The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Between, anarchy, resignation and responsibility

    By Dayo Sobowale

     

    It  was not  surprising to  hear the President of  the Christian Association  of Nigeria say  that Nigeria was heading towards anarchy   given  the dismal  security   situation in the nation, as widely reported in the news media this week.

    It  was equally   not  unexpected of the Minister of Information  to   shout  that the president would not resign because  of the  security  situation    because of  he was elected to be in power till   2023.

    In  Germany   this week,  a  mad man went on rampage and  killed 10  people suspected to be either Turks or  Kurds  and the German  Chancellor addressed   the state  that  such an action  cannot  be allowed  in  Germany  of today, while the President  of Turkey  issued a stern  warning asking for  details of  the killings involving  Turkish  citizens  in  Germany.

    In  a debate of  the Democratic Party  presidential  candidates  expected  to unseat  President  Donald Trump  in the US,    billionaire Mike  Bloomberg  was harassed and shouted  down by  other  candidates   such that  he ended up  charging in frustration that the real  winner of the debate  was   indeed  their  absent  opponent, Donald  Trump.

    It  is my  contention today  that confusion   and frustration precede  violence  and anarchy which really  is a breakdown of law  and order.

    Similarly,  political  chaos can  occur when  cultural  values change  unexpectedly and  become so unmanageable  that  people do  not really  know what  to say  or  do and instead turn a blind eye to events they  cannot  manage even though  they  see and know that  aberrations are staring them  right in the face.

    Such  is the case with most of  the issues  highlighted today  and it does not  matter whether they  occur  as security or  shooting  issues   in  Nigeria or Germany  or in presidential  debate   in    the US  of an opposition  party confused about how  to get power or get  a president out of  power.

    In  all  these instances confusion and anarchy beckon in the face   of    failure of leadership  as well as dodgy  ability  to  accept  or take responsibility,  for  real  or potential  lapses.  Let  me now look  at  the issues in the light  of our headline.

    We  start with the situation in Nigeria on  alleged  looming anarchy  and  a refusal  to  resign  on account of   tenure  of  office.

    However the CAN president  never asked the president to resign on account  of  insecurity  and he was not  shouting  wolf  when  there is none.

    Insecurity  is pervasive in the land and he was calling on the president to take on the forces of insecurity on behalf of all Nigerians so they could sleep  well in their  beds at  night,  move around in their nation to earn a living  and live   a good life.

    That does  not in any way  question  the security of tenure of an elected president given a mandate  to  protect the lives  and properties of Nigerians.

    To  call  that a call  for resignation is to miss the point  and just  beg the issue.  Overall  the president should  seize  the bull  by the  horn   on  security    to  prevent a slide to  anarchy,  not necessarily   because CAN is asking   for  this,  but  because   that  is what  the insecurity  in the nation at  large demands and there is no  need chasing  the mirage of   resignation which is just  fake news.

    In   the case of  the shooting in Germany by  a migrant terrorist,   the  reaction from the leaders  in  Germany   and  Turkey   instructive and in both cases confusion and responsibility were at play.

    In  the case of the German  Chancellor there  was responsibility tinged with serious concern from  a previous action that led to the influx  of migrants into Germany in 2015  when  Chancellor   Angela  Merkel  allowed one million refugees fleeing the war in the Middle East  into Germany as an act  of  mercy.

    She  hoped then that they  would integrate into  German society as the Turks And Kurds  has managed somewhat  to do.

    But  that was a futile  hope and it  has cost  her the leadership  of  Germany  as  she had promised on account  of the  fury  in  Germany  over  her migration error  not  seek  reelection again.

    In  the  case of  Turkey  the President of that nation Tayyip Erdogan was   breaching protocol and diplomacy in interfering in Germany’s internal  affairs   to  score a cheap  political  point at  home.

    Read Also: 2023 president: North’s elders give conditions

     

    This would not be the first time he would  do this  as he  sent his ministers to campaign in Germany during the last Presidential  election  he won in Turkey  but  the German authorities refused his campaigners  access and  he has harbored a grudge  against  Germany on account  of this.

    German leaders  have always  insisted  that  Turkey  should respect  German  sovereignty even  though Germany  has the largest Turkish  population in the EU   whose      security   anyway    is the responsibility     of  Germany   and  not  that  of Turkey   as Erdogan’s   interference   and    concern  inferred.

    Either  way  both leaders of Germany and Turkey  have shown that migrants   should  not be allowed to  cause confusion and insecurity that can  lead to  anarchy in which their  citizens  are killed  by lawless   assailants whether citizens or  foreigners.

    That  is a sense of responsibility   that  can  forestall  anarchy  or  a slide into  violence   and massive  insecurity   in any nation.

    In  the presidential  debate of  the  Democratic  Party there was and still is confusion on the emergence of Mike Bloomberg as a presidential  candidate firstly  because of  his wealth and experience as a Mayor  of New  York.

    Which  really  is  confusing to  me because  I feel  he is the candidate  that Donald  Trump  is afraid  of and would not  want  to be his opponent in the 2020 US presidential election.

    He  was shouted down  in the debate  this week by other  candidates.  But  he made his point in the hostile reception he got  by saying that Sanders socialist posture and program   was the surest  way  to  assure that Donald Trump  is reelected.

    Amazingly this new candidate donated millions of dollars in the Mid Term elections recently when the  Democrats regained the House of Representatives and were almost able  to  remove Donald Trump  from seeking reelection through impeachment   just a few weeks ago.

    Now  Bloomberg  is treated with   derision  by even  a gay candidate and mayor of a small  town  who is a man  with a husband  who  also  is  man.  Yet  no presidential  candidate  on both sides can make a joke on  this  and be able to  compete  to  be president.

    Even  Trump  dodged the issue by saying that he has nothing against  gay  marriage while the gay  candidate accused thrice  married Donald  Trump  of  having  no respect    for  family  values when  he has a male husband with  whom  he cannot raise a family biologically.

    Really  something is rotten in American politics and political  values to  get power have  become so  confusing that  they can  lead to anarchy  now  or in the very  near   future.

    How  far the gay presidential  candidate  can go without any  presidential  competitor can  make a joke about his marriage   is  the light  at  the end  of  the   tunnel  of this US 2020  presidential  election which in my  view  for  now  is a descent into avoidable  confusion and anarchy.

    Especially  with the opposition Democratic Party’s   confused  effort  to  have a candidate  to oust  the much  hated but durable and volatile Donald  Trump, the incumbent  US president.  Once  again,  long live the Federal  Republic of Nigeria.

     

  • Douye Diri faces another battle with Timi Alaibe

    By Sentry

    The drama in Bayelsa State is not yet over. Barely few hours after he emerged as the new governor of Bayelsa State, Sen. Douye Diri faces another battle, which may threaten his mandate.

    He has a new date with his arch-rival, Timi Alaibe, who has asked a Federal High Court to declare him as the validly nominated governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state. Many in Diri’s camp have been begging Alaibe, a former Managing Director of the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC), to withdraw his case.

    Read Also: Diri takes oath as fifth civilian Bayelsa Governor

    But loyalists of Alaibe said their confidence has been buoyed by the nullification of the victory of the APC candidate, David Lyon, by the Supreme Court. They said since Lyon’s fate was sealed as a result of a pre-election matter, the new governor at best may be a caretaker.

    Alaibe’s camp is now banking on the Judiciary to restore the mandate of its candidate. They want Diri out.

    Nigerians are waiting to watch developments in the oil rich state.

  • Bayelsa governorship: Diri, Lyon and the quirk of fate

    By UnderTow

    Just when Nigerians and Bayelsans were beginning to ready themselves for David Lyon, erstwhile governor-elect, to unleash his lexical gymnastics on the state immediately after taking the oath of office, the flip-flopping Nigerian courts played the wet blanket on Thursday by sacking him on the eve of his enthronement. His running mate and deputy governor-elect, Biobarakuma Degi-Eremienyo, according to the courts, had submitted false information to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and appeared to have infected the All Progressives Congress (APC) ticket in the November 16, 2019 governorship election with a fraudulent hue. The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Douye Diri, who came second in the election, instituted the case as a pre-election matter.

    The Federal High Court gave judgement in favour of Mr Diri, while the Court of Appeal last December reversed the judgement. On Thursday, the Supreme Court finally restored the Federal High Court decision and upturned the election of Mr Lyon who won in six of Bayelsa State’s eight local government areas. Before this piece was written, INEC was to decide whether the interpretation of the Supreme Court verdict meant the voiding of all the votes of the APC, in which case, Mr Diri had become the clear winner, or whether the APC votes still counted and Mr Diri would have to be weighed on whether the 25 percent of the votes he won in five local governments satisfied the provision of winning 25 percent in two-thirds of the local government, and whether the two-thirds of the state’s LGs is about 5.3 or 6.0.

    While Mr Diri’s case is not the only quirk of fate in Nigeria’s recent electoral history, his is exemplary and evocative. The PDP’s Mr Lyon had just attended the rehearsal for his inauguration when the news of the Supreme Court decision hit him like a ton of bricks. The outgoing Governor Seriake Dickson had, a few days ago, also endured ridicule when PDP diehards, not knowing what the courts had in store for their party, assailed him, blaming him for undermining the party in the state. The PDP had kept its stranglehold on the state for decades, they wailed, and Mr Dickson, a veritable spoilsport, had come to upset the applecart. The outgoing governor was so pilloried at the entrance of the State House that his convoy had a tough time driving out. Now that the table has turned, what would the diehards say? Would they apologise?

    Alas, Mr Dickson was not the only one on tenterhooks a few weeks ago. But he is the happiest man in Bayelsa today, if not in Nigeria, with his candidate finally declared winner and sworn in yesterday evening. It is, however, sadly now the time for former president Goodluck Jonathan to be on tenterhooks. Having sulked badly when his favourite, Timi Alaibe, lost the PDP governorship primary, he was believed to have angrily but surreptitiously thrown in his lot with the APC candidate in the November poll, though he was and remains a PDP bulwark. The support the former president extended to the APC candidate, said some analysts, was so undisguised that when Mr Lyon won, Dr Jonathan’s Otuoke, Bayelsa State residence was one of the earliest places visited by the triumphant opposition politicians.

    With the Supreme Court turning the table so unpredictably in favour of the PDP’s Mr Diri, how would Dr Jonathan comport himself in the next four years? Would he continue to sulk? Would he be scorned? Would he keep aloof? If the PDP bigwigs in the state are wise, they will ask Mr Dickson and Mr Diri, in company with some party leaders, and immediately after the swearing in of the new governor on Friday pay a courtesy visit to the former president and seek genuine and lasting reconciliation with him by incorporating all factions in the PDP into their big family. They should leave no one out. If they are wise, they should make the former president their father. His flip-flop in the November poll, when he backed the losing horse, is enough punishment, enough poetic justice. But politics is unpredictable, and no one can really say whether vengeance is not often too tempting for politicians to want to demand their pound of flesh.

    The intertwining of Bayelsa poll with Mr Diri may be the most remarkable touchstone of electoral or political quirk in these parts. But, there are many more such quirks. The Imo poll also produced something quite close to the Bayelsa anomaly. Dethroned former governor Emeka Ihedioha had been pronounced winner by INEC last March. But by mid-January, after winning at both the election petition tribunal and the Court of Appeal, Mr Ihedioha was shown the door barely eight months into his short reign. But that was not the quirk. The quirk was that the Supreme Court declared the candidate who came fourth in that controversial and heady poll as winner. The victory, moaned many puzzled and frazzled analysts, seemed to come against the run of play. How could the fourth-ranked come first? The PDP has since returned to the same Supreme Court asking them to reconsider that which they took from the party a little while ago when the justices declared Hope Uzodinma winner. In short, the party has returned to the apex court asking them to, with the benefit of hindsight, reconsider the convoluted arithmetic upon which they apparently drew inspiration to author the legal conundrum that has baffled and needled many an idealist and patriot across partisan divides.

    That same strange quirk of fate also caused tremors through the Rivers State political firmament in 2007 when former president Olusegun Obasanjo foisted an unusual primary outcome on the state PDP, an outcome that was so whimsical and paradoxical that it beggars belief. That outcome brushed aside the winner of the primary, Rotimi Amaechi, and enthroned Celestine Omehia. Quirkily, the PDP won the April poll of that year, having built its victory on the nothingness of an alien and foisted party primary. But the courts examined the Rivers State trajectory and, against all expectations, in October restored the normality which the party’s constitution envisioned. Votes were cast for the party, said the apex court impatiently, and when by whatever means the true and right candidate of a party primary was identified, even after the poll, justice had to prevail, and Mr Amaechi became governor.

    Quirkiness was also visible as it plowed its way relentlessly through the warrens and sandy terrains of Zamfara State, uprooting an uproarious APC victory that numbered over 500,000 votes but which were smothered by rancorous party regulations, and delivering victory to the PDP governorship candidate who corralled far fewer votes of less than 200,000. It did not take the courts any discomfort or juridical confusion to unseat the APC’s Mukhtar Idris and plant PDP’s Bello Matawalle, another electoral quirk that will endure in Nigeria’s political memory. It may yet be that a reflection on these quirks, particularly the cost they often impose on political parties consequent upon their arbitrary conduct of primaries, may lead to far healthier politicking and far more robust primary elections in future.

    Less than three months after boisterously celebrating victory in the Bayelsa poll, the APC has again lost its foothold in the Niger Delta, and the iconoclasm that has been read into its electoral battles has suddenly turned a gloomy foreboding of apocalypse. Far beyond losing their toehold in the Niger Delta, the APC must find the courage to re-examine the politics and values they so inspiringly spoke about and propagated at their founding in April 2013. Rather than brood over the Bayelsa setback, or pace frantically over an uncertain fate in Imo, it may be time for them to energise a renewal of their party if they can find and give free rein to enterprising leaders who will personify their dreams.

  • 2023: PDP clings to any straw

    By Sentry

    The excitement at the National Secretariat of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) over alleged protest during President Muhammadu Buhari’s condolence visit to Borno State was nasty. It confirmed speculations that the party and its leaders/ members are ready to cling to any straw to bounce back to power in 2023.

    A few minutes after the slight protest under a pedestrian bridge, PDP members started tweeting the video in thousands amid celebration of likely electoral fortunes at the next poll.

    Read Also: Pondering on PMB’s successor in 2023

    But the analysis of the tape showed that the protest was restricted to the same spot contrary to the impression created that most residents shunned and stunned Buhari.

    The findings of security agencies may reveal more than meets the eye.

  • The unknown secret of Ex-EFCC boss Farida Waziri

    By Sentry

    In the last 10 years, no public officer has been despised more than a former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Mrs. Farida Waziri, whose passionate ambition in life was to be a nun. She has been derided and robed in many names, including being labelled a jeweler, a fashionista, a fake Assistant Inspector-General of Police and “That woman”, which is the one she hated most.

    Farida’s traducers shielded her antecedents from the public to paint her black. It was at a greater cost she held forte in EFCC for three and a half years.

    Guests were, however  shocked at a book launch on Tuesday when a former Head of State, Gen. Yakubu Gowon, revealed the most kept secret of Farida Waziri.

    Read Also: Why I sacked Waziri as EFCC chair, by Jonathan

    He said: “I had wondered why and how Farida thought of me as the chairman of her book launch. May be she recalled the memory of her attachment to us, as my wife’s Police ADC/ security aide.

    “We toured the country’s regions and states together and sometimes along with her colleague, Miss Kemi Olagbegi.

    I recall, they were very punctual, hardworking and dutiful. We saw signs that they will go far in their profession…”

    The unearthing of Farida’s secret of early exposure to power corridor by Gowon earned her more applause. An influential female minister was heard wondering aloud: “Why are they calling her names if she rose from a recruit to be an Assistant Inspector-General of Police and a lawyer?”

  • Traffic control, security, and politics

    By Dayo Sobowale

    Traffic control in simple terms is the control of goods, vehicles and people efficiently and safely. Nothing illustrates its failure more vividly  and tragically,  just   this last    week, than the killing of 30 people and the burning of vehicles by Boko  Haram in a village  where travellers  had   taken refuge   for   the night  because the  5 pm  time for them to go through the major gate to  Maiduguri    had  passed. Closed  city gates are an ancient  phenomenon and are  not expected in modern times, but  they, like closed borders have become the vogue  because of terrorism, Islamic insurgency, crime, human trafficking, kidnapping, and drug peddling   nowadays. Let  me say  that the Maiduguri    massacre  while  quite  unpardonable and condemnable    is not peculiar  to  Nigeria.  Just  as the banning of Okadas in   some Lagos environs recently was a hangover from  security  concerns on road safety   and traffic control   one  can  see why  Donald    Trump  is building walls  against Mexicans he called criminals and drug peddlers.  And why  nations like Poland, Hungary, Czech and Slovak  Republics are building e electric   and     barbed  wires  to shut out migrants or  terrorist  they  perceive  to be dangerous to the safety and movement  of people,  goods and  vehicles in their nations.

    Today I  take another look at  the Maiduguri Gateway massacre,  as well  as the manner of traffic  control   in Nigeria’s  commercial  capital Lagos,   and lean  on the shrewd  observation of a Lagos  legal  guru who  told  me in plain terms in a discussion recently,  that  traffic  control and the rule of  law  on our roads  have  failed  dismally  and government  should  do  a fast  rethink. The  Maiduguri disaster showed the failure of government and security in Borno  State  and the Governor  has asked for a quick  and decisive military  solution  from  the  Federal  government   to  resolve the bloody issue  and stop   the killings.  The  fact  that the Chief of Army staff recently  told his audience recently  that Boko  Haram are everywhere    and even in  Lagos should  embolden the Lagos  state  government  to  tighten its Okada  ban  as the massive traffic congestion that has taken  over Lagos  since the  ban  is a contrived fight back  or  backlash  by those who  have a stake in having  the state at the  mercy  of  Okada  riders .It   is good   that  the state  has rightly  identified   Okadas   as a danger to traffic  safety as well as a security risk  in  Lagos   state. The pragmatic  thing for the state government  is to make the ban durable  and  sustainable  in every   sense   of its implementation    and  not succumb  to  the blackmail of the orchestrated traffic  congestion,   which should  fizzle  out once the government puts in place a good traffic control plan  that  takes cognizance of traffic  congestion spot s especially at  peak   traffic   times.

    The  goal  here is not to make road  users and their vehicles sitting ducks for massacre by  criminals and terrorists  like Boko  Haram in a  busy  traffic   mega city like Lagos. Toll  gates and highly  congested traffic routes like Third Mainland  and Eko  bridges as  well  as the toll  gates at the Lekki  Express  way  shoud  be decongested and policed at  peak  go  slow traffic  periods  to ensure safety  and security of our citizens and their  vehicles  because  that is the duty of  government. As at  now Mile Two on the  way  out of  Lagos to Badagry  looks like a war  zone with a trailer blocking the  three  lane route   to Apapa and  Tin  Can  Island. Dozens   of  Okadas  and their  riders  are packed menacingly on the Expressway   as the route  is not covered   by the Okada  ban  but  the menacing and defiant  looks and rough riding of the Okadas   there can  only    buttress  the     government’s  wisdom  and rationale  for  the ban  in some parts   of the megacity. Of    course  Traffic  control  in terms of  law and  order   seems  totally   absent  in such     an  environment.

    One can therefore without the president saying a word deduce that he is distraught at the massacre at Maiduguri gate. The governor too has shown his grief. But in a presidential system that we practice the buck stops on the table of both the state governor and the president and they must accept full responsibility for the killings and make amends

    Let us now revisit the Maiduguri  Gateway  massacre of travellers taking refuge in a village, Auno, because the road had  been  closed for  the night.  Let  me state that  I appreciate  the fact  that the  President  has visited Maiduguri on his return  from the African  Union  Conference of Heads of  Governments in Addis  Ababa,  Ethiopia.  It  is   however the duty of the  Borno  state and the Federal  government   to  ensure  that such a  road  massacre  does  not  occur  again. If  the gates have  been closed as reported,  the government or the Army  should  have provided  visible security to  those who  could not beat  the closure  deadline.  Even  refusing access after the closure time could produce a Trojan Horse scenario when the gates are opened   the following day  for latecomers   penetrated     by  insurgents and terrorists to come in.  In  this  Maiduguri massacre, Boko  Haram  came out of the Trojan  Horse   on  the   outskirts    of  Maiduguri and  massacred innocent  Nigerians   shut  out  in the cold  at  night  by their  own  security  outfit  because they  came late  to  the road  gate. This  was a reckless  way  of controlling road traffic   and  should  be replaced by a new  security  strategy  that  puts the safety of  life and property  of  road  users as its top  goal  and objective.

    On  the political  front  it has been  pointed out that the president  had the largest  votes in this election and reelection in the Borno  state environment even  with the bloody  distraction and menace of  Boko  Haram to  peaceful  voting in the area. One  can  therefore without  the president saying a word deduce that  he  is distraught  at  the massacre  at  Maiduguri  gate.  The governor too has  shown his  grief.  But  in a presidential  system  that we practice the buck  stops  on  the table  of  both  the state  governor  and the president and they  must  accept  full  responsibility for  the killings and make amends. This  they  can  do  by taking  actions  that will  deter Boko  Haram from thinking and acting as if it can  kill Nigerians  with  impunity  and get away  with it.  The  US    president Donald  Trump is known  by American  enemies as a leader who  does not joke  with American   lives and would retaliate if  Americans are killed  anywhere. It  is high  time that both  the Borno  State governor and our  President took  the   fight  to Boko  Haram to  really   hurt  it  in order  to deter and stop it  masterfully  from  killing innocent  Nigerians. We  have   had  enough of the handwringing  and mourning.  We  need protective  action  that will  deter  and  stop the killings of  innocent Nigerians like   the one at Auno  village    outside  Maiduguri  recently.  That  surely  is  the duty of any  elected government including both the Borno  and the Federal  governments. Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Armada of stars again

    By Ade Ojeikere

    The domestic league is lying prostrate in the sun waiting for its funeral. Doctors are reluctant in declaring it clinically dead because they feel some form of miracle is possible to change the evidently unpleasant sight of the decapitated industry. Sadly, those who took the league through this unenviable path have refused to throw in the towel, preferring to make promises which are dead on arrival.

    One of such morbid proposals is the better forgotten tale of Nigerians following the local game on their mobile handsets. Laughable because it would be easier for the Carmel to pass through the eye of the needle than for Nigerians to benefit from this white elephant project. It didn’t come as a surprise when those who celebrated this hopeless proposal with pomp and ceremony sat before the cameras to explain why a failed project should be allowed to die. Pity. We don’t resign here. So, such clowns will continue to insult our sensibilities.

    The biggest fillip the domestic league needs to grow is for those running its affairs to quit today. Most of them have been hovering around the local leagues since over two decades. If the project has moved forward, they ought to be removed since they have compromised the system which in other climes would have passed a vote of no confidence on the organisers. Should we sit aloof and watch them kill our joy of using the domestic league as the pivot to throw up new stars to the world? Something must give and it should start now.

    Interestingly, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Chairman of the Bauchi State Football Association, Patrick Pascal decried the poor standard of the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL).

    “For me the structure and set up of our league needs to change. The private sector and companies need to come in and run the clubs more professionally and make a profit. “ Today most clubs owned by state governments are being run like a charity organisation, we cannot continue like this,” he said.

    “We need to make sure our best players in the league are not travelling abroad after every season due to poor remuneration.” I can tell you some of our players are suffering abroad, some are even scouting because of bad contracts, so instead of going out in a hurry, make sure you play well here before making any move.”

    Good talk Pascal, a former Nigeria international, a star performer in the domestic league of yore. But the organisers keep deluding themselves with sponsored media reports that the game here has improved.

    The truth is that Nigeria cannot parade a team of 25 players playing in the domestic league to confront Sierra Leone, with due respect to the sovereign nation, which ranked over 200 steps behind Nigeria in FIFA ranking.  What this disturbing news translates to is that our league is worse than what operates in Sierra Leone. We are due to confront the visitors in a two-legged tie spanning a period of 10 days, with our armada of foreign-based players. And nobody sees anything wrong with this setting. Rather, they would quickly tell you that we don’t want to toy with our qualification chances to  the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations. Against Sierra Leone? No, gentlemen ruining (oh sorry running) our football, No!

    We should easily assemble a home-grown Eagles to beat Sierra Leone anywhere in the country. inviting 25 players from Europe for such a game is wasteful and underlines the level of rot in the domestic game. I won’t join the motley crowd to blame NFF.  The separation of the league from the federation was to ensure that they had the liberty to do things to improve the game. No surprise that the league can’t produce good players with the poor state of the pitches. How can the domestic players perform when the clubs cannot be bothered if they have been paid their monthly wages. No player can give his best on empty stomachs. Little wonder the few who have the opportunity to play for the country depart in droves to all manner of leagues in Europe, America and the Diaspora.

    What our league organisers don’t understand is that Nigerians love our sports ambassadors, they would do anything to watch them live. They are prepared to risk their lives to meander through the crowd to take pictures with our stars. Need I recall how the late Rashidi Yekini ignited the league venues with his presence after retiring from European football and playing for Nigeria? Yekini played for defunct Julius Berger FC of Lagos and Gateway FC of Abeokuta. Daniel Amokachi, who played for Nasarawa United FC replicated the Yekini crowd upsurge when he returned to the domestic game. Clubs benefitted immensely in those fixtures Yekini and Amokachi featured.

    With the evident failure of leadership at the league level, the country is forced to rely absolutely on foreign-based players who we pay $5,000 each. If you multiply $5,000 each for 25 players over two matches, then you would appreciate why those who run the game here should cover their eyes in shame. Simple arithmetic tells us that we would pay our players $500,000 for winning bonuses. The pain is that we would fly our players into the country twice, no matter how close the fixtures are. What it means is that we would pay flight return tickets for 25 foreign-based players twice – first for the home game in Asaba inside the Stephen Keshi Stadium and the away game in Freetown.

    This writer has not computed what we would spend on hotels in Asaba and Freetown. I have also not factored daily allowances for the players, coaches, assistants and backroom staff. Let’s also not try to add what the chief coach gets, his three assistants, backroom staff and other ancillary staff. Little wonder NFF is always broke. How won’t they when we spend close to N600 million to prosecute a home game against Sierra Leone in this instance.

    Did I hear say N600 million for a game? Yes. All payments with foreign-based stars are done in hard currencies. Let’s forget that the team would fly aboard charter flight from Asaba, where the first leg would be played to Freetown. Since Asaba isn’t an international airport, the players would be refunded their cash for flying from Lagos to Asaba and back on their way out of the country.

    Sadly, Gernot Rohr isn’t ready for any gamble on home-based players. He understands that a coach is as good as his last game. for Rohr, only the best is good for Nigeria. for Rohr, Nigeria’s best players are in Europe. He will remain in France and monitor our best. It is so bad that Rohr is thinking of luring Odion Ighalo out of retirement. What a country.

    Read Rohr: “Yes on Odion Ighalo I have been in constant touch with him. Everybody is happy about his new challenge to play for Manchester United. Let him play.  Let him find this good spirit with the Manchester United team and his presence there then we will see.

    “But it will be too early for him to play for us (Super Eagles) or to invite him for the Sierra Leone game in March even if he wants to play for us. We want to watch first what he is doing (for Manchester United)”, Rohr told SPORTINGLIFE from his base in France on Friday.

    Rohr also hinted at the possibility of inviting two or three new players to join the Eagles when he eventually release his team list for the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations’ qualifying matches against Sierra Leone early days of next month.

    The Franco-German football tactician who was coy in revealing the names of the new players couldn’t reject outrightly the possibility of the new t players making the team list for the Sierra Leone match.

    “To invite new players depend on some conditions.  I will travel to see  some of them in their clubs in Europe this month and speak with them to see if they are truly and really in the right spirit to join us.

    “We cannot force them to come.  If they are willing and very serious to play for the Eagles then we will warmly welcome them. The good thing is that some of them are playing for good teams in Europe and they are in very good shape.

    “I hope that  perhaps one or two new players will eventually come and join us. We have quality players already but the ones coming newly must be better than the ones we have already have here with us”, Rohr told SPORTINGLIFE in an exclusive chat.

  • Valentine: The Leah Sharibu kind of love

    By Segun Ayobolu

    Yesterday was the celebration of the  annual Valentine’s Day – a commemoration of love in a world so badly enmeshed in the darkness of hate, greed, selfishness, envy, intolerance, bigotry and the assorted kinds of evil, unimaginable violence and bloodshed these negative passions give birth to. Researching the origins of Valentine’s Day, I found out that the now heavily commercialized yearly commemoration of love actually had its roots in pain, sacrifice, agony and martyrdom.

    According to Wikipedia, “…Valentine’s Day is recognized as a significant cultural, religious and commercial celebration of romance and romantic love in many regions around the world. There are numerous martyrdom stories associated with various Valentines connected to February 14, including a written account of Saint Valentine of Rome’s imprisonment for performing weddings for soldiers who were forbidden to marry and ministering to Christians persecuted under the Roman Empire”.

    The online dictionary continues, “According to legend, Saint Valentine restored sight to the blind daughter of his judge, and he wrote her a letter signed “Your Valentine” as a farewell before his execution. The feast of Saint Valentine was established by Pope Gelasius 1 in AD 496 to be celebrated on February 14 in honor of the Christian martyr, Saint Valentine, of Rome, who died on that date in AD 269″.

    It is thus only natural that on this year’s celebration of Valentine’s Day, my mind went to Leah Sharibu, the only one of the 110 Dapchi Government Girls’ Science and Technical College school girls aged between 11 and 19 years old abducted by Boko Haram on February, 18, 2018, who remains in the custody of her brutish captors. Leah was not released along with her other school mates by the religious extremists because she refused to renounce her Christian faith and embrace the terrorist’s perverse brand of Islam. Would Leah miss past celebrations of Valentine with her loved ones, which must now be for her a fading memory? Most likely.
    Would she regret having made her choice to stand fast by her faith rather than recant for freedom? I don’t think so. The kind of option Leah chose could not have been lightly made. Even though still very young, Christianity for Leah was certainly not just a cold code of doctrines, a set of religious traditions she was obliged to submit to in conformity with the conventional religious orthodoxy she was brought up on. It Is unlikely that anyone, least of all a promising young girl with great hopes and dreams for the future, would have given up so much for what would be no better that a lifeless religion.

    No, the only rationale I can find for Leah Sharibu’s firmness of will and fearlessness in defying her captors is that she has a strong, unshakeable conviction in a personal savior, Jesus Christ. She must have the deep rooted belief that losing freedom and even life for fidelity to her Lord cannot ultimately be in vain viewed from the perspective of eternity. Leah was prepared to demonstrate love and faithfulness unto death to a Saviour who loved her enough not to shrink from being crucified on the cross to give her life.

    But couldn’t Leah have recanted, some have asked, denounced her faith and embraced another just to gain her freedom? That is earthly Machiavellian counsel. Leah acted apparently out of fidelity to a higher, nobler spiritual wisdom. What if she had renounced her faith, for instance, adopted another and yet her abductors, habitually unprincipled and unreliable, refused to release her claiming she now belonged to them by virtue of her ‘voluntary’ conversion? Surely, she would be worth much more to them as a captive trophy to their triumphant zealotry than all the other girls, Muslim by birth, put together.

    If that happened, Leah would have neither liberty nor the deep seated inner peace that her faithfulness to her conviction even in adversity must have brought her. There are others who contend that the kind of injustice suffered by Leah and indeed the existence of all forms of evil in the world prove that either God does not exist or that he is not omnipotent. Luckily, Leah is not of such a shallow cast of mind.

    She must have reasoned that there is a reason why her Savior, Jesus, whom she would not deny before Boko Haram zealots, did not avoid a painful death on the cross to redeem all who trust in him. Of course, as he himself said, Jesus could have summoned a battalion of angels from heaven to come to his rescue from his calumniators and murderers. But he knew that the path to the glorious resurrection could only pass through the humiliating pain of the crucifixion.

    Incidentally, Satan offered Jesus a far easier path to glory as an alternative to a painful death on a Roman cross when he tempted the Lord in the wilderness. Why not turn stones to bread, for instance, and win the instant adulation of the hungry, teeming multitude, Satan subtly suggested? Surely, that would convince the world that he was the son of God? Would the world not marvel at the power of this Messiah who would banish hunger forever from the face of the earth?

    Or better still, why not jump down, the devil suggested, from the highest pinnacle of the temple and prove your deity to an astonished world? Imagine if that suggested feat had been performed in today’s world of global television or Facebook? The whole world would have celebrated the great Messiah performing his powerful acrobatics to the heroic adulation of man rather than to the glory of his father who had ordained a different, pain-strewn path for his son to achieve the mission of salvation for mankind.

    Even more alluringly, Satan showed Christ in a moment of time all the kingdoms of the world and their glory and promised to hand them all over to Jesus if he would only bow down, even if surreptitiously, and worship him. Just as Leah has done in obvious imitation of her Lord, Jesus said no. “Get thou behind me satan”‘ he said “For it is written: Worship the Lord your God, and serve him only”.

    “Deny your Lord and Bow down to our faith” Leah’s tormentors told her “and thou shall regain your liberty and all its attendant joys”. But she must have heard echoes of the master’s timeless words, “broad is the way that leads to death and many are they who walk through it but narrow is the way that leads to life and few are they who choose it”.

    Leah remains in captivity because she chose the narrow path. Another amazing example is that of Rev. Lawan Andimi, Northern Chairman of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) who embraced gruesome death rather than convert to Islam as demanded by his Boko Haram captors.

    How many of us, if in Leah’s shoes, would have embraced the choice she made? Would I, for instance? I cannot confidently say so. But it would appear to me that many in the church today have exuberantly embraced a Christ who promises them the broad highway of boundless prosperity, ever growing and magnificent congregations and edifices, televangelist populism and popularity, effortless ease and world acclaiming success. These are the glories of the world that Satan offered to Christ without success in the wilderness temptation.

    But there are too many examples in the Bible and across history where Christ chose the path of pain, deprivation, loneliness, obscurity, torture, hardship and even death for his most committed and ardent followers. How many of us brought up on the broth of the currently dominant dubious theology of materialism and the easy life, if given the choice before Leah, would not have swiftly denied Christ and embraced the “life is all merry and rosy” spiritual opium of much of contemporary Christianity particularly of the Pentecostal variety?

    There was a recent report that Leah Sharibu had given birth to a child for a Boko Haram commander. If true, that was definitely not her will. But as some members of her family have said, they are at least glad that she is alive if there is any veracity to the story. Will her captors not be justified to feel a triumphal satisfaction at such a turn of events? It can only be a Pyrrhic victory. After all, those who crucified him rejoiced wildly at the death of Christ. They never imagined that was only a precursor to the resurrection and the current worldwide influence of the humble carpenter from the obscure village of Nazareth in Judah?

    Can these deluded extremists be too sure that, if she has truly given birth, Leah’s child may not indeed be a seed for the future blossoming and triumph of the irresistible love of Christ planted right in their midst? After all, does God not work in mysterious ways his wonders to perform? Even in adversity, I join your teeming admirers in wishing you divine peace and joy that passes human understanding, dear Leah Sharibu, Christ’s Val.

  • To the only one I love

    By Segun Ayobolu

    (First published in the Daily Times newspaper of Friday, 7th March, 1997)

    If this piece had been written to coincide with Valentine’s Day as originally intended, the message would most likely have gone unnoticed. It would have been drowned by the fast-paced, seductive tempo of Shina Peter’s Afro juju music, which, to mark this year’s Valentine anniversary, blared ever so loudly at the Lagos Airport Hotel. As they danced at various venues to the sonorous, soothing tunes of Lagbaja, the relentless, irrepressible rhythm of Kwam 1’s brand of Fuji or the rather sexually explicit stage vibrations of Fela Anikulapo Kuti, very few would have bothered to read an article which seeks to explore the mystery of this phenomenon called love in these troubled times. Now that most of us have almost recovered from the heady wine of the Valentine celebration, we should be sober enough to examine more closely a yearly ritual that gulps so much of our time, energy and scarce financial resources.

    What exactly is this thing called love that plays such a prominent role in the lives of men? It is the theme of books ranging from the holy scriptures of various religions to the unabashedly sexually vivid novels of a Harold Robbins or a Nick Carter. It is the focus of films that span uplifting romantic documentaries through amorous home videos to those blue films that reduce human beings to panting animals on screen. It provided the inspiration for the soulful lyrics of the gifted Christian singer, Mary Mckee and the late Marvin Gaye’s timeless ode to the goddess of love – ‘sexual healing’. A friend of mine who is of an unrepentantly religious disposition contends that Mavin Gaye’s masterpiece has mortally wounded more souls than it has healed. I may not be qualified to comment on that.

    But what, I ask again, is this phenomenon that sustains the flourishing industry which Valentine has become? Love for nation plunged the world into major wars that destroyed million of human lives and has been responsible for countless minor but no less devastating conflicts. Love for tribe has often fertilized the soil of hatred and bitterness resulting in the break- up of nations and the bestiality of war. Even love for God has often inspired crusades and jihads meant to terminate the perceived worthless lives of fellow human beings on planet earth. Love for partner has often bred jealousies resulting in the most despicably tragic acts of human wickedness.

    Have jealous lovers not been known to bathe their rivals or unfaithful partners in bucketfuls of corrosive acid? We have read of apparently momentarily deranged husbands who beheaded some unfortunate man for cavorting with their irresponsible wives? Did the prophet, Samson, not reveal his secret and truncate his mission on the altar of love to Delilah? Can we forget in a hurry a former chief of our drug-fighting agency whose career was cut short on the platform of revealed love notes to his own Delilah? What about the great King David, who, in a moment of uncontrolled passion, was lured to commit adultery and compounded his sin with murder? Who indeed can penetrate the intricacies of this mysterious emotive force?

    However we see it, what is undeniable is that love is a viable commercial enterprise. Nothing demonstrates this better than Valentine’s Day. Valentine has become big business. And the reason for this is not far-fetched. As someone recently noted and rightly too: “Industry and media have made an art of sexual seduction. We are surrounded by those who know that they can make a living by stirring up and fanning the flames of sexual desire. Television, radio, music, video, movie, publishing, advertising and clothing industries are all exploiting our misunderstood and misdirected longings for intimacy”.

    Seedy houses of vice where fornicating couples can wish each other happy Valentine without the slightest pangs of conscience, five-star hotels, pepper-soup joints, local Bukas, cinema houses, theatres, and so on especially enjoy a tremendous boom in the season of Valentine. It is also one of the peak periods for musicians, especially those inclined to singing songs of salacious variety. Perhaps those who profit most from Valentine are the producers of valentine cards. There is an infinite variety in the market at ever rising prices. There are the cards expressing love to father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, grandparents, grandchildren, employer, colleague, fiancé, girlfriend, boyfriend, wife and husband.

    Married couples disposed to adultery can even buy two sets of cards – one for the legitimate partner and another for the unofficial one outside the home. Our irresistible in-house cartoonist, Yomi Ola, sometime ago captured the irony of Valentine in a characteristically brilliant portrait: Pointing to a particular card that caught her fancy, a love-struck woman said to a road side card seller: “Can I have FIVE of that card with the caption, TO THE ONLY ONE I love?” No, there is no adultery or unfaithfulness in the wonderful, fantasy world of Valentine. As it was in the beginning, so it is, so shall it be, love without end. Amen.

    I am sure that on Valentine Day, the victimizing lecturer found an appropriate card for his vulnerable student val who, knowing of the knife of threatened failure pointing at her neck, plays ball. Oh yes, the randy boss surely found a card for his frightened and submissive secretary who well aware of the sword of stalled promotion dangling over her head plays along. The calculating female subordinate, systematically sleeping her way to the top in the workplace, certainly got suitable cards for her male bosses at critical points on the promotion route. Ah, how fortunate we are: there are cards for all at valentine!

    But why are we so blessed with a version of love that breeds unwanted pregnancies, sexually transmitted diseases, sexual abuse and broken homes? Is the seed of unwanted pregnancy not sown in a vanishing moment of heated passion? How about the marriage institution which should be the greatest model of love? Think of Winnie and Mandela or Charles and Diana. Think of the littered trail of broken marriages, which trump the number of successful ones. Think of the even more crowded arena of unhappy marriages full of suspicion, hostility and tension? Will the marriage institution survive the pervasive lack of love in today’s world especially in this age of democratized and liberalized values?

    Yet there are those who insist that what we celebrate at valentine is not love but its perversion – lust. Genuine love, they say, can be found in the teaching of the man of Galilee. Love your enemies. Pray for those who hate you. Turn the other cheek when slapped. Keep no record of wrongs. Think and expect the best of all. Love your neighbor as yourself. If you do, you won’t seduce his wife, covet his property or exploit his or her body for your selfish pleasure. Others see this as an unattainable ideal. Long live, then, the spirit of Valentine?

  • ‘Gbelegbo’ and the mystery of Shina Peter’s ‘ACE’

    By Segun Ayobolu

     

    My Mondays are not complete now without my having read the week’s edition of the new soar away Yoruba tabloid, ‘Gbelegbo’, from the stable of The Nation newspapers. Its production is rich and attractive. Its gifted writers bring out the luscious richness and mellifluousness of the Yoruba language. Its columnists Akara Ogun, Femi Abulude and the mysteriously anonymous ‘Mista Kampari’ are witty, and engaging. I find its editorials in particular as they articulate the news paper’s opinions on critical issues of the day pungent and informative. Shortly before Gbelegbo hit the market, I had borrowed and reread a copy of the late Professor Isola Akinwunmi’s classic Yoruba drama ‘Efunsetan Aniwura’ in preparation for a public lecture I was to deliver in Lagos. The audience was rapturous when I recited some of the truly enchanting Yoruba Ifa incantations in the book from memory.  But I am far from being an Ifa acolyte.

    Yet, in rereading Efunsetan Aniwura, I discovered that my ability to read the Yoruba language fluidly had badly diminished. This was a play about the epic life of the 19th century Iyalode of Ibadan, Efunsetan – a powerful, immensely wealthy, politically connected, spiritually fortified, authoritarian and mercilessly ruthless woman which I watched performed live on stage by the Ishola Ogunsola’s travelling Yoruba theatre, as a form three student in Ilorin. This is apart from watching the play several times on the inimitable Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Ibadan, in the late 70s and early 80s. Gbelegbo thus offers me an opportunity to reacquaint myself with the Yoruba language and nourish my intellect with its imaginative idioms and fascinating linguistic nuances.

    It is instructive that some of the best writers of the English language are deeply steeped in their indigenous languages, cultures and traditions. The great novelist, Chinua Achebe, for instance vividly portrays in his works the incredible beauty and philosophical depth of Igbo language and culture. And our own literature Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka’s poetry and drama are incredibly enriched by his not inconsiderable immersion in the traditions, cultures, religion and language of the Yoruba. Parents, many experts believe, can actually enhance the intellectual capability of their children by acquainting them with their indigenous languages and literatures rather than alienating them from their roots. This is why I believe Gbelegbo is a great idea deserving support.

    But then this piece is about a lead story of Gbelegbo in December last year, which revealed something previously not publicly stated to the best of my knowledge about the juju musician, Shina Peter’s, monster hit album ‘Ace’, which took the nation  by storm in 1989. The frenzy with which teeming fans of music even beyond lovers of juju embraced ‘Ace’ and its pulsating staccato drum beats, stirring guitar works and salaciously delirious lyrics can best be imagined. A friend of mine told me a story of his experience with ‘Ace’ aboard a crowded Molue bus (44 sitting 99 standing, apologies to Fela’) somewhere on Ikorodu Road in Lagos in 1990. The bus was stuck in traffic and a music store was blaring the music of Shina Peter’s ‘Ace’ from a loudspeaker.

    To his amazement, practically every passenger got down from the Molue and started gyrating right on the highway to Shina Peter’s seductive beats and alluring lyrics:

    “Ijo Shina, Ere Shina,

    Emi le jo, Iwo le jo

    Wa jo o

    Ka jo jo

    Ijo Shina yi

    O ga ju…”

     

    The album sold like wildfire. It won the highest number of awards in that year’s Performance Musicians of Nigeria (PMAN) music awards. If they were to tell the truth, King Sunny Ade and Commander Ebenezer Obey who had dominated the juju music scene for decades were shaken to their foundations. Had the juju music scene been dramatically changed for good and a new juju monarch emerged to claim the throne? Shina seemed to imply so. He sang tauntingly:

     

    “E jawo lapon  ti o yo

    E lo gbomi ila kana

    Orin Shina gbode.”

     

    This roughly translates into :

    “Do away with the watery ‘apon’ draw soup,

    Put on fire water for original okra soup,

    Shina’s music is the latest thing in town”.

    What then is the gist of the sensational Gebelegbo story on ‘Ace’? In an interview with another well known juju musician, Professor Y.K. Ajao, who described himself as a bosom friend of Shina Peters, right from when the latter was a guitar band boy with the late General  Prince Adekunle’s juju band. Ajao said he admired Shina’s dexterity on the guitar and used to attend shows where his band played while Shina also used to attend shows by Ajao’s band.

    The Iseyin, Oyo State, born Ajao told the newspaper that as young men seeking to attain fame in music, he and Shina sought many spiritual means to achieve a breakthrough in their careers. Ajao then stunningly revealed that on one occasion he had just come back home from a babalawo (herbalist) who had prepared a delicious charmed meal for him to eat; a concoction, which the herbalist said would bring him fame. On returning to his room, he said, he placed the food under the bed before he was ready to eat when Shina burst in and said he was hungry. Perceiving the aroma of the meal, Shina looked under the bed, brought out the food and asked that they eat together – they were that close.

    “But do you know if this food is prepared for two persons to share?”, Y.K. Ajao claims  to have asked his friend trying to diplomatically dissuade him from eating the specially prepared meal. However, Shina went on to devour the charmed meal that Ajao was supposed to have eaten and it was a while after this that he released his incredible ‘Ace’ album that blew across Nigeria like a hurricane. Was this concoction eaten by Shina responsible for the fame of Shina after the roaring success of ‘Ace’, Ajao was asked. His response: “Leyin to je aseje yii lo se rekoodu ti oruko e bu yo, mi o so pe aseje to je lodo mi lo je ki okiki e yo, Olorun ni, oun naa si maa n gbadura daadaa”. (It was after he eat this charmed meal that he produced the album that brought him to fame. I am not saying that it was the specially prepared meal he ate in my place that brought him fame, it is God because Shina also used to pray a lot”.

     

    Hmmm. One can understand Y.K. Ajao’s rather paradoxical hesitancy. But then, Ajao told his story on tape. Shina Peters has neither confirmed nor denied it. But then he had found it necessary to respond to what must then have been a strong rumour then in part of his lyrics in ‘Ace’. He sang:

     

    “Won so pe ogun ni mo se

    Ogun ko o, ogun ogun abenu gongo

    Shina Peters o sogun

    Igba lo de o

    Irawo lagba”.

     

    (They said I made juju

    All talk about juju is nonsense

    Shina Peter did not make any juju

    It is his time that has come

    His star is the master).

     

    Now is all this nothing but superstitious nonsense? I don’t know. However, I have always found something mysterious about Shina Peter’s ‘Ace’. I had ardently followed his musical career. As a young man, Shina was a gifted guitarist in the band of General Prince Adekunle & his Western Brothers. However, when years later he set up his own band, it was obvious that Shina’s instrumental dexterity was not matched by a gift in composition and singing.  Between 1980 and 1986, the about six albums that he released flopped. Apparently realizing his limitation, Shina Peters teamed up with another former member of General Prince Adekunle’s band, Segun Adewale to form a band with the brand name, Sir Shina Adewale & the Superstars international. While Segun was blessed with a sonorous voice and sang soulfully, Shina was the band’s master guitarist. They made reasonable success until they split.

    Shortly before the release of ‘Ace’ in 1989, I listened to a radio interview in which Shina Peters boasted that he was set to storm the music scene with a hit album to be released with his new band, Sir Shina Peters & his International Stars. He was exceedingly confident that the album would create a storm. How would he do it I wondered? His answer was the sensational ‘Ace’. But ‘Shinamania’ released after that was nowhere near ‘Ace’ in accomplishment. Shina Peter’s reputation is built solely around ‘Ace’. Ebenezer Obey and Sunny Ade have released scores of hit albums sustainably over five decades. That seems to be original talent. What is the mystery of Shina Peter’s momentarirly sensational ‘Ace’? I don’t know.