The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Learning from the best

    Learning from the best

    Ade Ojeikere

     

    What a week. Hectic? Yes it was despite the lockdown occasioned by the Corona virus pandemic. Fortunately, my job as a journalist permits my movement to work and back home. Mention must be made of the security operatives who have been very polite.

    They have done the job of policing in the routes that I use. Thank God something good can come from our security operatives.

    I don’t intend to discuss the damage the Corona virus has done in the world. I would rather join the multitude praying for a quick discovery of vaccines to cure the disease.

    Last Saturday, I purposely put my phones on silence to avoid calls because of the piece I did  on this page. I knew I had roughened feathers.

    I also knew that the critics’ knives would be drawn. But that wasn’t the reason for writing the column. It was to remind our league organisers, not to insult our sensibilities with such fantasies as watching the domestic league on telephone, despite all the debates surrounding the return of the English game, which bother on the losses clubs would incur from television rights on English Premier League (EPL) games, if the season ends abruptly.

    With 92 games left for the season to end, EPL chieftains are toying with a lot of possibilities such that the competition would end without any overlap into the new season. The message underscores the importance of terrestrial rights.

    According to a Daily Mail report Monday: ‘’On May 7, the government is set to hold its next review of the current lockdown restrictions. If games are to go ahead, then the Premier League will have to ensure that measures are in place to prevent fans from gathering outside stadiums.

    The Premier League are hopeful that they will be given approval from the government to play the games, which they feel would help to boost the mood of the nation.’’

    What an interesting perspective to the Corona virus – matches to be played to help boost the mood of the nation. Brilliant. It means the game belongs to the people. Without the people, the games won’t attract the followership which clubs enjoy.

    This movement of people towards the clubs fill their stadia and in turn become huge revenues bases  for them to buy players of their choices.

    Sports is business, meant to be administered by those who can think, not cronies of governors. That is the way things are here. Hence the quagmire in our sports administration.

    ‘’In addition, players will have to be tested for Corona virus and venues for the games will have to be decided, with England’s training base of St George’s Park one possible option.’’

    EPL chieftains understand the importance of the government in arriving at a final decision. Yet, they have proposed ideas which would meet all the fears expressed by all the sides in the dialogue.

    It is true that the French have cancelled their league seasons. But the English game is driven by weighty sponsorship packages signed over the years, with the sponsors to make demands on infringements on their contracts with the EPL.

    The correlation between the EPL chiefs and government rests with the volume of taxes which increase the country’s revenue, beginning with taxes of players’ coaches, and ancillary staff’s wages, television rights, merchandising, and other marketing platforms of the EPL which make it one of the most lucrative businesses in modern history.

    Government has the discretion to rule like the French minister did on Monday. But, the backlash would be unimaginable, beginning with the next transfer window.

    Conversely, it took the Nigerian government’s intervention for our domestic league organisers to tell us their plans, many of which are laughable.

    They need to study the daily reports from our leagues troubled by the Corona virus pandemic to know how to re-direct their plans to be in sync with others.

    The EPL eggheads have visualised how the Barclays English Premier League would be played as reported by the Daily Mail during the week.

    ‘’ A minimum of 300 people will be needed for a Premier League fixture to take place behind closed doors. As England’s top flight looks for safe ways to resume in the coming weeks amid the Covid-19 pandemic, an official estimate has calculated how many will need to be inside each ground on match-day.

    ‘’This includes 40 players, 32 coaching and medical staff from the two teams, 12 match officials, between six and eight doctors and medical personnel, three Premier League officials and 130 or more media personnel.

    ‘’Of that figure, 210 have been exactly accounted for, according to The Daily Telegraph, though the precise numbers of club directors, media, security, stewards, ground staff and scoreboard operators have yet to be worked out.

    ‘’The additional 90-100 in attendance is based on estimates made in Germany, where the Bundesliga could resume on May 9 if given the green light by health authorities.’’

    Two striking things have come out of the pronouncements in the other leagues, which show that the media are adequately briefed unlike ours where until is revealed, except such statements put the organisers on the spot.

    Besides, references are made to what others have said by way of comparison. Why not? You copy ideas which you cherish instead of celebrating mediocrity like we do here. Sadly so.

    The organisers should tell us how much the game is worth; also how much the domestic league is worth. They should tell us how much they realise from inter and intra club transfers? They should disclose what comes into their coffers as percentages on stadia gate-takings.

    Read Also: COVID-19: Ajax denied Dutch league shield

     

    Will it be asking for too much to disclose what they have generated as revenue from the different marketing initiatives that have brought into their coffers?

    The time to transform the leagues is now. They need to shop for sponsors for the league by showcasing the marketing windows the corporate world can key into while stating the merits of keying into them.

    No firm would invest in a business without bountiful returns that would raise the adrenalin of stakeholders at end of the year.

    It is always saddening watching the domestic league matches with the inner circumference panels empty unlike in the European leagues where such platforms are used for different things with sponsors enjoying quality time as their products and services are advertised.

    Viewers and those inside the stadia get to read about the club’s gate-takings for the day and the number of those who watch the games from the scroll messages on the inner perimeter platforms.

    Other vital information about the clubs including their next matches can be tracked while also watching the games since the messages are repeated in the course of 90 minutes.

    Rather than delude themselves with the fact that they held virtual calls with members, the organisers should tell us why the league venues’ pitches are still synthetic? Don’t they know the damage they expose the players to weekly, playing on plastic pitches with the wrong pair of boots? I hope people won’t be shocked in future when many of them become orthopaedic patients due to injuries on their knees and ankles.

    It is because of this clubs in Europe go the extra miles to nurture their playing pitches and also  re-grass those  balding as a result of constant use.

    This is to achieve players ‘optimal performance. Non-match-day visitors to  Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium, for example, would always see  gadgets on the main playing pitch used to nurture the grasses and keep them lush.

    Globally, pitches are made of lush green grasses not what we have here. Is anyone surprised that our players struggle to compete with other African nations in the continental competitions? Our league administrators should be ashamed when North African force our encounters with them here to be played on grass pitches, since they know the laws of the game and insists on its application?

    Does it not occur to our administrators the importance of functional electronic scoreboards in all match venues? What would it cost us to persuade teams to install VAR at league venues? Is it forbidden to start this VAR culture in Nigeria, even if it means installing them in select venues as starters?

     

  • Hunger, cure and culture

    Hunger, cure and culture

    Dayo Sobowale

     

    THERE  is a proverb that says the  ‘a hungry  dog  does not play with a  well  fed  dog’.

    You  may scoff that such  saying is meant for  a  dog’s   life and   not   for  humans  .But    I   say  not so,  and I    intend to show why with this  pandemic threatening the way of life of our global  community.

    Lockdowns, social distancing , face  masks  have  become  essential  tools for human survival all  over the world   and  I start  today by thanking the Nigerian President for putting in place guide lines for opening the economies of the two  states of Ogun  and Lagos states which have been in effective lockdowns for five weeks by Monday May  4, when they will  now open shop as it were.  That was a great relief but a good challenge to all  of us to abide by the rules of hygiene so  clearly spelt  out for  our safety  and survival during this pandemic. It  is in the spirit  of living up  to the guidelines and implementing them to the letter   as both law abiding and survival  loving Nigerian  citizens, that   I look  at today’s  topic with  the dog hunger proverb.

    Some   issues I came across this week agitated  my mind in picking this topic. The  first  was the ease  with which European nations moved to lockdowns even as   some of their citizens complained that they did not move fast enough to contain  the pandemic, which  by   the way,    I  will  not call  by its name   again ,  till  it has passed .The  second was  an  opinion article in CNN  that  noted that  America  may not know the answer to the pandemic but it knew   the answer to cure  hunger,   all  along. The  third  was the news that  Germany is helping Nigeria with  debt relief during this    trying period,  and has provided funds to alleviate our suffering during the pandemic.  The fourth is the  amazing way     that  EU  nations  are  altering their way  of life and   culture   now and in the future to suit solutions  on ground       for  the    virus, with   perhaps,    the exception  of     Sweden.  I will  now elaborate in depth on these  issues.

    It  is my  view  that it was easy  for  Europe to  move to lockdown as a   pandemic containment strategy  because it  has  always been ‘a well  fed  dog‘ given the preponderance of the welfare  state in the   style  of governance  of nations  in the European  Union and community. To  keep  this   welfarist   style   afloat  the  EU  controls spending such  that member nations budget deficit  must  be within a certain percentage of the individual  nation GDP.  I am  not underestimating  the European  safety  concern over the spiraling  deaths  of  the pandemic, but a lockdown option with prospect of food on the table in the interval, no matter how long, is  not a difficult  option  under such  circumstances. In  African  nations the option is difficult  because food   insecurity  and    poverty  were  already intractable and killing foes    on the  food table   that lockdowns    can  only  escalate to the point   death  from  hunger.

    In  addition, given  the   poor working conditions   and  sufferings of workers in  EU  factories from the  Industrial  Revolution and the progress made by trade unions on workers welfare it has  always been a mark of human development  there,  to shorten working hours and increase  leisure  time   in European  communities.   So, being off  duty in lockdowns would  not be a phenomenon in a  highly  IT driven  environment where working at home   has  become   a familiar  way  of life.  Again  you  cannot  compare this with the situations  in member  nations    of the AU and  ECOWAS   where the drudgery of daily  work and exertions, 24/7  is  the guaranty of  life and  sustenance. That  is the guarantee  to  fill the empty  pot  to feed  the family and   the   source  wherewithal   to pay  monthly  rent which does not stop  getting due   for payment  during lockdowns.

    That  brings us to the article  in  CNN   with the title –  ‘  We  may  not have a cure  for COVID-19 but  we  do for hunger ‘   by Billy  Shore.   The  ‘We ‘  refers  to  the US. It  is a bold viewpoint  that  showed  vividly  that in terms of strategies, perspectives  and reactions to the  pandemic ‘one man’s  food  is  another man’s  poison ‘. It  illustrates vividly  our proverb that a hungry  dog does not play with a well  fed dog.  Hear  him – ‘ Unlike the tragic shortage of N95 masks  and ventilators, there is no shortage of food in America.  Nor is there a shortage of food assistance programmes.     The  Supplemental Nutritional   Assistance Food Program –SNAP  – school  lunch and school breakfast, WIC  and summer meals,  all  exist and are available for  low income families  that need them.’  He  went on in parts – ‘For the past 10 years our  No  Kid  Hungry Campaign has knocked  down many barriers that  existed between a hungry  child and a healthy meal. We made enormous progress in adding   more than 3m eligible kids to  school breakfast as just ONE  example ‘He  then  concluded –‘Though massive in  scale feeding children during the pandemic is  a solvable problem  as well. ‘How  I wish  a Nigerian was saying that about my Nigeria.  It  however shows  that in terms of survival strategy on this pandemic,  a hungry  dog  does  not   adopt   the same strategy of lockdown with a well  fed dog.‘

    Let  us  now look at  Germany’s generosity  to Nigeria on debt relief during the pandemic and financial assistance to  keep  us afloat  during our pandemic travails. I  commend the magnanimity of our German friends as it shows that a friend in need  is a  friend indeed. I  feel  good towards Germany as  I  was on a  fact  finding  trip to W  Germany before the unification of Germany with some Nigerian journalists some  time   ago.  Indeed  Germany  under Chancellor Angela Merkel  has been  kind to the developing world . Germany’s  present African policy  is tied with containment of the migration problem from  West Africa   to   EU  and  Germany, of which Nigeria is a major factor. Merkel  is leading the challenge in the EU that if the sources  of  migration to EU   like    ECOWAS  States,   including  Nigeria   are   made economically buoyant there would be no need for WEST Africans, and Nigerians especially,  risking their lives on the Mediterranean   Sea  and telling lies that they are being persecuted  as gays  in Nigeria,    to get political asylum in Germany. So  in this  case it is a case of a well  fed dog keeping  the   hungry  dog at  bay  by giving it something to eat and minimizing its hunger. It  is really good diplomacy   and    one that we  should  be grateful for even though we know that German firms  like their Chinese counterparts  are doing good business in Nigeria, pandemic or not.

    We  now  look at why EU nations especially UK  are  making future plans as if the pandemic solutions like lockdowns and social  distancing and masks will  be their future way of life.  That  to me is cowardly and  self defeatist  and is a poor  reflection on their  history, good and bad.  Europeans and China and the US  have faced worse plagues and pandemics than this  and have survived and prospered. Even  China from where the Manchurian Plague  of 1910 took  off  and the solution of face masks was introduced is looking at life  as  usual   after this pandemic which started from one of its cities, Wuhan. I feel  Britons especially  should  be of sterner  stuff  and not allow the pandemic to change their way of life as they  have not allowed terrorists to in recent  times, after many  bomb killing and  bloody knives’  wounds and deaths. They   should borrow a leaf  from   Sweden which has followed a policy of containment of living with the pandemic and seeing it through to its end without changing its nation’s culture and way  of  life.

    European  nations especially  those involved in Colonialism   should reflect on how the people they conquered in Africa,  Asia and Latin America felt  when the Europeans came,  slaughtered  and  conquered them and changed their culture and way  of life   permanently forever.

    The  French  even tried to turn Africans into black  French men to no avail. Former colonialist  nations   really   think back on this and wonder how whole societies and kingdoms were lost to colonialism  and  the European way  of life   forced on these  far flung communities  by force of superior  arms and technology. If  perchance these EU nations change  their way  of life because  of this pandemic, then they would  have    started to have an inkling of the havoc and permanent change that they  wrought around the world in the name of colonization and civilisation,  many  ages ago.  It  was a bitter and bloody  pill  to swallow for the victim  societies  and nations  then.  I  wonder  what  the taste  will  be,  perchances, to  the   seemingly   willing  victims   this time around.

    So  far I have  ended my column  with –‘ Long live the  Federal Republic of Nigeria’. Henceforth, as long as this pandemic lasts, I will  end with the rider – ‘ From the fury of this  pandemic, Good Lord deliver Nigeria ‘Amen.

     

  • COVID-19: Deputy governor in trouble

    COVID-19: Deputy governor in trouble

    Sentry

     

    A Deputy governor in one of the states is in trouble for not coordinating the COVID-19 containment campaign well.

    Following the release of a N250 million vote for the purchase of basic items to curtail the pandemic, His Excellency wasted no time in transferring the cash to a woman’s account.

    The state is still waiting for the supply of the essential medical supplies.

    The attitude of the  deputy governor has forced the state to lag behind in anti-COVID-19 campaign.

  • After Abba (A.A)

    After Abba (A.A)

     Segun Ayobolu

     

    So powerful, influential and pervasive was the clout that the late Mallam Abba Kyari brought to bear on his office as Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari that future historians are not unlikely to divide the presidency between 2015 and 2023 into two epochs- Before and After Abba.

    For some, he was hugely effective and impactful in the discharge of his duties. To others, his contributions to governance and especially the image of the Buhari presidency were largely negative.

    Since Kyari succumbed to the might of the coronavirus, his friends and long time associates have regaled the public with accounts of his towering intellect, pan-Nigerian outlook, humane disposition and kindness, sense of humour, patriotism, passionate commitment to Nigeria’s development and immense capacity for hard work among other positive attributes.

    Those who knew him either by reputation or their assessment of his role in public office have a more unflattering perception of the Abba Kyari persona. They portray him as arrogant, clannish, grasping, overbearing and vindictive. It is appointed unto men once to die and after that there is judgment declares the Christian scripture.

    But then, the judgment referred to here, belongs to God. Yet, man is all too quick to declare a moral verdict on the lives of others while hardly ever engaging in brutally honest self-introspection.

    Can flawed man qualify to sit in moral judgment over others? Yes, most of us may affect an attitude of ethical superiority over others because we do not overtly violate stipulated societal laws. If we do, we probably have not been found out and thus still enjoy our liberties.

    Does that then make us intrinsically better than those who find themselves as inmates of correctional centres for sundry infractions of the law? Not necessarily. ‘There but for the grace of God go I’, a famous evangelist once declared on seeing a drunken man staggering along the highway.

    We remember the biblical story of the Pharisees who, in self-righteous indignation, brought a woman ‘caught in the very act of adultery’ before Jesus eager to stone her to death in accordance with the Law of Moses.

    ‘Let he who has no sin cast the first stone’ the teacher solemnly declared. One by one her accusers dropped their condemnatory stones and left the sinning woman alone. “I do not condemn you” Jesus told the astounded woman, “Go and sin no more”.

    Are any of us perfect enough to pass moral judgments against others? Do we have sufficient information to justifiably cast the first stone against the perceived misdeeds of others? I don’t think so. There is no man too flawed that does not have some redeeming virtue.

    There is no mortal so perfect that does not have some shortcomings no matter how well disguised. In the final analysis, we may not know enough about the root causes and circumstances that compel some of even the most detestable behaviors and attitudes of people.

    That is why man is not qualified to judge. God is the only one with all the information and the moral perfection to sit in judgment over man – his creation. It has been said that our Supreme Court is final not because it is infallible.

    Rather, it is infallible because it is final. Let no man therefore sit in moral judgment over Abba Kyari or any other.  Some even celebrated his death on social media. They acted in ignorance. For, the bell soon tolls inevitably for all mortals.

    I cannot agree more with my colleague, Sam Omatseye, who in his column on Monday succinctly and surgically noted that “Many have written tributes to Kyari, and it seems our people don’t understand that when a big man dies, our jobs are not to praise or vilify, but to look clinically at legacy”.

    The point then is not to sit in judgment over Kyari. It is to interrogate his tenure particularly as Chief of Staff in order to learn pertinent lessons both from his perceived strengths and failings.

    For me, it is not his personal attributes as a friend, family man and benefactor to some that should preoccupy us now. Yes, those who enjoyed the showers of his benevolence and personal comradeship have a right, even duty, to sing his praises from the rooftops.

    The public analyst can enjoy no such luxury. As a very influential Chief of Staff in Nigeria’s all powerful Presidency, Abba Kyari’s performance in that office had consequences for millions of his country men and women.

    How can his successor build on his strengths, avoid his weaknesses and failings and thus have a more positive impact on governance for the remaining part of Buhari’s presidency?

    President Buhari in his tribute described Kyari as his friend and long time associate who was ‘the best among us’. Mallam Mamman Daura rated him as surpassing current Ministers and Special Advisers in intellect.

    That is high praise indeed. But the great Chinua Achebe once said that a man, if asked his favourite among his children, should wisely simply identify the special qualities of each and keep it at that. Truth is there are several men and women of outstanding character and intellect in the Buhari presidency.

    Did Abba Kyari raise the bar of effectiveness and performance in the Office of Chief of Staff to a level that his successor cannot and should not aspire to exceed? We should, for the sake of Nigeria, hope that this is not so.

    This is indeed an opportunity for the Buhari presidency to reappraise the role of this office in helping to achieve its objectives as a government as well as the policy platform of the political party it represents.

    Read Also: Abba Kyari: The passage of a good man

     

    Were the powers and roles of the office of Chief of Staff under Abba Kyari unduly inflated leading to a consequent devaluation of the functions and operations of other members of the Federal Executive Council? If true, that is an anomaly that the presidency would do well to correct.

    Let us not forget that the office of Chief of Staff is not recognized by the constitution. In the course of his duties, Kyari had cause to cross swords with a number of high ranking members of the administration who perceived him as interfering unduly in their spheres of responsibility.

    Surely, the constitution does not envisage an imperial presidential aide. It is ultimately not in the interest of the President to encourage one.

    The office of Chief of Staff should be a facilitator of the efficient and effective running of the presidency. It should not itself become a bureaucratic impediment to harmonious, cooperative, collaborative and smooth governance.

    No matter how hard working and loyal an occupant of the office may be, he has too much on his plate managing the president’s office to also play a supervisory role over other Ministries and Agencies, while at the same time serving on the board of a critical agency like the NNPC or allegedly presiding over meetings of Service Chiefs in a period of protracted insurgency.

    Abba Kyari no doubt brought high academic attainment to the office. His successor should also be a man of proven scholastic ability. But in addition to book learning, the next Chief of Staff should apply wisdom in the utilization of the powers of the office.

    Wisdom would enable the subtle rather than overt, overbearing deployment of power and influence. Wisdom would dictate that the next occupant of the office be more self effacing and should by no means encourage the unhelpful perception that the buck stops on his table rather than with his boss.

    The late Chief of Staff was undoubtedly fiercely loyal to President Buhari. This should be another indispensable attribute of the next occupant of the office.

    He should not be a person who will utilize the office to cultivate a personal cult loyalty of his own or to feather his own unbridled political ambition. But loyalty to the President should also mean a concern with the image of his boss as a leader as well as the legacy of his administration.

    Abba Kyari’s friends describe him as non materialistic and incorruptible. If true, this certainly endeared him to his boss whose austere outlook and antipathy to material accumulation are legendary.

    The anti-corruption war remains a commendable high point of the Buhari administration. Allegations of improper conduct against Kyari with regard to the penalty that MTN ought to have paid for legal infractions remain unproven speculation.

    Although he was fingered in the embarrassing attempt to smuggle the indicted former Pensions’ Chief, Abdulrasheed Maina, back into the public service; that is neither here nor there. Maina is currently having his day in court.

    Unlike Kyari, the next Chief of Staff cannot afford to be insensitive and indifferent to public opinion. He must be a key public relations and image minder of the president and the administration.

    This of course does not mean that he must not be firm, decisive and even ruthless in managing the president’s time and protecting his turf.

    But he must have sufficient wisdom and tact to tell people to go to hell when he has to but in such a way that they think they are on a highway to heaven.

  • Richard Akinjide, the 12 2/3 saga and Maths factor as a prerequisite for Law

    Richard Akinjide, the 12 2/3 saga and Maths factor as a prerequisite for Law

    By Sentry

    There have been torrents of tributes for a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Chief Richard Osuolale Akinjide.

    But one indelible aspect of his life was the legal tussle over 1979 presidential election over which he rattled the Supreme Court on what ought to be 12 2/3 of the then 19 states.

    The legal battle changed the scope of Law studies in Nigeria because it set the precedent for making a credit in Mathematics as one of the prerequisites for reading Law in any Nigerian university.

    Posterity will never forget him for this.

  • COVID-19 donations and the task before Buhari

    COVID-19 donations and the task before Buhari

    By Sentry

    Contrary to the assumption of the opposition, the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari is still enjoying local and international goodwill going by the increasing volume of donations, especially cash, to contain Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19).

    But the real task before Buhari now is ensuring judicious use of the donations, accountability and transparency. If the government sustains its record of integrity in managing these emergency resources, it will enhance its international reputation.

    No organization is more worried about the huge cash than the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC) which has asked IMF and the World Bank to pay attention to how Nigeria manages the donations.

    In an April 17, 2020 open letter to IMF Mission Chief/ Senior Resident Representative, CISLAC Executive Director Auwal Ibrahim Musa (Rafsanjani) said: “In my capacity of the Executive Director of CISLAC/ Transparency International in Nigeria, I deeply appreciate the scale, speed and flexibility of the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) and the World Bank (WB) response to this crisis.

    “The IMF Executive Board is currently considering a request from the Nigerian government to receive financial assistance under the IMF’s Rapid Financing Instrument facility.

    “If approved, these funds will be essential in financing the COVID-19 response initiatives recently announced by the Government of Nigeria such as food distribution, cash transfers, loan repayment waivers and the expansion of the social register from 2.6 million households to 3.6 million households.

    “With an increased influx of money, however, come increased risks of corruption. As tens of millions of Nigerians under the poverty threshold are locked down and unable to feed themselves and their wards, we cannot afford waste due to fraud and corruption.

    “Three global civil society organizations – Transparency International, Human Rights Watch and Global Witness – have recently proposed key transparency and anti-corruption measures in the IMF’s response to the COVID-19 crisis.

    “We join this call and appeal to the IMF, the World Bank and other development partners and the private sector to highlight the importance of transparency and integrity in their engagement with the Government of Nigeria. We underscore that the crisis cannot weaken its prior commitments to anti-corruption.”

  • Gov Umahi blows rabidly hot in Ebonyi

    Gov Umahi blows rabidly hot in Ebonyi

    By UnderTow

    David Umahi, the 56-year-old civil engineer and governor of Ebonyi State who plunged carelessly into the eye of a media storm last week, has a rough edge to his politics and life. Elected for a second term by a plurality that shamed his opponents, unlike his first term when he eked out a disputed victory against his co-contestants and the wish of his predecessor and mentor, Martin Elechi, he has acted and spoken like a potentate from Africa’s dynastic past. His ire was drawn by two reporters from The Sun and Vanguard newspapers who clearly did Nigeria proud by helping to expose to the country the real Mr Umahi behind the governorship mask.

    The Sun’s Chijioke Agwu had written a story on the outbreak of Lassa fever in Ebonyi, based on statistics sourced from the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC). The governor said the report was a fabrication. On the other hand, Peter Okutu was said to have painted a distorted and disparaging picture of the alleged military invasion of Umuogodoakpu-Ngbo community in Ohaukwu LGA, and allegedly also reported a cholera outbreak, reports that drew the ire of the local government chairman who promptly ordered his arrest. The police, obviously at the prompting of the state government, waded in and detained both reporters, while the governor unprecedentedly vented his spleen at them in a live broadcast last Wednesday. Mr Umahi’s bellicose statements were widely quoted by Nigeria’s offended media.

    Hear the governor: “If you think you have the pen, we have the koboko. I want to say that I am very displeased with the president and leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists and I am going to seize their allowances for two months because they have failed to discipline their members. Ebonyi State is no longer a dumping ground. Only the other day, Chijioke Agwu (that is, The Sun correspondent) wrote that Lassa Fever was killing Ebonyi people in droves, and a few days ago, Mr Peter Okutu of Vanguard did his own. Okutu is fond of degrading Ebonyi State, and I don’t know why my officials have allowed him to continue to do that, because he is not from Ebonyi State. I want to ban him for life with Chijioke Agwu. I don’t want to see them anywhere in any government facility. We are not begging you to give us good report, because the only person that gives good or bad report is God. We are all accountable to him. If you think that Ebonyi State is a dumping ground, try it again.”

    In case Nigerians found Mr Umahi’s threats improbable, here is how he summarised his anger against the two reporters: “If you think you have the pen, we have the koboko (horse whip). Let’s leave the court alone. Ebonyi people are very angry with the press, and let me warn that I won’t be able to control them or know when they unleash mayhem on you, if you continue to write to create panic in the state. I want you to write it that way, that I said, press in Ebonyi is trying to create another COVID that is more dangerous and that is to create panic in our people. The other one wrote that cholera had killed 20 people in Ohaukwu. If you try it again, I may not know when Ebonyians might react. This is important for the NUJ to know. If you are an Ebonyi man or live in Ebonyi and you don’t feel our pains, it is a shame on you. Maybe, the press people claim they are untouchable. I have reported to the National President of NUJ, I have reported to (the) State leadership of NUJ and I have reported to the public. Now, the die is cast. May God save us in this time.”

    Nigerians will probably blanch with horror at the governor’s threats. The people remember how valiantly and democratically Mr Umahi, a former deputy governor before 2015,  fought to get his party’s nomination in 2015 against the wishes of the then governor, his boss Mr Elechi. They also recall that his victory, which was challenged by a host of political parties, was legitimised by the courts. How someone who has profited from democratic practices could project dictatorial tendencies and threatened and instigated violence against reporters is hard for watchers of Ebonyi to comprehend. The Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) has rightly taken offence and lodged a complaint against the state government with the law enforcement agencies in Abuja, especially seeing how complicit the police in Ebonyi have seemed.

    Civil society organisations (CSOs) have also openly challenged the governor, decrying his authoritarian streak and wondering whether, instead of threats and arrests, there were no legal provisions to help him challenge and shame tendentious reports. Like the NUJ, the CSOs have complained that it was both wrong and undemocratic for the governor to bar reporters from performing their constitutional responsibility of holding the government accountable to the people. Mr Umahi has now stirred a storm, but no one is sure whether he gives a damn. He is in his second term and, like his predecessor, might wish to influence the election of his successor, or at least the success of his party in 2023. Could he afford reckless boasts against the constitution and the press, not to talk of embarrassingly flouting the laws of the land? Mr Umahi has not been spectacular with his views and his government since he assumed office in 2015; his latest controversy however seems to take the biscuit. He may have, and exercise, state power, but he is unlikely to have the last say on the matter. Reporters living and working in the state may fear him, going forward, but reporters outside the state will naturally take liberty with their opinions and analyses of his controversial, if unsatisfactory, performance as governor.

    Mr Umahi has promised to ban the two reporters from covering government activities for life. For life? How and where on earth does he think he can muster such influence? At best he has about three years to go, not a lifetime tenure. He could forbid the reporters and use state power to back his decision, but there is no ambiguity at all in the constitution that he does not possess the powers to do to reporters what he has proposed. The governor says his state is not a dumping ground, a manner of speaking perhaps referencing reports that are adverse to him and the state. He should simply refute reports that offend him and leave the public and the affected newspaper publishers to determine the quality or otherwise of their reporters’ work. Mr Umahi adds that only God gives good or bad report. It is not clear where he got his theology, but God has never arrogated to Himself that distinction of being the only one to grade people’s work. For eons, God has shared that distinction with man. Mr Umahi will in fact be graded by man, including the media, just as God will have His say. After all, the voice of the people, they say, is the voice of God.

    More worrisomely, the Ebonyi governor insinuated violence against the reporters and any non-Eboyian bold enough to dump unfavourable reports about the state government on the people of the state. He then darkly hinted that the courts would not be allowed to be the arbiter when he takes on his media enemies. Not only does the governor unforgivably swear to pretend not to know when violence would be meted on offending reporters, thereby indirectly instigating the people to feel aggrieved and to do something about it, he also asserted that the horsewhip would be more efficacious as a tool of discipline than the pen. The media will get the hint. Worse, he has suggested that the ordinary Ebonyian should feel aggrieved, and must in fact be ashamed not to feel offended, and he urges them to do something about their pains. This is clear instigation to violence. And Mr Umahi calls himself a governor and a democrat? Incredible.

    But the media must also feel scandalised by the governor’s Freudian slip that saw him announcing that he would withhold the monthly allowances paid the NUJ. It is not clear whether he is referring to reporters as a whole or the leadership of the NUJ in the state. But it is obvious that Ebonyi, according to the governor , and perhaps like most other states, pays state correspondents working in the state. If such payments exist, they would be unwholesome and unethical. How the ethical standards of the press had become so dulled by economic necessities as to be perpetuated for years is hard to explain. However, it is still a credit to the NUJ leadership that regardless of any such payments, they have still felt the necessity to denounce the governor’s authoritarian actions and deplorable threats.

    Mr Umahi may rightly take exception to some of the reports published about the state in the media. But as an elected governor who swore to uphold the constitution, he should know how to ventilate his grievances with the decency and temperament of a robust democrat. Sadly, he has acted brashly and heedlessly, like a dictator and lawless politician. He is one more evidence, as if any was still needed, that most Nigerian governors and elected officials are overrated and unworthy of the offices to which they have been elevated by public votes. Is Mr Umahi’s predecessor, Mr Elechi, still acclaimed today? Where, indeed, are all Nigeria’s former governors? How many of them are still spoken about fondly by most Nigerians? Mr Umahi’s tenure will soon come to an end: he has the choice of making that end noble and distinguished, or ignoble. If he does not realign his perspectives with the laws of the land, the levity with which he takes both the constitution and his oath of office seems fated to render him inconspicuous and insignificant in the future.

  • EFCC still probing life-ban policy governor

    EFCC still probing life-ban policy governor

    By Sentry

    While a governor is imposing life ban on journalists, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) is waiting in the wing in the next three years for him over N400million slush funds allegedly linked to the 2015 presidential campaign of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    Out of the N400million, about N100million was traced to a foundation in which the horse-whip CEO allegedly has interest.

    A humorous EFCC operative said: “There is no immunity for life; we are waiting for His Excellency for interaction in three years’ time. We have already quizzed three suspects, including a brother of the affected governor.” So, who will laugh last? The governor or the hounded journalists?

  • Rescuing our leagues from undertakers

    Rescuing our leagues from undertakers

    Ade Ojeikere

    Permit me, dear reader, to bore you with this statement of fact that the domestic league here is dead. This isn’t an attempt to de-market the local game whose growth has been stunted through wrong policies. Rather, one wants the organisers to use this critical period to re-evaluate the league’s operations to be in tandem with the European calendar. Except the domestic league is in sync with what exists in other climes, the few good players in the game here would dump their local clubs for all manner of leagues, with shylock agents dangling foreign currencies and better living conditions to woo them into what turns out most times to be slavish contracts.

    Organisers who wait for a player to die on the pitch before considering implementing proper medical facilities at match venues for the players, coaches and staff cannot be relied on to improve the game or produce talents to fill up all our national teams.

    Our league organisers should use this period to get all the clubs to clear their debts, with a firm warning not to register any team with outstanding for the new season. It doesn’t matter if only six teams comply with the directive. It leaves room for the eligible ones in the lower cadre to get promoted. This idea of glossing over rules enshrined in the league’s constitution won’t make the game run here as a business, even though state governors use their teams to settle their lackeys.

    A domestic league without a regimented calendar can’t produce new stars, since they only know when the season begins without knowing when it would end.  We have in Nigeria, a league season without end, hence such contraptions as abridged leagues or a regional league competition, as a few purists are advocating for. How does anyone expect the league to produce new talents for the Super Eagles when the competition only starts when the organisers are pressurised to do so?

    The future doesn’t look bright for the beautiful game, if the same characters are allowed to run the operations of the league. A league without official television rights holder is a circus, which should not be taken seriously. Such leagues obviously cannot produce national team players since they wouldn’t want their careers truncated through the organisers’ ineptitude. A league without title sponsors has no business with the corporate world – it has unwittingly become a commercial failure. A league without official insurance company for the clubs, coaches and players can best be likened to celebrating mediocrity.

    How do the organisers expect the players to play with their souls during game without cognate collaterals to secure their family’s future? How do we expect to discover new players to replace ageing ones, when the organisers can’t compel clubs to have thriving nurseries with boys who are truly the ages they claim to be. With dead nurseries, what we have is a colony of age-cheats who has crippled the game here despite Nigeria winning the U-17 World Cup several times. Rather than get better as they grow older, our kids who are world beaters melt away like ice-cream kept under the scorching sun.

    A league leadership that continually refuses to enforce rules enshrined in the league’s constitution makes the game’s growth static. The league organisers don’t care about the quality of coaches who handle the teams weekly. In past, we had an array of trained coaches such as Alabi Aissien, Adegboye Onigbinde, Monday Sinclair, Joseph Erico, Bitrus Bewarang, the late Shuaibu Amodu, Kashimawo Laloko, the late Willy Bazuaye, the late Christopher Udumezue, the late Paul Hamilton, the late Joseph Ladipo a.k.a. Jossy Lad et al, who added technical value to the game. These coaches enjoyed their jobs. They took pride in discovering new players who came to displace established stars. Indeed, these older generation of coaches knew how to hunt for young boys in the schools, unlike now when all that qualifies you to coach any team is to be a former footballer or ex-international. It doesn’t matter if you have a coaching certificate.

    Talents cannot be motivated to give their best during matches on empty stomachs. A league where club owners openly declare that their clubs won the titles with little contributions from the players and coaches cannot produce new national team players. These recalcitrant club owners buttress their claims by changing the coaches and players who won them the title 100 per cent. Of course, these teams falter in that year’s continental assignments, yet the organisers allow the trend to continue by blaming national teams’ coaches who opt for Nigeria-born players.

    A league whose organisers want us to watch matches only through our phones, not by attending live games at stadia to indentify and cheer budding stars should quietly throw in the towel, should be asked if that is how leagues are administered in Europe. Who would provide telephone owners that data to watch games over 90 minutes, when people hardly have enough airtime to attend to their needs?

    If fans stay away from match venues by watching games on telephone, one wonders how the clubs can settle their bills. Is this how leagues are run in other climes? Shouldn’t the priority be for terrestrial telecast of games like we have elsewhere? Fans can sit in pubs, viewing centres and their homes to watch games, if the ones they like are shown on television. It won’t cost them anything to watch their matches at home or at friend’s joints unlike having to pay for data before watching matches. Fans used data on their phones for gambling or checking results of other leagues across the world, not to watch any game which can be seen on television.

    Can’t our organisers follow  the trend in established leagues in this lockdown, where television rights is the oil to run the competition? Except these flaws highlighted are addressed, the local game stars would not  be considered good enough to play for the Super Eagles.

    The late Shuiabu Amodu once stated that the domestic league was filled with average players stressing that such basic skills as effectively trapping the ball passed another player had to be taught at the Super Eagles level. Amodu was miffed that the local players couldn’t cope with national team training drills, wondering what their coaches teach them in the clubs. Amodu is qualified to talk about the dearth of talents in the league, having made his mark from here with BCC Lions of Gboko, although he was a student of the Alabi Aissien coaching school.

    The late Amodu was pilloried by most people for de-marketing the local game. Things have not changed since Amodu quit national team job. Rather than co-opt Amodu into the mechanics of the local game, he was left towatch the game to decline until his death. It took the former Edo State governor Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole’s magnanimity to approve cash for Amodu to open a kiddies academy to groom new talents, some of whom are in the current Bendel Insurance FC side.

    Gone are the days when coaches such as Aissien, Onigbinde, Erico et al attended refresher courses in Europe, with the new knowledge impacting positively on the games, with contrasting styles which raised the stakes, leaving the fans having full value for their money. In fact, watching Julius Berger FC  of Lagos play under Erico brought joy to the fans, irrespective of the results. Adewale Bridge Boys, like they were called thrilled fans with short crisp passes which left their opponents gasping for breath. The players’ scintillating skills left the fans at the stand yearning for more. When the Bridge Boys scored a goal in the past, the ovation was resounding because of the manner it was executed. Berger players were not giants, but they tossed the ball among themselves, the fans respond by counting the number of time they did it, with their opponents running around the pitch like mulls, unable to regain possession.

    Have heard the current coaches’ post match and pre match chats. Here are some of them compiled by my colleagues to fully capture the rot in the domestic league. Read them and have a good laugh, dear reader.

    1. “By the Grace of God we will win, and will give God the glory”
    2. ‘’My Boys did not play to instructions that’s why we lost the game.’’
    3. ‘’The referee robbed us with bad officiating.”
    4. ‘’We arrived late for the game as fatigue crept into the team, that’s why we lost points.’’
    5. ‘’The pitch is not good enough, so movement of the ball wasn’t good.
    6. ‘’My boys couldn’t play well because there wasn’t enough security at the stadium, and the fans were hostile on us. ‘’

    Nigeria we truly hail thee!

  • Contagion, containment and progress

    Contagion, containment and progress

    Dayo Sobowale

    In  tribute to the highly  diseased time of the contagion that we are in,  I start with a tribute to a Nigerian leader I never met  in his life time,  the former Chief of Staff  to our President the late Abba Kyari,  who died recently from the corona virus ravaging our world for now. He  died in harness and therefore  to  me  deserves a  national  salute and I   pay   this tribute, given the circumstances of his demise and burial,  with a quotation from Shakespeare’s  Julius Caesar,  from Mark Anthony mourning  the  body   of the fallen   Caesar –‘  But  yesterday  the word   of Caesar might  have stood against the world; now lies he there /And  none so poor to do him reverence . ‘May  the soul of  the   late  Chief  of Staff, Abba Kyari rest  in peace Amen.

    Let  us now go  back  to  deadly  predicament   we   are   in  with the corona virus and probe  ourselves within and without, as members of the human race on how  we can contain and defeat this  contagion before it makes ‘worms  meat  ‘of  all  of us –   to  which  I say   forcefully    God  Forbid.  Today  is not a time for any criticism on the above topic . My simple  mission here is   to say  that we must go on with our lives  here in Nigeria and the rest of the world in spite of the blind fury of the spreading corona virus . My  plea is   that  we cannot afford  to close shop  economically because of the virus because the aftermath of that  will  be more calamitous in social  and political  costs than even  the present  ordeal, which  fortunately    in our part  of the world  now  is less tragic than  those of the  nations in Europe and the US  especially.  I  acknowledge  that  the virus  falls in the domain of Medicine   which is a science   but  a solution  to it should not  be a  purely   scientific or medical  one, but a multidisciplinary  solution that weighs the containment measures along with the capability of society at   large to   absorb  such  measures  and  survive in one piece and not in mangled, angry  pieces  subsequently.  I will  illustrate  with some incidents over  the last  week  all over the world.

    In  Nigeria during the  lockdown  some mischievous people sent out false  news that some communities were being attacked or were about to be,    by a  group  called   ‘One Million Boys ‘   and      there   was panic  all over.   Indeed  I  thought  one million  boys were   really   on a march   against  all of us.  The panic became worse    when ordinary  citizens saw wildly  armed youths with machetes  and cutlasses  marching about  purportedly   to defend their community against   the so called ‘Im Boys’ . Of    course  the Police  had to intervene to disarm those who  would defend their community against hoodlums , ums and looters but it is clear  this is a recipe for anarchy and the   crazy  rationale for the miscreants fomenting and spreading the false news  was the  negative  economic impact  of  the lockdown. This has led to  more false news   or   thereabout,  of thieves looting locked shops for foods and snacks  and kitchens for  pots of soups and   meat.  Which   is  a very  hunger  driven   situation,  if really true.

    There  was also  the news that WASC  and  NECO  exams  have been postponed indefinitely  there by  creating unnecessary  alarm and confusion for  young people, youths in general and their parents over their  future. Such  announcements definitely  create an atmosphere of concern that society is collapsing or coming down and there is  no  way  one  can   predict  the reaction  or indignation of those involved.  Similarly  it was  announced that face masks will  be needed  by anyone venturing out during the lockdown or thereafter. That  certainly  calls  for concern  for  our Nigerian  community   which  is crime  prone  and    where the danger can be amplified when we become overnight a community of masked citizens. I  can only pity the Police and law enforcement agencies in identifying who  they are dealing with,   especially in identification parades.

    As for ordinary citizens, I am sure social distance will be automatic when it is obvious that you can’t see the face of anyone you see,  and they can’t see yours either.  How that will make for good public safety or law and order in our part of the world is something one can only pray for as we suddenly become a nation of masquerades in broad daylight and at night too. Yet for now WHO said the mask is not a proof of protection against the virus.

    I wish  to point out that  I  am not the only one bothered about life   during    the lockdown   but  after the pandemic altogether. I will  use the experience of Italy and the US  recently  to see how we can  learn something from their    present economic and    political predicament.  This is not to say that we need to run the gamut of their experience which was costly  in terms of thousands of deaths. The  two  nation’s scientists  worshipped  statistics such  that they waited willy nilly for a graph of deaths to peak in the hope that it will fall down and the lockdown  will be open with less deaths. We  do not need to wait to invoke such morbid statistics here, more so as we know that the two nations are already regretting and counting the costs of  allowing growing death  statistics while locking down their societies and ruining   their  economic strengths. In  the US it is the president leading the fight against the scientists to stop  the lock downs. In  Italy  there is  resurgence of the Mafia coming out to help Italians  struggling to feed themselves and  their  families during the lockdown when  government  did not live up to its obligations  and promises  to give lockdown   bail  out  to  such families.

    In   Italy the news is that  the Mafia  is back  and it is  because of the economic  hardship of the pandemic lockdowns. The  resurgence  of the Mafia has been so  recognized in the EU such that a German Minister warned that any Euro COVD-19 loan to Italy  will end up in  the hands of the Mafia because the Mafia has bailed out most Italians during the lockdown and they are indebted to the Mafia. Some  statistics from the EU nations recently showed that 25 % of Italians under the age of 20 are jobless, out of school  and any form of training   and   are easy prey  for jobs and deals to sustain their   lives  and future   with  the Mafia.

    So  with a  looming Mafia  future, corruption and crime will  rear  their  ugly heads   in Italy  again. That  is the price in Italy  of making the solution   or   cure  of the pandemic worse  than  the disease with  lockdowns.

    However, it  was  the US President Donald Trump  who  first  coined the phrase that  the pandemic ‘s  ‘remedy  should  not be worse than  the disease’   and  the US president has moved to match  his words  with action even going as far  as attacking his own chosen scientists on the matter. The reason  is not far fetched. This is an election year in the US   and  Trump  has watched the virus  disrupt and hammer down his three election boasts and campaign of a buoyant  economy,  a dominant foreign policy and a boisterous followership of his supporters which made him to   taunt  a  reporter recently that ‘people  love Trump’ .

    In terms of political survival Trump needs the Lockdown to be removed or eased out in   order  to have  a normal   election  he expects  to win. If  you add to this the oil tragedy  that has US oil on a negative price  recently  you will see why  Trump  has to crush the pandemic fear and paralysis  at  all  costs      to  get  American     politics  and   society  back on course. He  has gone ahead to encourage those   states’   governors    and  protesters    willing to follow his charge   to   stop  the lockdowns in spite of his adopting the advice of his scientists  to fight the pandemic   on lockdowns and social  distancing.   That  is  gritty pragmatism worthy of emulation by other nations and leaders including Nigeria.

    To  technically   resign  ourselves  as a nation and as a  people  to the unchecked advance of a blind pandemic is to  behave like   crazy  man standing in front of a raging bull. That  certainly  is suicidal particularly for  our economic needs and future  as well as our political stability. We  need to sidestep this  raging pandemic like  the Matadors in the  bull  fights in Spain, where  unfortunately they   forgot  or  ignored   their Matador   Bull   fight  strategy   this time  around.  The  result    is that   thousands of Spaniards  have been killed  in this  pandemic,     although      this   is a far   cry   from   the  50 million  killed     world wide  in  the Spanish flu   of 1918.  Let  us learn from history  and retool  our kits to kill this  virus at minimal   societal  cost   and     mortality.

    Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.