The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Wanted: New thinking for Sports

    I love my country. I wish the best for her in all spheres. I cringe anytime the national anthem is sung. I share in the dreams of our sports ambassadors, knowing what they pass through to get to competition venues. Let’s not delve so much on the injuries they sustain during such competitions and how many of them are left unattended to until the media highlight their predicament. We owe them a lot when they retire.

    Therefore, when our sports ambassadors insist on determining what they should get, I feel bad because there are better ways of doing such things. I feel ashamed in competition venues when other nationals mock Nigeria over players’ allowances and bonuses, for instance. Such nationals’ brickbats underscore why Nigeria needs a pragmatic sports policy, which transcends any particular administration.

    I recall spending a day in Aso Rock in Abuja during the Goodluck Jonathan administration with eminent Nigerians across all the sectors of the economy, trying to chart the way forward for sports. Whereas the government was serious in its plans for a new dawn, it would shock many to read here that most of the committees’ reports didn’t represent what the members discussed. A few people hijacked the process by getting their lackeys to work on the scripts. Many members complained but their cries fell on deaf ears. No prize for guessing that all that was recommended died on arrival. Same of the same, like one politician once said.

    The session with Jonathan arose from Nigeria’s shambolic outing at the London 2012 Olympic Games, where the country’s contingent left England without a medal. The conveners of the summit kept their men in key areas. They wrote a report which hasn’t reformed the industry. The reforms chose to highlight the need for the re-emergence of the Sports Commission. The submission ensured that those who killed the industry in the sports ministry graduated to be members of the new commission.

    Seven years on, nothing has changed since that summit. Our athletes at the Olympics in Brazil returned without a medal in 2016. Nigeria came home with a bronze from the men’s soccer event. The coach was pilloried by the minister, who later apologised for his conduct. The damage had been done, especially with the shameful manner in which the team left the United States for Brazil, only to win the country’s only medal – a bronze. Sports ministers are the problems of the industry. But this is a topic for another day.

    I reckon that the minister knows better now, and he appreciates the fact that asking our national teams to prepare for competitions outside the country arose from the derelict state of our facilities and to ensure that our ambassadors are not distracted.

    What stands out clearly from our bronze medal feat in the soccer event is that with good planning, our athletes are capable of great things. I expect the minister to have learned a few lessons. He will understand better when told that a team wants to camp in serene places for competitions. It is true that our athletes should be able to train here. But with our derelict facilities, coupled with the recession, it will be cheaper to camp overseas. Did I hear you say how? Most of our good athletes live overseas. It is cheaper for them to reach those camp sites. The federations often plead with them to pay their way to the camp, with a promise to refund what they spent.

    Our sports won’t grow with a fiscal year budget which takes forever to be passed. Sports’ budgets should be a four-year cycle or a two-year document that would foot the bills of a particular competition. For instance, the Olympic Games has a four-year cycle. The government can cultivate corporate bodies to sponsor athletes to the multi-sports event. Corporate firms won’t identify their goods or services with brands which are enmeshed in crises or fraught with sharp practices, especially when such unconfirmed accusations are spearheaded by officials in high places.

    Firms will fight for space if the President leads a fund-raiser ahead of one of the major championships at a dinner. The President would use the dinner to challenge the blue-chip firms to support the industry. He will offer incentives that will further encourage the firms to sponsor sporting events. Elsewhere, sport is financed by the people, not the government. Like they say, government money is cheap and largely unaccounted for, hence those who supervise sports here are not perturbed about the absence of corporate funds in developing the industry.

    The President can on such an occasion name a committee of six knowledgeable and respectable business-minded people to superintend over the cash collected. The composition of the committee will be such that its members are icons in the business community. Nigeria once had that kind of committee, headed by the late MKO Abiola.  Sports thrived. Those were our glorious years.

    The Africa Cup of Nations is a biannual event. Commonwealth Games, World Cup, All Africa Games etc are four-yearly events. These competitions are not for both sexes and broken down into fragments, such as U-13, U-15, U-17, U-20, U-23 and the senior teams. We must not forget the physically-challenged athletes (both sexes) too in the sports road map, which interestingly is populated with world record holders.

    Sadly, many of these physically-challenged athletes are abandoned after winning laurels. It is sickening when those who should take them to the President rationalise that the thank you visits are shifted until when a large ceremony can be held. They are not rewarded, leaving them with the option of returning to the National Stadium Lagos’ gates running bus, Keke Marwa and Danfo shuttles through the Stadium, Barrack, Ojuelegba, Anthony etc bus stops. Only in Nigeria can this kind of thing happen where world champions toil for themselves.

    It hurts reading the story of how a former gold medallist with Canada in wrestling, a Nigerian went to borrow money to enable our wrestlers attend the All Africa Games qualifier. He also used the cash to prosecute the Olympic Games qualification. That’s how demeaning our sports has been dragged with the ministry’s chieftains clueless.

    The Buhari administration should tell Nigerians what its sports policy is for us to know if we can be tagged a sports-loving country or we join the league of smaller nations who attend international sporting competitions to fulfil all righteousness. There must be a human face to some of the stringent measures that this government has placed on expenditure to save the administration from these embarrassing cases.

    Again, the Buhari administration could streamline the priority competitions that our athletes can participate in. But the flipside to this kind of decision is that it would kill such sports as golf, cricket, hockey, volleyball, basketball, swimming, tennis, table tennis, judo, karate, weightlifting, taekwondo, cycling etc. Some of these sports are big money spinners in other countries, such as America, Brazil, China, Germany, Italy and England.

    We pretend as if the dates of the competitions aren’t known at least four years before the tournaments are held. We become the laughing stock when stories of our ill-preparedness for tournaments go viral. The reason is that we have incentive ministers who are ready for everything to crumble at the risk of our integrity and pride. Otherwise, how do you explain our refusal to return International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF’s) $135,000 which the body overpaid the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) for a tournament held two years ago.

    IAAF traditionally gives $15,000 to any country hosting a developmental programme like we did in Asaba. But, in sending the cash online, one of its officials sent $150,000. A sensitive federation ought to have immediately informed IAAF of the huge difference and send the money back. Our officials didn’t contact IAAF despite reminders. A sensitive body, including the sports ministry, ought to have refunded the cash with the new information. Not in Nigeria. It has taken a threat to banish the country form all athletics competitions before our officials met in Abuja on Tuesday to hide their reproach. Good to know that the EFCC has shown interest in this disgraceful act. Enough.

    It is a shame that an athletics power like Nigeria can arrive at a competition venue in the morning and compete later in the day. The contingent travelled for 14 hours, yet we expected a miracle. Of course, the officials cannot be bothered for as long as they are in the European country. Such trips enrich their international passports and give them the opportunity to shop. Little wonder, immigration officials watch in awe anytime a Nigerian contingent returns from a tournament – with trolleys of personal wares and no laurels.

    There cannot be officials without athletes. We need a new sports minister to chart the way forward, devoid of clashes with the NFF, as if the other 29 sports don’t count. Every former minister promised to improve on the state of the National Stadium, Lagos. Yet, the facility is derelict, raising posers over how the Ministry of Sports spends the money earmarked for repairs. Sports City Surulere is Sodom and Gomorrah, where the unthinkable happens, depending on when you visit the place. It hurts to note that the only things that remind anyone of the once famous sports centre is the convergence of alcoholics in all the joints and attendant obscene things that follow.

  • el Rufai’s thoughts and non-thoughts on godfatherism

    From my reading of the media reports of the ‘lecture’ delivered by Kaduna State governor, Mallam  Nasir-El-Rufai to members of The Bridge Club in Lagos recently, it was hardly a structured or intellectually rigorous affair despite the quality of the audience.  el-Rufai’s random musings on the occasion during which he largely entertained himself and massaged his own ego was of negligible analytic value because he failed to at the very least clearly define his central subject, godfatherism, which seems to be the main reason for the event.  This is perhaps because he was asked the question on godfatherism in Lagos seemingly off the cuff. But was the question by Dr Muiz Banire just an accidental one? It is unlikely. The event was evidently well choreographed. Thus, he should have examined the phenomenon of godfatherism both historically and empirically in Nigeria and given a justification for his zeroing in on Lagos when there are powerful and influential politicians in practically every state in the country.

    To worsen matters, when answering questions on the lecture later in Abuja, el-Rufai denied making reference to one of the National Leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is also reputed to be the chief architect and pathfinder of the developmental renaissance witnessed in Lagos over the last two decades. Yet he petulantly maintained that he stood by his position at the lecture although also saying that he did not know whether or not Tinubu was a godfather of Lagos politics.

    Well then, let us try to deconstruct the notion of godfatherism as best as we can. The concept of godfatherism can be articulated in perjoorative  terms as El-rufai has done or in a more positive sense, which he appeared to be completely oblivious of. When the Kaduna State governor insinuates that every influential, powerful and electorally successful politician is a godfather who must be pulled down, then his sense of the term would encompass great, charismatic and astute Nigerian politicians like Dr. Nnmadi Azikwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Alhaji Ahmadu Bello, Mallam Aminu Kano, Dr Michael Okpara, Dr Joseph Tarka, Chief Anthony Enahoro, General Samuel Ogbemudia,  Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, Alhaji Balarabe Musa, Alhaji Aminu Kano, Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Chief Bola Ige and most of the other second republic governors to cite just a random sampling. These were mercurial politicians who were greatly beloved of their people and retained tremendous political admiration and respect in respective parts of the country throughout their lives.

    el-Rufai would be conflating these illustrious Nigerian politicians and statesmen with the likes of the late Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, fabled strong man of Ibadan politics where he was once famously described as a veritable garrison commander of the ebullient arena of Oyo state politics by no other than el-Rufai’s former godfather and benefactor, former President Olusegun Obasanjo. That genius of ‘Amala politics’ once publicly wondered why a state governor, Alhaji Rasheed Ladoja, could not allocate to him his own share of the state’s federal allocation and the heavens did not fall. Indeed, he got the governor impeached through a riotous mob, which invaded and took over the Oyo State House of Assembly until a court of law upturned the purported impeachment.

    Again, Chris Uba was another example of these nefarious kinds of godfathers in Anambra state during the tenure of Dr. Chris Ngige as governor of the state. The governor was abducted in broad daylight and could have been forced to resign but for the intervention of fate and luck. His crime? : He allegedly was not abiding by the terms of oaths he had taken before the Okija shrine to materially compensate Uba financially for installing him as governor. In Edo State, comrade governor Adams Oshiomhole had to fight suffocating godfathers to a standstill, which then enabled him to lay a strong developmental foundation for the state. So El-Rufai’s use of the term godfatherism is loose, careless and imprecise.

    Now, what are the roots of Tinubu’s enduring resilience in the politics of a highly sophisticated state like Lagos? During the third republic between 1991 and 1993, he joined forces with progressive elements to foster internal democracy within the defunct Social Democratic Party in Lagos State. Those were the days of the famous Professor Femi Agbalajobi versus Chief Dapo Sarumi ultimately mutually self-cancelling tussle for the governorship of Lagos State. It was in that era that Tinubu was elected to the Senate from the Lagos West Senatorial District with the highest number of votes in the country. During Chief MKO Abiola’s campaign for the presidency of Nigeria in 1993, Tinubu was not only one of his closest confidantes, he also was at the forefront of the struggle to regain Abiola’s mandate when the military annulled the election staking even his life and fortune in the process. All these endeared him to a substantial number of people not only in Lagos but across the South West. His emergence as governor of Lagos State in 1999 was thus a near fait accompli.

    El-Rufai completely misses the point when he strives to portray Tinubu as the godfather with a negative and overbearing strangle hold on the politics of Lagos State. That was the line pushed by both the PDP governorship candidate in Lagos State, Mr. Jimi Agbaje and proponents of the Kwara type ‘O to gee’ revolution In Lagos in the last election. They failed woefully. APC’s Mr. Jide Sanwo-Olu and Dr Obafemi Hamzat won an even more emphatic victory in Lagos than was the case in 2015. El-Rufai also forgets that he was part of the Obasanjo administration when federal might including the military was deployed to Lagos in a bid to ‘capture’ the state in the 2003 and 2007 elections. They failed again woefully.

    Now what are the sources of Tinubu’s continuing and even growing influence not just in Lagos but in Nigerian politics even though he formally left public office 12 years ago? It is precisely because his tactics, methods and strategies are not those of a power thirsty godfather. What do I mean? As governor, Tinubu assembled the best and brightest professionals and brains into his cabinet. These were people who could hold their own in their areas of professional competence and whose opinions the governor had no choice but to respect. That is not the way of godfatherism. Power thirsty godfathers surround themselves with professional and mental Lilliputians who are too lily-livered to debate them because they want to completely dominate their environment and have no tolerance for dissenting and intelligent opinions.

    Tinubu conceived of the Governors Advisory Council (GAC) when he was governor. These are individuals with wide experience in both the private and public sectors including governance who act as another layer of checks and restraints on the governor and his executive. Again, these are respected, accomplished and highly regarded politicians and statesmen whose views cannot be dismissed lightly. I am not sure that any other state has such a body. That is not the way of godfatherism. Power thirsty godfathers want as little hindrances as possible to their exercise of maximum power.

    More than any other politician in this era, Tinubu has identified and discovered

    talents and given them ample opportunity to develop themselves and flourish as leaders in their own right. These individuals, scores of them, are doing well today in diverse spheres of governance at all levels. That is not the way of godfatherism. Ruthless godfathers hardly develop other leaders because of the fear of being subsequently overshadowed by their former mentees. In the same vein, Tinubu has facilitated and allowed the financial empowerment of many of his subordinates to become financially independent today. That is not the way of godfatherism, where the godfather wants his subordinates to remain perpetually financially dependent on him so he will remain the only star in the firmament.

    el-Rufai talks with effusive glibness about good governance and qualitative leadership. He is not qualified to do so. He has no sterling record in that regard. At least we can all recall his abysmal performance at the Bureau of Public Enterprises as well as his intemperate, divisive and megalomaniac governance style in Kaduna State which overshadow whatever achievements he can claim. Luckily for him, he has profited from President Muhammadu Buhari’s cult following in the north, which has enabled him secure a second term in office.  This is unlike Tinubu who not only exhibited balanced, fair and restrained leadership in a complex, plural megacity like Lagos, laid a solid foundation for the financial viability,  infrastructural rejuvenation as well as governance efficacy of Lagos State but also exhibited the perspicacity to identify and support competent successors who have built admirably on his legacy and elevating Lagos continually to higher heights.

    If el-Rufai and many other APC governors had their way, the John Odigie Oyegun-led National Executive of the APC would have continued in office through tenure extension without allowing party members to exercise their right to pick their leaders. This would have paved the way for elected officers on the platform of the party to also have automatic tickets to contest elections without primaries. That would have been the height of internal party dictatorship which is akin to cabalistic godfatherism. Tinubu was one of those who fought hard to enthrone intraparty democracy and empower all party members to pick party candidates for elections through direct primaries. That surely is not the way of godfatherism.

    The Kaduna State governor boasted that he had defeated and retired four godfathers in Kaduna State in the last election. This is in itself an exhibition of immaturity and needless arrogance.  But then that is not worth commenting on since he did not name these ghost godfathers so we can independently ascertain their political weight and worth. But when el-Rufai imperiously claims to have permanently retired these unknown  four godfathers from politics, does it mean he has substituted himself for the electorate in Kaduna State in future elections? Is El-Rufai then not the newest godfather in town?

    el-Rufai is amazingly simplistic in his thinking when he assumes that if the opposition is able to increase the voter turnout in Lagos to double the present number, then that will automatically guarantee victory in future elections. So he assumes that the ruling party will not also have a fair share of the support of the envisaged emergent new voters  apart from embarking its own voter registration drive?  He also thinks that if an opposition party can raise at least N2 billion, it will easily dislodge the godfather he appears to fear so much in Lagos. So the ruling party will not raise funds of its own to contest elections?

    Perhaps the highpoint of the event was Dr Muiz Banire’s question to el-Rufai on how godfatherism could be curbed in Lagos. I thought it was Banire who should be lecturing el-Rufai on politics and not vice versa. In politics, the Kaduna governor is simply  unfit to untie the lace of Banire’s shoes. And when el-Rufai insinuated that godfathers collect money to appoint or sponsor people to offices I expected Banire to have regaled the audience with juicy tales of how much he was worth in 1999 to have been able to procure the headship of two of the largest ministries in Lagos State – transportation and environment – for an unbroken period of 12 years!

     

    • Next week: PDP and 9th Assembly leadership.

  • Golden Boot for worthy Africans

    The English game was a spectacle to behold last Sunday, with the last 10 matches of the Barclays English Premier League producing plenty of drama, twists and turns as the game rolled its course of 90 minutes. The attention was on Anfield where Liverpool, with 94 points, were engaged in a must-win tie against giant killers Wolves. The Reds won 2-0. The fans listened to radio commentaries or checked livescore.com for the results as Manchester City pushed to retain the title with an away tie against Brighton. The Citizens won by 4-1. Manchester City were champions again.

    The stories in the week cut across the teams, but the most significant was the emergence of three Africans – Mohammed Salah (Liverpool), Sadio Mane (Liverpool) and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang (Arsenal) – as joint highest goal scorers with 22 goals. As the games were going on, pundits were coming up with various theories to decide the eventual winner of the Golden Boot. Some of the theories included the first of the three scorers to get to 22. Others argued for the number of assists they provided for teammates to score goals. The rest talked about the quality of opposition against whom these scorers got their goals. Those in this last school mischievously pointed at Romelu Lakuku’s penchant for scoring against weaker teams and freezing like ice-cream before top-notch teams. Lukaku, happily, scored goals for Belgium at the Russia 2018 World Cup against Panama (two goals) and Tunisia (two goals). The Mundial isn’t a platform for Lilliputians. In the annals of the World Cup, Lukaku is a renowned goal-scorer.

    Until the final day’s games, Salah was ahead with 21 goals, although Mane and Aubameyang had scored 20 goals each. Goals make a game exciting, and it was good to hear or watch Africans adding to the spectacle with breath-taking goals in one of Europe’s biggest league competition. Years past, nothing good could have come out of the ‘Dark Continent’.

    Salah, Aubameyang and Mane are involved in Cup finals where they can score goals with aplomb to underscore the contributions of Africans to the beautiful game in the last decade. Mane and Salah will lead  Liverpool’s attacking onslaught against Tottenham in the finals of the UEFA Champions League on June 1 in Spain. Aubameyang can also increase his goals tally this season when he files onto the pitch with Arsenal in the finals of the Europa Cup against Chelsea on May 29 in Baku.

    If Liverpool and Arsenal triumph in the Champions League final against Tottenham and in the Europa Cup final against Chelsea, then the final of the Super Cup will be the turf to settle their difference, depending on how well they score in the two final matches.

    It is quite interesting to note that three Africans (Aubameyang, Salah and Mane with 22 goals each) rank behind Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi in goal-scoring, not withstanding what the duo have done this season. Ronaldo and Messi have surpassed the 600-goal mark, though Ronaldo did his with several clubs, unlike Messi who did his with Barcelona.

    Aubameyang, in a post-match comment, told The Sun: ‘’It means a lot. I am really happy and proud of it. I am sharing this trophy with Mane and Salah – and I like these two guys. We are representing Africa so it is a good sign for the continent. I am really proud and I have to thank my team-mates for helping me to get it.’’

    “It was a tough season, but I had the chance to score goals because the team played a great season. Of course, the last months were not the best in the Premier League, but the whole season, we put in a great effort. I was near (to a hat-trick) but sometimes that can happen,” Aubameyang said.

    Salah, who scored 32 goals last season to clinch the crown, retained the highest goal scorer’s award with 22 goals. He shares the award with two others. However, Salah scored 32 goals last season to clinch the crown. Will Salah dump Liverpool if the side fails to lift the UEFA Champions League in Spain on June 1? Or will he stay with the Reds next season with a victory over Tottenham Hotspurs?

    “I say congratulations to Manchester City and we will fight again next season for this trophy. I don’t know what to say. We had a great season,” Salah told beIN SPORTS.

    “We earned a huge number of points and lost only one game, but we have to forget all of that and think about the next season in order to win the title. It’s great to share the Golden Boot with Sadio Mane. Winning the award for the second time is an incredible feeling,” Salah concluded.

    Records were broken in this year’s EPL, such that a team which lost one game and grabbed 97 points didn’t win the trophy. Previously, such points-haul was enough for the title, except for the previous season when champions Manchester City got 100 points to set a competition record. City retained the title this year with 98 points. Will City win the league title a third time on the trot? Possibly, more so as manager Pep Guardiola isn’t in a hurry to leave the team. He is willing to stay with the Citizens for another two years.

    Manchester City will on Sunday aim to beat Watford FC at Wembley to lift the English FA Cup, their third domestic title this season. Certainly, Guardiola would have loved to be in the final, with his achievement this season. He has to strengthen his team and learn what the finer details of winning the UEFA Champions League diadem are, beyond having the best players in your camp.

     

    Iheanacho is a good player

     

    What kind of soccer analysts do we have here? Yes, people have a right to express themselves on topical issues. But such views become worrisome when they destroy other people’s future. Our football critics need to take it easy because what we say or write goes viral. It is unfair to pillory Kelechi Iheanacho simply because he is listed in Nigeria’s provisional squad for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations holding in Egypt.

    Iheanacho could not have forced himself on the coach, who must have seen something good in him. Besides, we must learn how to support our players when they have issues with their clubs or they have things bothering them. We must stop inviting players to play for us and dumping them when they are either distressed or have lost form.

    When some analysts criticise, they forget that any player who sits on the bench is as good as those playing. In fact, some coaches keep certain players on the bench only to field them to plug loopholes in the team in the second half. We have seen many players coming off the bench to score goals or change the fortune of their teams for the better.

    I wonder why these analysts are after Iheanacho’s jugular for not playing, but keep mute over the invitation of Leon Balogun and Francis Uzoho. Iheanacho is closer to being fielded by sitting on the bench. Balogun sits at the stands, not listed for most of Brighton’s matches. Does it make sense not to invite a match-rusty Iheanacho, but list an injury-hit Odion Ighalo?

    This analogy raises the poser of club players and national team players. It also means that the coach knows how to field Iheanacho and Balogun to bring out their best, for instance, than the coaches at Leicester City and Brighton. Rohr, in picking the three players, wants to see them train with their mates to ascertain their true form. Rohr wants them for their experience. No manager throws away experience, especially of players who were at the last World Cup in Russia.

    No European coach will bench any international for a foreigner. They always like to protect theirs. For Iheanacho to play regularly, he has to bench Jamie Vardy, an England international. Besides, Vardy is a club hero at Leicester. Not fielding such stars puts coaches on the spot. I  think that Iheanacho can bench Vardy if given the playing time Vardy enjoys. Players can only correct themselves if given more playing time. Playing for a few minutes towards the end of games isn’t soul lifting.

    Premier League teams would rather give their players more playing time than allow foreign stars take over the league. This is because England would not watch foreign stars dwarf its own local stars, forcing them to travel overseas and ultimately killing the local league. This cycle, in turn, affects the economy because when England keeps its stars at home, money stays at home; there would be no need to spend what should be used to develop England’s economy outside England.

    New coaches, most times, work with what they have. Where they recruit new players, they stick to them. When I see Iheanacho on the bench, I sympathise with him because the coach who recruited him has been sacked.

    Iheanacho should, therefore, join West Ham next season if the story making the rounds in the transfer market is true. Under Coach Manuel Luis Pellegrini Ripamonti, Iheanacho kissed the headlines and gave big European players something to ponder over weekly. Iheanacho scored 12 goals under Pellegrini in the Premier League (8) and Champions League (4). He couldn’t have suddenly become a bad player. If Iheanacho is, he won’t be in Europe.

  • Politics, confrontation and democracy

    Let me muse today on the nature of politics and its practice in certain parts of the world. Certainly  US President Donald  Trump  and his brand of   confrontational  politics both at home and abroad takes pride of place in the scheme of things on such  a discussion. This is because Trump  has given the status  quo of world politics and trade a huge kick  in the ass by taking on both China  and Iran  on  trade and security  at the same  time and yet there is no world war  neither  have the heavens collapsed as usually  predicted on such   challenges,  before  the   highly  volatile Trump  era  of our  time. Similarly  in Nigeria the Minister of Information   Lai  Mohammed  cautioned the opposition  party   PDP on  its brand of politics which  he thought  was destabilizing and undemocratic  and the opposition  PDP  in return  thought that was insulting and  threatened to go to court  to redeem its image.

    Also  during the week  Nigerian senators  at  their red chamber  in Abuja   suddenly  became  unusually  patriotic and concerned about the widening gap  between  the rich  and the poor in Nigeria,  the colossal  rate of unemployment  of  Nigerian  youths  as  well as our inaccurate  controversial  census  figures  and called  for  a state of emergency  to   tackle these   serious issues.  At  the same time Myetti  Allah  the confrontational  umbrella  body of  herdsmen killing and  destroying farms all  over the nation announced that once herders are not allowed  to graze their cattle they  will  fight back  to earn a living  anyhow  and  cannot be blamed for that. Their  spokesman then highlighted that the so called offer of 100bn  said  to have been offered his organization was by the Jonathan Administration   but it was not for amnesty as wrongly  deduced  by the public,  but for  the   establishment of grazing sites   all over the country   and that was  why they  voted then  for  Jonathan   Administration  and the offer was available  for the   present Buhari Administration to adopt.

    Today  then  we shall  look  briefly  at  the Trump brand  of confrontational  politics  both on the domestic  scene as well as international  politics  and its effect on American  and global  democracy.  We  shall  also  look at why  Lai Mohammed  has branded  PDP’s  politics as  subversive  and   appraise that  party’s umbrage at  such characterization of its democratic  role at this point in time in Nigeria’s  power  transition politics.  We  shall  again examine  the  lamentation  of Nigerian  senators over  poverty, unemployment  and census to  see if they  are genuine  or crocodile tears   and take  on Myetti  Allah  on its unapologetic  support  for  herders who  seem  to be killing innocent Nigerians more than they  tend their  precious cattle. Indeed  on Myetti  Allah  it is enough to say that  it sees itself as a state within the Nigerian  state and it is up to the Nigerian security  apparatus to cut it to size with regard to its confrontational  politics and its   crude   challenges to  the  collective security   of     our     multiethnic  federal democracy.

    Starting with US President Donald Trump let me say that I find  his confrontational policies and politics somewhat productive  in terms of his campaign promises locally  and   peace promoting. He  has decked the US Supreme  Court with his allies  as judges in majority and is poised to take on gay rights as well  as abortion  as the banning of abortion in Alabama  has  shown  as  well as the baker’s  case on religious freedom . The US economy is booming  under Trump  and  he can  boastfully  claim  –  it’s the economy stupid to show  he is on course. On  the international scene he has brokered nuclear peace with N Korea  and last week the Russians said  they  want to  revive  good relations with the US.  He  is taking on China  on  counterfeiting, copyrights   and    technological   security  with  his emergency  order meant  to snare Chinese telecom giant Huawei.  With regard  to  the threatened war  with Iran  over the Straits of Omuz, Trump  has asked  the Iranians  to call him and has endorsed the Swiss as arbiters for negotiations. If  his unconventional  diplomacy  yield  such  unexpected prospects for world  peace, I can  only  doff my hat in admiration,  no matter how grudgingly.

    On   the  alleged  sabotage  of the Buhari  administration  by  the  Minister  of Information,   I  think  the Minister overstepped  his  bounds. He  was an  opposition spokesman  for  the APC  and  he was a very robust  and outspoken  one and  his present charge of sabotage against   the opposition   party smirks of hypocrisy and  intolerance. He  should  develop a healthy  respect for dissent  and take the PDP  on, on the issues  as fearlessly and eloquently as he did against  the Jonathan Administration as party spokesman  for the virile  opposition that the APC  was then.  As  for the PDP going to court  I want  to see  the SAN that  will go  and prove  to the courts  that   commenting on a court case such as the presidential  election petition  going on,  inherent in the present sabotage charge against  the PDP,  is not sub judice  and as such not   contemptuous on the part  of both parties.  Surely  both  parties must know that those who live in glass  houses  should  not throw  stones.

    With regard  to  the concern of the Nigerian  senators on  the welfare  of Nigerians one can  only thank them  for their concern and  patriotism.  They  even  acknowledged  that  something be done urgently  so as to avoid a looming violent  revolution.  Which  in a way  is a statement of fact and inevitable if the poverty gap  is not closed urgently. But  why the state of emergency and how? Will  the senate or  government be closed for the emergency to prevail and take drastic  measures to bridge the poverty gap ?Who  will bell  the cat? Definitely the senators  can blaize a trail  by letting us know their emoluments and fringe benefits and what percentage cuts they  want  to offer as their sacrifice  to  improve the poverty line of  the Nigerian  masses  in order to avoid the looming violent revolution they  see approaching  Nigeria. A  stitch in time saves nine and  I pray  the senators  have  not  closed the stable doors after   the horses have bolted.

  • Garba Shehu on Afenifere, Ohanaeze and Miyetti Allah

    ON Tuesday, Presidential spokesman, Garba Shehu, needlessly courted controversy when he likened the Yoruba socio-cultural group, Afenifere, and the Igbo socio-cultural group, Ohanaeze N’digbo, to the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN). Mallam Shehu was a guest on a Channels Television programme, Sunrise Daily, where he made the controversial comparison. He had tried to justify the group’s legitimacy, suggesting that their raison d’être was neither criminal nor unusual.  According to him, “It is a mistake to say the Nigerian government is talking to bandits. The Miyetti Allah group is like Ohanaeze and Afenifere. It is a socio-cultural group. There are criminals within the Yoruba race and you cannot say because of that, Afenifere is a group of criminals. The Nigerian government is speaking with the leadership of the Fulani herders association, Miyetti Allah.”

    But instantly, both Afenifere and Ohanaeze spokesmen deplored the comparison and insisted that, unlike Miyetti Allah which harbours and defends killer herdsmen, the southern organisations were dedicated to the promotion of regional and cultural unity of their people. In their opinion, the only socio-cultural group in the North that bears resemblance to the two southern cultural associations was the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF). On the TV show, Mallam Shehu had been taken to task over the meeting held between the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mohammed Adamu, and Miyetti Allah. Observers had wondered why the police should be holding what seemed to be a placatory meeting with a group whose members were rated to be among the world’s leading terrorist organisations. It was in response to this puzzle that Mallam Shehu made the comparison with other socio-cultural groups, and also insisted that it was wrong to criminalise Miyetti Allah.

    The presidential spokesman was defensive, so too were the police who characterised their meeting with Miyetti Allah as exploratory of peace and disarmament. Mallam Shehu did not say why neither Afenifere nor Ohanaeze had ever been accused of bearing arms, and di not point at any time when they prevailed upon them to help disarm anybody, militants or otherwise. As the two southern groups argued, they harboured no militants, nor excused violence on the grounds of propagating social, economic or cultural agenda. The mere thought of some herdsmen carrying weapons around the country, and sometimes using them boldly, should have reworked the logic of the presidential spokesman to become wary of defending them, let alone comparing them with other socio-cultural groupings that do not condone the use of arms or excuse violence.

    Mallam Shehu may never successfully defend the police meeting with Miyetti Allah leaders, and is even more unlikely to win the argument of whether it makes sense to compare the cattle breeders’ association with other socio-cultural groups. Both Afenifere and Ohanaeze, not to say a significant number of Nigerians, suspect that the entire security organisation of the country as well as the presidency itself seem defensive of Miyetti Allah. They have not openly endorsed the violence the herdsmen inflict on the country, but they have not, in the view of many, treated the consequent bloodletting with the severity their crimes deserve. They recall how in the past few years top government officials waffled over the violence perpetrated by herdsmen, and how at some incredible and unguarded moments they even blamed the victims who are mostly farming communities. They also recall that nothing has been said or done to reclaim farming communities sacked and occupied by herdsmen, particularly in the Middle Belt.

    It is in those contexts that critics assailed the decision of the law enforcement agencies to hold placatory meetings with leaders of Miyetti Allah, ostensibly to enjoin them to prevail on their members to surrender their arms and allow peace reign. Few Nigerians are fooled. They recognise that the underlying problems engendering herdsmen-farmers conflict are yet to be resolved. In what context, therefore, would armed herdsmen surrender their weapons? By meeting leaders of Miyetti Allah, the police logically acknowledge that armed herdsmen are members of the group. More, the police also seem to acknowledge their impotence in the face of a group described as vicious and terroristic. Yet, neither the police nor Mallam Shehu, nor anyone in government, has come out to explain why the law enforcement agency was conducting exploratory and placatory meetings with leaders of Miyetti Allah. The government has also so far refused to endorse the global categorisation of the group as terroristic, but contradistinctively hastily categorised the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as terroristic.

    Critics were not just flailing at the police and Mallam Shehu for merely seeming to be defensive of Miyetti Allah; they were in fact quarrelling with what they suspected to be a discriminatory approach to law enforcement in Nigeria, a discrimination they consider ethnically, rather than issues, inspired. They are shocked that the federal government hastily labelled IPOB as a terrorist organisation, though the group carried no arms and murdered no one, while resisting the world labelling Nigerian herdsmen as the fourth most vicious terrorist organisation. Nigerians also recall that years ago, Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai, acknowledged that some herdsmen, whom he had located and interviewed, were involved in killings in Nigeria. But rather than seek their prosecution, he confessed that he used taxpayers’ funds to compensate and placate them. Why is Mallam Shehu therefore surprised that he is being pilloried for his unsavoury comparisons, and the police for their timidity, effrontery and tactlessness?

    Mallam Shehu’s defence of Miyetti Allah and the police is futile. Of course, he had no choice but to respond to interviewers’ questions the best and safest way he could. But though his answers lacked logic and believability, they were sadly consistent with the federal governments’ dithering over the issue of violent herdsmen. It is now very unlikely any reporter can get any member of the current government to resolve the herdsmen puzzle in a way that inspires justice and fairness. The officials will all waffle considerably and stubbornly continue to defend the indefensible. More of the kind of embarrassing questions posed to Mallam Shehu will be posed to many more government officials and spokesmen in the foreseeable future, especially as the controversy over armed herdsmen and sacking of farming communities continue. Government officials will expect such hard questions, but the public will hardly be able to make sense of the answers they will get because those answers will remain, for reasons not to hard to understand, fundamentally flawed and skewed.

    For the umpteenth time, it is necessary to draw the attention of the government and its spokesmen to the point that it has become more urgent than ever to find a lasting and just solution to the herdsmen-farmers conflict. Gradually, the country is being sucked into the vortex of bloody skirmishes that spare no one. If the flow of blood is not halted, if sacked communities are not restored to their rightful owners, if a few prominent government officials unwisely continue to take sides, then they will be naive to expect the restoration of peace and development. There are many factors — social, economic, political or climatic — predisposing many groups to violence. Whatever the factors are, it is the responsibility of a thinking government to find permanent solutions rather than justifying violence and raking up exculpatory reasons that favour only one side.

    For as long as the crisis of confidence between farmers and herdsmen persists, and the schism between Nigeria’s main ethnic and religious groups ossifies, it will be impossible to free the government of poor judgement and bias or lessen the foul rumours of monetary compensation associated with the meeting between the police and leaders of Miyetti Allah.

  • Infallibility, security and politics

    Infallibility is the notion that someone or institution cannot  make mistakes or do something wrong. It  was a concept  used to sustain the authority of the Catholic Pope  when the Church  was the state and Papal  Infallibility was the doctrinal  instrument of  authority. Nowadays  however it is a  best  forgotten piece of history  with no relevance  to  modern politics and society.  For  anyone to talk of it nowadays is to make a mockery  of democracy  and insult  the intelligence of modern society,  individually and collectively.  To  invoke  the infallibility  of the Pope  in modern  times  is  to behave like the proverbial  ostrich  which  buried its head in the sand   and thought no one was seeing its  body  or motive which  was not lost  in plain sight. Such  invocation is sheer  hypocrisy  and is a futile  attempt   to  make mischief  with authority   and  make  a fool  of  intellectual  integrity, again individually  and  collectively.

    In   politics,  both ancient and modern,  the  concept  of infallibility is associated  with  absolutism  or  absolute  monarchy  a concept  adequately  and bloodily  dealt  with in history  by the French  Revolution  of  1789.  A   time when  the French  Revolutionaries  invented the guillotine  to behead royalty, the rich and mighty in French  society  and usher in mass  participation  in politics  and democracy  and the government of the people  by the people and for the people.  In  my  view   infallibility   is the antithesis  of  democracy  and human progress  and  should be allowed to rot  in hell where  the French  confined it   historically,    albeit    to the admiration and    global   applause    of  an  admiring international   community, from   then  till   now   even  in  2019.

    I   intend  to show  today  incidents  and   event   that  connote infallibility  in actions  and utterances   and proceed  to condemn them as fallacies  and illogicalities in terms  of leadership  goals and objectives. The  first  is the reported carving of the empire of the Emir  of Kano  into six  different  emirates  by the governor of  Kano   State. The  second  is  the reaction of Senator  Shehu  Sani   of  Kaduna  State   to  the sermon by the Imam of the Aso Rock  Mosque to the effect  that the present  pervasive   insecurity  in the nation  is because  Nigerians have sinned . The  third  is  the  retort on insecurity  by our President that  the Inspector  General  of  Police  has lost  weight because  of  his  concern  and  actions to battle  insecurity.   The fourth  is  the show down  by the US House  of  Reps  with  the US  President over  the infallibility of the Legislature to overlook the actions of the government  through  summons and subpoenas and the resistance  of this by the current  Trump   Administration  which  is unapologetically anti political  correctness  and as such   no  respecter   of  any  notion  of  institutional   infallibility.

    We  go back  to the  dismantling of the Kano Emirate and the dissipation of the authority of the Emir of  Kano.  It  is a logical   progression of  democratic  politics that traditional  institutions must  wither and decay to give way to  modern representative institutions in  a democracy. In  a way, the  creation   of the  Kano six  emirates on equal  footing  with the sole  Emir may  have political  undertones and   malice  but it  has shown  that the Emirship is  not  infallible  and is indeed  under the control  of a  modern democratic  government. The   distribution   of authority   is also  bound   to  improve the  management    of  security    which  in these  days   of  Boko  Haram    is   a Kano   government  priority.  Which    is  a sharp  departure  from  the  infallibility of the Emir    during  colonial   rule when the British   used  the colonial policy  of divide  and rule and Indirect  Rule to  make  the Northern Emirs absolute  rulers  over their  subjects  as long as they play ball and implement  the policies of the colonial  government.  Now, what is good for the goose is good for the gander  and the Emirs  must   now  play  ball with an elected  government  of the people  called  democracy in  Kano  State.

    In  Kaduna State  Senator Shehu  Sani  was reported as lambasting the Imam of  Aso    Rock  Mosque  who  preached that the recent  killings and kidnappings were   a test  from  Allah.  The senator disagreed  and said the insecurity  was the result  of a failure of leadership which  I found logical. This  is because    it is the duty of government to provide  security for the people that elected it into power in any democracy including  Nigeria.  According  to the senator ,   religious  leaders fail  to tell  Nigerian leaders the truth but talk to the poor in a fiery  manner .According  to  Sani ‘ it is the way  of state clergies to preach  to power  with flowers  and  the poor  with  flames’ and that they ‘ reshape  the gospel to  comfort and exculpate  power‘.  Of  course  such  sermons  and false  advice  are  not infallible  as the good senator has shown and  the bitter  truth is that until  the religious  institutions speak  truth  to  power   on the dire condition of our national  security, the rulers will persist  in their infallibility in thinking that they  have done their best   and  they  can  not  do  any more.

    Such  negative  attitude  must  have been  read into  the joke  of the Nigerian  president  on his return   from his recent  overseas trip  when  he said   that  the Inspector  General  of  Police in charge  of  our national  security has  lost weight in  finding solution to the pervasive insecurity in the land.  Some  have accused the president of treating the issue of security  with levity and showing  the trait  of infallibility  on the  matter. I  beg  to disagree and see things  differently . Some  have even gone on to assert that since  some security chiefs are  pot bellied and overweight it shows from  the President’s description of the IGP’s  weight  and work that overweight security  bosses are  not  diligent like the IGP. I  beg  to  disagree  and will show why.

    To  me the President’s observation on the IGP’s weight   showed  empathy  and  understanding of the mammoth  security  problem  facing the IGP. In  addition the President as Commander In Chief in charge of security is also  accepting responsibility on behalf of the IGP  for  any  shortcomings on the matter. The  president is saying that he has delegated responsibility to the IGP but  he has not abandoned that responsibility and he has trust  in his IGP.  That  can  only spur the IGP  to  aspire  to do better  and that gives us hope that there is no infallibility  on the part of government  with regard  to the killings in the nation.  We  can only pray  that the chain of security  command  and  management  is  tight   and   productive   enough   in the short  run,  rather    the  longer    term ,  to deter the criminals and hoodlums  who  are challenging the authority of the Nigerian  state so  boldly   in protecting  its people.

    Lastly  US  President  Donald  Trump  has shown the US  Lower  House  that  his Administration  will  not  be cowered  by  the perceived infallibility of  the oversight  functions of the House in summoning government  officials for questioning even  when  the law  protects such  officials.  That  has led to the Attorney  General  failing to show up and  his arraignment  for contempt  before the House.  In addition Trump  has invoked his executive powers to protect state security  and operational   matters in the face of the assumed infallibility of the House to probe as it wills.  That is the   presidential system  of  checks  and balances at play  in uncharted  waters.  This     definitely  shows  that pragmatic  politics can make a mess of untested authority camouflaging in the guise of tradition,  protocols and blatant  infallibility even  in a free wheeling  and time tested democracy like the US.  Once again long live the Federal  Republic of Nigeria.

  • What a season!

    Women in Nigeria, especially the married ones, cherish the European league season very much because it helps in family bonding. The women know where their husbands are (for those who choose to watch the games with the ‘boys’ outside their homes). For others who dash home to see the matches with their families, the wives happily welcome them with sumptuous meals.

    Little wonder many families in the country are torn between themselves in supporting European teams. Some fathers conscript everyone into supporting their clubs. There are few exceptions to this rule. It is always very interesting watching games where the wife’s and kids’ clubs have a game with daddy’s and they win. They taunt their daddies, who take the jokes on the chin, knowing that their  day will come.

    The results serve as levellers in instances when the kids’ team loses to daddy’s club. There won’t be peace. Daddy rubs the defeat in for days. He is the boss. Such is the allure of the game that when there are important games, the streets are empty only to erupt when goals are scored. Sadly, some overzealous urchins among them take their fanatical biases to the extreme – they maim and kill fans of the opposing teams in defeat.

    One wonders why, but gets consoled when such European clubs report such dastardly acts and express their sympathises for the departed. These European clubs not only report deaths from such bestial acts, they all report the good things, especially when their African players score in their national teams’ assignments. Such is the popularity of the European leagues.

    You need to see the way Nigerians analyse the European games. Those who are not eloquent in English language resort to their mother tongues. In most cases, these people take their support for their clubs to such a level that objects inside their living rooms are painted in their club colours or they have the insignia of their favourite teams to show where they belong. Some take pride in taking their bedrooms decorated with their club attires online.

    It is also very interesting reading brickbats when big teams are beaten. Worst hit are fans of Manchester United and Arsenal this season, for instance. Both teams have to contend with Europa Cup matches next season, except Arsenal qualifies for the Europa Cup finals and win the trophy. If it happens that Gunners win the Europa Cup, then the team will qualify to play the 2019/2020 UEFA Champions League, like Manchester United did this season.

    As for the relegated teams, Huddersfield, Cardiff and Fulham return to the English Championship League next season with a lot of experience. In fact, pundits are already tipping Fulham to return, given the way they prosecuted their last six matches, even after securing the drop from the elite class. Perhaps, one or two of the promoted teams may raid Fulham for their stars to strengthen their teams for the daunting task in the elite class next year.

    Former EPL campaigners Norwich City and Sheffield United are two of the three teams from the English Championship League promoted to the elite class. Norwich garnered 94 points. Sheffield chalked up 89 points to move on the English Leagues’ ladder. Yet, both teams should recruit new players lest they spend the new season battling the drop, which could be imminent, given the way old warriors in the EPL are plotting to strengthen their squad.

    Interestingly, it took 37 weeks to decide the last two teams for the 2019/2020 UEFA Champions League, with Chelsea and Tottenham locked in a final quest for points to grab the third position. If Chelsea fails to beat Leicester in their away fixture, then Tottenham may if they beat Everton in their seemingly jinxed new stadium in London.

    However, Tottenham are in the finals of the UEFA Champions League, having eliminated the competition’s fairytale team Ajax Amsterdam 3-2 in Holland, to upturn the 1-0 loss they suffered in the first leg game in England. Tottenham has a bad customer in Everton on Sunday. A point is what they need, but they would strive for the full three points to place third, depending on how well Chelsea plays against Leicester tomorrow.

    This is Tottenham’s best season; they are in their first ever UEFA Champions League final. The manager summarises Spurs’ season thus: ‘’Still difficult to talk. Emotion is amazing, thank you football.’’

    ‘’Thank you these guys, they are heroes. In the last year I am telling everyone I have a group that are heroes and they showed today big balls. Second half was amazing, thank you football. This type of emotion is impossible without football. Thank you to the fans, those who believed in us, and to achieve this is fantastic. It’s hard to describe in words.

    ‘’We were talking before the game that when you work and when you feel the love, it’s not a stress, it’s a passion. We showed that tonight. I think in the game against City and today it is amazing. It was a joy to watch this type of game, difficult for Ajax, to compete at this level in this competition this can happen and I am so grateful to be a coach, to be in football and living this moment.’’

    ‘’Superhero for [Lucas] Moura. Unbelievable hat-trick. He deserves it, he’s a great guy. Everyone deserves it for all the tough moments we’ve been through over the five years. The chance to play in a final, it is for my family, for all the people who supported us in that moment. It is amazing. Thank you and we now need to be ready for Sunday and then prepare for the final in Madrid.’’ Well said, Pochettino.

    Manchester United and Arsenal are stuck in the Europa Cup bracket, which their fans are rooting for the sack of certain players and coaches. Will Arsenal’s and Manchester United’s management harken to their fans’ requests? Time will tell.

    The bigger fixtures on Sunday in EPL will be played at Anfield, where Liverpool are condemned to beat Wolves by as many goals as they wish, if they hope to reach 97 points. Early goals and a few more at half-time will compel those at home to check out what will be happening at Brighton which will be playing host to defending champions Manchester City.

    Victory for Brighton, which is farfetched, will roll out the drums of celebrations at Anfield, reminiscent of what happened on Tuesday, when the Reds overran Barcelona FC of Spain 4-0 to set the stage for a final game in the UEFA Champions League against Tottenham in Madrid on June 1.

    The 2018/2019 EPL has been a straight fight between Manchester City and Liverpool, with both teams interchanging the top position 32 times in 37 weeks.  If City fumbles, then the leadership change will be 33rd in the 38-week league format. Will there be another clincher for Liverpool to lift the diadem in the new era after 29 years? Football is cruel but Manchester City players know what it takes to win.

    If Manchester City and Liverpool win their Week 38 matches, City will nick the diadem with 98 points. Liverpool will rue the drawn games they had in the quest for the title. Liverpool will finish with 97, a club record in the competition.

    But there is something about ambition. It is not served ala carte and Liverpool knows so. They are thinking  of a double celebration, according to The Daily Mail on Thursday night.

    The Daily Mail reported: ‘’Liverpool have made plans for two separate victory parades should they win the Premier League and the Champions League. The Reds go into the final day of the domestic season on Sunday still with a chance of winning their first league title since 1990. They need to beat Wolves and hope Brighton can stop Manchester City from winning on the south coast.

    ‘’And they have a shot at a second trophy too after their Anfield heroics on Tuesday saw them edge past Barcelona to reach the Champions League final on June 1. Should they win the league, Jurgen Klopp’s men will enjoy an open-top bus parade on Monday 13 May – the day after the season ends. Victory in Madrid against Tottenham will see them return to Merseyside to show off the trophy on June 2. Both parades will begin at 4pm.’’

    Hmmm! Are Liverpool not counting their chicks before they are hatched?

    Glenn Hoddle’s heart relief

    Glenn Hoddle is a Tottenham legend. He has been down with heart attack. He fully recovered from the ailment seven months ago. He also recently returned to football punditry with BP Sport. As a Spurs legend, he was the best person to talk in such circumstances, having been through such difficult games.

    Trust the English media to capture those scenes which the cameras can’t show everyone. Indeed, it is someone’s duty to provoke such scenes. And Manchester United legend Rio Ferdinand – and  former England defender and host Gary Lineker – did the job perfectly, bringing relief which modern medicine will cringe at.

    Daily Mail on Thursday reported: ‘’Lineker asked Hoddle: ‘Glenn, are you OK?’

    ‘’He said: ‘Yeah, I’m fine. I’ve never been happier. I’m so glad that I’m still around to see this. I’ve been a Spurs fan since I was eight years of age, what a proud moment that was.’

    ‘’Lineker replied: ‘I’m so glad you’re here to enjoy it with us.’

    ‘’Ferdinand then jokingly patted Hoddle on the chest as the former England manager added: ‘Incredible, two footballing miracles in two nights. Emotions flying in here. Incredible. I’ve never been happier.’’

    Thank you, Lineker and Ferdinand for this comic relief which lifted Hoddle’s spirit. Football is something else, especially when your team wins.

  • Is the genie of lawlessness finally out of the bottle?

    WHEN Undertow wrote on April 13, 2019 that Katsina and Zamfara States had become the poster boys of insecurity in the North, not even he was aware that Katsina would a few weeks later become the cynosure of all eyes as bandits successfully abducted President Muhammadu Buhari’s in-law and traditional title holder in Daura Emirate Council in Katsina State, Alhaji Musa Umar Uba. He is, according to a report, married to Hajiya Bilki, a niece to the president. This is probably the nearest the abduction craze has come to the president. Of course the president knows that banditry and all sorts of criminalities, particularly in the North, have reached epidemic proportions. What he may not know is whether his ‘law and order’ approach to combating the crisis, assuming that that approach is even well thought out, is the right panacea.

    Undertow had on that referenced day in a piece entitled “Zamfara tells Nigeria something far deeper” drawn attention to the widespread reports of abductions and banditry in Zamfara and Katsina States and alerte the federal and state governments to begin reappraising their understanding of the huge crisis threatening to engulf the entire North, if not the entire nation. The panaceas so far put forward, Undertow counselled, were generally ineffective and too restricted by stale orthodoxies to tackle the growing menace. The column was, however, not too hopeful that anyone would listen, considering that nearly everyone in government and the security services jealously holds on to old but futile interpretations of the extraordinarily hostile phenomena that have grown to become an albatross around the neck of Nigeria.

    The column added that the ineffectiveness of previous measures to tackle the mushrooming crime crisis was predisposing the country to far more cataclysmic problems. Said Undertow: “But because these measures have been applied in past years with immeasurable severity, but have failed woefully to have any major or lasting impact on the situation in those beleaguered states, there is nothing to suggest that they will work, having worked in fits and starts every time security forces were mobilised or deployed. With a little exaggeration, it is safe to say that the country is sitting on a powder keg. In fact, a little more indolence on the part of the governing elite might see the country careening into the ravine. The widespread attacks in nearly all parts of the country and the superficial impact the deployment of the security services have had on the problem suggest that the political elite have missed all the signals indicating the kind of trouble the country is contending with. But their misdiagnosis is unfortunately accompanied by the failure of rationality and character. The government has stuck to the use of overwhelming counter-force; and the rest of the country seems willing to sermonise over the problem, believing it is an attitudinal problem. Neither force nor sermon will work.”

    Undertow was even more unsettled by the desultory approach to the monumental crisis. It said: “If military and police interventions have proved only partially effective so far, and are in the long run ineffective; and money does not answer to a cancer that is fast metastasizing, then it may be time for the government to examine other ways of running the country, no matter how badly the new ways war against their ethnic sensibilities and stale orthodoxies. The National Assembly early this week angrily suggested state policing as a way out because, as they put it, all crime is local. But deployed in isolation, even this measure will fail to have the desired impact. What the political elite do not want to hear is that the existing structure of the country is fraying at the edges, and rupturing very badly in the middle. It is time, more than ever before, to reconsider the foundations of the country and initiate a total reworking of its structure under a new and more effective arrangement. Tinkering will not mitigate a crisis that is fast building up into a critical and explosive mass.”

    And finally, reflecting its frustrations with the government’s jaded and almost casual approach to the problem of widespread insecurity in the North, Undertow denounced the government’s insouciance in the face of what is building into a catastrophe. The column then concluded: “The population of young, angry and alienated Nigerians is growing at an alarming rate, resources are shrinking, economic growth is unable to match the rise in population, attitudes and values are shifting or even morphing dangerously, ethnic and religious relations are fraying, and the political elite insensibly and obstinately operates a costly, contradictory, ponderous and ineffective political system. There can be no worse recipe for disaster than what Nigeria is contending with today. Either the government does not know this, or it is too proud to acknowledge or care about it.” This conclusion may be apocalyptic and the problem resistant to any cure, but all that is needed is for the government to expand its brain trust, meet minds the proper and scientific way, and design useful remedies before it is too late. There are of course no guarantees — no guarantee that the government will humble itself and look for fresh ideas, and no guarantee that even the right remedies will not now prove too little too late. But since it is the business of government to constantly find ways of solving problems, they cannot afford to give up.

    The banditry and abductions have come despairingly too close for comfort for the president to stick stubbornly to whatever sure cures he had preferred. Those sure cures are anything but sure. His law and order option is proving inadequate and overstretched. He simply cannot muster the funds to overwhelm what is essentially not a financial problem. The scale of alienation is also abominably imponderable. The imponderability of the problem leaves the government precious little time to reflect, let alone devise solutions, and little elbow room to manoeuvre. Decades of financial malfeasance by Nigeria’s leadership elite, particularly and obviously the northern elite, have created a dangerous critical mass of angry, implacable, insatiable and unforgiving young and alienated people. They have tasted blood through bandit actions and abductions, have become resistant to police and military counterattacks, and may have begun to sense victory approaching if they can stay their nihilistic course.

    This column will say it once again that the Buhari presidency’s understanding of the national crisis manifesting dangerously in the North, especially its underlying reasons and scale, is monumentally defective. Current orthodoxies will not work, for they are based on the wrong perceptions and observations of a problem that has ossified along its multidimensional variants. Social scientists and other analysts have long feared that this day would come as a result of the country’s reluctance to honestly and courageously grapple with the fundamental problems afflicting the body politic. They knew long ago that the country’s political structure, its unitary system disingenuously touted as federal, lack of social justice, and the appalling and undisciplined approach to the rule of law would one day combine in a lethal mix and explode in everybody’s face. That day, alas, is either here or near.

    The Buhari presidency has not expertly handled the crisis well. They can, however, begin to find ways of correctly interpreting the issues at stake and the restiveness of alienated youths. They can also begin to weigh options which, to their leading lights, seem like political heresies but which really, like restructuring, may in fact be the only revolutionary way out. And the presidency must produce the right attitude to both the crisis and its solution without which little can be achieved. Sadly, for a government quite reconciled to excessive dithering, they do not have the time or luxury to continue the dangerous pussyfooting that has led them and the country to this terrible pass. Out of desperation, they may of course consider the declaration of a state of emergency or outright emergency rule in those troubled areas. They will, however, discover what other failed states have long realised: that no one plays his last card so casually.

    The solution to the North’s, and Nigeria’s, problem requires brilliance to conceive and courage to execute. This government has shown neither. But the time to take the bull by the horns is now. Let them take it scientifically and deliberately, not with the reckless bravado of a proud but faded and enervated bullfighter but with the suavity and nimbleness of a young and accomplished prize-winning bullfighter at his most impressive prime. There is no question that the genie of anarchy is out of the bottle. What is in doubt is whether it is completely out or whether it can be piped back into the bottle. Only the Buhari presidency can answer that question. The country will hope that they will eschew all encumbrances — ethnic, religious or ideological — to give the most appropriate answer to the puzzle.

  • Before Rodgers benches Ndidi

    I’m not comfortable with Brendan Rodgers’ stay in Leicester City. Rodgers is a good coach, but he rotates his squad to the detriment of certain key players. He only realises his folly with such rotation when his side loses at home. A case in point is Leicester’s 1-0 loss to Newcastle, a struggling side in the Barclays English Premier League.

    Until Rodgers’ arrival in Leicester, some players including Nigeria international Wilfred Ndidi, Wes Morgan, Vardy and Kasper Schmeichel, were the spine of the Foxes. They were regulars who decided the Foxes’ shape and formation. They missed games due to only card offences or injuries.

    Rodgers started the needless rotation, which kept Morgan on the bench, only to introduce him into the game following injuries in one of their matches. Morgan came on as a substitute and scored the vital winner. Rodgers’ serial rotation didn’t start with Leicester. He made some controversial changes as coach of Liverpool. The changes accounted for the Reds’ miss of the Barclays English Premier League title, even when the team had the awesome trio of Raheem Sterling, Luiz Suarez and Sturridge (aka SSS). They scored goals with aplomb.

    My concern as the EPL draws to an end is the recent substitution of Ndidi in Sunday’s 3-0 whiplash of Arsenal. Most football lovers thought the Nigerian was replaced to avoid a red card, having been shown the yellow in the first half. Rather than allow Ndidi return for the second half, Rodgers asked him to rest in what he called a tactical change. Is this the first time Ndidi has been yellow carded and ended the game without a red? Was Ndidi the only player who got yellow card? Why were the others not substituted?

    What manner of tactical change was he talking about for a team down to 10 men, with a red card. It was just a matter of time that the Gunners were going to capitulate. That Arsenal left the Kings Power Stadium with three goals in their kitty came from their goalkeeper Berd Leno’s brilliance all through 90 minutes. Nothing changed with the way Leicester played in the second half and that is typical of Rodgers.

    Perhaps, Ndidi needs to do a rethink about his future with Leicester under Rodgers, lest he is confined to the bench, when the manager gets a replacement for the Nigerian during the transfer window. The other option for Ndidi will be for him to sit with Rodgers to get his assurances of a regular first team shirt or he leaves.

    Ndidi has been outstanding for Leicester. He has won several laurels and awards which earned him rave reviews and an avalanche of interests from big European clubs seeking his services. If Rodgers cannot guarantee Ndidi a first team shirt devoid of such needless substitutions, he should move away now that his value is still high. He is young; this makes his future very bright. It will be a travesty if Ndidi stays to be made a 45 minutes player.

    “I thought when it was 11 vs. 11 we were the better team, we looked a threat, we just needed to control their counter-attacks.

    “In the second half we wanted to be more aggressive, taking off Wilf (Wilfred Ndidi) who was on a yellow card, put an extra creative midfield player in and then putting Harvey (Barnes) wide.

    “I thought in the second half we showed great fitness levels, great energy and scored all three very good goals,” Rodgers told the Leicester City club website.

    I have been pinching myself to find out what happened to Kelechi Iheanacho. As a Golden Eaglets star, he was awesome, scoring goals which reminded Nigerians of the late Rashidi Yekini, Segun Odegbami, Thompson Usiyen et al. Many people looked up to Iheanacho as the next Nigerian to win the Africa Footballer of the Year award. But Iheanacho has melted away like ice-cream under the scorching sun.

    Iheanacho raised hopes with Manchester City but soon fizzled out. Citizens’ manager Pep Guardiola rushed to Brazil to recruit Gabriel Jesus, who shone like a million stars to eclipse Iheanacho and dump him into the transfer market. Leicester recruited the Nigerian. He had a few cameo appearances with Leicester and transferred his club form to the Super Eagles, scoring some vital goals

    that gave Nigeria the ticket to the 2018 World Cup and the 2019 Africa  Cup of Nations slated to hold in Egypt from June 21 to July 19. These happened under the former manager who recruited Iheanacho. When he left, I had doubts about Iheanacho’s future, I knew Rodgers, a former Liverpool coach, would try him out and come up with a verdict. That is Rodgers’ strength.

    “I think he’s a great talent but he’s a number nine. He’s not one who can play on the sides or come in. Some strikers I’ve worked with you can maybe shuffle them about and slide them around to make it work – but he’s a number nine and that’s it. And we already have a good number nine. So he’s got a fight to get ahead. But there’s maybe another system to make it work, like a diamond,” Rodgers said.

    “It’s been hard for Kelechi because he’s come in and he’s been a secondary striker at Manchester City. All of a sudden he makes a move for big money and I think everyone can see the potential. But he’s come in to one of the top strikers in the league (Jamie Vardy) and I think it’s very hard to displace that. But it’s just a case of adapting to these new players.

    “Actually, my job is not to put them in a trap of pressure, and take that away from them. Enjoy your football, but ultimately your first job is to press and work hard. From that what can you add into your game?”

    Reading Rodgers’ comments about Iheanacho when he joined the Foxes gave me a little hope, having been told that the Nigerian was just a traditional striker who couldn’t function anywhere else but as a point man to score goals. I was a little excited that Iheanacho stood a chance of stealing Vardy’s thunder anytime he is injured or is dropped due to card offences.

    It never happened for Iheanacho the few times he started the game ahead of Vardy. Even when he came in as a substitute, his output was off the mark; largely anonymous.  Iheanacho’s performance with the Foxes has been apologetic, culminating in his being dropped from the Super Eagles, and rightly so.

    I hope Iheanacho is talking with his agents to search for a new club next season. Rodgers uses every opportunity to tell the media that he is shopping for a striker to challenge Vardy as the team’s top striker. What it means is that Iheanacho is on his way out of the Foxes, since he is Vardy’s rival in the striking role position. He shouldn’t wait until January to quit Leicester. A stitch in time saves nine.

     

    Pharaohs or Super Eagles?

     

    June 21 is a landmark date in the annals of Africa Cup of Nations, with a 24-team format which sees the continent’s best players fighting to outdo one another for glory in Egypt. It is expected that by July 19, a new champion will emerge – likely Nigeria or the hosts Pharaohs of Egypt.

    Pundits are at their wits’ best in picking the finalists. They are considering Senegal, the continent’s number one in the FIFA ranking. They argue that the Terenga Lions of Senegal is built around Sadio Mane, who may be so tired as a result of the hectic European season with Liverpool, where he has scored 20 goals for the Reds in the ongoing Barclays English Premier League. The fatigue argument can be likened to Mohammed Salah, who plays for Liverpool and has scored 21 goals in the EPL. The leveller tilts in Salah’s and Egypt’s favour because of the support from their teeming fans as the hosts of the Africa Cup of Nations.

    Both players (Mane and Salah) are top contenders for the Africa Footballer of the Year Award. But football is no respecter of pundits. It also doesn’t know who brought the ball to the pitch. The best playing side which takes its goal-scoring chances wins.

    Those tipping Nigeria to play in the final, have hinged their bet on the unpredictable character of the Super Eagles, especially after missing the last two editions. In fact, Nigeria, against all odds, won the Africa Cup of Nations on February 10, 2013 in South Africa. The pundits stressed that since Nigerian players made their marks in most European clubs this season, they are match fit. But will selection of players be Nigeria’s headache?

    Chief coach Gernot Rohr is having grey hairs over the inclusion of John Mikel Obi, Francis Uzoho and Chukwueze in his squad. He, however, has solutions to the trio’s inclusion, beginning with Uzoho.

    Rohr, in a twitter conversation with @osasuo, said: ‘’I have sent Enrico Pionetti, my goalkeeper trainer, to @anorthosisfc to work on goalkeeper Francis Uzoho. At the moment; it’s not, for now, a question of him being number one but of his being one of our three goalkeepers for the AFCON.’’ Good thinking coach. The way forward.

    Asked if Mikel Obi was returning to the Super Eagles, Rohr told @osasuo: ‘’This is the question that I and my team will resolve. I will soon get to see him at Boro. There are many things to consider but I respect him and what he has done for Nigeria. He remains an important player.

    ‘’He has been away from the team for a year but we qualified for the AFCON without him. His absence, as our captain, has been evident. But he has had to deal with a range of issues, after the World Cup in Russia.’’

    Asked by @osasuo if Chukwueze will start Nigeria’s matches at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, Rohr said: ‘’ You seem to know all my present challenges. He is a great talent and I would like him in my team, although I don’t know if he will be an immediate starter. The challenge, of course, is that he is also wanted for Nigeria at the FIFA U-20 World Cup holding in Poland.’’

    Well said, Rohr. Good to know that NFF chieftains have promised to give the team all the logistics support they need. Up Nigeria!

  • Pensions, justice and the rule of law

    The  Bayelsa State governor,  Mr   Seriake  Dickson during the week refused to give assent a  to a bill passed by  the  state  House of Assembly asking for  life pension   for  both serving and past  legislators in the state. The governor said the bill violated a section of  the Nigerian constitution, was not a priority on the list of the myriads of serious economic problems  facing the state and would  be creating a special  class  of  people in a democracy where equality and freedom  are  the driving spirit.   In  my view the Bayelsa   governor is a shining example of  a champion of democracy  upholding the rule of  law  and justice  and his refusal  to give assent  to the bill brought by  self  serving   Bayelsa legislators is a beacon  of  hope  that  God  is  not  finished with  Nigeria yet. This   is    in spite of  the overwhelming predisposition of the Nigerian   political class   for  self  perpetuation,  and  self  promotion   of their  class  once they  get elected into  any   office  either in   the executive or legislative arm  of  government, in  all  categories  of  governance  in the Nigerian  political  system.

    In  upholding  the rule of law at  great expense to  his political authority and tenure   I put  Governor Dickson of Bayelsa  state on the lofty platform  of some other legal  minds and lawyers on the global scene who  this week  stated boldly and  clearly  what  the rule of  law  is  and what  it is not.  The  first  is  Rod  Rosentein  the Deputy Attorney General  of  the US who  appointed the  Attorney Mueller  who   led the Mueller Inquiry which   recently   submitted its report on its findings on  whether Russia  assisted Donald  Trump  to win the 2016 US presidential  election  or  not. The  second  is the US Attorney  General William  Barr  who  received  the  Muller  Report and released  an  abridged  version  of it  as required by the US constitution.  The  third  is the US House of  Representatives dominated by the Democrats which is using  subpoenas to battle  the presidency  of  the US President Donald  Trump  Administration   while  the Trump  appointees in government  have refused to  honour  some  subpoenas thus  exposing themselves  to  charges of  contempt  of the law  with regard  to  legislative authority.  With  regard  to  the US AG Barr’s  role  and  that of the US House  of  Reps,  partisanship  has  blinded proceedings on both sides  such  that the rule of law is   in   serious  jeorpardy.  We  shall  therefore  dwell   here on the Rosentein resignation letter  later.

    The  comparison  with Governor  Dickson  stems  from  the fact  that the Bayelsa  governor  is  boldly    trying to defend  the people  who  voted Bayelsa  legislators  into office   against   the   misusing   and abuse  of    their   trust     with    legislative powers  aimed  at  looting   the state treasury. Thus    making  an ass of  the law in creating life pensions  for themselves  outside  the provisions of  the Nigerian  constitution.  According to  the Governor  in his statement  on refusal  of assent, the bill  is inconsistent  with Section 124  of the Nigerian  constitution  and ‘ I am  not  convinced  of its legality’.  The  legislature  is made up  of  22  members  of  the PDP,  the governor’s  party  and 2 members of  the opposition APC  which  means  that  the legislators   from  the governor’s   party  can  impeach  him  for daring to stop  the bill. That  makes  the governor a public   spirited  and patriotic  Nigerian  in  my view.  What  I do  not agree with   however is his  insistence that  Bayelsa   will  be the first  state to give  pension to political  office  holders. It is an open  secret  that governors and deputy governors in many states  have houses and cars when they leave office and have cars renewed  after  two  years in some  states. It  is  a situation similar  to  that in Bayelsa and is equally   condemnable   as  it is not only  a drain  on the resources  of the states  concerned but is an abuse  of  the concept of contributory  pension system  which  is meant as a cushion and incentive  for the effects of  long  meritorious  service.

    A  recent  White  Paper in the UK  called  for a review  of pensions for  the old with a view  to cutting some perks  such as TV  licence payments  so  that there  can  be provision  for  young people  who  are largely  unemployed and uncatered  for  by the state. The recommendation is meant to  care  for  young  unemployed  youths in  order to make  life  easier  for them in  society  in order  to minimize  antagonism against  a society that creates social  tension in the face of rising youth  unemployment and joblessness.  That  to me is a step  in the right direction in the UK  and is what  Nigeria  should  emulate  and  adopt   instead  of  creating   extravagant   pensions   for politicians  who  serve very    short  political   terms. This  is imperative  and urgent  with the developments in Algeria  where restless, angry   and unemployed  protesters,  mostly  youths  toppled the decades old regimes of Boumediene and Sudan  where  a similar   overthrow    of  government   was led  by youthful  doctors and other  professionals. This  is the handwriting on the wall  that the Bayelsa governor   has read  and has stopped  his wayward  legislators  in their  quest  to make an  ass of the law and line their pockets with the resources of the state  as pensions  for life.

    In  similar  vein the outgoing US  Deputy  Attorney  General Rod  Rosentein   who  initiated the Mueller probe  and was perceived as an antagonist  by the US President  resigned as expected but his resignation  letter  was a lesson  in objectivity and respect  for  the rule of law.  Rosentein  whose resignation takes effect on  May  11  noted  that  ‘the rule of law  is  the foundation of  America.’ In  the  concluding part  of his released resignation  letter he gave clear  albeit    grudging endorsement  to the US   President Donald  Trump   who  vilified  him  as  a  witch  hunter most  of the time. Rosentein  praised  the US Department of  Justice  he was leaving thus –‘ We  enforce the law  without fair or favour  because evidence is not partisan  and truth is not determined by opinion polls.  We  ignore fleeting distractions and focus our attention on the things   that  matter,  because  a republic that matters is not governed  by the news cycle. We  keep  the faith, we  follow  the rules and we always put America first ‘ I  am  sure  that even  Trump  must  have  been dazed   and pleasantly    surprised   by the unexpected adoption of his America First slogan  by a man he mistrusted  most  of his time in office.  But  that is the best  way to uphold the rule of law  in any clime  or polity  as shown by both  Governor Dickson of Bayelsa   on life  pension  for   legislators in  Nigeria  and Rod  Rosentein of the US  Department  of Justice. Once  again long live  the Federal Republic of  Nigeria.