The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • How ex-PDP gov’s deal with Buhari’s men went awry

    A former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) governor in one of the northern states is biting his finger after a deal he struck with some foot soldiers of President Muhammadu Buhari in the build-up to the 2019 presidential election went awry.

    As part of their efforts to ensure victory for Buhari in the election, the President’s men were said to have approached the former PDP governor, asking him to support their candidate’s re-election bid with a promise that the former governor would be appointed as the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN)

    With the end of the first term of the Central Bank governor, Godwin Emefiele, only a few months away, the former governor considered the proposal a good and realistic deal. He had no problem agreeing to it, particularly because he believed that his pedigree eminently qualified him for the position.

    His moves thereafter were said to have aroused the suspicion of his party members but he kept assuring them that he had no deal whatsoever with the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Presidential Villa in particular.

    The election came and APC won the state hands down. His party, the PDP, was livid, with many of the party’s top shots accusing him of betrayal. Today, he is not in the good books of the PDP and the powers that be in the party while the APC and the Villa have since sidetracked him with Buhari renewing Emefiele’s appointment.

    Now an outcast in the PDP, the former governor is said to be feeling terribly bad, wondering if he had not been used and dumped.

  • Fayemi, Wike’s newfound friendship set tongues wagging

    There is no gainsaying the fact that recent weeks have been challenging for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). The opposition party has been battling with cold since one of its  pillar of strength , perceived financier and governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, sneezed.

    The party has suffered one sleepless night after the other since the Rivers State governor stormed out of the venue of the presidential primaries of the party from which Alhaji Atiku Abubakar emerged the presidential candidate of the PDP in the build-up to the 2019 general elections. Since then, he has taken various other actions that left the minders of the party worried.

    For instance, in the aftermath of the National Assembly elections where Hon. Kingsley Chinda, the candidate he and other party chieftains supported for the minority leader’s seat in the House of Representatives lost to Hon. Ndidi Elumelu, Wike roundly condemned the panel set up by the party to investigate the ‘coup’ against the party, describing it as corrupt.

    Then came the dismissal of Atiku’s petition in the case he filed at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal against Buhari’s re-election. While the leaders and chieftains of PDP kicked against the judgment, Wike openly congratulated Buhari. Wike’s move sparked anger in PDP’s camp as chieftains of the party called his loyalty to question.

    In the midst of these came the rapport the Rivers State governor developed with his Ekiti State counterpart, Dr. Kayode Fayemi, since Fayemi took his stand on Wike’s side in the latter’s alleged demolition of a mosque in Port Harcourt. Fayemi has since followed this up with a visit to Wike in Port Harcourt where he also commissioned projects.

    The development has left many wondering if Fayemi’s actions were impelled by his position as the Chairman of Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) or a prelude to an agenda that is yet to unfold. The more curious observers are even asking if Fayemi is the one anointed to midwife Wike’s final parting of ways with the PDP as  is being speculated in some quarters.

  • Unease in soldiers’ camp in Katsina

    Not a few eyebrows were raised when the governor of Katsina State, Rt Hon. Aminu Masari, recently took the decision to go into the hideouts of the bandits that had held the state by the jugular for years and engage them in dialogue.

    While some people felt that the move amounted to a great risk on his considering how ruthless the bandits had become, others believed that it was administratively unethical that such anti-social elements would be engaged in a dialogue rather than the fire-for-fire approach.

    It would seem, however, that Masari’s decision has turned out a wise one, going by the revelations that have emerged from it.

    The bandits did not only respond positively to Masari’s olive branch by their decisions to drop their arms and cooperate with the state government in its developmental efforts, some of them were also said to have dropped useful hints to the effect that many of the soldiers and policemen deployed to check the activities of the bandits had been compromised.

    Some of the security agents were said to have entered into agreements with the bandits to look the other way while they carried on with their nefarious activities or even provide them with arms and ammunition while the bandits pay back in cash or rustled cattle.

    Since two leaders of the repentant bandits reportedly opened the Pandora box, security agencies have been working on clues to uncover the soldiers and policemen fueling banditry in the state. Sentry gathered that many of the errant soldiers and policemen are already cringing, with some of them desperately seeking to be transferred away from the state.

  • Dare needs support

    The dilapidated nature of sporting facilities in the country is a mirror reflection of what Nigeria is today – jaded or like Idris Adulkareem sang ‘’Nigeria jagajaga, everything scatter scatter, poor man dey suffer suffer, gbosa, gbosa!’’ Many have wondered how administrators could cast indulgent eyes on such monuments which marked watersheds in our sporting history. A visit to most of these rustic structures around the country draw the ire of those who saw those edifices host important competitions just as the stadia produced some of our best sporting heroes and heroines.

    For these administrators, anything government belongs to nobody. It doesn’t matter if the stadia are in ruins for as long as their offices are intact. Cash allocated to infrastructural development is spent on cosmetic jobs such as repainting of buildings, changing the noticeable areas while the rotten are stacked until there is nothing to hide. The ruination of our facilities didn’t start today. The sports minister should visit the ministry’s books to take stock of how much has been budgeted for infrastructural development and ask those who functioned in the department to give account of their stewardship.

    Except people account for what was budgeted for, we won’t be able to change people’s perception towards government-owned properties. Those found to have misapplied the cash should be made to refund them. Such recovered funds can help a great deal to start the process of fixing the abandoned properties and facilities. If such cash in the past had been deplored to the purposes ( periodic repair works) they were meant for, the cash needed to upgrade them now wouldn’t be as colossal. In fact, repairs on any of these facilities should start from the foundation. Otherwise, disaster awaits us in the event of overcrowding during sporting activities – it could be catastrophic.

    We can use the Sunday Dare era to rebuild our sports in all its ramification. Such changes will be meaningless, if we fail to institute a maintenance culture in the handling of sporting facilities. Builders of most sporting edifices ensures that they sign maintenance agreements with the owners of the structure. They are also expectedto train the nationals on the basic things they need to do to keep the place in top shape. And it starts with engaging a facility manager who recruits his team, which should include grounds men and women, security and other facets as recommended by the builders. There would be periodic innovation and adjustments of key parts of the building that may show signs of weakness, needing fortification with the designate local officers having the privilege to see how they are fitted or repaired.

    The stadium manager isn’t just any person. He is eminently qualified for the job and one of the best, if not the best in the business. It isn’t a job for political patronage since the premises are seen as business concerns, with the manager setting the templates to recoup some of what was spent on such facilities. The quintessential manager appreciates the marketing windows available to the facilities such that firms can pitch for different platforms in the place including the name of the premises.

    In business-conscious climes, sporting facilities are either named after prominent people such as Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola Stadium or after top companies who would emerge from a competitive ballot (a case in point being the FNB Stadium in South Africa), where such facility can get seed money to operate. The minister should ensure that stadia are leased out to big firms such that it would be absolutely impossible for anyone by a fiat to organise political rallies or any other business outside sporting activities. It may sound ridiculous, but in a business, such rules are binding on those who leased out the facilities, since targets must be met.

    It is fraudulent for anyone to ask for millions to re-grass the MKO Abiola Stadium’s soccer pitches when we can recruit horticulturists to do it for less. With good horticulturists, they will have nurseries around the stadium where they will nurture grass which they can easily dig up and use to re-grass areas within the playing turf which are ebbing away. The horticulturists restrict themselves to the playing turfs and the practice pitches.  The stadium manager coordinates them. There should also be a business manager whose duties should be spelt out. For effective running, there must be a management team charged with the responsibility of keeping the premises ready to host sporting events. Stadia around the country should be business concerns if we must be in sync with what happens elsewhere.

    Dare stated on his twitter handle during the week that ‘’Sports is business. a first step in engineering PPP in sports development in Nigeria. Alhaji Aliko Dangote is a convert as he listens to my pitch. I’m about the business of sports to engage our youth for employment and entrepreneurship through sports development. We have set out. Babatunde Raji Fashola is on board. I’m a youth advocate. The youth hold the future of our country in their hands, their heads and intellect. the journey to that future starts now. ‘’

    This writer is, however, happy that the minister has taken the bold step to parley with business moguls such as Aliko Dangote to see how he can do the business of sports with Nigeria. Dangote, for the records has severally shown his interest to acquire Arsenal Football Club in London for staggering figures. Dangote knows that sports is the opium of the people here, but it lacks enduring structures to leverage on firms’ investments.

    But, speaking to Bloomberg TV at the New Economy Forum in Singapore, the 61-year-old has now hinted he may have to look elsewhere if Kroenke – who has just completed a full takeover at the Emirates after a power battle with Alisher Usmanov – does not want to sell.

    “I’m very attached to Arsenal but if he won’t sell, I might have to change. I’m very much a fan of football. I’ll like to have a club. I don’t have to own Arsenal. By the time we’ve finished [the oil refinery], we’ll be a $30bn [£22.8bn] company in terms of revenue,” said Dangote.

    Wao! Dangote is renowned for doing good business. Our sports administrators must sit up and embrace the reality that sports increases the GDP of countries that understand the dynamics of the industry. Spain’s economy, a growing one like Nigeria’s, relies greatly on the volume of cash generated from the sports sector.

    FC Barcelona, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Sevilla, Villarreal, Valencia are not all about football. They have basketball clubs, volleyball clubs, athletics clubs etc, which are professionally run. But football serves as the fountain where others seek succour, considering its followership as the king of sports.

    La Liga’s contribution in Spain’s national economy is no less than any other top-run industry in the country. The two elite division football leagues in Spain generate 185,000 jobs, €4.1 billion ($4.66 bn) in taxes and a turnover equal to 1.37% of the national GDP. This is one sport – football. Others are also run as businesses. Sample: Vuelta a España, a race around Spain and one of cycling’s biggest events.

    Europe’s ‘big five’ leagues spent a record £5billion on players this summer despite Premier League clubs, usually the continent’s most active shoppers, slightly reining in their spending, Deloitte has revealed.

    Honourable minister sir, sponsorship isn’t donation but value exchange based on inventories of benefits accruing to the firm(s) or individual. Indeed, sponsorship without television as a key element amounts to winking in the dark. Our sports is more of having a half empty glass than a half filled one, largely because those who administered it in the past lacked the political will, which Dare is exhibiting with his reposition of issues in so short a time.

    Indeed, there was no funding of sports here because most of the ministers were interested in fighting NFF chiefs and other federations’ helmsmen than creating a financial sponsorship model driven by the principles of Public Private Partnership (PPP).  Dare needs to find out what happened to all the Sports Lottery Fund and some others like the fund-raisers before the last two World Cup tournaments for the Super Eagles.

    The country seriously needs a Sustenance fund for our athletes which should be tied to big firms and/or rich individuals so that we can chart these sports ambassadors’ growth in the events. Besides, we need to re-introduce the fund-raisers we did at least one year before attending major competitions. President Buhari could commence it with a dinner where the big players in business are told what they stand to gain supporting sports. Such incentives as tax rebates would propel them to support sports for as long as they can be assured that the cash isn’t misapplied. The fund raisers will then be taken round the country for all the states to contribute their quota. However, a deliberate attempt should be made to let everyone know how much was realised and how the cash was spent. The minister could use the visits through the states to dialogue with the governors on his vision for sports.

    It is instructive for the minister to meet with sports friendly firms who have left the industry to find out what informed their exits. That way, past mistakes are corrected so that others can be encouraged to participate.

  • Two ministers suspected as moles in $9.6bn P&ID judgment debt

    Insinuations in some quarters that the $9.6bn damages secured by P&ID against the federal government in respect of the latter’s purported failure to honour a contractual agreement it had with the former was arranged by some interests to defraud the government may not be far from the truth if feelers from the inner circles of the Presidential Villa are anything to go by.

    Sentry gathered during the week that some suspected moles in the President’s cabinet are urging the federal government to pay the $9.6bn ordered by the courts for purportedly breaching its contractual agreement with the Irish firm.

    At a session held in Aso Rock between President Buhari and some members of his cabinet on how to tackle the debt overhang, two ministers suspected to be serving other interests were said to have been adamant that the Federal Government should initiate “necessary action” to pay the foreign company the sum specified by the courts.

    The ministers in question were even said to have recommended two people who should meet with the representatives of P&ID to negotiate the terms for the payment of the debt.

    But President Buhari was said to have put his foot down, saying that the federal government was prepared for a fight to the finish with P&ID on the matter.

    The President’s declaration of his resolve was said to have put the two ministers in very uncomfortable positions and they are now doing everything they can to regain the President’s confidence.

  • Anxiety in Melaye’s camp after governorship primaries

    There is palpable anxiety in the political camp of Dino Melaye, the senator representing Kogi West in the National Assembly, following the outcome of the recently concluded governorship primaries of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kogi State.

    Although he had gone into the primary election with high hopes of picking the party’s ticket for the governorship election of the state scheduled to hold on November 16, the result was nothing short of a catastrophe, considering that he had just been sacked by the state’s National Assembly/State Assembly Election Petitions Tribunal.

    The rambunctious senator was still smarting from the shock of the tribunal’s verdict when the governorship primaries of the party was held with him polling a paltry 70 votes to emerge a fourth behind the winner, Musa Wada who polled 748 votes, Ibrahim Abubakar who polled 710 votes and the immediate past governor of the state, Idris Wada, who came third with 345 votes.

    The result of the primary election coupled with his sack by the tribunal as senator means that Melaye faces the grim prospect of a long spell in political wilderness if he fails to reverse the verdict of the tribunal in a superior court.

    Little wonder he has been ranting on twitter over missing votes from eight out of 10 ballot boxes since Wada was declared winner, while the APC candidate, Governor Yahaya Bello, has been celebrating the defeat as if he has won re-election.

  • Legality, politics and justice

    The  dismissal  of the  2019   Presidential  election petition  of by the Election Tribunal in Nigeria this week,  together  with the allegation in   the   UK  that the British PM  Boris  Johnson lied to the Queen  in getting her consent to prorogate  Parliament,  provide  food for thought today. We  shall  look  at these two  issues in the light of  the statement that the law  can  be  an  ass  at times and also  wonder  aloud   how   legal  erudition can   somewhat   turn to  buffoonery given  the reasons that eminent lawyers pursue in open court to  advance their clients cases and interests. We    also  take a peep  at how the US President Donald  Trump is using  the US Supreme  Court as a’ weapon’ to  advance his policies on immigration  in the  American   presidential   system of  politics.

    These  events throw  up  the issues of legitimacy, legality, the rule of  law and the pursuit  of justice in any  political  system  and are  not peculiar  to Nigeria, the UK  and the US. On  each  scenario  however we shall  highlight what  we deem to  be  the mood,  guiding  principle  or motivation.  We  shall  therefore  as in Nigeria’s  case  ask    why the legal  luminaries that  represented the opposition PDP thought  that a presidential  candidate like the incumbent  Nigerian  president can  be disqualified on account of his educational  qualification given his background as an Army General  and someone who had  contested and lost elections for the same office four times in the past . In  Britain we shall see  the implications of mendacity  by  the PM for  Brexit  and the future of  the British  Parliamentary  system. In the US   we  examine  the rancorous  cowboy  politics of  the US President in filling the US Supreme Court with crony  judges  who  give him legal  backing for  his political  agenda and see  how that is affecting US politics consequently. Let me now  dilate  broadly  on these highlighted  situations  in the three nations.

    Of all  the five grounds of  appeal,  by the  PDP  dismissed  by the Election tribunal   it  is the educational qualification that  I  found  most  interesting. How  it got  to be an  issue to disqualify  this particular  candidate  on this   ground  is  simply  unbelievable. It  happened before when legal  luminary GOK Ajayi   brought up  the issue of educational  qualification of former President Olusegun Obasanjo in the presidential  election he won  at the time. The  two  events are  similar  but  in the case of President Muhammadu  Buhari I  think it is a  provocative insult  and shows that  the lawyers  for Atiku lack  the erudition they  parade in not seeing the absurdity of a plea for  disqualification  on  lack  of requisite  qualification  of a candidate  who  went to NDA, became a general in the army, was a military  Head of State and had  contested election four times before and lost,  till  he won in 2015 and 2019.

    One  does not need the lengthy judgment that threw  out  the disqualification on account of education given by the tribunal  because simple  common  sense   showed  the buffoonery of  the plea. Indeed  the president deserved exemption from  educational qualification given his military service and the height he reached and not the disgrace of disqualification  based  on his   education  as his opposing   lawyers averred  at  the tribunal. This really  was a lesson in absurdity and a great  mistake  of seeking to make an ass  of the law. I  can recall what Agrippa the judge told Paul of Tarsus  in the bible, ‘Paul, Paul  thou  art mad, thine too  much  learning doth turneth  thee to  madness ‘Really  too much  erudition especially  in the law  can make  lawyers  fall  from the sublime to the ridiculous.

    In  the UK  the rule  of law  is facing   a huge test  over  Brexit  that  is bound  to task  Britain’s  monarchical  democracy  that has hitherto  served it so  brilliantly in providing political  stability. On  occasions like this one can recall  a statement on the beauty of the role of British  monarch  that says –‘ with the Queen in Buckingham Palace every  Briton sleeps well in his bed. ‘This  statement puts absolute trust  of the British in their  monarchy as a bastion of stability and security. Now  if a PM is adjudged  to  have lied to  the Queen, a  charge Boris Johnson  has denied, then  the British  people should have great  cause for  concern  about the workings of their Parliamentary  democracy. But  credibility  is an asset  that  Boris Johnson is losing fast  on Brexit .

    He  has promised that Britain will  leave the EU deal  or no deal by  October 31. But  Parliament last week passed a law prohibiting No  Deal and when asked if he would  implement that he said he would rather  be seen dead in a ditch . But then even though a court in England ruled his prorogation legal, another court in Scotland  has ruled otherwise noting judicially that his  prorogation  was to stymy Parliament and  a higher  court is expected to resolve the legality of the Prorogation presently. Already  the Speaker  who has said he would  leave his post by October 31 has vowed  that  Parliament will  not allow anyone to bypass the laws it has enacted on Brexit. There  is  no doubt  in my mind that Boris Johnson is  going to do  something nasty and illegal  while Parliament is on suspension . The  saying is quite apt here that while  the cat  is away mice would  pay.  Surely the British  PM  knows  his onions  on Brexit but he should be careful  that Brexit , deal or know deal, does not become his political hemlock.

    We  round up with US President Donald  Trump  who  had the backing of the US Supreme Court   this week  in his policy  of reducing the rate of immigration from named nations as well  as from Central  America through its neighbor Mexico. The  US Supreme Court  has ruled to allow  government  to severely limit the ability of migrants to ask  for asylum in the US once they  failed to do so in a transit nation before. Lower  courts have ruled against this before and stopped the Trump policy in its tracks to his  chagrin. Now that Trump  has majority of judges on the Supreme Court, who share his world views on many issues,  he is using the rule of law  to  have his way. While some may accuse him of subverting the   checks  and balances inherent in the   presidential   system  there are those  who  will say that separation of powers does not necessarily preclude symmetry between  the executive and legal  arms of a presidential  system  of  government.  Once again long live the Federal  Republic of Nigeria.

  • Human Rights Commission decries trivialisation of life

    When international human rights organisations and local civil society groups conclude that life is cheap in Nigeria, they are not guilty of exaggeration. With a Human Development Index of 0.532 and a burdensome population of over 200 million people, Nigeria is ranked among the worst countries to live in, and is ranked exceedingly low in Human Capital Index. The cheapness of life, far worse than even poverty, has made living in Nigeria a veritable nightmare. But that cheapness is compounded by governments that can’t tell the difference between good and evil and are therefore unwilling to take the trouble to mend their brutal ways on the one hand, and a people whose diverse and puerile perspectives make them vulnerable to and even complicit in their own brutalisation on the other hand.

    Last Thursday, to the country’s relief, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) surprisingly described the continuing killing of Shiite members by the police as tantamount to making life worthless in Nigeria. The police, like the federal government, have become punitive, excessive, and brutal. In their unending confrontations with Shiite members, particularly the Islamic Movement in Nigeria (IMN), the police have not sought any civilised means of riot control. Indeed, to tackle every protest, the police simply wield and use assault rifles, relying less and less on riot gears, truncheons  and tear gas. Inevitably, in every protest, the argument is not about whether any protester was killed but how many were killed.

    Shiites in Nigeria marked their Ashura procession on Tuesday. Days before the procession, the police had warned leaders of the sect that marches were forbidden, and that if the Shiites went ahead to dare the police, they would get their comeuppance. Said the police spokesman, Frank Mba, in response to a question on what the police would do if Shiites insisted on conducting their procession: “What do you want me to say? Let them (Shiites) carry out their procession first, then you would see what the police would do.” The answer was menacing. It was not clear whether the police realised the question was a leading one, the kind of question that tried to probe whether the police and the federal government which banned the IMN in July realised the anomaly, not to say the short-sightedness, of banning an entire religious organisation.

    Though the government later clarified that the Shiite ban was intended only for the IMN, and not the entire Shiite body, they were too muddled up in their thinking to explain how they would be able to differentiate the IMN members, who remain Shiites, from the entire Shia organisation when the sect kick-starts the procession. It turned out, however, that differentiating the Shiites was a luxury the government and its increasingly flagrant police were uninterested in making. To the government, both the IMN and Shiites are coterminous. Indeed, for years, despite a Court of Appeal ruling that nullified the police’s reactionary perception of processions and protests, the police have adamantly stuck to approaching every protest as both unauthorised and a threat to the government. The provisions of the constitution mean nothing.

    Thus when the Shiites, true to their oath, organised their Ashura procession on Tuesday, the government, which had issued threats and equated the Shiites with the IMN, deployed force against the sect. Though the police claimed no one was killed, Shiite spokesmen insisted some 15 of their members were mowed down in cold blood. It was in the context of these alleged killings that the Human Rights Commission deplored the police approach to managing street protests, concluding that life had become inconsequential. Said the Executive Secretary of NHRC, Tony Ojukwu, through a statement signed by the agency’s spokesman, Lambert Oparah, “These acts of extra-judicial killing by the police have made human life inconsequential in Nigeria.”

    Mr Ojukwu is not guilty of hyperbole. By every yardstick, human life has become meaningless in Nigeria. This meaninglessness of life did not, however, begin with this government; it has been a long-running and long-standing curse, regardless of whether it was during military rule or in a democracy. Under the Olusegun Obasanjo presidency, for instance, whole communities were razed down by troops under the pretext of smoking out murderers and other criminals. Zaki Biam in Benue State and Odi in Bayelsa State were sacked by troops purporting to look for criminals who murdered some soldiers. Not only was the government’s response unconstitutional, it was also disproportionate. Sadly, national lawmakers and the public were indifferent to the killings and connived at the bloodletting, both arguing that the killing of soldiers was the ultimate defiance of authority which must never be condoned. How the massacre of innocent women, children and the aged amounted to a lawful response seemed to have escaped the public. Nor could anyone prove that sacking whole communities amounted to a sensible deterrent.

    Since the police have embraced the strong-arm tactics of bloodily repressing protests without any censure from the government or the undiscerning public, the gory practice has continued apace. It surprised no one that a few days ago, the police simply came out with guns blazing to battle students of the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE), killing two students in the process. They claimed no one was shot dead, but students and eyewitnesses argued that the police shot directly at the protesting students. Life indeed remains inconsequential in Nigeria, with many families losing their children and loved ones to needless and brutal police shootings. The brutality continues because the public and their lawmakers approve the tragedy.

    Indeed, the story of Nigeria now is appropriately titled For Whom the Bell Tolls. Fleeing suspects are shot at indiscriminately, with the bullet sometimes hitting innocent passers-by. Law enforcement agents, government officials, magistrates, some of them acting independently, herd innocent people and suspects into overcrowded detention facilities and jails. Unquestioning judges also liberally interpret the laws of the land to help paranoid governments at state and federal levels put citizens needlessly in jail, often for periods exceeding what their alleged crimes indicate in the statutes. It is, therefore, not surprising that the wasting of lives has continued. The conspiracy by the government, an uncritical public, a conniving judiciary, an opaque criminal justice system, unprofessional and homicidal law enforcement agencies, and an unresponsive legislature have all combined to render Nigeria poor, unlivable, inefficient and violent.

    The Human Rights Commission’s unequivocal and censorious statement describing life in Nigeria as inconsequential, though not sufficient to trigger massive change, will hopefully stir the conscience of the country and instigate the people and their lawmakers into courageously attempting to change the climate of fear and repression that has hobbled the development and modernisation of the country. These needless killings must stop. Surely the government has not lost the capacity to feel the pains of grieving families who are burying their loved ones, some of them in their youth, simply because the law enforcement agencies can’t develop a modern crime fighting and crowd management tactics to tackle police deviants and angry citizens. Enough of the bloodletting

  • New dawn Eagles

    Nothing excites this writer more than watching young Nigerians grow through the ranks of the beautiful game.

    Although we have wasted several generations of players discovered from the grassroots, it appears we are rediscovering some and playing them during the big games involving the Super Eagles, a trend which is in tandem with FIFA’s goals in inaugurating age-grade competitions. Nigeria needs to catch up with the rest of the world in fielding players who evolved from age-grade teams.

    Looking at the players’ roll call in Dnipro on Monday ahead of the game against Ukraine, I was confident that the Ukrainians would be shocked, given the way their players were running the usual mind-games’ commentaries on what they would do to the Nigerians. Such headlines as ‘ No mercy for Eagles’, ‘We will attack Eagles full force’ etc raised my hopes further, especially as our boys didn’t trade words with them.

    Troost Ekong, Alex Iwobi, Oghenekaro Etebo, Simon Moses, Semi Ajayi, goalkeeper Francis Uzoho, Victor Osimhen, Samuel Chukwueze, Samuel Kalu, Olaoluwa Aina and Jamilu Collins, not forgetting debutants Joseph Aribo of Glasgow Rangers, Scotland, Joshua Maja of Girondins Bordeaux, France, Emmanuel Dennis of Club Brugge, Belgium and Anderson Esiti of PAOK Salonica of Greece represent the future of our Eagles, given the performances of Nigerians in Europe this season. A few others, such as Henry Onyekuru, Wilfred Ndidi, Tyronne Ebuehi, Ikechukwu Ezenwa, Paul Onuachu, Bonaventure Dennis, Kelechi Iheanacho, Anderson Esiti, Chidozie Awaziem, Maduka Okoye and Brian Idowu, need to be encouraged with such big games.

    Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) chieftains should ask coach Gernot Rohr to search for defenders and goalkeepers in the domestic league. This can only happen, if Rohr lives here longer than he does now. Rohr can stay in Nigeria and watch games here weekly. Technology has made it possible for anyone to watch missed games on television – courtesy of the Explora device on DSTV, yet have the same impact on his selection.

    Looking at the team which played in Dnipro on Tuesday, one is tempted to celebrate. What I saw of the players doesn’t look like a fluke. Those boys play weekly for their European clubs and it showed in the way they handled the ball.

    They were very fit, they were faster to the ball than the Ukrainians and they knew what to do with the ball, going forward. I’m sure we would have won the game, if Rohr wasn’t concerned with utilising the six changes available to both coaches during such friendly matches.

    Members of the country’s Olympic Games’ squad, such as Kelechi Nwakali, Taiwo Awoniyi, Azubuike Okechukwu and Effiong Ndifreke, should immediately be drafted to the Super Eagles instead of digging deep into the past to unearth ageing players. Mikel Obi and Odion Ighalo have quit the team honourably. Others, such as  Daniel Akpeyi, Leon Balogun (if he continues to sit on the bench at Brighton), Oguenyi Onazi and, possibly Kenneth Omeruo, should be pulled out honourably through international matches. The average age of most national teams is 22, hence the fast pace of matches.

    Do we have a team for the future? Ukraine’s coach, Coach Andriy Shevchenko, a top international, provided the answer in a post match interview in which he said: ‘’But today’s (Tuesday night’s) game was very important, we received a lot of valuable information.”

    Shevchenko urged his countrymen to applaud the Yellow Men for the pulsating 2-2 draw, pointing out that:”It is very difficult to find the ideal at all. The team is moving in the right direction. It is impossible to compare today’s (Tuesday night’s) match with the previous one against Lithuania.”

    Shevchenko told reporters after the game – Soccernet.ng confirmed – that: “It is a completely different team made up of players who play in different championships. But today’s (Tuesday night’s) game was very important, we received a lot of valuable information.”

    We hope that NFF will secure quality matches for the team to blend. Such games should be held in the country to give Nigerians an opportunity to watch their heroes. Playing matches at home will open a new vista for sports sponsorship since business chiefs will appreciate the marketing windows available to them to connect with the fans, who they could convert to their customers.

    Of course, everything should be done to ensure that the coaches are comfortable and are paid their wages regularly.

    Good luck Nigeria.

    Whither Serena Williams

    The deafening noise from the US Open court’s women singles final, especially with the ouster of the Queen of the courts, Serena Williams, is instructive, even though most of her admirers continue to rue her misfortune on compassionate grounds – expectedly, many have imputed bad luck, age, etc as the reason for the bad days on the courts for cup finals.

    But the truth is that Serena is being beaten by young girls who see her as their heroine. These young girls have modelled their game after Serena’s, with their coaches perfecting plans on how to beat their queen, exploiting her weaknesses, which aren’t known to the American. Not many champions stand the chance of correcting their mistakes during matches. Most times, they are frustrated and it influences the outcome of the matches. Serena’s case shouldn’t be different.

    Any person worried by the trends in anything would definitely be angry and eventually lose focus. This is where Serena has failed. Serena, despite her towering status, hasn’t be able to manage her temperament. If she hopes to conquer the new final game hoodoo, she should work on her mood swings during matches. Serena must learn how to play without being influenced by the fans or be worried about the umpire’s nuisances, including wrong calls. Umpires are humans, prone to mistakes.

    If Serena must break the ‘unforced jinx’, she should sit back at home with her coaches to watch the new girls on the bloc and change her approaches to games. If Serena sticks to her previous strategies, she won’t beat these girls.

    Such changes include improving on her first serves, which are not as potent as they used to be.

    I don’t think Serena’s problem is her age. She should learn to be as calm as cucumber. She should learn to throw her balls a little higher for her first serves. She should deemphasise speed on the serve but placement, which should give her enough time to move briskly towards the net to finish off the serve with killer half volleys or smashes, depending on the height of the returned ball.

    Indeed, Serena’s game management is on the decline. She needs a bit of variation to confound these younger girls who are quicker to the ball. I don’t know if she still reckons with her manager. If she doesn’t, she should quickly get someone she can listen to. Possibly her elder sister Venus, only if she is a coach. With a good coach, she would know if her problems include having to change her grip of the racquet among other plausible reasons.

    Serena’s ability to win these biggest of the big matches was her calling card, a talent that was virtually unmatched by even her most illustrious WTA peers of the past. From 1999 to 2015, Serena went 21-4 in major finals. Two of those losses came to her sister Venus and another to Maria Sharapova. Serena was so incensed by the latter defeat that she’s still avenging it 15 years later.

    Serena would need to overcome this psychological problems associated with her recent final matches. She could possibly sit with her elder sister Venus to review her game and chart a new course to surpass the record on her sight. It is achievable only if Serena accepts that the present predicament is hers to resolve.

    Arsenal’s axe indeed

    Driving through Gbagada Road’s traffic occasioned by the ongoing construction  to increase the height of the road’s median, I noticed one guy carrying a sign board, which read “Arsenal’s axe”. I was curious and consequently changed my lane in the gridlock to have a closer look at that what the guy was saying.

    Surprise. This hawker was wearing an old, tattered Liverpool shirt, but my focus was on what he wrote. I didn’t see him carrying any load to suggest that he kept the axes inside the bags. Rather, I saw a sign which signifies any product produced by Nike.

    What was this sign?  Nike’s usual “good” sign. I couldn’t find any correlation with the good sign and axes. I also couldn’t reconcile how Arsenal’s “guns” could suddenly become “axes”. Equally laughable was the fact that the hawker wore a Liverpool top. Don’t ask me if there were no security operatives.

    The gridlock suddenly eased, allowing for quicker vehicular movement, hence I zoomed off, leaving the man (God forgive me, because the hawker looked like a lunatic), to walk in the opposite direction. I just hope he truly didn’t have axes with him.

  • Judiciary as political umpire?

    It was the National Chairman of the defunct National Party of Nigeria (NPN), Chief Meredith Adisa Akinloye, who famously declared in the run up to the 1983 general elections that there were only two political parties in Nigeria – the NPN and the military. The opposition political parties took umbrage at Akinloye’s explosive assertion. They interpreted it as implying that the ruling NPN would prefer the military coming back to power than losing at the polls. Yet, there was an element of truth in Akinloye’s thesis. The military, which had only recently quit the political stage in 1979 after 13 years of praetorian rule, was still a potent political force waiting in ill-disguised impatience, to hijack power, once again, not just from the NPN as assumed by Akinloye, but from the political class as a whole. And this is exactly what happened with the military coup of December, 1983, that sacked the Second Republic.

    The politicians, seemingly oblivious of the existential danger they faced as a ruling power elite, continued to approach competition for power as a desperate do – or die affair, until the military crept into the political household like the proverbial thief in the night. The country was to remain under the jackboots of military authoritarianism until the onset of this political dispensation in 1999 after the forced exit from the political terrain of the men in uniform.

    Despite the last two decades of unbroken civilian rule since 1999, it is evident that not much has changed as regards the tendency of the political class to pursue the acquisition of political power with such fierceness and utter absence of restraint that perennially threatens not just democracy but the stability and very existence of the polity as a whole. Yes, unceasing quarrels, disagreements and disputes among factions and fractions of the political class are inherent and indispensable features of the democratic process. But these must always be conducted within the boundaries of the ‘constitutive and regulative’ rules of the game if they are not to become dysfunctional to the system.

    In the absence, for instance, of a largely coherent and credible entity like the military able to intervene as in the past when democratic rule experiences systemic breakdown, persistently disruptive behavior on the part of the political class is more likely to result in generalized descent to anarchy with devastating consequences within and beyond Nigeria if such an entity as we know it survives as a cohesive whole.

    This is why it is so sad that the proclivity of Nigeria’s political class towards political self-immolation, which had brought the polity to grief so many times in the past, continued to be evident before, during and after the 2019 elections. The violence that marred the elections at several polling centres in many states was only an indication of the ferociousness of the power struggle. With the conclusion of the elections and the announcement of winners and losers at various levels, the battle only shifted in most cases from the electoral to the judicial front.

    The depth of desperation of political actors in the quest to win or retain power at all costs was again poignantly exhibited in some of the extremist submissions both of the petitioners, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and the PDP on the one hand and the respondents, President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC on the other, in the presidential election dispute resolved in favour of Buhari on Wednesday. For instance, Atiku did not only want the court to pronounce on the integrity and plausibility of the 2019 election results as pronounced by INEC, he sought to convince the court that Buhari was unqualified to contest the election in the first place because he allegedly lacked the constitutionally stipulated educational requirements.

    Of course, the court was, unsurprisingly, not persuaded. Here is a man who had not only risen to the apex of Nigeria’s military as a General; he is a former Head-of-State and Commander-In-Chief of the country’s Armed Forces. Furthermore, he had contested for the country’s presidency on four previous occasions amassing substantial votes on all occasions. Had Atiku’s submission been upheld by the court, Buhari’s election would have been annulled and the PDP candidate declared winner even though he lost the election by a margin of no less than four million votes! That would have been a veritable judicial coup.

    But then, the Buhari camp was also uncharitable and provocative in contesting Atiku’s claims partly on the grounds that the PDP candidate is not a Nigerian by birth. It is laudable that the court did not find the reasons adduced for this submission plausible and thus dismissed it. Again, here is an Atiku who rose to the top hierarchy of the Nigeria Customs Service from where he retired to pursue his career in business and politics for over three decades now. He was a former Vice-President of Nigeria for eight years and after that had contested for the country’s presidency on two occasions.

    These kinds of submissions by both Atiku and Buhari, had they been upheld by the courts would have eposed Nigeria to global ridicule and generated severe tensions and conflicts in the polity. It is important that members of the political elite cultivate the discipline to look beyond their immediate personal interests in the pursuit of their ambitions and also consider the stability, peace and cohesion of the polity. For, a country must first exist before political offices can be meaningfully competed for.

    Does this mean that aggrieved contestants and parties in elections must sacrifice the pursuit of justice in the interest of peace? No. The latter will surely always ultimately be a function of the former. But has Atiku really been denied justice in this instance as claimed by the PDP in its rather provocative reaction to Wednesday’s verdict of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC)? It is difficult to agree with the PDP. Luckily, the PEPC’s judgement was not delivered in the cloistered closet of the court. The 8-hour marathon judgement was broadcast live on national television for the public to follow. In my view, the jurists were painstaking and rigorous in their submissions even though the Supreme Court will have the last say on the matter.

    Atiku and the PDP claim on the one hand that the elections were marred by large scale violence and intimidation of voters by security agents, over voting, manipulations, alterations and subtraction of valid votes given to Atiku by Nigerians all of which resulted in Buhari’s victory as declared by INEC. But it claims, on the other hand, that this allegedly perverted and grossly manipulated process by electoral and security agencies, working in concert with the APC, also strangely resulted in Atiku’s victory according to results the party claims to have obtained from an INEC server that it failed to convince the courts exists.

    This is an irreconcilable contradiction. How did these alleged gross irregularities not stop the PDP’s victory in the 17 states and the Federal Capital Victory which it won in the 23rd Februray, 2019, presidential election in contrast to the APC’s victory in 19 states. The truth is that it was a closely fought and largely credible election whatever its shortcomings.

    But then, this is not just a problem peculiar to Atiku and the PDP. It is a question of an entrenched political culture in which contestants for political office do not accept the outcome of elections and always resort to litigation no matter how glaring their defeat at the polls. After all, Buhari also resorted to seeking judicial intervention up to the Supreme Court on the three occasions that he lost the presidential election until his victory on the fourth attempt. His 2015 election triumph, however, shows that Buhari’s previous losses could be attributed not just to electoral malpractices but also the limitations of his political platforms and his lack of a pan-Nigerian appeal on those occasions.

    Yes, aggrieved contestants for political office have the right to seek redress exploiting all constitutionally stipulated avenues to do so in the accordance with democratic tenets. In fact, we have had several badly rigged executive and legislative elections upturned especially since 2007 thus strengthening both democracy and the judicial process in Nigeria. But when contesting the outcome of elections in court becomes the norm rather than the exception when elections have been demonstrably rigged, it becomes a distracting, enervating and dysfunctional practice.

    To strengthen public confidence in the electoral process and thus reduce the justification for reflexive resort to the courts by losers in elections, the National Assembly should improve on the Electoral Act passed by the 8th Assembly but which was rejected by the President and ensure that this time around it is passed into law.