The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Whither Nigerian coaches

    THE good days of Nigerian football are gone. Gone are the days when you struggled through the turnstiles to gain entrance into the stadium – six hours before the kick-off. It was fun sitting at the stands playing scrabble, Ludo, Whot cards, snake and ladder etc, to kill time. Not forgetting the pre-match analysis. Indeed, as soon as the two teams arrived, the likely loser was known, given the quality of those selected by the opposition.

    In fact, you dared not come to the stadium at 2 PM on match days hoping to get a ticket. Clubs were diligent in the sales of ticket that they earmarked big stores, petrol stations, the popular ones etc to sell their tickets. It was fun in the weeks preceding big games, with supporters raising the ante with pre-match analysis. Big writers used the dailies and television programmes to do massive media awareness on such games. The day never lacked the trappings of all that was expected from both sides.

    We had trained Coaches such as Alabi Aissien, Adegboye Onigbinde, the late Willy Bazuaye, Monday Sinclair, Eto Amaechina, Josiah Dombraye, Godwin Etemike, Carl Odywer, the late Joseph Ladipo a.k.a Jossy Lad, the man who made defunct Leventis United FC of Ibadan, the greatest brand in our country, having emerged from the third tier till the top, Sebastine Brodericks-Imasuen, Amusa Shittu, Ufere Nwankwo, Charles Bassey, the late Solomon Ogbeide, Ben Duamlong, Lawrence Akpokona, the late Kelechi Emetiole including foreigners such as Kowalick (I hope I got the spelling  right),who handled Enugu Rangers, Allan Hawks, whose off-side tactics was a delight to watch as it caught unprepared teams to their consternation. In fact, coaches of the Eastern team (Enugu Rangers, Spartans of Owerri, Vasco Da Gama, Sharks FC, Blue Angels), made the competition among teams keener and exciting.

    Enugu Rangers rose from the ashes of the better forgotten Nigeria Civil War to become a symbol of a race. And it typified how they played the matches – as if their lives depended on such a match. Rangers fought their battles to the finish and were the biggest crowd pulling side, who got inspired by supporters One man crowd Ulo enu (aka Up stair). Watching the Eastern teams anywhere in the country was like witnessing an orchestra, the way the supporters blew their trumpets and the melody of their collective activities behind the instruments work everyone up. They sang songs known to everyone – it raised the tempo of the game and they players, were galvanised to only give their best.

    Looking at today’s league clubs, what strikes me as the missing jigsaw from the past is that they are no longer the traditional teams- clubs growing their popularity from different parts of the country. Traditional teams such as Stationery Stores of  Lagos, Kano Pillars, IICC Shooting Stars of  Ibadan, Bendel Insurance FC of Benin City, Racca Rovers of Kano, DIC Bees FC of Kaduna, Plateau United, defunct BCC Lions, Mighty Jets of Jos, Sharks FC of Port Harcourt, Enugu Rangers, Spartans FC of Owerri, Calabar Rovers, New Nigeria Bank FC of Benin, Eselemo Diamonds of Warri, NPA Warri,  e.t.c had tremendous followership and their militant fans knew when to vent their spleen on the boys, when they faltered. It was a symbiotic relationship that worked either way, for good and for the horrible.

    It was much easier to fill the stands for these clubs with massive followership at home. Some, such as Enugu Rangers, IICC Shooting Stars, Bendel Insurance,  had the capacity to fill any stadium when they met. Many have not forgotten how in 1972, Bendel Insurance then known as Vipers and Mighty Jets forced the country’s oldest competition’s final game into a replay, with the disputed game resolved in Ibadan.

    In 1977, Rangers and IICC took their rivalry to Kaduna in a continental competition and did association football a big favour with the way their fans filled the stands and rooted for them till the final blast of the whistle. It was the best citation for the country’s game on the continent. It said a lot about the quality of players on both sides, who were members of the country’s senior side, then Green Eagles. Need I waste space to name them?

    In fact, politicians such as Jim Nwobodo and Orji Uzor Kalu built their support bases in the Eastern region spending their money and time to support Rangers and Enyimba everywhere they played. Little wonder Nwobodo became Enugu Rangers’ chairman and Kalu, took his passion for soccer to Abia and revolutionized  Enyimba FC of Aba to become easily the most successful Nigerian side on the continent. There wasn’t anything extraordinary done by the system beyond the fact that players wanted to play the game. The players of  yore’s passion for the game was matchless. The players felt fulfilled playing for the traditional teams. Not so anymore, even though many have ascribed the death of the game now to exodus of players to Europe and the country’s dwindling economy.

    Majority of the fans are no longer inspired to part with their hard earned money to watch NPFL matches since the supposed stars don’t stay long enough at their respective clubsides before they are exported to some obscure clubs in Europe.

    The reality is that fans all over the world are attracted to stars who entertain with their skills and talents on match days and when the stars are whisked away to Europe at the slightest opportunity, the spectators may not have any motivation to go to the stadium and watch league matches.

    However, we have players who have stayed loyal to the domestic league such Rabiu Ali, Mfon Udoh among others. Udoh remains the only player to have scored 23 goals in a single season in the NPFL yet resisted the temptation of jumping at ‘slave deals’ in obscure leagues abroad. But it’s not enough to just have them around if they are not going to earn good salaries that will see them take care of their families and not be left broke after retirement.

    Not all the players are educated or have a fall back project to rely on after their playing career, so paying them very well is key. Setting up a scholarship scheme and other lollies for their kids will be a massive lure for more young and exciting players to play in the domestic league. It may look difficult to implement but it is achievable.

    Our local clubs need to learn how to make these players heroes because they are the centrepiece of their existence. Sell club merchandise with players name on it and create games or programs primarily for the promotion of the club activities and a few players inspired events won’t hurt.

    Yeah, you guessed right, I just gave out a few tips on how we can grow our league and the players, not administrators or referees should be the main attraction. Also, schools can be involved in helping to spread the love for our domestic league again. For example, players such as Ali and Udoh that are household names can be used as the face to promote the league. They can visit schools to talk about the essence of being a professional footballer and help inspire kids to visit the stadium with their parents and gain match-day experiences but security at match centres must be fixed.

    Each time we prosecute our football matches in the last two decades with mostly the ‘foreign legion’, I wonder if our soccer administrators appreciate the damage they do to the ‘’beautiful’’ game. Our administrators see soccer development from the prism of participating in competitions outside the country. No programmes to catch the talents young, train and retrain the coaches for a workable template. For them, success is wining trophies, even if the players come from the moon. No surprise the dearth of competitions here.

    We can’t be talking about growing talents at the nurseries without standardising the academies that abound in the country. The fraud committed by some disgruntled folks in the name of soccer academies can only be curtailed if the NFF through its state affiliates compel all such bodies to register with it. That way, the authorities can identify who the fraudster is if such allegations arise. This collegiate arrangement will eliminate age cheats because a kid discovered in Edo State, for instance as Ikponwonsa Ikponwonsa in 1988 as a 12-year old, cannot be Etim Etim in 2008 claiming to be 16. The details of his data from his first registration in Edo State will give him out even as Etim Etim.

     

  • Ideology, reality and politics

    THREE   issues   this  week   illustrate the topic of  today  quite  vividly. The  first  was   the   appeal of the Nigerian army   boss  General   T K  Buratai   calling on religious leaders in the country   to wage a spiritual  war  against    terrorism  especially  that of  Boko  Haram because it is  spiritual  teachings   and ideas   by  preachers   of      religion,  that makes  terrorists   and   suicidal  insurgents    difficult  to defeat  on the battle field. The  second was  the   70th  Anniversary  celebrations  of  the emergence  of Communist  China   in 1949,   with a military  parade pomp  and   pageantry   Beijing, China’s   capital  that  showed  vividly  that  communism has been  a successful  ideology  in terms of  the  leading role and immense  wealth of  China both in terms of economic growth and welfare of its people and  influence both domestically and globally. The  third  was the fury  and anger of US President   Donald  Trump  at a press  conference with  the visiting President of Finland   when  he   directed a questioning   journalist  to  ask  questions from  the visiting president   and proceeded to call  the questioner rude  and the US  media  largely  fake and corrupt.

    The  guiding principle   here   today  is that religion is regarded  as an ideology  by the Nigerian  army  boss and I  agree with him for our purpose  here . Whereas in China, which  is communist and atheist, religion is regarded    as  a huge    distraction   and the ideology of communism is the guiding light of the Communist  Party of China  which  has ruled China from  Chairman Mao 70 years ago,  to Chairman Xi  Jinping    who  proudly  took  the salute  from the same podium used  by  Mao70  years ago. In  the US of  the Trump   era,    the  ideology  is democracy which highlights respect for  freedom,   human rights   free speech  and press   freedom which was on collision course with the American president during his spat  with the press in the presence of a foreign president.

    Again, a common trend in  the three observations , ideas  or  insults   –  as in the  US  case –  is the threat  of not only    of     any  religion   or  ideology   to  get  militant  or weaponised   in advancing   its ideology or spread in any  nation or  community. That  is why in talking of religious leaders  or ideologists the Nigerian  army chief should  have spoken  specifically   of Islamist  preachers who  have used modern technology and especially hot selling video    messages to  spread  and propagate  their  violent  versions of Islam. This is the crux of the matter. While Islamophobia  is  spreading  in the west  and liberal  democracy is trying to contain it and make it politically  incorrect  for those who   condemn  it, it is also  difficult  for  military  leaders in Nigeria to highlight  the empathy of Nigerian soldiers  for Boko  Haram, given that it is basically an Islamic insurgency   to  which  Muslims can  basically  turn a blind  eye  to, in  spite of its bloody  terrorism in the North  East  of Nigeria. It  is Islamophobia  that  has  given  rise  to the increase of anti –  immigrants  populist  governments  in Europe like Hungary, Austria and Poland  who  have made  life  difficult  for  EU  leaders  on the protocols  of running  an integrated Europe  now  or in the future. Of  course  Donald  Trump  campaigned against immigration and banned migrants from some Islamic  nations  and even recently asked some American  lady  legislators to go back to the ‘shit nations’ they  came from when  they  criticized  his  immigration policy.

    However  in contrast  to all these China has zero  tolerance  for  religion and that is reflected in the way it is wickedly isolating the Uighurs a Muslim  caste in a part  of China. China  claims that it is orientating i the Muslim  tribe  on civil  education  and responsibility, but  it is really persecuting these  Muslims officially because  it does  not want to have   a problem of Islamic militancy  or insurgency  within its borders. That  again  is the reality of the matter   with  China as a communist  state that  does not want any competition between it  and any  ideology  be it political  or  religious.

    In  calling for spiritual  warfare  against Boko  Haram the  Nigerian army boss  should  be reminded that he was not the first military  leader  to do so. There  was a story  that  a  Nigerian army leader, later President, called for African leaders to mobilise  traditional  herbalists  and juju  practitioners  to  mobilise  their  forces  and spiritual  power  against  the  apartheid regime in S Africa when Nelson Mandela was incarcerated  for  27  years  on Robben  Island   by  the evil  racist  regime.   What  Gen Buratai  is saying  however   in calling    on spiritual  war fare against Boko  Haram  this time around I,   more pragmatic than  the S African  suggestion then  except  that  it   has  failed to hit the nail on the head in terms  of the  catalyst  for  Boko  Haram  which  are the militant Islamic scholars  spreading the ideology  of Islamic  militancy  not only in Nigeria  but  globally  nowadays.

    With  regard  to the spat  between the US president  and the media  at  the White House,   it  is necessary  to  look  at  the  matter dispassionately. Trump  was furious because   as   he said   he had   just  given a long explanation on the Ukraine /Biden  matter which  the journalist asked  about,  as if he was not there. The  American  President really showed that he has scant  respect for  those in the US media he branded fake and corrupt. If  as Trump  insisted the journalist  was rude,  he   too   was very  intolerant  and   bad tempered  in the presence of another president who  was his guest. In   this particular  situation the principle  of press freedom and free  speech  was  reduced  to  shambles   and  that  makes  one wonder as  to its quality in  terms  of creating a stable political  system in  an  atmosphere   where  anyone  can say  anything to anybody    and be deemed  to  be acting within his   or  her   rights. I  remember a saying in Political  Science  that says  -‘your  freedom ends where my  nose begins’.   Neither Trump  or the CNN journalist  seem  to have heard that  before,  in the   testy  question and answer  press  conference in the presence of the Finnish  president at the White House this  week.

    We  round up with China  which  proudly  displayed its culture and military   ware  in Beijing on October 1 which  incidentally  is Nigeria’s Independence Day too. The  Chinese definitely  were beating their chest  that  day  in terms of economic  progress, political  stability  and the emergence  of China as a diplomatic and economic  power  on the world stage . Apart  from  chasing the US and  Russia  as the military power  of the world,  China has  made huge progress in terms of trade and Information technology. Especially   in the realm of Artificial Intelligence which it has used greatly  to police its people and establish firm  law and order under  communist  rule. The  US’ fierce  trade  war with  China  is   a reaction to the success of China on trade and IT. The  tariffs  and the censorship of Huawei are America’s way  of showing its anxiety on the arrival  of the Chines dragon on the world scene as a potent rival  to American global  power, wealth  and military might. While  human  rights   may  matter, any nation with any ideology that makes life safe and well for its people deserve some commendation, no  matter  how  grudgingly it may  come.  Once  again, long live the Federal  Republic of  Nigeria.

     

  • Why Obaseki sacked all aides

    The political crisis in Edo State took a toll on the cabinet of Governor Godwin Obaseki on Wednesday with the termination of the appointments of all the governor’s special assistants and senior special assistants. In a statement made available to journalists in Benin, Edo State capital, the Secretary to the State Government, Mr. Osarodion Ogie, said fresh appointments would be announced within 30 days.

    The development no doubt came as a shock to many watchers of events in the South-south state. Although Ogie said the move was necessitated by the need to reorganise the structure of  governance in the state, Sentry gathered the real motive for the reorganization was to rid the Obaseki administration of disloyal aides.

    A reliable government source told Sentry that the governor had grown weary of the activities of fifth columnists he believed were reporting the goings on in his camp to that of his estranged godfather and National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Adams Oshiomhole.

    Asked if the sacked aides would not constitute a threat to the governor’s reelection bid in the 2020 governorship poll in the state, the source said it is even more dangerous to keep many of them because “keeping them because of the election will amount to going into war with disloyal soldiers. It is better they plot against the governor from outside than do so from within.

    “The governor has been conscious of the rebellious activities of many of them long before now, but because they were appointed with the influence of a party leader in the state he so much respected, there was little he could do about them.

    “But the situation is different now. The governor is now his own man, hence he can afford to flex some muscle. Between me and you, the governor is extremely popular in Edo; the only place he has a problem is the party.”

  • In Bayelsa, agreement is sacrosanct

    After weeks of grandstanding and muscle-flexing, a new era began at the Bayelsa State House of Assembly on Friday with Hon. Monday Obolo as the new speaker.

    His emergence marked the end of the reign of Hon. Tonye Isenah who had vowed not to vacate the seat in spite of an agreement he allegedly struck with Governor Seriake Dickson to vacate the seat whenever occasion demanded.

    Although Isenah denied having any such agreement with the governor and other party leaders in the state, a reliable party source gave an insight into the circumstances in which Isenah agreed to step down as speaker whenever the party wanted him to.

    According to the source, Isenah had made it a part of his campaign promise to his constituents in Kolokuma/Opukuma Local Government Area to ensure that the constituency produced the Speaker once he was able to make it to the House.

    After the election, he was said to have approached Governor Dickson to tell him about his ambition to become the speaker, but the governor frankly told him that he could not become the speaker.

    Isenah, however, pleaded with the governor, saying that he had told his constituents that he would become the speaker and he would not want it to look as if he only tricked them into voting for him.

    As the result of the recent governorship primary of the PDP in the state turned out, the winner, Senator Douye Diri, hails from the same Kolokuma/Opukuma Local Government Area as Isenah, prompting the party to tell Isenah to honour earlier agreement as it was not politically expedient that the governor and the speaker come from the same constituency. Isenah stood his ground. He found support in three APC members of the House and one PDP member. Seventeen PDP members aligned with the party and moved against him. To them, the alleged agreement is sacrosanct.

  • Ex-Northern governor desperate for Fowler’s job

    People who say that politicians without political offices are like fish out of water surely know what they are talking about if the case of an immediate past governor of one of the northern states is anything to go by.

    Since he lost his bid for a second term in the 2019 general elections, he has been angling for juicy positions in the President Muhammadu Buhari-led administration.

    One of the positions he is eyeing desperately, SENTRY gathered, is that of the Executive Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) currently occupied by a former Chief Executive Officer of the Lagos State Internal Revenue Service, Dr. Babatunde Fowler.

    Although many expect that the former governor would take his scanty academic qualifications into consideration in angling for the juicy office, he is driven by his belief that he could get anything he wants by pulling the right strings.

    He is busy pulling the strings in Abuja at the moment and even telling whoever cares to listen that he would succeed Fowler. Some of his close pals were said to have drawn his attention to his limited academic qualifications but he reportedly told them it is a political battle and not an academic one, hence he would fight it to the last point.

    Ironically, the former governor was said to have failed woefully to grow the internally generated revenue of his state while he held sway as the state’s chief executive.

  • Credibility, power and leadership

    The media report that a Nigerian senator called it an insult for Nigerians to criticize the senate for its decision to buy  jeeps or SUVs  for senators in the National  Assembly sets the ball  rolling for our discussion today. To  me the senators anger or seeming indignation is misplaced, if not mischievous and it is certainly  an insult  to Nigeria’s democracy  for a senator to  say  that sort of nonsense  in an age of transparency and accountability in the world’s  democracy.

    The  equivalent of the Nigerian senator’s outburst on the global  stage in terms of braggadocio and arrogance are  namely  the boast  of the Iranian Foreign Minister that it would be  a total  war if the US or  Saudi  Arabia retaliate  against the charge by both nations   that Iran was responsible for  the  drone and missile attacks on Saudi  oil facilities  this  last week. If   you add  to this innuendos on the  Nigerian   President’s  actions on institutions managed by his Vice  President  and  the  conclusions   of friction between the powers that be in Aso  Rock,  then  you will  see that mischief is abroad  in the governance  of  Nigeria and is an illwind that bodes no good.

    Let me start by taxing the credibility in the three events by exposing the fallacy in their respective emanation and origin. In  the first  case of the  furious senator, he conveniently forgot  that he is  an  elected official  responsible to his constituents and Nigerians  at  large who  have a right to question  the running  of the senate as well as the perks  and emoluments that a senator  takes home.

    No anger or calculated outrage can obscure or mask that fact of accountability and responsibility. In the case of the threat of total war on the US and Saudi Arabia by the Iranian Foreign Minister, it is a clear   case of   the leopard incapable of changing its spots. This is because   Iran’s opponents have always accused it of sponsoring terrorism globally and its threat of total war does little to create any credibility for its denial of the charge that it sent the drones and missiles that destroyed the Saudi oil facilities.

    In the case  of the aspersion being cast on the  activities of the Vice President while he held  fort for the President during his many absences  I think  it is a case of giving a dog a bad name  in other to hang it, as I feel this Vice  President is  like Caesar’s wife  above reproach on most  of these matters and he cannot  in any way  be compared to Nero, the ancient  Roman Emperor  who  fiddled  while Rome burnt  like his detractors would have us believe in these  past  few days  of  his vilifications.

  • Trump, Johnson: Nigeria not alone in poor leadership

    Nigeria will be 59 in a few days. For more than five decades, the industrialised West had called her names, some of them unprintable, and denounced her leaders — whether military or civilian, elected or imposed — as incompetent, sociopathic and megalomaniacal.

    For a long time, Nigerians and the rest of the world saw the insults as justified and even fitting. Starting out approximately from the same economic and social pedestals with many Asian countries like China, Malaysia, Singapore and the two Koreas, Nigeria had held out hope that, like its competitors, she would amount to something spectacular in the world, not only because of her inestimable human resource endowment but also for her abundant, almost incomparable economic resource base. Nearly six decades down the line, that potential has remained almost completely unrealised. Worse, it had seemed as if Nigeria was nearly alone in propping up and projecting bad leaders.

    It has, however, taken less than a decade — indeed, well within five years — of the emergence of many right-wing leaders in the so-called First World countries of Europe and America to put the lie to the isolation and incomparability of Nigeria’s laggardness. It turns out that bad leaders are not the exclusive preserve of Nigeria and countries like her in Africa and Central America. In Donald Trump, who was freely elected some three years ago by a supposedly educated and highly enlightened electorate, the United States has produced, tolerated and projected a match to Nigeria’s very worst, someone who appears to combine all the elements of the most disgraceful kind of leadership without the redeeming grace of good, humane and sensible leadership attribute. He was a rank outsider in the US Republican Party and a repudiator of the moderate conservatism of the party, but he bluffed, blustered and jousted his way into winning the party’s candidacy and national diadem, preying on the fears and apprehensions of Americans over immigration and dilution of white control and supremacy.

    Europe has always portrayed itself as multicultural, liberal and ethical. But with the rise of right-wing governments in Austria, Italy and Hungary, and the relentless march of populist parties in Germany, Estonia, Denmark, Bulgaria and Finland, among many others, the condition in which the mind of Europe has long been ensconced is festering and mutating radically. Indeed, everywhere there is a major cultural or economic challenge in Europe, politicians and parties have veered very badly to the right, exploiting populism to fetch easy votes, erect huge ramparts against outsiders, and demonise their perspectives.

    Indeed, there was a brief moment during the last elections in France when the right-wing seemed poised to cause a huge upset. Establishment parties had frayed and the electorate seemed bullishly and instantly regicidal. How France escaped the populist onslaught has not been fully explained. If France was lucky, Britain has not been quite as lucky. There is of course no stretch by which the Conservative Party in Britain could be described as right-wing, but the politics of Prime Minister Boris Johnson is definitely populist, if not next door to right-wing, and Brexit a frightening ogre whose ultimate implications still defy punditry.

    Merely describing a government as right-wing does not, however, justify the policies and politics of Messrs Trump and Johnson, both of whom are appalling, incompetent, vituperative, unconscionable and megalomaniacal. Nor do they excuse the damning trajectory of Hungary’s Mr Viktor Orban and the insufferable and sanguinary excesses of Philippines’ Mr Rodrigo Duterte. Mr Trump runs a divisive and chaotic administration, one which is unashamedly racist, loud, and unfeeling. With countless senior officials of government throwing in the towel not too many months after assuming office, the Trump White House has come to symbolise and embody everything contrary to the most respected of American ideals, ideals tested by years of political and ideological refinement, and the leadership and guidance of the most studious, nationalistic and far-sighted founding fathers any country could have.

    Mr Trump’s most recent blunder in which he instigates a foreign government against a highly placed American political rival, former vice president Joe Biden, is not only a case in point, it is also an indication of how sadly American politics has accommodated and indulged the president’s reckless and provocative brand of politics. Having yielded remorselessly to his unethical governance style, winked at his lack of private scruples, and indulged his braggadocio, it is no surprise that Mr Trump has stretched the frontiers of bad governance to its elasticity limit.

    If care is not taken, he could once again very well get away with murder, an indulgence he has become accustomed to and, given the solidity of his base and their unquestioning loyalty to him,  even feels has become either indispensable to his presidency or integral to American politics. The US is great today more because it had for centuries identified great and noble ideals, embraced them, and made their promotion a lifelong assignment. America is not great because of sheer military muscle, for if that were so, surely they know it is a question of time before the Barbarians march on this hypothetical Rome.

    Whether it is mischievous mimicry or not, Britain’s Mr Johnson has postured inelegantly like Mr Trump, talked carelessly and recklessly like him, undermined the rule of law flagrantly, attempted to strangulate the parliament by proroguing it, and has ridden roughshod over both his inferiors and betters, with equal passion, indiscreet statements  and matchless ferocity. He has not been able to deliver Brexit on terms that either align with his self-induced scepticism or not mock his inflexibility and disdain for parliament. There is in fact nothing to indicate that he will be able to deliver it, despite a law forbidden him to exit the European Union without a deal, let alone empathise with and placate the fears of Europhiles. Self-willed, slightly arrogant and impatient, Mr Johnson has not given any indication that he recognises and therefore needs to protect centuries of British democracy and parliamentarianism.

    Few ever thought the US and Britain could ever sink so low as to enthrone leaders whose fundamental outlook and logic war so violently against the ideals that have stood Europe and America well for centuries. But for their indomitable institutions that continue, with perfect equanimity, to bear the excesses of right-wing European countries and the US, both Mr Trump and Mr Johnson would have unreflectively engineered the destruction of their countries which are still entranced by their sorceries and talismanic zealotry.

    In contrast, and this is where Nigeria has fared very badly, there are no strong institutions to serve as a bulwark for Nigeria. With a succession of bad leaders, most of them so incompetent that they should be completely banned from ever participating in public affairs, Nigeria has groaned under the weight of incompetent leadership and undisciplined governance. The country, it is now known, is not alone in this classic display of underachievement. It may have produced a slew of incompetent rulers and despoiled its land, it must, however, take consolation in the fact that it is definitely not alone. This is a horrifying consolation to take, but better clutch at straw than drown in a shallow pool of its own disgraceful fouling and making.

    Mr Trump has no clue whatsoever about the ennobling and ethical role the United States plays in mediating conflicts in unstable countries and regions, and in policing and projecting liberal values all over the world. Since the US has now seemed to abjure such noble virtues, and there is no other country strong enough or sufficiently gingered to protect human rights and all other rights, countries like Nigeria have been encouraged to clamp down on their peoples regardless of the provisions of their constitutions. Nigeria was for decades eternally poised on the edge of political and economic disaster, without US prodding, it now has free rein to commit excesses that are certain, on a hypothetical tomorrow, to entrap its promoters.

  • Buhari’s team divided over P&ID

    Since the news broke on August 16 that a British court had given Process and Industrial Development Limited (P&ID) approval to seize Nigerian government’s assets worth $9.6 billion, President Muhammadu Buhari has not hidden his desire to get the matter investigated .

    The President wants Nigerians whose hands were soiled in the failed project to build a gas processing plant in Calabar, Cross River State’s capital, punished. In New York few days ago, he came hard on the project, dubbing it a scam.

    He is determined to know who played what role in Nigeria getting into the trap of P&ID, why the contract terms were not properly vetted, and why no one seemed to care about its execution.

    It has come to light, however, that members of the team constituted by the President to investigate the matter are divided over what approach should be adopted by the country to get over saga. While some members of the team share the President’s passion about investigating the matter, getting to the roots of it and punishing the culprits, others believe that investigation is not only time wasting but could lead the country to nowhere.

    The other group is, however, miffed by the proposal, wondering how anyone could be talking of a deal with “facilitators of a dubious contract.” They believe that Nigeria has a good case and should push on with the ongoing legal battle in the hope that the court will quash the judgment awarding $9.9 billion damages against the country.

    Although the team put together by the President appears to be forging ahead going by the go-ahead given Nigeria few days ago by a United Kingdom court to challenge the judgment, SENTRY can reveal authoritatively that all is not well with it. If the pro-arbitration option had their way, those rooting for thorough investigation would have been dropped from the team and   sent home from London where the team relocated to early in the week.

  • A troubled league

    The domestic league is dead. The clubs are slave camps. The country’s league seasons have no calendar. Weekly matches are marred by violence with the culprits (hoodlums, urchins etc) made to look like spirits due to inadequate security. Referees are beaten to pulp regularly because league venues don’t have close circuit televisions to track the beasts. Sadly, some of these battered referees don’t record their ordeal in their match reports, except such scenes happen in parts of the country where the media presence can overwhelm the influence of desperate club managers, owners and, sometimes, sports commissioners.

    Rather than secure an official television station for the competition to help curb violence and carnage, the organisers watched in awe as the previous league television station stopped the contract. A proactive league board would have accepted what the previous television sponsor offered and secure an arrangement where others could either show the games live or record them to be shown later.

    The composition of the board makes it difficult for the members to take binding decisions, especially punishing those who flout the body’s rules. The league board has taken a harvest of decisions with different interpretations, depending on the clout of the offending clubs. If a less influential team infringes on a law, it could get a five-match ban, with a decision to play outside the home state, for instance. If a bigger team flouts the same law, the referees would be punished for ineptitude and the offending club’s fans prevented from watching the next three matches.

    A disturbing example was the ban imposed on Kano Pillars’ captain for his unsportsmanlike conduct during the Super 4 game against Rangers at the Agege Stadium in June, 2019. Instead of banning the player from all competitions, the board stylishly allowed the Pillars’ star the opportunity of playing in the country’s oldest football competition, the Challenge Cup, which is now known as the Aiteo Cup. It is only in Nigeria that such a thing can happen because we politicise everything.

    Well managed league boards in Africa and Europe have begun, with the players sure of the season’s termination date, unlike ours which has become a league without end. It only ends at the dictates of the organisers, who are quick to adopt short cuts for the competition to end. Nigeria is the only league where clubs dictate how the season should end.

    When the organisers are not talking about the now fraudulent contraption called abridged league to hide their ineptitude, demoted clubs form a clique which canvasses that those relegated last season should remain.

    Our clueless administrators fall into the trap by extending the number of clubs in the elite class. It is a shameful circus of how the leagues shouldn’t be prosecuted. The organisers take delight in shifting the commencement  dates of the competition, the recent being the disgraceful pronouncement  that this 2019/2020 season won’t start because there are no sponsors. Isn’t it disheartening that the players have trained for several months without kicking the ball in any competition. Poor lads.

    Payment of players’, coaches’, officials’ and ancillary staff’s is almost forbidden. The so called administrators of the beautiful game (now ugly in Nigeria) are unperturbed about the sad development which turned our players into beggars and emergency cab drivers  for those who have cars in order to eke out a living. Unfortunately, the organisers cannot  secure a sponsor for the league. They drove away the sponsors they met in the league because of their tardy administrative style.

    Companies don’t work in a vacuum. A league without a calendar which will be complied with can’t get a sponsor. A league where administrators cannot stem the tide of violence at match venues is doomed because no firm wants its products and services enmeshed in controversies. A league where the target audience of sponsors (the fans) are scared of attending matches cannot generate cash internally for the clubs and for itself.

    A league where fans run through tear gas fired by security operatives to prevent mayhem isn’t one to attract positive comments from the globe. A league whose fixtures can be changed for spurious reasons, such as going to watch the World Cup, when only one goalkeeper in the domestic league makes the Super Eagles’ squad, underscores the organisers’ poor knowledge of growing the game. After all, matches weren’t played every day. Besides, World Cup fixtures were known months before the competition began.

    Sadly, our football chieftains who gloat around the country over their feats as match commissioners in FIFA and CAF competitions have not been able to implement the objective of using the domestic game as the nursery for the Golden Eaglets (through clubs’ feeder teams), Flying Eagles, Olympic Eagles, CHAN Eagles and Super Eagles. It suits them more to woo Nigeria-born lads in Europe and the Diaspora than to supervise the local game to produce more stars like we had in the past.

    To underscore the importance FIFA attaches to the local game, Enyimba FC and Ifeanyi Ubah FC goalkeeper Ikechukwu Ezenwa brought into the coffers of both clubs $237, 720 (N86 million) following the Super Eagles exit from the group stage as they failed to make it out of the group containing eventual finalist Croatia, familiar foes Argentina and debutants Iceland. Imagine if any Nigerian club had up to five home-based players in the Eagles for the World Cup? Simply multiply N43 million by five (N215 million from FIFA). Good money? Sure, but do our football organisers think this way?

    A league where touts sell match tickets at the gate yet the organisers don’t know why there is carnage. A league where 50 wiry security operatives with batons are trying to stop 3000 rampaging fans from beating up a referee, shows who the organisers are – jesters.

    When a referee is killed, we will constitute panels to find out how it happened, who did it, why and how? Innocent souls will be arrested while the roughnecks will be walking the streets, free as air, with instructions from their principals not be seen around any stadium. Of course, the noise over the dastardly act won’t last long; it will be buried with the victim whose family will be left to bear the burden of losing their loved one.

    Nothing seems to be new because these same characters run the competition yearly. Those who run the domestic game have the penchant for signing MOUs. They enjoy listening to themselves. Those with dissenting views don’t know what it takes to run the game. But this writer won’t give up until the right personnel are put in place.

    The first thing that stadia where games are played need urgently are CCTVs which can’t be destroyed to cover up malpractices. Besides, any stadium that is slated to host games must build special exit gates that will make it absolutely impossible to access the referees before, during and after matches. Any harm inflicted on match referees will translate to 10 points deduction from the offender’s total. Such a defaulting club should not be allowed to play in that venue for one year.

    With a live coverage of the domestic league, it will be easier to identify where a problem began. Those running the league met an existing television right sponsor and a title owner of the league. What happened to these two bodies which funded the operations of the organising body?

    Referees should be encouraged to sue clubs which send touts to beat them. The referees’ body should secure lawyers for them and refuse to discontinue such cases, no matter whose ox is gored. Asking clubs to pay assaulted referees’ hospital bills is not enough.

    A league whose representatives at the continental level are beaten at home by less-fancied clubs in another country should attract the ire of the organisers. Not so here. Nothing changes yearly. A league where new winners keep recycling players who failed with former winners isn’t one to celebrate. Except the league is run properly and clubs are compelled to have feeder teams and competitions instituted for them to play games, the league cannot perform its role of developing players for the national teams.

  • Bauchi governor, NLTP and imperfect identity

    Before it is over, the controversy over whether to execute a Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) programme for herdsmen or serve it in the somewhat more inoculated version of National Livestock Transformation Plan (NLTP) will have cost jobs, denuded political influence and prestige, and stoked pain, anger and suspicion all over the country.

    RUGA, which is hated in some parts of the country for its provocative and culturally flagrant acronym, was to be anchored by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture in ways that stupefied many. NLTP on the other hand, though still viewed with extreme suspicion, emanated from the National Economic Council (NEC). Who first conceived it? It is not clearly stated. For now, flowing from the acrimonious debate over the relevance and security implications of RUGA, the more inclusive NLTP appears to be on the ascendancy, with a hefty budget of about N179bn proposed for its execution over a 10-year period.

     

    Neither NLTP nor RUGA is devoid of controversy, and may not even be the best scientific approach to solving the so-called herdsmen-farmers clashes. Both programmes came out of many decades of slovenly approach to tackling climate problems and desertification, which pushed herdsmen contentiously farther afield in search of grazing lands, and the increasing conurbation and population explosion that have constricted grazing lands. Unable to find the antidote to a fast-growing and menacing problem, the federal government simply watched, sometimes with futile gestures, as herdsmen and farmers locked horns. Now the problem has reached epidemic levels, and is demanding for a solution whether the government likes it or not.

    But rather than look at the problem carefully and cautiously and weigh every suggested solution against the backdrop of the country’s cultural sensitivities and political complexities, the government has made a fairly conventional assessment of the causes of the problem, stunted the need to seek more modern and efficacious solutions, and is now attempting to impose a solution whose future ramifications are unpredictable. RUGA was the more insensitive of the two solutions, but there is also no proof that even the NLTP has met with anything more than cautious and reluctant acceptance from so-called willing states. Indeed, there is no proof that governors, who are members of the NEC, have all confidently signed on to the sanitised variant of the two programmes, especially with the ongoing subterranean and contentious attempt to settle Fulani herdsmen in some unwilling parts of the country.

    To further muddy the waters, the declaration by the Bauchi State governor Bala Mohammed that the Fulani of West Africa have a transcendental identity, and must willy-nilly partake of the NLTP, has stoked controversy and imbued the programme with a suspicious hegemonic quality. The NEC is proposing an initial N100bn budget, fully funded by Nigerian taxpayers. According to Mr Mohammed, however, it would be pointless to attempt to exclude Fulani herdsmen from neighbouring West African countries, because you couldn’t tell the difference: they are all one and the same. They migrate seamlessly and share the same nationality. The governor was, in other words, declaring that the Fulani everywhere see themselves as Fulani first and foremost rather than through the lens of the countries of their birth. This is hugely controversial, ignorant and provocative.

    According the governor: “I think there is a lot of mistrust and misconception as regards the Fulani man. The Fulani man is a global or African person. He moves from the Gambia to Senegal and his nationality is Fulani. As a person I may have my relations in Cameroon but they are also Fulani. I am a Fulani man from my maternal side. We will just have to take this as our own heritage, something that is African. So, we cannot just close our borders and say the Fulani man is just a Nigerian. In most cases, the crisis is precipitated by those outside Nigeria. When there is a reprisal, it is not the Fulani man within Nigeria that causes it. It is that culture of getting revenge which is embedded in the traditional Fulani man that attracts reprisal…We are already accommodating them. Do you delineate and really know who is not a Nigerian Fulani man? They are all Nigerians because their identity, their citizenship is Nigerian even though they have relatives from all over the world. So, presumably they are Nigerians because they move all over and have relations all over. That is why our population in Nigeria is fluid.”

    If Governor Mohammed is right, nationals of Arab countries, for instance, can move without any restraints across borders in the Middle East once they share the same economic identities. They would neither need passports nor visas and are at liberty to enjoy the resources of any country they choose to migrate to whether they were born there or not and whether they pay taxes there or not. It is a hard theory to swallow. The governor made this explosive argument on a Channels Television programme on September 16, 2019. He was obviously persuaded about the reality and logic of his arguments, and managed no doubt to pass on that argument most persuasively to his listeners and other Nigerians who read the report. The National Economic Council meeting days after the Channels programme, however, attempted to douse the controversy triggered by that outlandish argument that suggested that Nigerian resources could be put at the disposal of non-Nigerians, and that in any case borders are needless and fruitless. According to the NEC, the NLTP is to be implemented in seven pilot states of Adamawa, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Nasarawa, Taraba and Zamfara — not the 13 originally proposed, nor of the RUGA 11 — and it would not involve putting the resources of the country at the disposal of foreign herdsmen.

    But overall, Governor Mohammed has been the more believable. He insists that no one can tell the difference between local and foreign Fulani herdsmen, and that it even makes no sense to attempt to tell them apart or to isolate one from another. While the implementation of the programme is some way off, and funds are still merely proposed, it remains to be seen how the pilot states will implement the programme. Will it be at their say-so, or will it be a federal programme that is implemented in their states? With the federal government providing 80 percent of the funds, it remains to be seen how they could cede control to the states or to the private sector participants envisaged by the plan. Furthermore, it is at the point of implementation that Nigerians will know whether the Nigerian government is willing and able to draw the line of differentiation.

    It is also not clear yet why states which have shown the keenest interest were not included in the pilot programme, while initially sceptical states such as Benue and Taraba where extreme hostilities have sometimes been recorded between natives and pastoralists, have been included in the short list of seven states. Nor has the federal government, which has embarked on interminable schemes to placate herdsmen much more than any other economic group, fully explained why it has not simply encouraged the formation of herdsmen cooperatives and restricted itself to backing them with access to low-interest loans. Many critics have suggested that the government’s lethargic approach to mediating herdsmen-farmers conflict is indicative of a collusion with violent herdsmen or at best connivance at the violent seizure of lands.

    If NLTP finally takes off, it is unlikely to bear out the reassurances given by the federal government. As the Bauchi State governor has said, few states implementing NLTP will bother drawing lines between Fulani herdsmen, local or foreign. Indeed, nothing says the NLTP will not eventually transform into RUGA, the original intention of the herdsmen scheme’s creators. From all indications too, with so many questions left unanswered, the government may be unwisely laying the seeds of future conflicts whose repercussions and trajectories may be extremely difficult to manage. It is also predicted that judging from the manner the government has been handling the issue, they may never be able to accurately define or gauge the problem or conceptualise an acceptable national identity for Nigerians capable of sustaining economic planning and promoting internal security. Too many issues are left in flux, and too many alien identities are unfortunately superimposed on the imperfect Nigerian identity.

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    Unable to find the antidote to a fast-growing and menacing problem, the federal government simply watched, sometimes with futile gestures, as herdsmen and farmers locked horns.