The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Cash and carry soccer

    Nigerians have the penchant for making simple things look difficult because we give incompetent people sensitive assignments. We only realise our folly when things go awry. Ironically, when the problems manifest, we chase the effects of such maladministration, leaving the inept administrators to worsen the situation.

    Fortunately, we have those who correct the defects, but they won’t be recruited because of nepotism. Interestingly, those who should correct their mistakes of recruiting failures end up passing the buck. The ripple effect of this circus show is the vicious recycling of those who have failed in the past for bigger roles – same names, yet we expect different results. What hurts is the recourse to federal character, which has devastated the polity.

    Nigerians watched in pain how Flying Eagles played without cohesion, largely due to the absence of talents in the squad. Many were miffed that the coaches could pick such poor players in a country of over 200 million people; yet they are waiting for the NFF to sack them, instead of resigning their appointment after the team’s loss to South Africa in the third-place game last Saturday.

    NFF chiefs should fire this coaching crew and disband the team. They have failed us and should not be given any national team assignment in the next five years. Flying Eagles used to be the nursery for the players to replace ageing ones and those whose career stopped due to recurring injuries. We cannot destroy this platform on the altar of giving the coaches a second chance to correct their mistakes.

    We appear to be showcasing far less talented players in our age grade teams than we have. It’s not the result, the winning or the lack of it. It’s that Nigeria is blessed with better talents than we parade. The current U-20 team is alarmingly deficient in every aspect of the game. So, those who picked the team and players should go.

    How do other countries assembly their age-grade teams? They standardise their youth academies to be in sync with such country’s soccer philosophy. There is a link between what operates at the cadet level to the senior side, which makes transition from one cadre to another for the younger ones seamless. But in Nigeria, any gathering of young boys is seen as an academy, with the coaches buying balls.

    Determined to get a holistic view of the problem in Nigeria, this writer sought the views of the Executive Chairman of the Edo State Sports Commission (ESSC), Barrister Godwin Dudu-Orumen, who said: ‘’Good question. But how is it done in other climes? In the first place, l think we need to revisit the process of engaging the coaches. Who conducts the interviews, who makes the appointments, parameters for making the appointments, set targets and of course due diligence on the character of the coaches? Thereafter, periodic evaluation of the performance of the team under the coach by an independent monitoring team. The same operatives of the NFF Technical Dept have also been guilty of complicity. I am sorry to use these words, it’s a racket that must be crushed by the NFF big wigs. No disrespect to the sensibilities of anybody, please.’’

    Not one to run away from providing insights into such debates in sports, especially football where he is the First Vice President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Barrister Seyi Akinwunmi responded to Dudu Orumen’s comments thus: ‘’Familiar story indeed. But it’s been familiar for decades and very deep rooted; it can only be improved by creating a structure from the grassroots to the State FA’s to the Zones. Even that will take time.

    ‘’Ordinarily, I would just read and digest, but my name was mentioned (admittedly in good faith). The problem is a fundamental one and many of us who complain are perhaps part of the problem. 1. Where on earth does an individual (or indeed a village) discover a talent and takes that player to the na tional team coach for inclusion in the national team? We don’t even see anything wrong in it. Most times its for personal gain (again, admittedly not all) and it is a bastardisation of the system. Many of us have unwittingly become intermediaries.

    ‘’I will give an example; just a few days ago someone came to my office to ask for my help because the boy he sent to be screened for the ongoing U-17 was not picked. He made various unsubstantiated allegations against the coaches.

    ‘’Apart from asking him to substantiate his claims, I asked for the name of the boy. It turned out that he was a young boy that I knew quite well from our Eko Football U-15 team. Undoubtedly talented, but very lazy and undisciplined. He, therefore, did not make the SW Zonal team despite his talent. Yet this emergency intermediary expects him to be picked for the U-17 because “he had plans for him abroad”. This is someone well respected in this sphere and should know better. Many on this Forum have spoken to me in similar vein.

    ‘’Dudu (who has an academy) has only ever spoken to me on this one player and I intervened only because he had captained Nigeria U-15 and was adjudged one of the best players at that tournament,’’ Akinwunmi wrote on FUBS’ platform.

    Dudu Orumen’s retort to Akinwunmi raised further comments on the subject matter. He stressed: ‘’ Seyi, you have told some truths, same way some of us have. A deep rooted problem going back three decades or so. But it is scarlet colour hitting the eyes so badly because of the not so good returns from the team.’’

    Well said, gentlemen. What is the practicable approach to ensuring that the right things are done to return the country to winning ways? A coach is as good as his last game. Where a coach has failed, he shouldn’t be allowed to remain with the team. He should either be demoted to a lower rung or sacked immediately; it will deter whoever replaces him, knowing that the proverbial whip used to flog the old wife is still hung at the back of the door for him.

    Our age-grade teams have had the misfortune of being handled by cash and carry coaches who failed – although many may demand evidence of such claims. Difficult to prove, but posterity has an uncanny way of vindicating the just. When such teams are picked, they depart the country with deafening curses from those dropped, which rubs off on the teams’ performance.

    Did you say that is the way those dropped behave? Not exactly. The difference is that those in this new group still have pockets of others who were dropped wishing them well. But when the curses are deafening, nothing good comes out of those teams. What do you say of the case where a coach punished for being caught on tape receiving bribe is being projected to return to the national team?

    What message are we sending to the outside world? How will our administrators feel if the commentators sight the coach and refer to the offence? It will be a slap on every Nigerians’ sensibilities, more so when we have other coaches who can do the job. This disgraced coach should stay away from our national teams. He is a bad citation for the game with his misdemeanour, no matter how naive he was.

     

    Caught in the act

    This shameful expose ought to be my main discuss today. I changed my mind because in the last four weeks, I have made the domestic game the major topic here. But, when The Nation’s correspondent in Damaturu sent the story of how referees, who had been paid N1 million before a game were forced to return their booty, I had no option but to talk.

    In the report, it was stated that the match officials were given N1 million, shared according to their roles in the game between Yobe Desert Stars and Akwa United of Uyo in Damaturu. The centre referee was said to have collected N300,000 while the two assistant referees got N200,000 each. The match commissioner and an intermediary whose identity was not disclosed shared the remaining N300,000.

    All the recipients of the bribe returned the money they collected to members of the Yobe Desert Stars Supporters’ Club who stormed the match officials’ hotel for the recovery mission.  The money was for the referees to ensure that the home team won. Unfortunately for them, the visitors, Akwa United, won 1-0. Did I hear you say perhaps, the visitors gave more cash? I no know book o! mbok, make I dey run to go house o!

    First, one must commend the referees for keeping faith with the rules of the game culminating in Akwa United’s victory. Dubious referees would have awarded as many penalty kicks to the home side to ensure parity instead of the defeat. The event after the game didn’t give pundits the opportunity to see if the referees would have reported the matter to the LMC by lodging the cash for further investigation. Nor can we charge them with complicity.

    The league organisers should provide the referees’ names for commendation. The thugs who stormed the hotel for the cash should be apprehended and prosecuted. Need I say that giving cash to throw games is a criminal offence? The organisers can’t claim not to know the thugs, like the clubs will say, but the referees can identify them if they are paraded.

    The club owners have a lot to tell us, especially how thugs knew where the match officials were staying. These thugs could have killed or maimed the referees, if the instruction was to wreak such havoc. This incident is too grievous to be swept under the carpet.

  • Ezekwesili, Falae and unstructured, unprincipled polity

    Events of the past two weeks or so may have convinced ageing but principled Nigerian politicians that confusion, lack of principles and incredible sophistry were enveloping politics in these parts. There was faint hope that a new order could somehow metamorphose from the rubbles of the past, especially given the first successful civilian to civilian transition of power from a ruling party to an opposition party in 2015. But that enthusiasm seems badly misplaced. Indeed, when in early October both the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN) and the Social Democratic Party (SDP) organised their conventions to nominate their standard-bearers, their leaders were flushed with excitement over the immense opportunities new politics was affording new parties untainted by any connections with the old and decaying order represented by both the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

    On October 6, 2018, some 4,500 SDP members met to nominate their standard-bearers. Former Cross River State governor, Donald Duke, won the nomination in an atmosphere of political exuberance few could imagine would peter out into nothingness and confusion less than four months later. Even though Mr Duke’s nomination was eventually litigated, with former Information minister, Jerry Gana, a professor, briefly emerging as the party’s nominee, there were no signs of a convoluted struggle to represent the party or place it firmly on the country’s political and electoral map. Though the legal dispute is still ongoing regarding who between Mr Duke and Prof Gana would represent the party in the February 16, 2019 presidential poll, a more assertive faction of the party led by the National Vice Chairman, Abdul Ishaq, simply brushed the litigants aside and went ahead stony-faced to endorse the ruling APC’s presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari.

    The party’s National Chairman, Olu Falae, an economist and old political warhorse and former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), appeared to have been blindsided by his party’s controversial endorsement. It turned out that he was not at the meeting where the APC candidate was endorsed. He probably heard rumours of that impending move, but he neither betrayed knowledge of that action nor felt he had to put up with it once it was done. A day later, he resigned his chairmanship of the party, insisting that he knew nothing of the nefarious endorsement, and was also unwilling to identify with the party’s decision. It was clear to him as well as the party and other Nigerians that Chief Falae had lost control of the party. He stated that his resignation was due to poor health, or  some other excuses no one seems sure of, but added that after all, he had not been active in running the party for some time.

    But shortly before a faction of his party endorsed the president, Chief Falae had himself unilaterally endorsed the PDP’s presidential candidate, Atiku Abubaakar. Speaking while receiving Titi Abubakar, the wife of the PDP’s presidential candidate, Chief Falae had spoken endearingly about identifying with any candidate who could thwart the victory of President Buhari. Said Chief Falae, according to some media reports: “All hands must be on deck by to ensure that President Muhammadu Buhari does not come back for the second term. We have to find ways to do it, this government must not come back, for the sake of all of us, even for the sake of the man (Buhari) himself. He does not have the clue of what is going on again, I don’t think he is well, he should just go home and rest. Some characters are hiding behind him to do evil. I wish him (Atiku) well, we are on the same page, we are aiming the same result, no one wants this government to come back because the government has failed.”

    It is not clear whether the Dr Ishaq faction took a cue from Chief Falae’s arbitrary endorsement of the PDP candidate, but no one in the party seemed to care anymore. A part of the party now wants PDP, and another part wants APC. The remnants, both Mr Duke and Prof Gana, are still locked in a fierce combat to determine who will pick the crumbs — the soul and torso of the party having been offered to the two dominant parties. What is even clearer, as another party, the Allied Congress Party of Nigeria (ACPN), has begun to show, is that both generational and paradigmatic shifts are taking place in Nigerian politics. The principles and ideologies of the Falae era, despite its warts, are no longer indispensable in Nigerian politics. That transition had been in the offing for some time, indeed for the past three or four decades, but few ever imagined that the change, when it comes, would be accompanied by such horrendous abjuration of principles and ideologies as the country is witnessing today.

    Voters were already moaning about the indistinguishability of political players and parties, and were sick to death about their flightiness, as they jump from one party to another, sometimes in a huff, but little did they know they were yet to see their political leaders and representatives plumb the gut-wrenching nadir of partisan politics. As the country laid wrong and weak foundation for the Fourth Republic, no party or political leader of substance and weight had attempted to remain faithful to principles and ideologies whatever the cost. It can only get worse, going forward, especially as the country’s poverty index grows worse.

    The ACPN logjam is even more archetypal than the miasma the SDP embroil itself in. Though there did not seem to be any warning of the doom awaiting the party after the ACPN held its convention on October 7, 2018 and nominated former World Bank vice president and one-time Education minister, Oby Ezekwesili, as standard-bearer, it ought to be clear to everyone, given the amorphous nature of Nigerian politics, that attention must be paid by political players and analysts to both the structure of their parties and the character of their political leaders, particularly those offering themselves for election. There was no indication that Dr Ezekwesili carried out any due diligence. She was probably flattered to be offered the presidential ticket on a platter. Though she knew victory in the race would be far-fetched, she however expected, at the minimum, the cooperation of her party to make the race at least stimulating.

    But after a few weeks of turbulent but largely uneventful campaign, the ACPN pulled the rug from under the feet of their presidential candidate. On January 24, 2019, Dr Ezekwesili and the ACPN, represented by its chairman and presidential running mate, Ganiyu Galadima, parted ways, virtually on the same date, only hours apart. It is, however, speculated that Dr Ezekwesili simply stole her adopted party’s thunder, knowing that they were about to endorse President Buhari. She beat them to the tape, announcing her severance of ties with the party hours before the party itself gave her the boot. The former candidate claimed the party was unprincipled and its leaders greedy; but the party in turn accused her of financial malfeasance. What is clear is that Dr Ezekwesili did not carry out due diligence on the party and its leaders, and also failed to understand the company of those she was travelling with.

    Hear the former ACPN candidate in her own words: “Nigeria and Nigerians deserve a New Order of ethical, competent and capable leadership. I had earlier assumed the ACPN was aligned with me to offer that, until it proved otherwise. The values and vision divergence with the party was a key factor that triggered my withdrawal from the presidential race on their ticket prompting me to dissociate immediately in order to help build a coalition for good governance. It is why I was instant in sacrificing my candidacy to uphold my values by withdrawing. The party’s decision to immediately today endorse the candidate of APC, which was announced by my erstwhile VP candidate who is also the Chairman of ACPN, was their classic political entrepreneurship in full display for Nigerians to see. It is instructive. The party leadership’s transactional approach to politics began to manifest in their attitude following after the convention that adopted me as their presidential candidate. All who know me can attest that I detest transactional mindset.”

    But not to be outdone, the party replied with powerful accusations of their own, alleging that their former candidate could not account for campaign funds with all the scrupulousness, diligence and exemplary conduct she preached and idolised. Yet, they could not deny the damaging fact that they had prepared themselves all along to endorse President Buhari, and that contrary to their claims that they had hoped the party’s presidential campaign would acquire traction, they in fact waited long enough, as sympathisers of Dr Ezekwesili argued, to give their party some semblance of presence and credibility in order to be able to market the party to the highest bidder.

    Will there ever be a change to the way Nigerian political parties and politicians play politics? It is hard to imagine that possibility. Political actors will continue to be irresponsible, defecting from one party to another irreverently and casually; while the smaller parties, like the SDP and ACPN, will continue to fiddle with principles and ideologies. Until there is a fundamental change in orientation occasioned by a deep structural change, politics will continue as usual, and many principled players will continue to be treated shabbily. The sad decline in leadership and partisan politics precipitated decades ago when the structure of the country became more unitary than federal will continue until systemic atrophy compels fundamental change.

  • Policing league venues

    Soccer crazy nations measure the game growth by the number of home-grown players in their national teams. The authorities of the game, FIFA, recognise the importance of this point and have instituted several incentives to drive the game’s development globally. FIFA, in its wisdom, provided funds for less developed nations to embrace the game and bridge the gap between them and others. The cash is to improve on the facilities for the game to thrive in the 211 affiliate countries.

    In his historic address at the 32nd Ordinary Assembly of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last weekend, FIFA President Gianni Infantino said: “Africa is a continent that has always been very close to my heart. I have fond memories of watching the FIFA World Cup 1982 in Spain, when Cameroon quite seriously challenged my home team, Italy, and when Algeria defeated West Germany before West Germany made it to the final against Italy, who won the competition.

    “Football fans around the world were convinced that the African teams would soon reach the level of the best European teams. I’m sad to say that almost 40 years later, African teams haven’t been able to make this shift, and to reach the final stages of a FIFA World Cup, despite their impressive performances during the FIFA World Cups 2002 and 2010, and more recently the World Cup in Russia. This situation must change because of the great passion your continent has for football. Quite simply put, Africa lives football!

    “I believe that just as Africa gives so much of its passion and positivity to football, football can give back to Africa and help the continent’s people in key areas: economic growth, education, gender mainstreaming, integration and football governance.’’

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

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

    According to a FIFA report, Enyimba and Ifeanyi Ubah split the money $118, 860 (N43 million). FIFA shared 209 million Euros (N85 billion) to 416 clubs, with the day rate for 736 players at the Mundial set at $8, 530. Did Ifeanyi Ubah and Enyimba FCs pay Ezenwa up to N43 million during his stay with them? Not possible. Yet these administrators don’t see the essence of making match venues violence-free for massive attendance, culminating in improved earnings from the stadium’s turnstiles’.

    In fact, the responsibility for preventing violence at match venues rests squarely on the shoulders of clubs’ chairmen and management teams who empower miscreants to control vital units of the stadium. Clubs’ roughnecks man the gates; they also supervise the sale of match tickets, hence it is difficult for any team to declare what it earned from gate takings. In other climes, with less than 15 minutes to the end of matches, the public announcer in the stadium announces the number of fans who watched the game.

    Of course, knowing how much was realised is easy based on what was sold and at which of the entrances.

    Hooligans and urchins handle sensitive areas hence, no mechanism is in place to checkmate their activities. And the clubs’ chairmen are happy with it because the criminals take percentages from gates where their activities are not supervised. Is anyone surprised that with this setting, it is easy to pummel the referees – the exit gates are manned by hoodlums who won’t open the gates until the assignment is completed.

    I watched a game last year at the Agege Stadium, Lagos. I saw how yoyos rushed to nearby shops to pick up bottles, which they converted into weapons. Everyone ran for dear lives, including the organisers. The stadium manager did the wise thing by closing the main entrance; otherwise, the carnage would have been more devastating. What happened at Agege is the norm in most Nigerian stadia because the club owners shirk their responsibilities.

    In Europe, fans misbehave, a classical example being the bottle of beer thrown at PSG’s former Manchester United player, Di Maria, in Tuesday’s Champions League game at Old Trafford. In between PSG’s goals, a bottle was thrown at Di Maria who responded with humour. Di Maria pretended to take a swig from the glass bottle before discarding it. He then made his point with his feet by claiming a second assist of the night to set up Mbappe for goal No 2.

    But that bottle-throwing irritant would be caught and punished. Such big stadia have CCTVs which help spot unruly fans. Even Di Maria will be punished for his comments after the incident. Such control mechanisms further secure the premises, making it absolutely impossible for fans to misbehave.

    I have deliberately highlighted the key areas that militate against providing adequate security at match venues, orchestrated by the club owners and their management teams.

    To avert deaths, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) should immediately prioritise manning of match venues before, during and after matches, through special squads. The IGP can place temporary police stations inside the stadium with Black Marias stationed to house hooligans when they are caught.

    Growing up in Benin City, fans behaved when mobile policemen were deployed at critical matches. These MOPOL units were very efficient as they came hours before the games to man strategic positions. There were empty vans where those who misbehaved were locked up and taken away to be prosecuted. Hardly was there any violence at matches where the MOPOL took charge in Benin City. There was also Col. Gbolahan Mustapha (rtd) who marshalled operations within and outside the stadium. This system worked despite the notoriety of the fans at Ogbe Stadium, which had the luxury of hosting four teams at the time.

    The best form of security is the referee doing his job without fear or favour. The structure of the stadia exposes referees to attacks. Perhaps, the League Board can instruct the clubs to create new entrances and exits for the match officials in such a way that their lives are safe.

    This idea of away teams having to remain inside the stadium till late in the night after matches is unacceptable just as it is barbaric. There won’t be any need to watch games, if winners must be the home side. The organisers should get live broadcast partners to beam matches. Such initiative can be bankrolled by a blue-chip company which will utilise the marketing windows available in such packages – only if the league organisers know their onions.

    The scams surrounding the league are shameful. Pundits are worried that nobody knows what the league is worth. Organisers can’t tell us how much they have realised from inter and intra club transfers of players? This is the biggest revenue earner for most lucrative leagues in the world. Contracts between clubs and their players are worthless. In fact, a popular league team’s owners were shocked to hear that players they paid monthly weren’t theirs and couldn’t earn revenue from any of them being scouted by European clubs.

    Our club owners lack ideas to fund the development of their teams. When Chelsea lost scandalously 6-0 to Manchester City, one fan threw his season’s ticket away. It was found by a steward who would track the fan and appease him. I have brought this incident forward to ask if our clubs have season tickets for fans. None; yet one of the biggest revenue earners for European clubs is the sale of season tickets (gold, silver and bronze cards with varying figures depending on the fans’ pockets).

    The club owners can’t be worried that their matches are not live because the absence of television covers their tracks when their fans cause mayhem which would have been captured during live telecasts. Revenue from television right is mind-boggling, with most European clubs eager to have their games on television, knowing the financial implications. Here, club owners are comfortable with getting government money, which is cheap and, most times, need not be unaccounted for.

    With such lawlessness, it is easy to appreciate why the league totters and the administrators bask in mundane things, such as being CAF and FIFA eggheads. One is, however, emboldened by Infantino’s pronouncement at the 32nd Ordinary Assembly of the African Union (AU) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, last weekend, which could flush out the usurpers in our system.

    The FIFA boss said: “We cannot afford for this beautiful game of ours to be poisoned by corruption. We have a mission to protect the integrity of our sport, and FIFA reiterates its willingness to work with all of you to root corruption out of African football  by partnering with the African Union. We would also have the ability to share our expertise on matters like stadium construction and security across Africa, ensuring that stadia are properly constructed and equipped following best practice, ensuring safety of venues and fans attending sports competitions.”

    I hope our football chieftains will read this address.

  • Our presidential election, peace and stability

    Today  is the day  of the 2019 Presidential Elections in Nigeria  and the fate and control  of the Nigerian polity is up for grabs.  More importantly, there is palpable fear  and anxiety over the results of the election. Yet  the  two  main  candidates are  men of peace who have signed a peace  accord to    accept  the ‘results  of the election.  The APC candidate, a fatherly  figure  and    incumbent President of Nigeria,  President  Muhammadu  Buhari  has said that it is not  a do or die election as he has lost elections before and he is calling  on  Nigerians to reelect  him    on his performance, especially  in  fighting  corruption on an unprecedented scale.

    The PDP  candidate  Alhaji  Abubakar  Atiku  quoted former  President Goodluck  Jonathan  to  the effect  that  his ambition is not worth the blood  of any  Nigerian. That  so  much  attention is focused  on a peace  agreement  signed by the two  major contestants  before  the elections  means that the prospect  and menace of post  election violence  are  real  and potent.

    All  the same both  the contestants  and their  parties  as well as the peace motivators, know  that  a winner  must  emerge in a free and fair  election  and it is the responsibility  of the winner  to be magnanimous in victory  and the loser  to accept the loss  gracefully, like a sportsman  and not resort  to  accusations  of rigging and electoral  malpractices  which  are  the  hallmarks  of election losers in  Nigeria.

    Indeed  post  election litigations  have  become a booming  industry in the legal  and judicial  system  in  Nigeria  and  has  made multi millionaires    of  many  Nigerian legal  practitioners  especially the SANs,  although  this is not generally  included in list  of actions that  constitute  post election violence. Yet  a situation where political  litigants and opponents draw  from the same pool  of legal  representation is fraught  with  great  potential  to fuel serious  political  acrimony  that are bound  to  task  the  stability of the  Nigerian  political  system.

    However  the grim  prospect  of  violence in the absence of peace should  not dampen our enthusiasm  today  to  either  reelect  our president  or choose  a new one and live in peace thereafter. That peaceful  existence  after  today’s  election is the goal  of this write  up regardless  of the result of  today. It  is my  contention that the two  candidates  are  fulfilled  men  who  have made their marks in life and in the political  life of this nation. I believe that they  are both capable of taking the result with equanimity whether  in their favor  or  not. It  is their managers  and campaign organisers  who  should  be monitored  not to inflame passion  and hatred  once the results is against them. I listened  to two spokesmen  of the  PDP and it was  obvious  they  were mobilizing their  members  for  a  war  although they asked  their  40m  members to resist  any  attempt  at  the polling booth  to  rig. Asking people to  resist  rigging is a civic  duty of  all  voters  of all parties  and not that  of  PDP  members alone.

    So, that belligerence  in asking for vigilance  at  polling  booths is  not necessary  as  all  parties will  benefit  from a level  playing ground  which INEC  has sworn  to provide  and which  we all  have come to believe  and is why  we  are  voting in the presidential elections  to  day. Such  a call  against  rigging  before  even the election  has  the potential  to  disrupt  election  results on a false premise of    losing  because  of  rigging , when  the  results do  not favor  the PDP. It  is a dishonest  way  of  shouting fire

    when there is none.

    Yet  the same  PDP  seem  to  have  gone out of its way  to  woo Nigerians to vote  for its  presidential  candidate to win this election. I was stunned  to hear  a recorded  voice  message  on my phone  this week  saying  – I  am  Atiku  Abubakar, please vote for me to get Nigeria  working again. That  is a beautiful  campaign with confidence  in the political  process  totally  opposite  to that  of the PDP spokesmen  crying wolf  on  rigging  even  before the presidential  election.  This reminded me of  the 2016  US presidential  campaign  of  Donald  Trump who  said  he would not accept  the result  of the election if he lost because  it would  have been  rigged.  I  thought  then  that  he should  have been called to order  for  undermining the integrity of the electoral  process.

    But  he  too surprised  himself  by winning  when  he did  not  even have  confidence  in the electoral  system  and the rest  is history. It  is my  belief  that the results  will  be so  glaringly  clear that  the prospect  of violence will  quickly  recede into  general acceptability. This  is  because  Nigerians will  be on the look out for  riggers  and expose them  so that they  can  have a transparent free and  fair  election. I  do  not need  to say  who  I will  vote for  but let  me appraise the two  candidates and leave    you  to

    your  guess on that.

    I  start  with  President Muhammadu  Buhari  our  president and the presidential  candidate  of the APC. Before,  his  opponents  have used  his  health  to  ridicule  him.  They  even said  he has  been cloned. By  now  such  people  must  be laughing from the other  side of their mouth.  On  the campaign trail  the  APC  candidate  turned frailty  and taciturnity  to steely  decisiveness and  leadership grit. In  Abeokuta  and Imo  state  he  composedly  established  his leadership of the party and extolled  the primacy  of the people’s choice  in the acceptance of  governorship  candidates. In  Rivers he was bold to acknowledge  the loss  of  governorship  and legislative  seats  while  lamenting  the poor  state  of institutions he inherited  especially  the judiciary. The  case  of the  Chief Justice of Nigeria  on the eve  of the  election  could  only have been  undertaken  by a fearless  president of  Nigeria. In campaigning for reelection, PMB  has shown  both his new  friends and old that  internal  rancor and old  loyalties  can be handled maturely  with  relevant  experience both off  and on the field  of civilian  and military  politics. He  reminded  me of that American general  who  told his officers  on the eve of  a battle –‘ We  have seen  the enemy  and the enemy  is us’. The  general  then led his officers  to a routing of  the enemies without.

    The  PDP presidential  candidate  Atiku  Abubakar,  to  me    is the comeback  kid  in a way  in Nigeria’s  politics. In  his favor this time is his choice of  running  mate in Peter Obi  a former  Igbo governor. The  Igbos  have adopted him as their candidate  as such.

    The results  will  show how  strong  or otherwise  the Igbo presidential  clout is. The  converse  is that  the Yorubas  will not forget or forgive a ticket  that sidelines  them  when  there  is an  alternative  that  has their  son  Professor  Yemi  Osinbajo  as running  mate. In  addition  the  Turaki  Adamawa  does  not have the same  political  stature  as  Buhari  in the hard  core  North  of Nigeria. If  you  add  to this the fact  that  it is former  Head of State  Olusegun  Obasanjo  who  is in the driving seat  to  get Atiku  elected,  you  have to take  cognizance  of  his promoter’s political    and    leadership record to assess  his chances of success or failure  at today’s election. So  at  the end of the day it is  the personalities  of  the candidates  that  will  drive the voters in voting in this presidential election.  And, may the better  man win.  Once again, long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

     

     

  • Buhari or Atiku?

    As Nigerians go to the polls today to elect a President and National Assembly members that will preside over the affairs of the nation for the next four years from May 29, it is all too easy and tempting to assess the country’s evolving democracy from an overly pessimistic, even cynical, purview. Despite the plethora of parties and candidates, the election is a straight contest between the incumbent All Prospective Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Many consider this a dismal scenario. They contend that we are most likely set to vote mechanically without choosing, as the late Professor Claude Ake would put it, since there appears to be no genuine alternatives to select from.

    Apart from their organizational spread and relative structural solidity, it is argued that the two dominant parties are neither ideologically nor philosophically dissimilar. Again, there are those who would prefer any of the nearly half dozen younger, more articulate as well as rhetorically and sartorially seemingly more appealing candidates to the two leading septuagenarians contenders, President Muhammadu Buhari and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who they dismiss as both unsuited to offer visionary, effective and competent leadership at this time.

    Furthermore, the nature of our politics is still seen, to some extent rightly, as  characterized, largely, by a vicious struggle for power by all means and at all costs mostly for self-serving pecuniary ends rather than altruistic, developmental motivation.  Yet, there is still, in my view, justifiable reason to take a more optimistic view of the country’s unfolding political development. The intensity of the political campaigns across the country suggests that no longer can the political class take the electorate for granted. No more can incumbency breed complacency. 2015 remains a lesson to everyone. Despite his age and the acute illness he went through early in his administration, President Buhari campaigned in all 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja. Atiku has also run an energetic and exhaustive campaign nationwide.

    Issues of performance and merit have also been significant in the run up to the election and will have an impact on the likely outcome. The speed with which the PDP has bounced back as a force to contend with in this contest, despite its devastating defeat as the party in power at the centre in 2015 and the resultant exposure of its morally repugnant entrails as a result of Buhari’s anti-corruption onslaught, is partly due to the perception of the APC’s performance in the last three and a half years. There has no doubt been a gap between the high expectations of change that the APC aroused during its campaign in 2015 and the party’s actual performance in power leading to some degree of frustration and disappointment among many of its hitherto enthusiastic supporters.

    However, an appreciable number of the electorate is also perceptive enough to assess the performance of the APC against the backdrop of the utter lack of vision, sheer incompetence and monumental corruption of the preceding 16 years in power of the PDP particularly the incredibly perverse six years of President Goodluck Jonathan. No one realistically expected the APC to magically correct in four years the cumulative rot and decay of over and one and a half decades that it inherited from the PDP.

    It is indeed significant that, despite the country earning less revenue from oil as a result of the sharp drop in oil prices under the APC compared to the PDP years, the Buhari administration in three and a half years has achieved more in infrastructure renewal across the country, diversification of the economy as well as massive investment in social intervention projects to benefit the poor on a scale unprecedented in this dispensation. Not surprisingly, therefore, the APC administration’s inexcusable unforced errors are insufficient to prevent what many analysts predict will be its inevitable victory in today’s elections.

    There is no reason whatsoever why either Buhari or Atiku should be offhandedly dismissed as being less capable than any of the other light weight candidates intensely admired in some politically ineffectual elite circles. Both men, no matter their limitations, are the two most exposed in terms of the management of public affairs over a wide scope and range of all candidates on the ballot. They have continually been in the public arena for the better part of the last four decades and their strengths and weaknesses well known.

    Some of the other bright candidates in other parties who clearly can make no impact in this election can always work towards the future. The enterprise of party formation, building and organization is no tea party. It is hard, back breaking work. In politics, it is unrealistic to expect to climb a tree from the top.

    The choices we have before us in this election realistically are Buhari or Atiku. Some cast their lot with Atiku on the basis of perceived competence and ability to run the economy efficiently. He and his running mate, Peter Obi, are successful businessmen. They have promised to bring their private sector acumen to public sector governance and create millions of job even though they have not told us how. Atiku had ample opportunity to display his ability in this regard as Vice President to General Obasanjo. In the first term before things fell apart between the two, he was practically in charge of the economy as his boss gallivanted the globe as an international salesman for Nigeria. Our best memory of that period is certainly not of creative and dynamic economic management. It was of the flawed privatization process characterized by sleazy opacity and debilitating cronyism.

    Others contend that Atiku has a penchant for attracting talent to work with him as well as having an expansive, pan Nigerian network of associates that will enable him run an inclusive administration in sharp contrast to Buhari’s unattractive insularity. Yes, the capacity to attract and utilize talent is good. But that is if a leader does not at the same time espouse as well as embrace lax ethical values that necessarily erode the gains of merit and expertise. In the same vein, an urbane outlook and cosmopolitan reach can become an albatross if at the same time a leader’s philosophy of governance sees nothing wrong in ‘enriching his friends’.

    Rules, standards, processes and procedures will necessarily suffer and good governance will be the ultimate casualty. In any case, if Atiku promises to offer ‘amnesty to looters’ if they invest their stolen money in the economy, does it mean that those from whom tremendous amounts of looted money and other assets have been recovered by the Buhari administration will be free to get their money back as long as they reinvest the money in the economy to create jobs? Will such investment be to make profit and further enrich the repentant looter or will it be an act of philanthropy?

    Again, Atiku has received enthusiastic endorsement from self-styled ethno-regional representatives of dubious electoral value because of his new found love with the idea of restructuring Nigeria. Restructuring means different things to as many individuals and groups as clamor for it. What does it mean to Atiku? It is difficult to say. The government in which he served as Vice President for eight years vehemently obstructed every attempt by the Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration in Lagos State to deepen federalism in Nigeria through judicial activism.

    In any case, there is a schizophrenic twist to Atiku’s current stance on restructuring. He waxes lyrical about his commitment to restructuring in the Southeast, Southeest and South-south but is curiously silent on the issue in the north. Is it therefore illogical to include that it may all be a vote harvesting gimmick after all, especially as a President cannot singlehandedly pursue and achieve a restructuring agenda without his party controlling an emphatic majority in the National Assembly?

    Buhari is non pretentious. It is not in his character to pander to populist gestures even if it will win him or his party plaudits. His inflexibility on principles he strongly believes in can be irritating, even annoying at times. The APC administration’s commitment to fighting corruption and enthroning greater accountability, transparency and efficiency in governance is a good starting point. As it achieves greater organizational cohesion and ideological clarity as well as hopefully establishes better dominance in the National Assembly in the next four years, the APC administration will be in a better position to pursue the federalist strand of its progressive agenda. This is different from the PDP, which even has no mention in its manifesto of the restructuring promise that its candidate has been so vocal about at least in the South.

    Much ado has been made about a few memory lapses on the part of Buhari during the campaign. But he at least has had sufficient presence of mind to have kept his eyes firmly on the ball of fighting corruption, recovering looted property and raising the standard of ethical rectitude in our public life. That is the critical thing. Buhari has had the presence of mind and character to keep a firm lid on the public coffers and preventing the kind of crazy dollar rain witnessed under Jonathan in the run up to the 2015 election even though as the incumbent that would have given him a substantial advantage over the opposition.

    Buhari does not pretend to be an extrovert or to have an armada of friends. All those are of course quite admirable attributes. But Buhari’s high standard of integrity, no matter his personal failings as a human being, will determine my vote today.

  • Onnoghen and the two publics (2)

    Let us imagine for a moment that the Nigeria Bar Association (NBA) and, more importantly, the revered body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN) had approached the Justice Walter Onnoghen’s non-asset declaration saga in a radically different manner. It is now in the public domain that the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) admitted in writing that he forgot to declare the humongous amounts of foreign currencies found in at least five accounts. Should members of the legal profession thus not be at the forefront of the clamour for Onnoghen to step aside from his exalted seat until he has proven beyond all doubts that he is without blemish? That would have greatly enhanced the image of the legal profession in the public eye. It would have enabled the National Judicial Council (NJC) to take charge of the matter and ensure that justice is done rather than dithering until an impatient President Muhammadu Buhari, suspended Onnoghen purportedly on the directive of the CCT.

    Unfortunately, leading members of the bar sought to delay proceedings at the Code of Conduct Tribunal (CCT) through legal technicalities as well as doing all they could to ensure that the suspended CJN did not appear in person before the CCT. The view has been expressed in some quarters that the suspended CJN appearing before the CCT would do grave damage to the high office he occupies. Those who belong to this school of thought clearly do not make a distinction between the occupant of an office as an individual and the office itself as an institution. That the man who sits at the very apex of the country’s justice administration system could be found to have so brazenly abused the law on the issue of assets declaration, is actually the issue that demeans and demystifies the judiciary. Ensuring that Onnoghen quickly comes before the law to clear his name beyond all reasonable doubts as regards the weighty allegations against him is the only way to restoring and preserving the honour and dignity of the office of CJN.

    Though propounded over four decades ago, Professor Peter Ekeh’s theory of the two publics continues to offer a useful and insightful handle for understanding the character of the postcolonial Nigerian State as well as the often dysfunctional behaviors of its political class. Of course, the theory has, not unexpectedly, had its fair share of rigorous critiques. For instance, Professor Eghosa Osaghae, questions the validity of the assumption by Ekeh and some other scholars that an amoral value system is prevalent in the public realm and dominant among a not insubstantial number of the citizenry.

    In Osaghae words,”…what they all fail to emphasize is the dynamic nature of values, and in this case that the pervasiveness of amoralism does not make it a monolith acceptable to all segments of society. It is certainly contested by the more nationalistic elements of civil society, who struggle to set new moral rules for behavior in the public realm. The wide support usually given to ‘strong’ ‘corrective’ governments in fact suggests that the amoral value system is not a settled terrain as is often assumed”.

    Both during his first outing as military Head of State of Nigeria after the collapse of the Second Republic in 1983 and his current incarnation as elected President of Nigeria, Buhari best depicts those elements of civil society committed to fighting corruption and instilling high ethical values in the public consciousness. However, it is instructive that even though every government in Nigeria since independence-civilain or military – has pledged to tame the monster of corruption, they have all invariably left office even deeper steeped in the mire of graft than their predecessors.

    Again, what often appears as strong support for ‘corrective’ regimes at inception is really in my view an expression of happiness by the populace at the fall of another set of ‘big men’. Those who vociferously condemn governments in power and are at the vanguard of campaigns to fight corruption by public office holders, most often, when they find themselves in power, exhibit even more avariciousness than former occupants of high office. Beyond transient euphoria at the arraignment in court of one big man or woman for alleged acts of corruption, amorality is the default mode of substantial segments of Nigeria’s state and civil society.

    That is why President Buhari is often a loner in his war against corruption. Yes, his administration has recovered stupendous amounts of looted funds and assets both within and outside the country. A measure of the new climate of fiscal prudence and rectitude is that, unlike the 2015 elections, when the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan administration threw open the vaults for dollars to flow freely into the coffers of those who promised to guarantee him victory in their various spheres of influence, there is today no free money floating around even as the election draws nearer. But then, Buhari’s personal values of prudence and moral integrity are not enough to fight corruption. It is also the responsibility of the administration to device strategies to wean a critical mass of the citizenry away from an ultimately destructive amorality towards the inculcation of and commitment to ennobling values.

    Of course, this cannot be achieved even in the two terms in office of Buhari should he win next Saturday’s election as widely presumed. But he has a unique opportunity to, at the very least, plant the irreversible seeds of moral integrity in our public life; seeds that will bloom and endure long after Buhari has quit the high office of President. To achieve this, President Buhari must urgently address the issue of the alleged nepotism in appointments to public office that has been an albatross on the neck of his administration. In a complex, plural society like ours, skewing appointments into public office in favour of a section of the polity creates the impression that some ethno-regional groups are being given preferment above others and not necessarily on the basis of merit.

    It is certainly as a result of the amorality that underlies both state and civil society in contemporary Nigeria, that the Onnoghen saga has not elicited the kind of widespread condemnation and outrage the occasion demands.That would have forced the embattled jurist to voluntarily quit his office thus rendering unnecessary President Buhari’s drastic intervention leading to Onnoghen’s suspension. In other climes, with a high level of fidelity to positive moral values particularly with regard to those who hold public office, an officer in Onnoghen’s shoes would have long willingly quit his office rather than waiting to be forced out.

    This crisis of morality is also evident in the way aspirants for elective office across parties approach elections. Most of the time, the aspirant prepares a budget to cater for electoral officers, security agents as well as induce voters with money. Virtually all the aspirants from the onset have winning at all costs and by all means fair or foul as their goal. Yet, when a winner emerges, the losing side almost invariably head to the election petitions tribunal claiming that the election was rigged. Thus, we have endless election petition cases putting tremendous pressure on judicial officers who become vulnerable to material inducement. In advanced democracies, candidates for office who see that they have lost immediately make a call congratulating the winner and conceding defeat.

    It would appear that Ekeh’s theory of the two publics is even more relevant to Nigeria today than when it was first expounded in 1975. The theory has even begun to have wider ramifications beyond the public sphere. Now, the substantial number of cases of fraud and criminality by staff of big companies in diverse sectors of the economy shows that corruption is rampant not only in the public sector but also pervades the private sector. Perhaps some enterprising researcher will someday investigate the issue of corruption in the private sector and the implication for the economy.

    Now, what if the suspended CJN was caught fiddling with the funds of his old school association network, his community town union or other such grassroots groups with deep primordial roots? It is unlikely that the matter would be handled with the same indifference and levity demonstrated by those who are more concerned with procedural details than the substantive infraction admitted to in writing by Onnoghen.

    There was a time when the label of thief meant lifelong stigmatization and near total ostracism from respectable society. In contemporary Nigeria, a thief is a thief only if the accused does not belong to my ethno-regional group or yours. To fight corruption meaningfully, the apprehension of indicted persons, taking them to court and recovering looted funds and assets, is a necessary but not a sufficient condition for success. Equally critical is to tackle the amorality responsible for the condoning of acts of dishonesty by the populace.

  • Elections, clash of powers and expectations

    Nigerians  go to the polls  this month  to  elect a new or  old president  in  an election that Nobel  Laureate Wole  Soyinka  has said he will  not vote for  either of the two  major  presidential candidates because he thinks there is need for fresh  faces  for the election of the Nigerian president. It  is an  election that both the US and Britain  have  interfered  in  with impunity. As if  Nigeria is in their  backyard  or  an  estate  that  they  and the EU recently  purchased  to teach  the citizens how  to behave in a democracy.

    Yet  both the EU  and Britain  are involved in the Brexit debacle  that resulted in the EU president  Jean Claude  Juncker calling for  a place in hell  for  Brexiteers  who  had  no  plan  but won the Brexit  referendum  anyway. In similar  manner the  US just  had its  mid term elections in which  the Democrats won a House of Representatives  majority    and have initiated  investigations  of the  life  and  businesses  of the US President Donald Trump  who has branded their  legitimate  democratic    inquiry  a  ‘presidential  harassment ‘.  In  Venezuela  which  is really America’s  backyard like Mexico, with which Trump  is playing aggressive American  soccer on Immigration,  there  are two presidents arising from  their last  election in which  the new opposition  president  Juain  Guaido a  former Speaker  claims power  because  he  claimed  the incumbent  Nicolas Maduro  rigged the election,  and dissolved parliament. So  the  former speaker claims he is next in line after dismissing the incumbent  for violating the constitution. These  then  are  the ingredients of our pot pourri  for  analysis  today  in the context  of  our  headline. Quite  a juicy  one  I  assure  you.

    We  start  with  Wole  Soyinka’s reported refusal  to participate in the  2019  electoral process  because of  his    claimed obsolescence of  the two  candidates on offer on February  16.  That really  is his choice but since he is who  he is,  he is bound to influence  some or  many  Nigerians into sheer  voter  apathy. That is  unfortunate  and  again  may  be because his kinsman  from Abeokuta,  the  politically  ubiquitous    former head of state Olusegun  Obasanjo is  feverishly  campaigning for  one of the candidates Atiku  Abubakar.  And there  is no love lost  between the two  Yoruba national leaders who  have not seen eye to eye  since the Professor  successfully  supplanted the state  backed effort of the soldier  turned  statesman to be UN Secretary  General, some years  back.

    All  the same Nigerians should not be dissuaded  from political  participation at all levels of  our elections  as that is the way of democracy in  ensuring  that    the  choice of the people is truly,  the  choice  of  God.  People  should be encouraged to cast  their votes  and  vigilantly  too ,  so  that there  is  no rigged election.   That  is  a surer  way  to  ensure    that there is  no need  again,  for another  gun man  like the one  at the broadcasting  house  in Ibadan after  the 1962  elections  rigging in the  west  and  the ensuing  national  malaise,  from  which we have not recovered  as  a nation.

    On  the  interference  in our elections so  brazenly carried out by our  self  appointed  sovereign uncle  nations and patrons,  we urge them to  remove the planks  in their eyes  before  removing the specks in  ours. The  EU  thinks  of  Russia’s  Putin  for  now as the devil  incarnate  for  trying to  hack  elections in EU nations in order to  control  and derail  their  democracy.  The  American opposition  is  busy  trying to destroy  the legitimacy  of  the election  and presidency of the Trump  Administration  by    insisting that  Russia  hacked  the 2016 US  presidential  election    that brought  Trump  into  office. If  both the Americans and  the Europeans  found election interference  so  offensive  and repugnant for their democracy  why did they  think  Nigerians  will  not have the same feeling  of  distaste  for their  insulting  and nasty meddling in our  elections  as a sovereign nation like them?  Really they  should be advised  that those  who live in  glass houses in election  matters should  not throw stones. Or  simply  be told that on elections, charity  should begin at home.

    On  Brexit  it is interesting that EU President  literally  sent brexit  campaigners  to  hell  because  they had  no  plan  of execution. Which  is eternal  condemnation  for present  posture on politics  with  regard  to  asking  Britain  to leave the  known for the unknown without a plan  to  see it  through. The curse  should also  be applicable  to  the  Labour  Party  which sought to create a snap  election to get power from  the planlessness in the Brexit execution. This  is  not to say that satanic  curses  should be the price  of  national  or diplomatic  discourse  as  is  the vogue  now in  European  politics. But  it certainly  shows that  liberal democracy  needs  to put a break  on the ever  ready  way it  accepts dissent without due diligence  on new ideas  or    differing opinions.  Let  us  pray  that this cursing  of those with  differing ideas  will  not become the language  of global  democracy  which  for now is  championed by both  the Europeans  and the Americans.  It  is certainly  not  a  step  in the right  direction.  With  regard to  African  diplomacy  and politics  I  think  we passed  that cursing stage a long time  ago  and the dog  cannot,  hopefully, return  to its vomit.

    In  Donald  Trump’s State  of  the Nation Address  this week  he spoke  eloquently  of his  achievements  but  he didn’t  seem  to realize  that  the leverage  of  power  in American  politics have changed against  him  after the November  terms elections that gave majority to Democrats  in the House  of  Representatives.  He cajoled  the women  when  he lauded their gain in new employment under  his administration  and the largest  representation  in Congress  ever. These  women  who  see Trump  as a misogynist applauded  hesitantly  and later uproariously,  but  the following day  the Democrats  led by the same women,  created many investigative committees  to  probe both  the private  and public life of  the US  president. And  he  called  that  Presidential Harassment.  A great  understatement  when  you  recall  how  Trump had  bragged on  making deals  with the Democrats before the House, now  dominated  by them,  convened. He  even tried to appease them in his State of  the nation Address  by saying that investigations will not  bring peace  or  stop the national  divide.  Now  he faces the reality  of loss of power  in the house  and balancing that with  his gains  in the senate.  Trump  will  have  to    learn fast    and hard,  to live with  his new  found  power constrainers and competitors  in the US  Congress. It  is certainly  pay  back time for  an  election  that his  opponents  claimed the Russia  gave him on a platter of  gold.

    The  problem  now is that his  opponents have the power  to skin him literally  alive  for  not only his election  but  with  a great  vengeance  for  his  two  years  of braggadocio and petulance  of office,  before  his party lost  power in the US House  of  Representatives.  That  again  is the power  of elections    and the  way  of  democracies.  Once  again  long live the Federal  Republic  of  Nigeria.

  • Toothless League Board

    I sat through Lobi Stars’ 1-0 loss to Wydad FC inside the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu last week with an open mind. I wanted to spot good players in Lobi on who I could challenge Super Eagles’ manager Gernot Rohr when he picks the players for the two matches against Seychelles on March 23 and against Egypt (an international friendly game) on March 26 inside the late Stephen Keshi Stadium in Asaba.

    I wanted to see how playing the game under the scorching sun will affect the visitors more than Lobi players, who incidentally were playing outside their state. The ding-dong nature of the game was not surprising because the fans, who usually should be the unseen 12th man on the field were indifferent, preferring to watch the game without showing emotions.

    The Benue State Government should carry the can for not providing the facilities for Lobi to feel at home when playing. Let’s not estimate the revenue that the state has lost from these games. Why sponsor a team when you cannot meet all its demands, dear governor? Mr governor, Enugu Rangers are truly at home during their matches because they play their matches on their ground, with their supporters rooting for them, unlike your team.

    So, when the match referee signalled for a penalty kick against Lobi, I watched out for the Nigerian players’ reaction to the referee, keeping another eye on the Lobi bench to see if their officials will storm onto the pitch or turn their faces towards the crowd to incite them into protesting. They watched in awe, knowing the implication of any untoward action. The Nigerians’ reaction to the second penalty decision, even though the kick was lost, wasn’t different from the first. It showed that they knew the rules and accepted their fate with equanimity.

    Two penalty kicks awarded against Lobi, and no one went close to the referee to protest? If the referee had done that to any of our NPFL teams, he will be recuperating in the hospital now, with the game postponed until the referees’ reports come. Yet, at the continental platform, these same irritants obey the laws. Why? They know that NPFL organisers are toothless; easily compromised. What a country.

    Ironically, Wydad players tried to roughen the referee, who didn’t take any action, knowing that such tantrums will be in his report to CAF. The live telecast of the game compels the match officials to report everything to be in sync with what is the recorded match tapes. Those Wydad players who tried to bully the referee will be punished in the next three weeks. If the referee doesn’t note the incidents, the match commissioner and independent assessor must include them in their reports because it forms part of the duties in the game. Please, don’t ask me what happens in the Nigerian situation.

    My thoughts ran wild when I tried to imagine what would have befallen the referee for having the temerity to award two penalty kicks against the home team, with one of the resultant kicks deciding the match. In my agitated state, one reckoned that the game would have ended with the second penalty awarded. Perhaps, the referee wouldn’t have had the gut to sound the whistle for the second penalty, having been bathed with sachets of pure water and pelted with stones from the stands.

    The referee would have been kicked around the pitch. He would run into the mob which would have scaled the perimeter fence in the stadium to unleash mayhem. Since there is no effective video coverage, more so when the home team’s recording becomes the only document, it is easy for thugs go berserk. Of course, the visiting team’s video recording is the first document the urchins destroy, knowing that theirs will be doctored to exclude the troubling scenes.

    With such distorted document, justice can’t be dispensed. It will shock many readers to hear that some battered referees don’t report such battery in their reports, having been settled. But with recorded video from live telecasts of games, the referees won’t lie on tape, like the say in law. The organisers should get the game back on television, even if it means getting state government owned stations and the private ones to beam games within their locality to cut costs. The benefits of beaming matches live are overwhelming.

    One wonders what the organisers show to prospecting firms willing to do business with them? Would it not have been better showing them recorded programmes of the league to appreciate what they stand to gain in a partnership? Will firms be excited to associate their brands with the game when the benefits of such unions are not documented? I’m sure the organisers dare not show games where referees are battered. They also won’t show videos of crowd violence with fans running through teargas.

    No fan will dare beat up a referee or cause a breach of public peace, when he knows that the game is live on television and he could easily be spotted by the law enforcement agencies. Match officials will be empowered to interpret the rules of the game when they know that their safety is guaranteed. They also won’t want to misbehave.

    If you watch the European leagues, you will notice that the boards within the inner perimeters of the match venues run advertorials of firms which support the game for both the clubs and the organisers. The mileage from such sponsorships is better imagined than illustrated here. A lot of commercial activities go on around the stadium before, during and after games, which invariably improve the finances of the clubs and the organisers.

    The organisers need to do a lot to improve the game. They must pay attention to details, such as the grass on the pitches and the quality of equipment used by officials. It was a disgraceful citation for the domestic league watching one of the assistant referees in the game between Heartland FC of Owerri and Kada FC of Kaduna inside the Okigwe Stadium using cardboard paper instead of an electronic gadget to do the substitution of players.

    The crowd at the Okigwe stadium was unprecedented but the ugly scenes of watching the reserve referee lifting the cardboard to indicate the need for a change of player on either side,  instead of an electronic board, with every substitution, was quite disgusting for a country that has participated in six senior World Cup competitions, since her debut at the USA’94 World Cup. It was laughable watching the reserve referee hurrying to clean off the number of one player replaced for the other. It wasted precious time. How much is the electronic gadget? Can’t the organisers buy these gadgets and give to the state football federations to use during matches?

    The myriad of unpleasant stories from the league venues are shameful, especially the ones in which the visiting teams are stopped from training on the match turf, a day before the game. I wonder the type of training the officials get from the NPFL, if what is due the visiting teams are taken from them through sinister methods. The NPFL chiefs should school the state football chieftains on the rules of the game. Visiting teams must train at the match venue 24 hours before the game. They are also allowed to train in the morning of the game. This untoward method of making the visitors play on the pitch on match days only is condemnable. It is just a game, not warfare, more so when the hosts today will be visitors in the next game.

    If the league had been effectively run, the pool of players for our national teams would have been easy to assemble, since they will be picked based on their performance during matches. Most of our top stars in the past were selected from the domestic competitions. After all, 80 per cent of the players Clemens Westerhof used to make Nigeria great were from the league centres across the country. It is on record that George Finidi played for Calabar Rovers one weekend only to star for Ajax Amsterdam FC of Holland the next week in the Dutch league.

    Domestic league players Westerhof used for the Eagles’ matches were known faces based on their performances. The late Stephen Keshi, the late Rashidi Yekini, the late Uche Okafor, Uche Okechukwu, Daniel Amokachi, Friday Elaho, Samson Siasia, Peter Rufai, Austin Eguavoen, Ben Iroha, Edema Fuludu et al didn’t start playing for Nigeria as foreign-based.

    We had a league which identified good players, who were rewarded. All that is gone because our organisers are interested in being members of FIFA, CAF etc committees with the game dying here. It suits some of the league organisers to be match commissioners in the finals of one CAF’s inter-club matches than having a Nigerian side play in such events.

    The last time a Nigeria side, Dolphins FC of Port Harcourt, played in any of CAF’s inter-club finals was in 2005 against FAR of Morocco. Dolphin won at home 1-0 and lost the second leg 3-0. Fourteen years after, NPFL chieftains are unperturbed. They would rather be outside this country than remain here to monitor how our teams are faring in the continent. Segun Odegbami, the late Muda Lawal, Adokie Amiesimaka, Christian Chukwu, Kadiri Ikhana, Bright Omokaro, Humphrey Edobor, Jossy Dombraye, the late Haruna Ilerika et al were worthy ambassadors of the league at the continental level.

    If our big boys are not doing well in Europe through regular team appearances, the local league chaps can suffice by ruling Africa, given their talents. Nigerian clubs should win continental trophies like the North Africans, if our organisers implement half of what they are exposed to by FIFA and CAF competitions. If they lack ideas, they can quit the office honourably.

  • At last, enigmatic Fr Mbaka visits Aso Villa

    He had pined for a visit to Aso Villa for the past two years or more, and whined when it seemed far-fetched that he would ever again get to be with President Muhammadu Buhari, cavorting in the midst of power and in the sea of plenty. Last year, Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka of the Adoration Ministries, Enugu, had groaned that the president he supported during the 2015 presidential election had failed to gesture in his direction, not to talk of mending his ways and catering to the needs of the poor and hungry. If the president would not mend, said the furious priest, change would change both the president and his All Progressives Congress (APC). And following Fr. Mbaka’s rather curt response to the alleged niggardliness of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential running mate, Peter Obi, a former governor, APC strategists saw an opening to placate the whining priest, and invite him to once again luxuriate in Aso Villa’s ambience.

    Finally, last Monday, the Mahogany doors of Aso Villa were flung open to receive Fr Mbaka. He also got the photo opportunity with the president which he deeply coveted. His Adoration faithful will be satisfied, as if they need any further convincing, that their pugnacious and adorable priest rubs shoulders with the high and mighty in Nigeria. He had told them repeatedly that he frequently hears from God and perhaps sits in the Throne Room with God, hearing unspeakable things and being shown incredible visions. To dine before kings, after hearing from God, was therefore the icing on the cake and a favour to mortals.

    However, in recent times, after the much ballyhooed pronouncements with which he presumptuously blew away the presidency of Goodluck Jonathan, he has become hugely controversial both in terms of his prophecies and his provocative comportment. He briefly dilly-dallied over whom to support between the two leading presidential candidates, hurled invectives at top politicians that drew his ire, and then finally appeared to have perched on the Buhari candidacy. With last Monday’s visit to Aso Villa, Fr Mbaka’s agenda seems to have been fully consummated. He did not disclose what he and the president discussed, nor did he need to, but it was never in doubt how his vacillations and ambitions conjoin on the altar of Nigerian politics. The president may have received him early in the week, but it is doubtful whether they did not understand him as much as the rest of Nigerians, minus his Adoration faithful, do.

    Hereunder are a few quotations from Undertow in the past few months as the columnist traversed the priest’s colourful impressions and statements, just to remind the reader, if not the Adoration faithful, that Fr Mbaka’s actions and statements and agenda should be embraced cautiously. His highs should be regulated with a step-down verbal transformer, and his lows should be received guardedly. For, after all, neither his fellow priests nor his supervisors who struggle to rein him in over the years, have had any success in moderating his self-righteousness and self-importance.

    Fr. Mbaka as imperious and doctrinaire as ever, December 8, 2018
    “The Catholic Diocese of Enugu is in a quandary about what to do with their obstreperous priest and spiritual director of the Adoration Ministry Enugu Nigeria (AMEN), Rev. Fr. Ejike Mbaka. In January 2016, after the controversial priest had revelled in tons of political prophecies that drew the ire of the Goodluck Jonathan government, he was posted out of the Christ the King Parish, GRA, Enugu, where he started his ministry, to the lesser known Our Lady Parish, Umuchigbo, Nje-Nike.

    “No one can say exactly how the Diocesan leadership would treat the new controversy stirred by the ebullient and irrepressible priest. What could they do to keep him silent? He had once been posted from GTC, Enugu, to CKP, where in six months, according to some sources, he supervised the building of the church cathedral and parish house. He must have an unparalleled, albeit controversial, system of fundraising that delivered quick results. But his controversial statements led to what some interpreted as a punishing exile to a less attractive parish in Emene. Yet, neither the censure by the Diocesan leadership nor his transfer from parish to parish has dampened both his outlandish prophecies and his exceedingly candid but embarrassing portrayal of men in power. Nor has his baiting of politicians seeking electoral victory abated one bit.

    “He browbeat the Jonathan government, endorsed the Muhammadu Buhari candidacy, spoke searingly about many men in office, especially in the Southeast, and played ducks and drakes with the affections and gullibility of thousands who thronged and still throng his Adoration prayer grounds. If the Diocesan leadership thought that his transfer in 2016 would quieten his theology and dissipate his strength and followers, they were grossly mistaken. The eager dupes who flock to him cannot be dissuaded by anything, not even his flagrant and questionable methods of fund-raising, nor his abrasive, inordinate and sacrilegious putdowns.

    “Fr Mbaka’s latest sacrilege is his diminution of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) presidential running mate, Peter Obi, a former Anambra State governor whom he described as stingy for refusing to disclose in what ways he would assist the Adoration Ministry. Fr Mbaka had invited Mr Obi to the annual harvest and bazaar celebration, and seized the opportunity to squeeze donations out of him. But the thrifty Mr Obi could not be cajoled into parting with anything, let alone announcing any gift on behalf of himself or former vice president Atiku Abubakar, to whom he is running mate in next year’s presidential election. Consequently, Fr Mbaka denounced him and predicted that his stinginess would cost him and his principal the election.

    “… So, once again, the Diocese will find themselves, despite their deep resentment of Fr Mbaka’s methods, proceeding with utmost caution. It is indubitable that the priest is wrong, unwise, recalcitrant and doctrinally inexact. They will therefore attempt to treat him severely, hoping that like what the punitive posting of 2016 attempted to do, the uppity and irreverent Fr Mbaka could be wearied into some form of unaccustomed silence or lethargy, or perhaps total compliance. Such outcomes, however, will jar against the priest’s DNA.”

    Father Mbaka’s controversial pronunciamentos, January 7, 2018
    “Fr. Mbaka’s Adoration faithful do not doubt that their priest hears from God. The Catholic hierarchy may be less taken in by his periodic fulminations and bombasts, but they have no doubt how influential the priest has become, nor how sometimes unerringly his prophecies cum judgemental political assumptions have turned out right. In his latest pronunciamento, Fr. Mbaka dismisses President Buhari’s anti-corruption war as barbaric and archaic, his style as indolent and ineffective, his presidency as entrapped by a cabal, and that, by his selective punishment of his opponents, he had become a purveyor of moral corruption. Then curiously, by a deft use of poetical statements, he admonishes the president to ‘change or be changed’. While leaving a little room for the president to change and presumably salvage his presidency, he also bizarrely discloses that God asked him to advise the president not to seek re-election.

    “It may never be known where, in all his diatribe against presidents, God stops and Fr. Mbaka begins, whether prophecies are at play in his verbal and prophetic explosions, or he is merely voicing his own private instincts. He has used some words that cannot be described as godlike, and he has passed on messages that make him appear to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. But whether it is his messages or instincts, he had in the past proved a somewhat accurate and deft reflector of the feelings and aspirations of the public. President Buhari is of course not popular in the Southeast and South-South, and his following in the Southwest is greatly tested, if not altogether unnerved. If Fr. Mbaka is simply mirroring these realities, he seems to be doing a good job of it. He, however, takes care not to ever burn his bridges when he conveys God’s messages, regardless of the extremeness of his prophecies. Indeed, his New Year’s Eve message is unlikely to have been influenced by the president’s New Year shocker which virtually shut the door against political change, whether it is called devolution or restructuring.

    “Fr. Mbaka will still speak before the general election, either to reiterate God’s message, as he describes it, or to countermand or modify it once he sees which way the cat is jumping. The country has definitely not heard the last from him. But notwithstanding the discomfiture his superiors in the Catholic Church experience over his hard prophecies, or the trusting naivety of his Adoration faithful, the priest will remain active in politics, as the Latin American Cardinal Obando surmised about liberation theology in 1996. The nimble Adoration Ministry priest will always leave himself enough room to be wrong and ample room to bask in vindication. In a county that has tragically become a gymnasium where promises and manifestoes do triple summersaults, Fr. Mbaka’s pronunciamentos will walk a tightrope gingerly, expertly, and remorselessly, sometimes guilefully right, and at other times impassively far-fetched.”

  • Onnoghen and the two publics (1)

    What exactly is the most critical factor in the thoroughly sordid and embarrassing ongoing saga of the suspended Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Walter Onnoghen’s alleged criminal breach of the Code of Conduct for public officers? It is simply that stupendous amounts of funds in diverse foreign currencies were discovered in at least five accounts, which the chief priest at the sacred temple of Nigeria’s apex of justice administration claims he forgot to declare. That is the crux of the matter. Every other thing pales into insignificance.

    Some claim, for instance, that the CJN is only a victim of the Machiavellian political machinations and manipulations of the President Muhammadu Buhari administration. Distrustful of the political inclinations of Onnoghen and the critical role his office is likely to play should the outcome of the February 16th presidential election become a subject of litigation, it is claimed, the PMB administration is desperate to oust the embattled jurist from office and emplace a CJN more favourably disposed  to it. Thus, the enthusiasm with which the President embraced the Code of Conduct Tribunal’s purported order to suspend Onnoghen and swear in the next most senior judge of the apex court, Justice Tanko Mohammed, as acting CJN.

    This is certainly not an implausible argument. But, the crucial question: Did the suspended CJN admit to forgetfully breaching the code of conduct? Or did agents of the Buhari administration surreptitiously plant those humongous amounts in his accounts? If not, the problem here is certainly not the suspect political motives of the Buhari presidency. For, such alleged political shenanigans would have certainly been an exercise in futility if a criminal act of amnesiac omission had not been committed for Onnoghen’s adversaries to latch on.

    Similarly, the issue of the suspicious timing of the suspended CJN’s prosecution weeks to the February 16th presidential election would not have arisen had there been no offence to prosecute. If the laws had indeed been breached, as Onnoghen has allegedly admitted in writing, then the timing of prosecution is entirely at the discretion of whatever agency responsible for pursuing the cause of justice in court.

    Others have questioned the amazing speed with which the federal agencies have pursued the Onnoghen matter, which is most uncharacteristic for an administration widely criticized for its most often dysfunctional inertia. I don’t see the problem here.

    An administration reputed for its irritatingly slow pace of making and implementing decisions suddenly wakes up to exhibit an unusual burst of energy in a case in which it is obviously keenly interested. This shows that its problem all along has not been capacity but the lack of the requisite will for decisive action. Its supersonic speed approach to the Onnoghen case can always be cited in future to nudge the PMB administration to action whenever it lapses into its somnolent default mode.

    The near absolute focus on technical intricacies and legal procedural complexities to the neglect of the substantive issue – the humongous foreign currency laden accounts allegedly owned by Onnoghen – vividly illustrates the contradiction between the abstract moral values that underlie the legal system over which Onnoghen presides as head of the apex court and under which he is being tried and the moral values that underpin and influence actual behavior in civil society.

    It is, of course, impossible to unravel whether Onnoghen’s alleged immense affluence is the result of a family inheritance or some other legitimate but lucrative activity he had engaged in over the years in the course of his judicial career without the jurist undergoing trial. But his lawyers’ resort to exploiting legal technicalities to impede or delay their client’s trial all in the name of due process as well as Onnoghen’s inexplicable postponement sine die of the National Judicial Council (NJC) meeting scheduled for January 15 to deliberate on the issue unfortunately does not suggest an eagerness to come clean in court as regards the sources of his fortune.

    In discussing the Onnoghen issue, the political scientist, Professor Peter Ekeh’s theory of the two publics was a subject of intense debate at this week’s meeting of this newspaper’s editorial board. In seeking to explain the prevalence of phenomena like corruption, ethnicity and nepotism in Nigeria and other African countries, Ekeh had attributed this to the bifurcation of the public sphere in Africa into two largely as a result of the colonial incursion. The first he called the civic public, which comprises those ‘migrated social structures’ imported from the colonizing west  such as the civil service, public corporations, judicial institutions, universities, police and other security agencies among others.

    On the other hand, Ekeh also identifies the co-existence with the civic public of what he calls the primordial public; these are ethnic, communal, cultural and regional social structures, whose roots can be traced far into the pre-colonial African past. The attitude and disposition of the individual and social groups to these two publics is sharply divergent. As Professor Eghosa Osaghae explicates Ekeh’s thesis, “While the former public operated in an essentially amoral milieu, the latter retained an abiding morality which emphasized the obligations of the individual to his extended family and community. Problems of corruption, ethnicity and their like are then attributed to the fact that the same individuals operate in the two publics working at cross purposes”.

    Thus, Onnoghen operates not just as a judicial officer in the realm of the civic public; he is also a member of an ethnic group, a cultural association or an ethno-regional grouping in the primordial public sphere. As a judicial officer, he is expected to abide by the moral values that underlie the legal codes he enforces in the temple of justice. His ethno-regional constituency also expects him to utilize the influence and resources of his office to benefit his primary community as a true ‘son of the soil’ even if this would imply violating the oath of his office through unethical conduct.

    In this regard, Professor Osaghae, quoting Professor Billy Dudley writes: “…insecurity is guarded against not just by safeguarding the present but also by insuring against the future which, in practice, means the use of one’s office to enrich one’s self…in so far as a successful individual is seen to contribute to the welfare of his community, he is not seen as corrupt”.

    That cuts to the core of the moral dilemma of the post-colonial state in Nigeria and Africa. The state accuses Onnoghen of criminal infractions against the law. But the suspended CJN to most of his South-south compatriots has committed no crime. Indeed, the South-south governors openly urged him not to obey the CCT’s summons. This largely informs the preoccupation even in the most informed circles with legal technicalities and judicial processes and the consequent relegation of the substantive crime committed.

    There are those who argue that Ekeh’s thesis is escapist and indeed seeks to rationalize, even justify, corruption. Morality, they contend, is indivisible and applies in any sphere of society. In other words, stealing is stealing anywhere and everywhere. Agreed. But then, why is it that Onnoghen will most likely be given a hero’s welcome were he to return to his home state today and even in other states of the South-south?

    Why is that most of those who have been indicted or even convicted for corruption across the country remain beloved and influential members of their communities, states and even regions? They are indicted in the eyes of the state and the law. They remain untainted as far as their ethno-regional compatriots are concerned.

    There is even a religious dimension to the two publics conundrum when the National Christian Elders Forum comprising very eminent Nigerians from the Middle Belt completely side stepped the serious infractions allegedly committed by Onnoghen, and chose to depict the jurist’s suspension as part of an ‘Islamic Agenda’ against Christianity in Nigeria! Is what the CJN is alleged to have done in conformity with Christian ethics and values? Until there is a reasonable degree of congruence as regards perception of corruption and the corrupt between the state and the vast majority of the citizenry, it will be impossible to wage any meaningful war against corruption.