time): £23.07m, Chelsea (second time) £8.30m, Manchester United: £19.60m.

    On April 19, 2021, Mourinho was sacked after only 17 months in charge of managerial affairs at the North London side.

    Jose Mourinho is truly the cash-out king:

    Chelsea (first time): Three years left at £5.00m-a-year – £15.00m.

    Real Madrid: Three years left at £11.20m-a-year – £33.60m.

    Chelsea (second time): Four years left at £13.00m-a-year – £52.00m.

    Manchester United: Two years left at £12.00m-a-year – £24.00m

    2021 – Tottenham, £30m Severance Package.

    Mourinho’s coaching history is replete with such outstanding benchmarks but he appears not to have mastered the act of going through his club careers without having problems with top players in clubs where he has coached in the second season of his contract. Such needless face-offs with big players have led to his unceremonious exits as a result of players’ mutiny in support of their ‘oppressed’ mates.

    The Special One hides under the cloak of instilling discipline to draw the line with such players. Pundits cannot understand why Mourinho takes delight in tackling such players. But he is the coach and the only leader on the pitch. Big players must learn how to respect their bosses no matter how important they perceive themselves to be.

    Would Mourinho find a wealthy club to sign him? Yes because of his pedigree in the game. But he should learn how to be the boss without incurring the wrath of the other players. When Mourinho tackles his ‘victims’, he loses sight of the influence such iconic players have on the others. Sadly, Mourinho took delight in lambasting his players publicly after poor outings. This tendency belittled the players with many wondering if it wasn’t the manager who picked those to play and the strategies to adopt. It was rather uncouth for Mourinho to identify with the players each time they won games.

    Sky Sports pundit Jamie Redknapp was furious over Mourinho’s comments. He told Sky: ”When I look at Jose right now, he is just reverting to type when things are going wrong. You can’t deny his record, he’s one of the greatest managers we’ve ever seen in football when he’s winning. But when it goes the other way, that’s when you learn a lot about a manager.

    ”It’s just typical of what Jose Mourinho does. As soon as things go wrong he throws players under the bus and if I was in that dressing room I would be asking him why.  You’re the Special One. Why can’t you make us better?

    ”Why do we keep conceding goals with 20 minutes or 10 minutes to go in games? That’s what you’re so good at, setting the team up to make sure it doesn’t happen. So he has to take an awful amount of responsibility.”

    Mourinho needs a reset starting with his human relations especially with the big players. He needs to shelve this tendency of lampooning in players at press conferences. Such angst ought to expressed with the players in the dressing room. Mourinho needs to know that in controversies, players get the backing of the management. owners of clubs are more inclined towards sacking managers if things go  awry. Players are the ones to adopt coaches’ tactics. No coach gets onto the pitch to play. Therefore, Mourinho must have chummy relationship with his stars. Star players globally are brats. Successful managers have a way of getting them to deliver his tactics, preferring to change them of create competition for them in the team by recruiting very good players into the squad during the transfer windows in the winter and/or summer.

    Don’t you think Mourimho deserves to give himself a one year break to retool? A colleague thinks otherwise, insisting that the Special One could be forgotten. Mourinho’s tactics aren’t the problem. His optics at match venues and how he allows what happens there to dictate how he goes about the next game are some of things he needs to redress.

  • Legislators mull cattle census: it never ends!

    Legislators mull cattle census: it never ends!

    UnderTow

    It is trite knowledge that when a person has, by his own profligacy, sailed into modest, humble financial straits, his sense of economic frugality enjoys some form of growth and development. He acquires newfound dexterity at drawing up his scales of preference and knows what opportunities to forgo. Instead of topping his favourite delicacy with the choice parts of a roasted bird, he is more agreeable to decorating such a meal with the much cheaper egg of that bird. He no longer orders a taxi ride; he stands at the bus stop and hops into something more suited to his lean finances. In a word, they learn painfully how to cut their coats according to their cloth, not their size as previously dictated by affluence. Trite knowledge, that is, to a more judicious country than Nigeria whose senate is currently contemplating a national database for cows.

    It is difficult to fault the lawmakers of National Assembly for choosing to perform their duties in accordance with Section 4 of the 1999 Constitution. It is, however, trickier to examine whether or not their interpretations of Chapter 2, or the fundamental objectives and directive principles of state policy, has not become too strident. The social havoc that the existence, rearing, preservation and economics of cattle husbandry has wreaked in Nigeria is mindboggling. First, governors pontificate all over the place, extrapolating defences of subliminal jurisprudence for the wielding of dangerous weapons by suspected herdsmen. Next, they team up with misled clerics to posit all sorts of illegal justifications for trespass to land, which certain culpable herdsmen should ordinarily be strictly liable for ab initio. They draw inspiration from a compliant government, which has tried to implement the controversial RUGA policy, and whose spokesmen are given to interpreting criticisms against the criminalities of herdsmen as ethnic discriminations or secessionist agenda.

    The senate has also nourished this bone of contention. One of its members, Senator Bima Enagi (APC, Niger South) currently believes that a wise solution to the herdsmen and farmers’ crisis in the country is by setting up a bureau for livestock that will be responsible for keeping a national database for cows. Such a prospective national database, which has passed second reading already, is nothing short of controversial. The building of this database would, of course, not be done gratis by well-meaning Nigerians. Funds for such an agency has to be sourced from somewhere in a country whose second legislative chamber is in debt and cannot pay contractors for carrying out repairs. The perceived financial woes of the country are not hidden from any; not even if anyone tries to hide from it. Only last week, Edo state governor, Mr Godwin Obaseki, flippantly, casually, and irreverently accused the federal government of financial recklessness by printing 60 billion naira to shore up or augment March’s revenue. Indeed, he went further to urge the government against borrowing without a repayment plan. Angry and full of federal wrath, Central Bank Governor, Mr Godwin Emefiele, ordered that states begin repayment of loans given them as budget support facility. Other governors, polarised along party lines, attacked and defended him in turn before huddling together and giving the matter the attention it begged for. Rising from a National Economic Council meeting on Thursday, they unconvincingly stated that no money was printed. Nigerian vaudeville!

    Nevertheless, it would have appeared that these lean financial times would sound it to the senate that any penny spent should be able to return a pound. It is no longer time to be pennywise pound foolish – it never was time anyway – but pennywise pound wiser. They have not got the memo. To become an Act, a Bill must meet the procedural requirements of Section 58 of the 1999 Constitution and the National Assembly. It must first be sponsored by a body with capacity to do so, go through an initial review at the National Assembly, be gazetted, go through first and second readings, and the procedure goes on till it ends at the president’s table for ratification. If he refuses to assent, it goes back to the National Assembly, and two-thirds of the National Assembly agreeing to it, is passed if the president does not ratify it within thirty days. The legislators run the show on lawmaking matters, and rightly so.

    The National Livestock Bureau Bill is another of a number of piquing bills, which includes The Water Bill, that the Senate has had to consider. The Bill was sponsored by Sen Enagi and he expects that the agency will be in charge of identification, traceability and registration of livestock such as cows and goats to, among other things, curb cattle rustling. It will also ensure the protection, control and management of all livestock in Nigeria and will be charged with ensuring food safety, transparency and information in the food chain, as well as the prevention of cattle rustling to end the prolonged farmer/herder conflict in Nigeria. The bill is expected to help address the diseases and other threats to human lives caused by the movement of livestock while livestock identification by the agency will include ownership and other details including their origin, birthplace, sex and breed.

    If Senator Enagi has had a conversation with the Nigerian Identity Management Commission, then the results of that conversation have not conveyed home to him the ridiculousness of embarking on a database system for cows in a country that is still struggling to enroll all its citizens in a database. Not all of the Minister of Communication and Digital Economy’s dithering on the linking of National Identification Number  with SIM cards has deterred the senator from avoiding anything closely related to a database in Nigeria.

    Indeed, the establishment of the proposed National Livestock bureau is but an exercise of duplicating offices. Already there are the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and the Federal Department of Livestock. None of these agencies, following the senator’s reasoning, can be trusted to do the job. So, funds must be expended anew in the establishment of an agency.

    The solution to the livestock issues Nigeria experiences is not lawmaking; it is disciplined implementation of extant laws and policies. Relevant agencies need to be adequately retooled to carry out the functions for which they were created. There is no wisdom in conducting a cattle, goat, ruminant or quadruped census. The lives of these creatures are not sacrosanct or protected by the constitution. At the conclusion of the current Ramadan, many of such ruminants will be slaughtered and eaten; what was the use of entering them, complete with date of birth and gender, into a database? The Bill should never have got to the second reading, and the mere fact that it did is a troubling indicator of the prioritization system in the senate.

     

     

    Presidency’s Pantami advocacy

     

    Although the country has communicated in many ways and languages that it is fed up with its Minister of Communication and Digital Economy, Dr Isa Ali Pantami, the presidency has stuck with him, maintaining in the process that he is a changed man. It has termed the calls for his removal a “cancel campaign”.

    Age does not change a person. Academicians of literary studies teach that there are round characters and there are flat characters. If the minister were truly a round character, as he and his defense team, including the presidency, suggest, then there must have been a specific action or series of action that have served to deradicalise him. Not even a deus ex machina can miraculously change a man who found no fault in religious intolerance and homicide. A man who is a legal adult when he makes hate speech has capacity to bear the liability for his actions. It is therefore an unfair estimation of public intelligence for the presidency to chalk off the minister’s past indiscretions as the product of juvenility and expect the country to believe a word of it. That will neither do, nor has it done. Although the presidency reposes a high degree of confidence in the minister, it is oppressive to keep him in power when the entire country has screamed itself hoarse that they do not feel comfortable with his continued presence in the halls of power. The presidency should not be ignobly involved in the defence of the minister but should be the dispassionate judge trusted enough to deliver a final just judgement in favour of public policy and national interest.

     

    Fayemi only half-right on insecurity

     

    Speaking on Tuesday, Governor Kayode Fayemi of Ekiti State announced that one of the causes of insecurity in the country was unemployment. In his words, “It is good to be tough on crime. We must be tougher on the causes of crime. You cannot have a 33 per cent unemployment rate in any country and not expect to deal with the sociological implication of that. And that is an area that the Nigeria Governors’ Forum believes we must also work collaboratively with our partners, also work with our financial institutions and the private sector to find the best mechanism to bring our youths to work. If we do that, we would have fundamentally played our role in addressing the causes of this untoward crisis that the country is dealing with.”

    Indeed, the governor’s statement almost suggests that unemployed youths are a huge factor in the insecurity crisis dogging the country. That is only half-right. Even if all the youths in the country were gainfully employed, there are extenuating factors that would soon put them out of employment again without effectively curbing insecurity. The kidnap and brutalisation of innocent citizens across the country is not only occasioned by unemployment. In fact, as is the case with some herdsmen, insecurity is also as a result of employment. What about the ethnic undertones of insecurity? Or the underfunding of the police and the demoralisation of the army? Deeper than unemployment, structural issues have congregated to increase insecurity in Nigeria. The governor should perhaps address them before pointing the finger at unemployment.

  • Ogun PDP: Humble pie for Adebutu?

    Ogun PDP: Humble pie for Adebutu?

    Sentry

    The just concluded South West People Democratic Party (PDP) zonal congress was not without some lessons for chieftains and members of the opposition party, especially in Ogun State where Hon. Ladi Adebutu, former House of Representatives member and leader of the Ayo Fayose faction of the party, was forced to eat humble pie.

    A big spender and scion of the wealthy Kessington Adebutu family, the younger Adebutu was so sure his camp would sweep all the positions allocated to his state. Aside his deep pocket, his camp also enjoyed the support of four out of the six state chairmen in the zone.

    For the record, Adebutu has his eyes on the 2023 PDP gubernatorial ticket and is not leaving any stone unturned in his quest.

    But as the congress, held in Oshogbo, the Osun state capital came to a close, it emerged that associates and loyalists of Adebutu’s arch-rival, the late Senator Buruji Kashamu, cleared all four positions zoned to Ogun.

    While Taiwo Shote was returned unopposed as the National Ex-Officio representing Ogun State at the National Executive Committee (NEC), Monsuru Ola Kukoyi (a.k.a Kosigiri) was elected as the Zonal Legal Adviser.

    Also, Ogunse Omotoyosi was elected as the Zonal Treasurer and Olugbenga Idowu as Zonal Ex-Officio.

    With this development, Kashamu’s associates have shown the Adebutu camp that in spite of the demise of their patron, they are still to be reckoned with in the politics of the state, to the surprise of Adebutu and his men.

     

    Read Also: Anambra poll: PDP aspirants woo members

    Is Amaechi echoing in far away Akwa Ibom?

    The ears of the Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, must definitely be itchy these days. Or what other inkling can he have of the numerous mention of his name in places far away from his native Rivers State and his Abuja abode, even in matters that shouldn’t ordinarily concern him?

    The former governor of Rivers State is indeed a man of wide connections, but how true can insinuations be that from his Abuja location, he has been influencing and controlling the activities and decisions of some people in a state as far away as Akwa-Ibom?

    Yes, some chieftains of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Akwa Ibom are claiming that Amaechi is behind the decision of some people to reject the leadership of a fellow minister of his in the party. According to findings by Sentry, the former Rivers governor has been tele-guiding the activities of the APC in Akwa Ibom.

    Well, we don’t know how true this allegation is but a former Military Administrator of Ogun State, Group Captain Sam Ewang (rtd), recently claimed that a force from outside the state is behind the move to checkmate Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Godswill Akpabio, in the state. Or could he be talking about Amaechi? That’s a question in search of an urgent answer.

  • Faith, leadership and justice

    Faith, leadership and justice

     

     

    Faith  is blind is a common saying but  it does not   mean  believers are blind. It  is their belief  that they  hold as sacrosanct and dare anyone not  sharing their faith to say otherwise at their peril . That  is the nature of religion and faith nowadays . Faith  in our world in the last decade has shown  that it is not domiciled in religion alone. It    has  migrated   clandestinely  in recent times   to other spheres  of human life   and activities,  most especially politics,  where   the quest for leadership and power  resides , with all its potentials  and   machinery  to make   or  mar   social  goals   and objectives  .  Politics  at  times makes accountability ,  transparency , and integrity ,    the   normallitmus test   of   good leadership and society  ,  so elusive that one wanders what the essence of constitutions are and  why  leadership  is   mostly  drifting from set purposes  and   political  expectations ,  like a rudderless   boat  carrying  hapless  , fleeing  migrants from Libya to Europe on the  Mediterranean sea as  is commonly reported  nowadays.

    In  recent weeks,  the Lenten season ,  a period of fasting for Christians has  been swiftly followed  by the Ramadan ,   the fasting  period  for Muslims . Both  periods  are for soul searching and purifying oneself   to be a better human being either Christian or Muslims . That is  my understanding and I am a Christian  and   I  try  to do my best in that regard but  not necessarily with fasting which  makes  me dizzy and almost  suicidal any time I attempt it . I  however attended  Muslim Ramadan Lecture at the prestigious Yoruba Tennis Club    this week  with the theme  ‘ Fasting , A Panacea for Soul Cleansing and  raising Righteous Nations ‘ . The Lecture  was delivered by Imam Shakirudeen Abdul  Gafar [Mofeseaye ] as Guest Lecturer . The  lecturer ,   an   Islamic scholar   of the Lagos Central  Mosque  , obviously  well  known by his Mofeseaye sobriquet  , approached  the topic from the angle that only  a man who can claim to be righteous or seen as such,  at large , can stand  before God . He  went on to draw the logical  conclusion that a nation made up of righteous people can  be a great nation in all ramifications of good governance and citizenry . I   find  the  topic fascinating and went on to ask a question based on the topic of this  column ‘ New Cultures and Politics‘ .

    I asked  the well  versed and brilliant Islamic scholar  how  fasting in Ramadan can  be used to explain the  emerging  Western Culture on gay rights and LGBT , and   the view that marriage is not necessarily  between a man and woman . Without  mincing words he reeled out relevant portions of the Koran that attest that marriage is between a  man and a woman  and there is no other way that Islam recognizes  other   than that  ,  which  I found satisfactory and convincing .

    However while  I agree with the good Imam that fasting creates righteous humans I  do  not see any righteous  nations arising from that . This  is our focus today and I will illustrate  my viewpoint from  a look at the powerful  nations of today and how they are arrayed in their splendor  and   sovereignty   against each other globally in terms of believers and non believers.   And  how such faith in themselves and   malice towards those who do not share their faith ,  has created such rancor and suspicion that world  peace itself  is on tenterhooks  and  societies and  nations are  literally  at  the edge of a cliff ,  in the world at large .

    Let  us start with a  handful   of the members  of  the UN  Security  Council   , the caretaker  or undertaker    of world peace as we know  it today . We  shall  look at the US ,  Russia ,  China , and   Britain  .  Of  course we  cannot behave like the proverbial  ostrich with its head buried in the sand by  neglecting Nigeria , which is a faith drunk  nation  which  has found it difficult  to produce  a  righteous nation but is awash with wealthy pastors , fiery jihadists and bandits who pillage  on account of their faiths .

    We start  with the US ,   whose present faith is Black Lives Matter and where the sentencing of Derek  Chauvin , the white policeman who  killed Floyd George with his knee has been found guilty of all charges and  the USA as a nation breathed a sigh of relief that the verdict was that of guilty . But then before the verdict everyone knew a’ not guilty ‘verdict will set the US on fire . Yet  in the same US  a suspect is presumed innocent  until  proven otherwise . A  black  legislator asked  people  to take to the streets if the verdict is not guilty . She  should be vilified just as former President Donald Trump  was vilified for inciting the attack on the Capitol on January 6 2021 . Even  the president  ,   Joe  Biden  warned that the verdict  had better be right and it was . Undoubtedly the jury  was  frightened for its life and gave a quick desired verdict . But  the trial  judge,  a brave man, had criticized the legislative and executive interference in the judicial  process and hinted to the defence  lawyer  of the murderous  policeman that there is a ground for appeal or a  mistrial  on account of the   interference  .  Which  is unfortunate and  has given hope to Derek  Chauvin  that  he may yet escape justice when all  he deserved is to  spend the rest  of his life in jail for snuffing out life from a helpless Floyd George .For  now ,  anyway ,  justice  has been served .

    Again , America , after or even  before the 2020  presidential election was divided between what a Fox News commentator called a white , conservative Christian elite  represented by the Republicans and  multicultural , secular and liberal elite,  typified  by the Democrats . So,   a huge political  battle line is drawn between the values and the beliefs of these two  forces who view  each other as enemies when they  are supposed to be sportsmen who should shake hands after  a game  win or lose .Which  in this  case   was  the 2020  presidential  elections which  has shaken Americans faith in their election integrity  to its very root .

    We  go next   to Russia where the faith is in political stability and facing up  to the US  even though  a  nation that was an atheist one  since  Bolshevik  Revolution of 1917 ,  has  under its one man rule of Vladmir  Putin   accommodated the Russian Orthodox Church  which it banned under Communist rule . In  China too religion is feared rather than observed and faith  which is   totally  political ,  is resident in the Chinese Communist  Party which  calls the shot and  has China   in its  iron  grip . In  Britain  human rights is worshipped like a religion and multiculturalism used to be the favorite political swan songs but after some bombings and knives  attack,  Britain  is taking a second look at  multiculturalism which  has not produced positive integration of new citizens . It  has shown this  in the way and manner it has handled Black Lives Matter protests in Britain by supporting  the police  while stopping the calls for historical statues  to be removed . Britain also  worships its  monarchy and that is very apparent in the way and manner it showed grief and solidarity  with the Queen  on the death of her  husband Prince Phillip , the Duke  of Edinburgh recently .

    We  end  up with Nigeria in the true spirit that charity  should begin at home . The  disturbing  thing is that a sitting Nigerian Minister was accused by a Professor of being the Imam of a University Mosque when  his son  was murdered on a fatwa given  by the Minister. I  read news reports that the Minister   still  gives regular daily Ramadan lectures  like  the one  attended recently at the Yoruba Tennis Club . If  this is true the Minister  should  just  resign and go home . It is up to the security agencies to believe or not ,  the professor  and father of the fatwa victim even  though the  father has said he has forgiven   those who killed  his son . Surely   the blood  of the son of the professor killed   by a fatwa  is crying out loud  and clear   for justice and justice  should not only be   done but be seen to have been done  This Minister should  simply  leave  the cabinet as the exercise of  his faith in the past is at  odds with the goals and objectives of any right thinking ,  decent  people and government  and we believe that  Nigerians and the Federal and state  governments are   such   decent  entities and  peoples  . Once again From the Fury of this pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria .

     

  • Police, policies and security

    Police, policies and security

    By  Dayo Sobowale

     

    Police  brutality has given the Police a  bad name in recent  times culminating in  the End SARS killings in Nigeria recently, the George Floyd‘   I  can’t   breathe ‘  tragedy  in the US and the killings of protesters on a massive scale in Myanmar –Burma, where the military  simply seized power after an election won by the ruling party. But the police should be the friend of the public because without them there would be no law and order as protecting the public and guaranteeing peace and   security cannot happen without the Police. Today we take a look at public order in some parts of the world and how the way the police has handled its legitimate function of preserving law  and order, has affected its   image   for good or bad,   as a law enforcement institution.

    Policing is dictated globally by government policies on security and political parties in government can get elected or lose power by the nature of the available policing. There are many practical examples to illustrate the quality of policing and the appreciation or disenchantment   by those who control the police as government of the day. In Nigeria the President who elongated the tenure of the last Inspector General of Police by three months, simply fired him after two months, when terrorists in the East attacked two federal prisons and freed the inmates this week. In  the US  the trial  of the police officer who knelt on the neck  of George Floyd and killed  him started this week with police  officers breaking ranks and condemning the manner force was used  by one of their own  as incompatible  with police training in the US. Needless  to say  it is the duty of governments to equip the police and train policemen so  that they  can always protect both the populace and the government such  that law and order is maintained and the rule of law is guaranteed. Today again we shall look at the quality of policing that emerges in any environment where governments perform such responsibility successfully or not.

    In Nigeria the issue of insecurity is pervasive and has pitched the various majority ethnic groups against one another and there have been calls for restructuring,  state police, with the Northern leaders accusing the South of killing Northerners while a major Northern leader has said the North will look for new leaders in the coming 2023 presidential elections. The beauty of all this, in spite of the     enduring   insecurity, is that a dialogue is still on, and unity is still part of that dialogue.

    In  addition, the appointment of a new IG  which  was  long overdue given the poor policing in the nation is commendable and one can only wish   the new IG God  speed in arresting the poor security  situation in the nation and  helping us to feel  secure in our various works of  life. The new IG has to find a way to restore the confidence of the police in doing its work. That confidence plummeted after the End SARS protests were hijacked by hoodlums who razed police stations and burnt and killed policemen.  This   shocked both Nigerians and government itself and made policemen to fear for their    lives in doing their legitimate work of keeping law and order.  This led to policemen lying low in the performance of their duties and looking the other way when crime occurs so that they will not be tried as they were before and after the End  SARS protests. This certainly made the insecurity situation worse and it is the work and responsibility of the new IG, with the support of the president who appointed him, to restore confidence and morale in our police force.

     

    Read Also: Trial of former cop charged in George Floyd’s death begins

     

    Let us now compare the US with Nigeria in terms of police brutality, government policies, and how this   has affected American democracy   nowadays. I start by saying that the presidency of Donald Trump was characterized by support for the police and that was taken by American blacks who were mostly the victims of police killings, to take it that Trump was endorsing police brutality. This cost him his reelection as Blacks voted massively for his opponent Joe Biden who won the 2020 presidential election. The Black Lives Matter protests sprung from this perceived endorsement of police brutality by Donald Trump and gained global momentum with the police killing of George Floyd. That momentum crystallised into the Woke  or  Cancel Culture which  makes any criticism of blackness  or colour a crime literally ,  in calling   it racism. The    critics   of cancel culture have said it is a new way of the leftists in the Democratic party, with the endorsement of the Biden government, to silence all dissent or opposing views. This has been a controversial issue in the US and has polarized the nation into two irreconcilable parts unable to engage in any dialogue. Unlike the situation in Nigeria where dialogue is still part of the political equation and democratic engagement.

    Even  the media coverage of policies  and   protests of the Trump and now Biden Administrations reflect   this breakdown  in the American political  system in recent times .Biden was elected on a promise to open the borders with Mexico  and  has done that and put his Vice President Kamala Harris in charge. But she has not said anything since being appointed two weeks ago but CNN is  not reporting   that and is also downplaying the confusion at the border which  has affected the  security  and policing of the states close  to the troubled borders and  the  endless flow of illegal immigrants into the US. In  addition Biden  is implementing his policies by Executive  Orders and is reversing  all  what Trump  has done and is being portrayed  by   Fox  News  as paying lip service to  the pledge he made at his Inaugural Address  to make America united as he claimed  it was deeply divided in the four  years  of the Trump  presidency.

    In addition, the reaction of the Republicans and Democrats to police brutality is very different. The Republicans favor funding for the police even as they condemn police brutality. The Democrats favor defunding the police while at the same time condemning police brutality .The Republicans have charged that Democratic state governments and pro-government media do not give coverage when Antifa the pro left agitation group turns protests into riots and attack government buildings and stores and attempt to burn police stations like the hoodlums that hijacked the Anti SARS protests in Lagos recently.

    Anyway, the duty of governments is to support the police by funding it adequately and giving it moral support. This is what the UK government is doing tacitly by condemning those under the guise of Black Lives Matter protests, are dragging down colonial statues and trying to rewrite history. The UK government in a White Paper recently frowned on that and plans to restore the statues. It also refused to condemn the police for manhandling some women during a   protest recently saying its duty is to back the police. I agree that it is the duty of police to protect people and it is the duty of a well-equipped police to support and both the government and people it serves in providing law and order without,   any police brutality. Once again, From the fury of this pandemic Good Lord Deliver Nigeria.

     

  • Eagles’ glory days beckon

    Eagles’ glory days beckon

    By Ade Ojeikere

     

    When Kelechi Iheanacho shone like a million stars during the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the world waited with bated breath for his exploits as he grew older and better. Iheanacho’s sublime skills illuminated the competition. His ‘tiny’ statue left lovers of the game pondering over his speed and his sense of judgment in placing the ball beyond the reach of goalkeepers he played against. Indeed, it wasn’t the first time Nigeria would be playing at the cadet competition with young Nigerians teasing the world with their scintillating moves copied from great stars they watched on television.

    It didn’t come as a surprise when Manchester City beat other European clubs to Iheanacho’s signature. Many pundits reckoned that Iheanacho made a mistake in joining the elite club in Europe. A few others thought otherwise drawing examples of many European kids who broke into world reckoning at a younger age. Need I waste space listing these kids, not forgetting what the great Pele of Brazil said about them at the Mundial years ago?

    Iheanacho learned a lot from Manchester City earning the sobriquet ‘Uncle’ which he called the senior players he met at the Cityzens. No surprises because of the African culture of according respect to those older than the younger ones. Iheanacho had what was required to grab a regular shirt at Manchester City. But Pep Guardiola thought differently, preferring Gabriel Jesus to the Nigerian. Jesus played more regularly and that affected Iheanacho’s performance which was often based on cameo appearances. Faced with an obvious forced exit, Iheanacho jumped at Foxes’ offer, especially with a Nigerian having a swell time with Leicester City.

    Initially, Iheanacho struggled at the King Power Stadium as he played under the shadows of former England striker Jamie Vardy. He was even forced to constantly praise the Foxes’ arrowhead in the attack whenever he played alongside the English star.

    He said in one of his interviews: “I have been working hard in training every day to make sure I keep up to the standard. I am happy today, getting a goal and assisting Jamie so today was very good and it was fantastic with the whole team.

    “You need to be strong mentally as a football player, it’s not easy not getting enough playing time. I know Jamie is a world-class striker, I am behind him and learning a lot from him as well so I am happy and I know my chance will come.”

    Iheanacho did not start the current season on a bright note but has blossomed over the last couple of weeks, scoring goals with relative ease and becoming Leicester’s go-to man for goals. Foxes manager, Brendan Rodgers cannot afford to bench him at the minute, playing him alongside Vardy in every match to devastating effect.

    Iheanacho has scored six goals in his last five Premier League games for Leicester, as many as he managed in his previous 57 games in the competition combined. The Leicester striker has scored 14 goals in all competitions this season, equalling his best tally in a single campaign; the Nigerian scored 14 for Man City in 2015-16. It’s no surprise as he is playing just behind Vardy which is his preferred role.

    Iheanacho began his senior career at Manchester City during the 2015–16 season after joining the Cityzens straight from helping the Golden Eaglets win the 2013 FIFA World Cup. He moved to Leicester City in 2017 for a reported, £25 million fee and the deal was recently renewed to 2024.

    With such a rich resume with the Foxes, would it be appropriate to hand Iheanacho the Super Eagles top striker shirt considering the remarkable outings of Onuachu and Victor Osimhen?

    The answer may have been answered in Porto Novo against the Squirrels of Republic of Benin and in Lagos against the Crocodiles of Lesotho inside the late Teslim Balogun Stadium. Onuachu scored in Porto Novo while Osimhen did against Lesotho leaving Iheanacho with the option of providing the pass which Onuachu converted for Nigeria’s third goal against Lesotho.

    Onuachu stood taller than everyone inside the Republic of Benin’s six-metre box to nod in the goal that separated Nigeria and the hosts in the 93rd minute. What it means is that Gernot Rohr must find a way to play to Onuachu’s strength which includes using his head to score goals. Rohr should change the team’s formation which should include players who could deliver crosses to Onuachu to convert into goals. There are very few players in the world who can dwarf the Nigerian inside the 18-metre box.

    Onuachu’s knowledge of the goal area is quite remarkable little wonder he has scored 27 goals this season with a few games to the end of the season. The swiftness in which Onuachu controlled the side-footed pass from Henry Onyekuru  before blasting into the Lesotho net before blasting into the Lesotho net showed he is quite comfortable with the ball, even when he is tightly marked. This writer is reluctant in likening Onuachu to the late Rashidi Yekini though he could better Yekini’s records if he remains as consistent and reliable as Rashidi was.

    If Rohr truly wants to win the Africa Cup of Nations’ trophy in Cameroon next year, he should give Onuachu the top striker shirt and find a way of getting Iheanacho to play with the big striker who appears to have pace on the ball. Rohr should jettison his fixation towards particular players, if he hopes to join the league of coaches who won the AFCON diadem for Nigeria.

    Paul Onuachu is enjoying his most prolific form at the moment with Genk and has scored a remarkable 27 goals in 30 league appearances. The 26-year-old is at his football peak and it’s no surprise that the likes of 7-time UEFA Champions League winners AC Milan are looking at his direction.

    Nigeria has always been blessed with great forwards and the current Coach Gernot Rohr has been blessed with three goal-scorers that are totally different but can complement each other when used properly. Now, the German needs to earn his pay and make these guys fire the Super Eagles back to its glory days.

    One thing is clear, Onuahu can’t be bullied off the ball. It is an asset Rohr must exploit to the fullest. Countries at AFCON next year should develop clay feet when faced with Onuachu’s qualities, leaving Iheanacho and Osimhen to score the goals with aplomb. Osimhen’s game hasn’t matched his potentials this season largely because of injuries and the effects of contracting Covid-19. He could still surpass some of the things pundits expect him to achieve. However, Osimhen needs to improve on his temperament. oppositions could capitalise on his quick temper to get him off the pitch to the disadvantage of his team. No matter how provoked he is, he should know that is a punishable offence to retaliate, especially if he is caught by the vigilant eyes of the referees or through the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) machine.

    Osimhen is a complete striker who is intelligent, very quick on and off the ball making it difficult for his markers to police him. He is proficient with both feet and has scored many goals using his head to bury the balls behind goalkeepers for both club and country.

    Osimhen has scored just five goals in Serie A this season following his big-money move from Lille but it was down to injuries, Covid-19, and suspensions. The 22-year-old showed that he is a great forward during his time in Belgium and France with Charleroi and Lille respectively. Before then, he rose to become the all-time highest goal-scorer in a single FIFA U-17 World Cup tournament when his 10goals helped the Golden Eaglets win the trophy for Nigeria for a record five-time, making her the most successful side in the history of the competition.

    The depth in strength in the Eagles is best captured by the fact that scorers such as Joe Aribo and Samuel Chukwueze would be forced back to the bench except they can function in the midfield which has Wilfred Ndidi and Oghenekaro Etebor as the gladiators. Happily, Ndidi and Etebor are man-marking midfielders who can also score goals. Mention must be made about Alex Iwobi who can fit into the team’s attacking options and also in the midfield.

    In fact close to 80 per cent of the members of this team play for their European teams regularly depending on their managers’ plan for different games. This is the fillip the team needs to emerge victorious in Cameroon next year, if Rohr puts on his thinking cap during the competition. Attack is the best form of defence and i hope that Rohr factors this acclaim in his match strategies next year.

  • Agenda against the north?

    Agenda against the north?

    By Segun Ayobolu

     

    Media reportage of deliberations of an event tagged the ‘Northern Summit’, which held on Wednesday, April 5, at the Arewa House, Kaduna, indicate that the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and a former Speaker of the House of Representatives, Honourable Ghali Umar Na’Abba, perceive some kind of grand conspiracy against the North by the South. There seems to be little empirical or logical basis to come to this kind of conclusion. In his submission at the event, Honourable Na’Abba alleged that a former President from the South had an agenda to destroy the North in 1999. According to him,  “In 1999, when I realized that there was an agenda against the North, I did everything possible to ensure it doesn’t succeed but it’s among our governors that I met one of the stiffest oppositions. Some of them because they want to come back, some because they want to become president, worked with the president who wants (sic) to destroy the north”.

    Unfortunately, the reports did not quote Na’Abba in further and more helpful detail. It is not clear why Na’Abba chose to raise this issue at this time. This column is unaware that former President Olusegun Obasanjo, obviously referred to by the former Speaker, ever had an agenda to destroy the north. My reading of Obasanjo’s politics is that he is more pro-Nigeria than he is either pro-North or pro-South. Obasanjo perceives himself as a super patriot and even considers himself, if I am not mistaken, a Nigerian first before he is a Yoruba man. The failure of the bid to impeach Obasanjo in his first term, during Na’Abba’s tenure as Speaker, was simply because the move lacked merit.

    On his part, the Deputy Chairman of the ACF, Senator Ibrahim Ida, described the North as “the fabric holding Nigeria together” and lamented that “We are being provoked by the incessant attacks on Northerners in the South. We must therefore ensure that nobody takes us for granted or underestimate us…The North is at crossroad. We really need internal cohesion of what the North stands for, the resources available and what we want to achieve”. Senator Ida can plausibly and justifiably make a case for developmental collaboration by components within the region to promote the accelerated transformation of the North without making it sound as if he is mobilizing the North against the South.

    In the first place, there is neither a cohesive North nor a cohesive South, which can jointly and successfully plan and actualize any agenda against the other and this is infinitely more difficult now than in the past. Secondly, contrary to his assertion, neither the North nor the South is the fabric holding Nigeria together. Despite current grave security challenges, Nigeria is being held together by a complex web of intricate, interwoven economic networks and linkages, millions of cross cultural intermarriages, diverse forms of cultural interpenetration across regions and zones, patterns of shared religious faiths and social confraternities as well as the intangible but not insubstantial, mutual psycho-emotional feelings Nigerians share across primordial boundaries when, for instance, the Nigerian football team at any level is playing against other nations.

    In his submission at the event, the leader of the NEF, Professor Ango Abdullahi, accused Southern leaders of utilizing the threat of restructuring as a bargaining chip to secure the zoning of the presidency to the South come 2023. In his words, “Using restructuring as a threat or bargaining tool for accepting zoning will destroy the imperatives of restructuring and imperil the country”. What one can read into Professor Abdullahi’s submission is that restructuring as being advocated mostly by southern socio-cultural and political pressure groups, but also increasingly supported by some northern elements, will benefit the south to the detriment of the north or that key groups or political figures in the north do not feel bound by any reported informal power rotation agreement with the South.

    Firstly, there is no unanimity or even meaningful consensus in the South on what is meant or desired by restructuring. It seems, however, that there is emerging a broad pan-Nigerian consensus around effecting constitutional amendments to strengthen the decentralizing, federal features of the current excessively rigid and centralized constitution. What an esteemed Northerner like Professor Abdullahi should realize, however, is that the current structure of the Nigerian polity hurts the North as much as, if not more, than the South.

    Ironically, for instance, despite the current widespread perceived unfair skewing of the ethno-regional composition of the higher echelon of the country’s security architecture in favour of the North, that region, plagued by protracted insurgency, rampant banditry, kidnapping, communal upheavals and other assorted forms of criminality in vast swathes of its territory, is the greatest victim of the insecurity plaguing the country. Thousands of lives are being wasted across the North daily. Thus, the Northern Governors Forum (NGF) has not hesitated in joining governors in the South in advocating for a decentralization of the country’s security architecture and the establishment, specifically, of state-controlled police commands.

    In the same vein, reviewing the revenue allocation formula to guarantee more revenue to the sub-national units or amending the constitution to enable states own and exploit mineral resources within their jurisdictions for the benefit of their people while paying appropriate taxes to the centre will probably benefit the north more than the south. It is thus untenable to claim that advocacy for restructuring in the south is an instrument of threat for the 2023 presidency to be zoned to the region.

    On the issue of zoning, Professor Abdullahi makes three points. One, that northern voters had supported Chief MKO Abiola, General Olusegun Obasanjo and Dr Goodluck Jonathan to win presidential elections in the past even when these candidates competed against Northerners. Thus, he submits, voters from the north are not parochial but “enlightened and conscious of their responsibilities”. Second, he states that no aspirant of northern extraction should expect support from the north “simply because he is one of us”. Rather, “Those politicians who want northerners to vote in a particular manner should soil their boots and convince northerners how their candidates will improve security, economy and society in the north and the country”.

    Professor Abdullahi’s submissions in this regard illustrate the complexity of zoning as a power rotation mechanism for ensuring equity, maintaining stability and fostering harmony and cohesion in a complex, plural society like ours. This is particularly so in a multi-party system like Nigeria’s where parties cannot legally be prohibited from fielding candidates from any part of the country irrespective of whatever power sharing pacts exist among intra-party elite factions and fractions. What is thus of utmost importance, in my view, is the level of maturity and fidelity among the hegemonic factions of the dominant political parties to ensure that whatever zoning arrangement is followed does not compromise the key requirement of merit and competence, but also recognizing that prolonged domination of key offices by either the South or the North will have serious detrimental implications for democratic sustainability, political stability and national cohesion.

    The third point made by Professor Abdullahi is more controversial and subtly threatening. In his words, “Politicians who cannot impose their influence on irredentists that threaten our corporate existence and the lives and livelihoods of our fellow northerners stand on very thin ground in our estimation. Politicians who want the support and the vote of the Northerner, but will not raise their voices and act to protect them against undeserved treatment in areas where they have power and influence, should not expect to find our people with open arms when they ask for our support”. Here, the professor is subtly echoing Senator Ida’s allegation of widespread attacks on northerners in the south. This allegation is based on isolated and largely spontaneous, accidental clashes between herdsmen and sedentary communities in a few areas in the South.

    It is not surprising that a seasoned academic and statesman like Professor Abdullahi is more restrained and circumspect in expressing his views so as not to unduly inflame passions in an easily combustible situation. Governors like Bello Matawalle and Bello Mohammed of Zamfara and Bauchi, respectively, would do well to learn from this example. But is it true that northerners are being widely attacked in the South? These claims are grossly exaggerated. There are millions of people of northern extraction peacefully earning their living in the South and vice versa in the North. Luckily, a consensus is gradually emerging around solutions to herdsmen-farmers clashes in the south: In the north, radically modernize the cattle business to make open grazing of cattle across long distances unattractive, unnecessary and unprofitable. In the South, organize ill-equipped, poor and isolated, peasant farmers into thriving, modern, secure cooperative communities.

    Contrary to the assertions of some of these northern elders, mainstream political and traditional leaders in the south do not support secession as a solution to problems that, with maturity and wisdom, can be resolved through peaceful dialogue. Indeed, many of them do not disagree with Professor Ango Abdullahi’s assertion that “It is not acceptable that any Northerner should protect criminal Fulani, whether he operates in the North or South, and it is equally unacceptable that Fulanis who are not involved in criminal activities should be profiled, demonized, murdered or expelled from communities”. The Buhari administration will considerably help ameliorate matters if it quickly and decisively addresses the perceived insularity and lack of national outlook, particularly in its key security appointments, that, among others, trigger separatist agitations and inclinations in the South.

  • Reinventing Nigeria’s sports

    Reinventing Nigeria’s sports

    By Ade Ojeikere

    PERMIT me, dear reader to sustain my focus on the country’s domestic leagues which ought to serve as the nurseries to discover raw talents abound the 774 Local Government Areas (LGAs) but aren’t. We have won several gold medals at the cadet levels, making the country one of the world powers in soccer, only if we understood the essence of creating age-grade competitions by the game’s owners FIFA in Zurich. Nigeria has been kings of the U-17 World Cup in 1985, 1993, 2007, 2013, and 2015. Yet, we have been unable to easily play in the quarter-finals of the senior World Cup, irrespective of the quality of coaches who took us to those cadet Mundial.

    Anyone who thinks that the Nigerian coaches who led the Golden Eaglets to win the World Cups in those times did anything fantastic on the boys in those years, should perish that assumption. Those boys were picked from across the country and had contrasting styles. They were driven to glory by the average Nigerian’s zeal to always seize such platforms to excel. Those glorious groups at the Under-17 level learned the game by watching their idols on television. They were products of the functional school systems of yore. Not the dysfunctional systems we have today. I don’t want to question their ages. Rather, I will look at the positives – part of which shows that the factory for discovering talents still abound. What is missing is an effective policing of all the mechanics around the game.

    Those World Cup-winning lads are lost largely because there wasn’t any coordination from the time they became heroes and now. Most of them knew that they had taken a chance on the system and needed their freedom. Had we taken the pains to comb the 775 LGAs, we would have discovered dozens of players to fill the gap created by the fleeing few. It is that lacuna that has opened the window of flooding our prestigious Super Eagles with foreign-born Nigerians.

    True, they have the right to play for their fatherland, but the backlash is those kicking all kinds of round objects in the 774 LGAs have been shut now. It hurts that age-grade players are being taken from the foreign-born legions, making it imperative to ask what has happened to the domestic game? One word. The league is dead. Those papering the cancerous sore have forgotten that the stench from the sore is killing everyone. No country judges her development in soccer by the number of foreign-based players in their national teams. Those countries that have foreign-based players in their soccer squads can easily trace their growth through the ranks of the football cycles.

    These foreign-born Nigerians are products of recent feats by European countries in age-grade competitions largely because those countries have the domestic leagues having cadet teams that serve as supply lines to churn out younger lads to replace their aging stars or those who have lost form. This is the missing link in the Nigeria league. Sadly, those characters running the game here think otherwise and it is unfortunate.

    Were our local clubs’ cadets involved in weekly matches as we find in Europe, we wouldn’t have found ourselves in this quagmire. Many of the players would have come from the leagues, giving such clubs the basis to seek good revenue from clubs eager to sign them. Not those shylock European agents who cheat of the naive players and at other times sign into slavery playing for clubs whose leagues are nothing but novelties. The European countries where these boys are being lured to play for Nigeria couldn’t be bothered by our lazy approach to football development knowing that they have a factory that has surpluses waiting to fill the void created by such exits. In fact, these countries are happy to let those lads go, except for players whose positions their nationals can’t fill.

    The advantage of having our age-grade team players in the domestic league is that it helps in gathering players’ data early. This further reduces cases of age cheats caused by greedy parents who are involved in the falsification of such vital documents. Only parents can confirm their wards’ ages, unfortunately. If our clubs have age-grade teams from ages 5 to 16, it would be easy to detect cheats through the measures ingrained in the systems. It is laughable that in the 21st Century, we still allow kids playing for Nigeria’s cadet teams to use sworn affidavits as evidence for their ages.

    It is exciting to note the efforts being made by the sports minister Sunday Dare to reinvent the principal’s Cup competition. However, the organisers must be alert in clearing players to the competition. They should insist on seeing the players’ academic records. They should interrogate such records by interacting with the pupils in such schools. Any student should know the schools’ star players including his mates in class.

    If the revamped Principal’s Cup is free of sharp practices, it would attract the interest of the corporate world. No investor would identify its goods and service in a system fraught with fraud and controversies. Investors love to see value in their investments. The beauty of investors’ interests in business is that it has a spiral effect once the business community identifies with novel ideals they don’t relent. Instead, they find ways to key into various aspects of the project.

    This writer identifies with the honourable Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed’s appeal to the corporate world in Nigeria to do exactly what they do with sports in other climes with ours. That indeed is the only way to make the sports industry as attractive as what we find in the western world. In such regions, sports is business, not a novelty. Where this writer differs from the honourable minister is that his plea ought to have been targeted at the nurseries where these investors have their kids and relations. Interestingly, the future of any nation rests with her youth and how effectively they are engaged with works that would easily take them out of crime and other social vices.

    The minister said on NTA’s ‘Good Morning Nigeria’ programme on Monday that: “Let’s assume you have brought in La Liga, and during the matches, Guinness is advertised, we will compel you, we will compel Guinness to also advertise when we are playing a local league. That is the only way we can grow this industry but as can be expected, we have had very few supporters.”

    Mohammed argued further that Nigerian brands such as Guinness which run adverts during foreign matches must compulsorily advertise during Nigerian Premier Football League games pointing out that brands that create their adverts abroad but broadcast them on CNN and other international stations broadcasting in Nigeria will pay a fine of N100,000 each time such adverts are run.

    Well said, sir. But do note sir, that firms are at liberty to do business with those who have programmes which they like. Do you build on nothing? The country’s sports terrain is comatose. The few sports that have thinking administrators are doing very well.

    Mention must be made of Uyi Akpata who has revolutionised cricket in Nigeria with laudable projects and corporate sponsorship, with Edo State the new Haven for cricket in the country. Uyi Akpata has broken Lagos state’s dominance of the gentleman’s game, a wish may Bendelites and Edo people who played the game craved for in the past. The best and modern pitches in the country reside in Edo State. Uyi Akpata’s cricket revolution is targeted at the nurseries, including school boys and girls.

    Nigeria’s sports administrators should stop thinking through their pockets. They should always look at the bigger picture of making the sporting industry the veritable ground for stemming unemployment in Nigeria. Is sports truly “play play” as one governor once described it? Who will challenge us to see sports as a platform to bolster the country’s revenue? Doesn’t the government know that sports is the best vehicle for massive employment? The honourable Sports Minister will need to meet with firms who have embraced sports to know what problems they have with the federations. At that meeting, the firms should be told what they stand to benefit from sports sponsorship. After that, a dinner with the President, essentially for sports-friendly firms, preferably after the Olympic Games in Tokyo.

  • Arrest club chairmen too

    Arrest club chairmen too

    By Ade Ojeikere

    No person’s blood is worth being spilled at match venues before relevant changes could be reflected in the domestic league. Weekly matches are marred by violence with the culprits (hoodlums, urchins, etc) made to look like spirits due to inadequate security. Referees are beaten to a pulp regularly because the league venues don’t have close circuit televisions to track the beasts. When a referee is killed, we will constitute panels to find out how it happened, who did it, why and how? Innocent souls will be arrested while the roughnecks will be walking the streets, free as air, with instructions from their principals not be seen around any stadium. Of course, the noise over the dastardly act won’t last long; it will be buried with the victim whose family will be left to bear the burden of losing their loved one.

    Nothing seems to be new because these same characters run the competition yearly. Those who run the domestic game have a penchant for signing MOUs. They enjoy listening to themselves. Those with dissenting views don’t know what it takes to run the game. But this writer won’t give up until the right personnel is put in place. Rather than secure an official television station for the competition to help curb violence and carnage, the organisers watched in awe as the previous league television station stopped the contract.

    A proactive league board would have accepted what the previous television sponsor offered and secured an arrangement where others could either show the games live or record them to be shown later. Sadly, some of these battered referees don’t record their ordeal in their match reports, except such scenes happen in parts of the country where the media presence can ANDoverwhelm the influence of desperate club managers, owners, and, sometimes, sports commissioners.

    Must a referee be killed before we know that league venues here are death traps? Each week, strange stories of how match referees were maltreated and the culprits left to walk free litter the sports pages of national newspapers.

    The centre referee who refused to continue the match involving Sunshine and Nasarawa United did the right thing. He returned the next morning to complete the game having secured adequate security from the police. These beasts at league venues harass match officials from the blast of the whistle. Referees should be given the power to call off a game. The snag is that they won’t have video evidence the back their decision.

    The social media has been feasting on the video showing the fan who assaulted the referees during last weekend’s game between Katsina United and Kwara United in Katsina. Kwara United won the game, but the referees were beaten groggy. Even pictures of the man being prosecuted don’t compliment the stories of mod action resulting in the referees’ maltreatment. One person can’t injure three referees so badly. Clearly, a fall guy has been caught and his countenance in the video clips showed, especially with the way he walked out of the courtroom as if he knew he would soon be released. No remorse. Never heard of a one-man mob attack.

    I won’t be surprised if the referees don’t get justice. The so-called culprit would just deny the allegation since he wasn’t caught on camera. He would easily get a lawyer to bail him and the case would ease off faster than ice cream kept under the scorching sun. Sadly, the referees are left in pain arising from bruises inflicted on them by irate fans. Unfortunately, fans are banned from attending matches as part of the Covid-19 regulations. Yet, referees are either molested or beaten to a pulp. referees are now endangered species at match venues. What a pity.

    The first thing that stadia, where games are played, need urgently are effective CCTVs which can’t destroyed to cover up malpractices. Besides, any stadium that is slated to host games must build special exit gates that will make it absolutely impossible to access the referees before, during and after matches. Any harm inflicted on match referees will translate to 10

    points deduction from the offender’s total. Such a defaulting club should never be allowed to play in that venue for one year.

    One wonders what the organisers show to prospecting firms willing to do business with them? Would it not have been better to show them recorded programmes of the league to appreciate what they stand to gain in a partnership? Will firms be excited to associate their brands with the game when the benefits of such unions are not documented? I’m sure the organisers dare not show games where referees are battered. They also won’t show videos of crowd violence with fans running through teargas.

    No fan will dare beat up a referee or cause a breach of public peace, when he knows that the game is live on television and he could easily be spotted by the law enforcement agencies.

    Match officials will be empowered to interpret the rules of the game when they know that their safety is guaranteed. They also won’t want to misbehave.

    We don’t have to wait until a soul is lost before we institute probe panels with robust terms of reference. Such medicine after death mechanism won’t’ resurrect the dead nor would it heal the pains of the family of the dead person. Dead men don’t talk. We need to task the league organisers to prosecute the club chairmen in the matches where referees were brutalised, no matter how little. Those who inflicted the injuries on the referees are no spirits. Club chairmen must be made to face the wrath of the law for dereliction of duty. After all, it is the clubs that bring the referees to the stadium. And it is their prerogative to take them back unhurt.

    Club chairmen are culpable in this new trend of beating referees since the law forbids fans from watching matches. Fans’ angst against the referees arose from their dissatisfaction with the way they handled the particular game in question. So, club chairmen must tell us how they gained entrance into the stadium. Club chairmen must tell us the security arrangement made to curtail such excesses by irate fans.

    Most of the reports of carnage from the venues have played down the functions of the match commissioners, independent assessors and, others whose duties include ensuring that all the basics of hosting games are adhered to. How did the games begin without the match commissioners knowing what to do before matters got worse? We need to know the efforts the match commissioners of problematic games made towards getting the police to provide adequate security for the referees before, during, and after the games. After, the match commissioners and referees ought to be driven into the stadium behind police escorts to show the hoodlums what to expect if they misbehaved.

    No report has shown us match commissioners soaked in their pool of blood like the referees. Is it that they fled the scene to protect their lives? If no, how come they were not attacked? Referees would continue to be molested except the league organisers stop the clubs from paying match officials’ entitlements and indemnities. League organisers should today begin the process of getting the state police commands in areas where games are played to always send their best men to venues. Match officials should as matter of urgency make sure that visit the police stations to register their presence in such towns and seek adequate protection as law-abiding citizens. The police are our friends and should ensure the safety of everyone.

    It would quite remarkable keeping videos of club chairmen even sports commissioners alighting from Black Maria in the company of a retinue of Correction Centre officials and moving towards the courtroom to face the tenets of the law. Not until this kind of measure is adopted would people learn to do their jobs. Club chairmen and indeed the state sports commissioners would appreciate the fact that referees are human beings, not animals ready for slaughter.

    The domestic league is an apology, beginning with the sharp practices around the grounds before, during, and after matches. Nothing to stimulate the interests of the spectators to sit patiently at the stands. The essence of organising league matches isn’t for both teams to benefit from the gates takings, but to allow Nigerians watch the country’s future representatives at CAF inter-club competitions. The matches ensure that the owners of the clubs (mostly state governments) get the facilities ready for the players to battle for honours. But with visionless organisers, anything goes, even if it means playing games with empty terraces.