The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Change, disbelief and responsibility

    My  starting  thoughts today  hover  around the  space   of   global  diplomacy  now taken  over in recent  times  and   most   unapologetically  too  by the US President  Donald  Trump  who  thought he made history with his  Helsinki   meeting this week  with Russian President Vladmir  Putin, only  to be ripped to pieces  domestically by friends  and foes alike   as kowtowing  shamelessly  to America’s traditional  and Clod War adversary  Russia.  But was Trump  that wrong, silly  or wrong headed? That  is the crux  of our discussion to day.  Domestically  too    for  us,  we look at  the  growing aggression of the so called Fulani  herdsmen as well  and  the unending   but  bloody Boko  Haram terrorism  in the face of claims of   their  annihilation by our military and wonder  very  loudly  whether  government  has   lived up to its responsibility   in arresting   these  violent changes that have altered the   Nigerian political  and socio  cultural landscape  so massively as if they  are   mostly,  out  of  control.

    We  look  at the  purported  Trump  Helsinki mishap   as well  as the Nigerian government’s handling of  the twin  menace  of herdsmen invincibility  and Boko Haram  terrorism   with some basic principles of Change Management  and political  philosophy  at the back  of our  mind.

    Starting with  the so called Trump blunder  at  Helsinki it would appear  that his detractors took  threw   caution  to the wind in appreciating   a well  known dictum of international   relations and diplomacy  that in both   endeavours,   there  are    no   permanent  friends or foes  but permanent  interests. Contemporary   history  provides  a solid  example of this.  The  Allies  of the Second  World War collaborated  to defeat Hitler  and then spilt  at  Berlin  creating  four  sectors   called  the French,  British and American  sector  -called Check Point Charley  –  and East  Berlin owned  by the Soviet Union,  an  ally  till then until  the collapse  of Hitler’s brilliant  war  machine. This was the beginning of the Cold War  that  ended  with the collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989  and the  fall  of the Soviet  Union in 1991.  The  Soviet  Union dissolved into 15 sovereign Republics  and the Soviet Premier then Mikhail Goberchev got  a  Nobel Prize for  Peace  for presiding over the liquidation of the Soviet Empire, the US implacable  enemy. Barak  Obama, lusting   nowadays  for women leaders globally at Mandela’s Centenary in S  Africa, got a Nobel Prize  for  doing nothing other than setting the Arab world ablaze   with   his Cairo  Speech  at  the beginning of his presidency   and creating unwittingly  ISIS   which  bred the millions of   war refugees  mostly Muslims    fleeing  wars    and     arriving   in droves   at the gates   of the EU.  For  which  Donald Trump  holds Germany’s Chancellor  Angela Merkel  mostly  responsible for allowing 1m refugees into Europe  in  one year into  Europe.

    However   in   contrast  to what  Trump’s opponents  accuse him of, including most  ridiculously,  treason, this most vilified US president has done more for world peace than either Gorbachev  or Obama . He has  made  peace with N Korea and now he has made peace with Russia  and some of his country  men are  calling for his head . I  have called  for a Nobel Prize for the US president over the overtures to N Korea  to withdraw  from the nuclear brink of destroying the world. I repeat that  call  for him to be given  the Nobel Prize  for his Helsinki gesture in bringing in Russia   from  the cold  and   promoting the prospects of world peace.

    As  for  Donald Trump he needs to learn a basic lesson that   Change  cannot be  managed  because it   simply   follows its own path. It  is not a  Deal  which  he claims he knows too   well  .Change Management is  an  oxymoron like Trump  himself is the devil incarnate to his opponents and detractors.  Even Trump  himself  can  be destroyed by  the forces of change he has unleashed on global climate, trade and his America First  rhetoric. But  definitely  Trump  is an agent of Change, the most  effective of our time and his achievements must  be acknowledged as I do,   albeit  most grudgingly. He  has ‘brought  a  New  World  into existence to redress the balance of the old’ like  Lord  Palmerstone  once claimed in England  at  the beginning of that   nation  overseas adventures in piracy and exploration that   the   British  and Europe  later called Colonialism,  the initiator   and    historical   instigator  of the present  global  migration  crisis.

    With  regard  to Nigeria,  both  the herdsmen killings and Boko  Haram are violent changes  thrust  upon our political  system  which  are avoidable  because  they  are  not natural  disasters   like  hurricanes  and  tsunamis which  follow their chosen  deadly  paths of destruction. These two  blights on our socioeconomic environment are products of our political ineptitude, lack of knowledge of our physical   geography,   poor leadership  and corruption. We  have ignored the Sahel  and its creeping advance  that  has  made inhabitants of  our Northern part to  flee  southwards  but  have never  stopped to find ways to  scientifically  and strategically  check  the deadly  advance of the Sahel  southwards. Yet  our   political leadership,  politically  especially  has  always or  mostly  been  from  the North  since Independence.  Just  like  the   people    of  the  oil rich  Niger   Delta  have  always  voted for  the victorious  party  at the center  at   all   our    elections   but  still  have   nothing to show  for the huge oil  wealth  of Nigeria domiciled  on its territory.   In a way we have been architects of our own misfortune  historically  in the emergence  of these daylight killings threatening our collective security  and safety. But  it is still    the duty of government  to counter  by force those  who  challenge its authority   as  the sovereign  power on Nigeria’s  territorial  borders  and guarantor  of   the safety of our lives and property as   law  abiding Nigerian  citizens. Any  other  approach  than this can  only fuel  the aggression  of  those doing the killings and make victims  and potential  victims feel  insecure and angry  and no  government  no  matter  how popularly  elected  can  last  long in the good  books  of  even its electors  on that score. A word is enough for the wise. Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • Curtains drawn in Russia

    Coming to Russia for the 2018 World Cup was with a lot of fabulous stories which became what they are – a mirage. As first time visitors, we expected to see a rustic Russia craving for civilisation. How wrong we were. What we  saw dazzled us – state-of-art facilities.

    I travelled to at least seven cities where the games held and the environment shocked me. I flew domestic airlines. The  aircraft were new, comfortable and noiseless. The airports in these seven cities are top notch, unlike what we have in Nigeria. As we taxied on landing at these airports, it was a great spectacle watching many other aircraft hit the skies one after the other. But the most fascinating was watching aircraft landing as if they were on a queue. I had a quick flashback to the harrowing experience of having a presidential or VIP movement in Nigeria, where aircraft were made to hover in the skies endlessly.

    Volgograd and Kaliningrad, for instance, are not as strategic as Lagos and Abuja, but their airports dwarf the ones in the aforementioned places in Nigeria.  Little wonder Russia is listed among countries with great aviation industry.

    There are a few rustic places but it was apparent that things are looking up for good. All through the 33 days that I spent in Russia, only one instance of racism was recorded. It could be attributed to a happenstance, unlike what we were fed with before we came.

    In Saint Petersburg, for instance, when we boarded a taxi, the driver told us that we could make the distance from the airport to Park Inn by Radisson Hotel in 25 minutes for 1,300 rubbles, if we followed the expressway. He gave us the flipside to this trip taking us an hour to travel, but that we will pay 1,150 rubbles. We chose the expressway option and we marveled at what we saw.

    Incidentally, going to the airport from the hotel, the cab man took us through the longer route, where the traffic reminded us of Lagos. The heave movement of people while we struggled through the streets captured the size of Russia. But we found comfort in the serene setting of the small lakes, many of them looking at artificial ones provided. This setting wasn’t just bland, we saw tourists in their droves utilise the boats and other voyage apparatuses to enjoy their time.What struck us on our way back to the hotel was that hosting of the 2018 World Cup informed the need for the development in the country that will soon catapult them to being tagged a developed country.

    Indeed, going to Saint Petersburg by bus drew the ire of The Punch Sports Editor Festus Abu, when he saw the electric bus plying the roads with passengers disembarking before every traffic light. What drew Abua’s angst against was when our normal bus queued behind the electric bus obeying the traffic light. It looked like a fairytale to Abu. Of course, the silent thought of seeing our bus on the same path with the electric bus.

    Surprised! Don’t be. The source of power for the bus in front of ours came from above us, making it absolutely impossible for us to be electrocuted. The roads were eight tracks on each side with walkways several metres apart from vehicular movement. Scenes arising from accidents were quickly demarcated by the relevant agencies with a towing vehicle racing to the spot in less than eight minutes, we were told. Those people who disobeyed the traffic laws by parking on both sides of the roads returned to find their vehicles towed. No preferential treatment. These mechanisms eased traffic in the cities.

    Boarding the bus after the game against Iceland in Volgograd exposed us to how people pay for such services. Non-accredited passengers slid their cards through the mechanism by the side of the door to pay for their trips. No conductors. No rough necks or what we call agberos. No indiscriminate dropping and picking up of passengers on the streets. In fact, we walked over six kilometers from where Volgograd stadium was situated before we could board the bus back to the airport to catch our flight to Saint Petersburg. Accredited people walked into the buses free on match days, but you must show your World Cup cards. The bus driver won’t move his vehicle if people stood. No overload, like we say here.

    The World Cup reinvented Russia but the beauty of the two halves of the cities was that money was properly utilised so much so that it won’t come as a surprise if the older structures are modernised after the Mundial, given the contrasting outlooks of the two halves. In Russia, high

    rise buildings are in vogue. They symbolise the housing estates for the people. The buildings are structured in such a way that the over 140 million people are accommodated. This is not to say that we don’t have the hewers of wood and drawers of water here. They exist. No surprises. If you try to give alms to them out of pity, other Russians urge you not to, insisting that you would be arming them with cash to perpetuate nefarious acts.

    The people were friendly. It looked like they had been taught how to relate with visitors. Even with the apparent language barrier, they smiled at your sign language and offered you the option of asking the next person if he or she could solve the problem. Those who understood little English were helpful, with a few using the telephone to get you cabs or explain in their language where you were headed for.

    In Moscow, I met Anthony, my Uber taxi driver who picked me from the airport to my Younos hotel. He told me to be very careful of picking cabs on the road, that it is better and safe for me to use Uber or Yandex. When I joked that they couldn’t be like Naija people, Anthony laughed and said, they are ‘better‘ than Nigerians when it comes to ‘negative acts‘. He also told me that most of the drivers understood English perfectly but will pretend not to understand  to ‘over charge‘ a passenger who does not speak Parosky- the Russia language. I experienced this when I arrived at St. Petersburg before the Super Eagles Vs Argentina match. A Yandex taxi driver restarted his handset and put me off my order, placing me on a minute per 3RUB on a trip that should take 25 minutes. When I placed my order, the price was to be 215RUB but after 15 minutes into the trip, the meter already had over 500RUB. I stopped the driver along the way and we had a bit of slanging match of words. The police were called to settle the issue. The policeman was efficient and also had some words for the taxi driver for trying to ‘cheat’ me because I don’t understand their language. I was happy as the police ensured my next ride was smooth and for the right price too.

    On my train ride from Moscow to Saint Petersburg, I was told by the man behind the counter that the journey will be over 10 hours. I was deflated. The “Abuja/Lagos” by luxury bus scenario started playing through my mind. I almost told the man to cancel my ticket. But someone behind me said, ‘‘go on the train you will enjoy it.’’ With a sigh, I grudgingly told the man to print out my ticket. I went to the sit out area which looked more like sitting at airport lounges. That gave me some kind of reprieve. When I boarded the train, I stopped in my track because it was like being on one of those international flights. Airconditioner, spacious sleeping beds, phone charging points, free wifi, coffee making points and courteous ‘hostesses’. I woke up when the train arrived in my destination, after sleeping off as if I was at home.

    Back to the World Cup venues, I can’t recall any encounter with hoodlums within the stadium premises. The stadium was a long walk away, which gave the security operatives enough time to fish out likely lawbreakers. The gateways to the matches were never crowded because there were many options and the devices used to detect fraudulent tickets starts from the first gate. It was absolutely impossible for unqualified people to assess the stadium, irrespective of the time the games held.

    All the gates were thrown open early enough to avoid stampede or create a crowded setting where fans lose their valuables to urchins. Did I really see them?

    Hosting the 2018 World Cup was a commercial success for Russia, the government and its citizenry as they milked the benefits of a huge influx of people into the country for over 38 days. The average income per capital per head of the Russian must have risen. The citizens’ purchasing power will be increased. The volume of cash and investment which came with hosting the Mundial for the Russian government is unquantifiable. Indeed, all the cities in Russia are construction sites with massive modernisation of the infrastructure to the benefit of the people.

     Today is the 2018 World Cup finals between 1998 winners France and Croatia in Moscow. I chose not to preview this game because it would amount to repeating what had been published. I expect an exciting game. No predictions please. Instead, the set of players who are hungrier to lift the World Cup should accomplish their dreams.

  • Leaders, defamation and reputation  

    Tomorrow  is my birthday  and I  dedicate  this piece  to that occasion and  thank  God  for  my   life’s journey so  far  as I share  some of my life experience  in the course  of  today’s  write  up.   Today  however  is  also   the    day  of the governorship  election  in Ekiti  State   and  it  is so  important  to the opposition  PDP party of   outgoing  Governor Ayo  Fayose  that  the party  leadership  has insisted  that  its success  or failure  will  determine  if the 2019  presidential  elections will  take place.  I  take a look at the predicament  of Nigeria’s brilliant  Minister of Finance Kemi  Adeosun  and   compare   my experience  on NYSC ‘exemption’ and insist  that the exemption brouhaha should  not be allowed to derail  a brilliant  career  that  has propelled  economic growth  and development  for  our  nation. I  also   examine  two   foreign  visits by   two global  leaders  and reach  strong  conclusions on their  import  for leadership  values and character  inherent in the backgrounds  of these visits.

    Let  me comment  briefly  on the Ekiti  Governorship  Election   and  note  that  Nigerians  have  a lot  to learn  from  the results, no matter  who  wins.  At  the election  that brought   power   to  outgoing  Governor  Fayose,   the PDP,  his party  was in power in Abuja  and federal  might was unleashed against  the party  of the incumbent  governor then   who   lost  in all  local  governments in the state. Even  a Deputy Minister  of Finance  was on hand and on the ground   in  Ekiti  State to ensure that security  arrangements were  against  the state governor   then  and in  favor  of his opponent. Now  the tide has changed  and  there  was a sorry  picture   in the dailies  of the outgoing governor  mopping his face from tear gas attacks  and claiming a   policeman  had slapped  him. That  to  me is unacceptable   under  the rule   of law.  Yet   it could   be   payback time in terms of federal  might  and there   really    should be no sour grapes  on that  account.  One   could recall  that    the  governorship   candidate  from the ruling party  today   was  defamed and electorally  humiliated  when Fayose  came to power   and  that candidate  literally   lost his reputation  as a politician  of substance in Ekiti  state. In   today’s   election    however, he has federal  might behind him like Fayose  did  at  the election that brought him to power. Will  history  repeat  itself?   Certainly      what  is good  for the goose should  be good for the gander  and I wish  the good people of Ekiti  State  a peaceful election  today   with  the chosen  Governor   from   a free   and fair  election,   having   a good  journey  to the Ekiti  State House  in consonance with the wishes of the Ekiti   State   electorate.

    In  the embarrassing position on   NYSC exemption   certificate that the Minister of Finance has found  herself  I wish  to share  my  experience  on an ‘ exemption’ on NYSC  that  I got without  soliciting for it. I was  due for NYSC  from UNIFE  as  I   was graduating  before 30 years  of age   with  the NYSC  second  set but  when  the list  of postings came my name  was not on the list. My colleagues were furious and accused  me of manipulating the situation  from NYSC Lagos. I was literally  dragged in a sort of posse  by them to  the Registrar’s  Office  where  the   University  official  in charge  showed  them  the list he sent to  Lagos NYSC with my name on it. He  then  promised  my accusers  that he would check  with  Lagos  which  he  did  and I was  posted  to Maiduguri  which  made  my accusers very  happy. Years  later I met  a friend  of mine who  worked  a t the NYSC in Lagos  at the time  who said  he deleted my name  because  he thought  he was  doing me a favour. I  told him  his favour  was  expensive as it  landed me in Maiduguri capital of the then North  Eastern state  from which  six states  were  later created. I  pray  the Minister  of Finance gets  a less expensive break on her  exemption ordeal  as she has served  the nation diligently  on her present  assignment.

    Let  me now  briefly  comment  on the visits  of   both US President Donald  Trump  to  Europe  and  Britain  and that of  French  President Emmanuel   Macron  to  Fela’s Shrine in  Lagos. In  President  Trump’s case  he was visiting old allies  and friends with  who  relations  have cooled  some what   even  though  both  sides  resolved  before  and during  the meetings  that old friends  are better  than  new  and the  Europeans felt defamed  and embittered because Trump  washed their dirty linen in public by accusing them of not living  up to their financial  undertakings on defence contributions   to their mutual  defence in the North Atlantic Treaty  Organisation – NATO. To   me Trump  is the winner  in spite of the European conspiracy to  defame him  as threatening to break  an old alliance  formed  after the Second  World  War  to counter  the threat  of communism  from the former  USSR  and Communist China. Yet  the EU  nations seem  to have bought into the conspiracy  of  Trump’s  opponents  on the US  domestic  scene that  the Russians under President Vladmir  Putin helped Trump  win  the 2016 US presidential  election.  A  claim  that drives  the US   president mad  and has  seen  him  at  loggerheads  with the US  media, the FBI ,the  Democratic  Party  and even  members of the Republican  Party who  have  voiced  any doubts on the authenticity of his election  victory in 2016.

    We  shall  end up with  the visit  of  the French  President  Emmanuel  Macron  to  Fela’s  Shrine in Agidingbi. I  congratulate  the Lagos State Governor Ambode for finding time to  take  him  round  presumably  on account of diplomatic  protocols.

    Otherwise it was a very  childish  visit  for  a president  of a nation like France  to  make. If  the rationale was  to promote culture it was misdirected. Undoubtedly  Fela  was  a music  genius  and his  music  makes  him  immortal.  His  shrine was  however  at Ojuelegba  in  Lagos  and later  Ikeja   where  he was a terror  to families   that  raised small  girls in those  unfortunate  environment.  For a  French  president to visit  Nigeria  and not visit  the states where  herdsmen  slaughtered  innocent  farmers on their  grazing routes  or displaced people in the camps housing  Boko  Haram victims and survivors is  certainly unbelievable as it is unforgivable and one can  only pity  the French  people  for their  present brand  of  leadership .All    the same  –  Vive  la France!.  Once again long live the Federal  Republic  of Nigeria.

  • Buhari’s re-election and Igbo 2023 presidential agenda

    LAST Tuesday, Imo State governor Rochas Okorocha organised a Southeast mega rally to unite and fire the All Progressives Congress (APC) in readiness for the 2019 presidential election and to support President Muhammadu Buhari’s re-election agenda. The attendance was impressive, but the most notable Igbo leaders in the Southeast APC absented themselves from the governor’s show of political narcissism. The notables did not indicate why they shunned the rally, whether it had to do with the governor’s personal style, his monarchical tendencies, or his obstinate attempt to impose his son-in-law as the state’s next governor.

    In any case, those notable leaders saw no reason to massage Mr Okorocha’s ego, and feared that their attendance might indirectly be interpreted as endorsement of the governor’s hidden and probably nefarious agenda. More significantly, however, the rally made news for much stranger reasons than Mr Okorocha’s adamantine politics and matchless rhetorical flight of fancy. The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, who represented the president at the rally, spoke glowingly of the Igbo, their acumen, and the need for them to embrace a paradigm shift in their presidential politics. He admonished them to tie their future presidential ambition to President Buhari’s re-election. Said he: “The people of the South East are part of Nigeria and they have the right to make claim where the need arises and we will all support them.

    The Igbo are not good starters. But whenever they start, they can catch it. Let me say this, 2019 is an election that will make or mar the chances of Igbo in Nigeria. I want Igbo to make a paradigm shift. We have to know that the position of the presidency is negotiable. You can argue it from the point of strength and not from the point of weakness. 2019 will determine the future of this country.” Another report of the rally suggests that the SGF admonished the Igbo to eschew sentiments in looking at the 2019 polls. “What happens in 2019 will go a long way in determining the fate of the Igbo nation as it concerns 2023 presidency,” said the SGF apocalyptically. “So, it is important that they put away sentiments in the overall interest of the Igbo nation and ensure that the APC gets a landslide victory in the Southeast.”

    But hidden among the stalagmites and stalactites of Mr Mustapha’s cajolery is the provocative linkage of the Igbo people’s political future to President Buhari’s re-election. Mr Okorocha probably designed the rally to prove his continuing relevance in the Southeast and national political equations, and undoubtedly to underscore his support for the president. It is also possible that the governor genuinely believes that the best way the Igbo can secure the presidency in 2023 is to lend unqualified support to the president. Mr Mustapha also appears to associate with that linkage, but managed in the same breath to hem and haw in making that case. In fact, he stopped short of asserting that if the Igbo were to support the president’s re-election, he (the president) would ensure the victory of an Igbo man in 2023. It is nevertheless clear that regardless of the hemming and hawing, Mr Mustapha appears to insinuate that the Igbo support in the 2019 presidential election would be rewarded in 2023.

    It is not certain that both Mr Mustapha and the APC have not overstated their relevance and overplayed their hands. They may appreciate the Igbo support in 2019, if indeed they get it, but it is hard to see one party unilaterally determining the fate of the country, let alone its direction in 2023. After all, President Buhari himself does not believe in zoning and rotation. He contested every presidential election since 2003 until he managed to win it in 2015, and obviously disregarded the informal zoning arrangement that favoured the Southwest to take and keep the presidency for eight years from 1999. It is hard to see the same man now subscribing to the kind of political orthodoxy that he naturally repudiated in every conceivable way. Mr Mustapha in fact ascribes so much power to his party and the president that he finds it quite attractive to promise the presidency to the Igbo in exchange for their support in 2019.

    Neither the president nor the APC possesses the power to determine who wins the presidency in 2023. Such promises are therefore empty. When ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo foisted the late president Umaru Yar’Adua on his party as candidate in the 2007 presidential election, he had to support that atrocious aberration with a whole panoply of rigged ballots to make a qualified success of his political succession plan. The country is much wiser now, less inclined to tolerating political humbug, and a sitting president will need to shift the earth from its orbit to single-handedly determine which zone should produce a president. As shown by President Buhari’s own election, it is much harder for a zone or tribe to produce a presidential candidate than for a candidate to develop himself to a level of national acceptability that qualifies him to be given a hearing by more than three or four zones out of Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones. Rather than a zone artificially producing a candidate, the candidate must first produce himself, develop a political persona that is attractive to the electorate, propound a political philosophy, no matter how inchoate, that resonates with the country, and develop a wide circle of friends spread around the country to evangelise for him. Neither the president nor his party has managed to produce such a politician from the Southeast.

    So, how can they talk so confidently of Igbo 2023 agenda? Indeed, it is not even the responsibility of anyone, let alone the Southeast zone, to produce such a person, for the country does not want an Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa president, but a president of Igbo, Yoruba or Hausa extraction. Both Dr Obasanjo and President Buhari have shown why it is nonsensical to hanker after a president to satisfy tribal longings and zonal emotions. The opinion of the Yoruba has not changed about Dr Obasanjo, whom they regard as fundamentally at war with their values and ethos, not to say their developmental goals, despite his eight years in office. In fact they saw him as a negator in their developmental struggles. To the political elite in the North, President Buhari is viewed more as clannish and nepotistic than anything else.

    To them, and because of his insularity, he is seen as a bad sell for what the North stands for, particularly the inclusive politics the iconic Sardauna of Sokoto, Ahmadu Bello, stood for and propagated. Mr Mustapha’s subordination of Igbo presidential ambition to President Buhari’s re-election is likely to be regarded with alarm in many parts of Nigeria, especially in the Southeast. It reduces politics to a series of buying and selling of defective and inferior goods. It indicates an embarrassing desperation in the president’s camp, a desperation they are apparently willing to spread ethnic veneer on without scruples or principles. If the Buhari presidency were as confident of the support of the Middle Belt and the Southwest as it got in 2015, presidential aides would not need to cajole the Southeast with the bait of 2023 presidential candidature. Having enacted a scorched earth policy in some parts of the country, and unsure where it is capable of securing the kind of solid support it received some three years ago, the Buhari presidency will increasingly yield to desperate tactics, even if those tactics appear crassly ethnic.

    If the Igbo were to give the Buhari presidency a hearing as Mr Mustapha solicited, they would be torn between seeing his entreaties from the prism of their 2023 ambition, assuming that ambition exists, or from the prism of what they regard as his mistreatment of the Igbo over the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) agitations. They are unlikely to be in a quandary. They have long suspected the president to loath the Southeast; it will take more than Mr Mustapha’s blandishments and Mr Okorocha’s glib rhetoric to change their view of the Buhari presidency. They are in fact likely to conclude that if an Igbo politician should desire the presidency, he would have to work hard to convince the country that by his person, ideas, capability, inclusive politics, and political contacts, he is more than qualified for the job. And that once entrusted with the job, he would see the country, not from the jaded prism President Buhari appears enamoured of, but from the uplifting and unifying oneness Nigerians earnestly yearn for.

  • PMB and the limits of loyalty

    Loyalty is unquestionably a key element of President Muhammadu Buhari’s political philosophy even if he has not espoused any systematic or coherent set of principles or ideas that guide his politics. Buhari is enamoured of loyalty and seemingly finds those who proclaim their fanatical commitment to him from the rooftops particularly endearing.  But then, Buhari is not alone in this. Most political leaders in history, across time and space, have cherished the loyalty of their aides and associates, above all other virtues.  Many great historical personages have been undone, sometimes fatally, by the treachery and betrayal of those in whom they reposed much trust.

    PMB has personally experienced the painful thrusts of treachery and disloyalty when the military regime he headed alongside the late General Tunde Idiagbon was overthrown in 1985.  The forceful change was effected through a palace coup conceptualized and executed by insiders in the top hierarchy of the regime right in the inner recesses of state power.  But then, it could be argued that the logic of forceful seizure of power by the military is that those who assume office through the barrel of the gun can also be forcibly removed legitimately by the barrel of the gun. It is not a question of morality.

    In the aftermath of his 1985 ouster from power, Buhari was in forced incarceration for about three years. That experience, some suggest, may subliminally be responsible for PMB choosing the heads of practically all security agencies from his part of the country and with all of them also being of the same religious faith. The implication is that these are the heads of our security architecture that PMB can feel safe and secure with. Of course, there is no way to prove this. But PMB’s greatest strength and defence, he should know, lies not in force of arms through the military but rather in the support of millions of ordinary Nigerians who admire his asceticism, discipline, simple outlook on life and his relentless onslaught against corruption.

    In 1985, PMB and Idiagbon were patriotically fixated on fighting corruption but remained absolutely impervious to loud outcries from the populace on the excruciating impact the regime’s policies was having on them particularly in the areas of human rights violations. Nobel laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka, was forced to declare at that time that the public seemed to be talking to a deaf and dumb government.  Of course, the wily and politically astute Ibrahim Babangida and his collaborators took advantage of the situation to seize power.

    Today, PMB once more wields power legitimately acquired through the ballot box within the context of constitutional democracy.  But again, just as during his earlier coming as military Head of State in 1984, the PMB administration is frontally and aggressively fighting corruption while remaining utterly indifferent to outrageous public outcry on diverse issues. These include, unlawful detention of persons despite court rulings to the contrary, rampant nepotism, non-inclusive governance, alleged double standards in the war against corruption as well as the unprecedented and manifestly dangerous appointment of heads of the various arms of the military as well as those of paramilitary and security agencies from the North with most of them being Muslim to boot.

    This time around, the danger is not military intervention. Nigeria has thankfully evolved beyond that stage in the process of our political development with 19 years of unbroken civilian rule over the last 19 years. However, the All Progressives Congress (APC) must realize that it is not immune from the kind of electoral tsunami that swept away the PDP in 2015, following the latter’s arrogance, insensitivity, unconscionable corruption and the complacency arising from its delusion of being ordained to be in power indefinitely irrespective of the will of the people.  The APC must be wary of treading that path, which it unfortunately is doing now, unless it plans to remain in office in 2019 in spite of, rather than as a result of the freely expressed will of the people.

    One admirable feature of PMB’s leadership style is his fierce and uncompromising loyalty to his appointees and associates. This can be a positive strength but it can also be a great weakness. It might inspire some to work hard, always going the extra mile to compensate for the loyalty of the boss and his faith in them. For others, it might encourage a sense of lethargy, indolence and complacency in the belief that they are untouchable and can do no wrong as far as their principal is concerned.

    The spate of sustained killings across the country particularly through the nefarious activities of ‘unknown herdsmen’ has elicited widespread calls for the appointment of new service chiefs. However, PMB has remained stoically impervious to and absolutely unperturbed about this demand from large sections of the citizenry.  Rather, he has extended the tenure of the service chiefs twice upon the expiration of their statutorily stipulated terms in office. This column does not believe the service chiefs should be sacked because of the security situation in the country.

    They certainly have tried their best and made some impact especially in substantially caging the Boko Haram monster in the North East. Even if PMB removes the service chiefs today, it will not necessarily bring about an automatic end to the diverse security challenges confronting the country. No less critical is the need to urgently and radically re-configure our entire security architecture to achieve greater operational and functional efficacy in a culturally diverse, politically complex, ethnically plural, geographically vast and supposedly federal polity like ours.

    This column believes there are three reasons why PMB should urgently allow the service chiefs to bow out honourably and let fresh hands take their place. Firstly is the fact that statutorily, their tenures have expired and PMB must maintain his reputation as a stickler for due process. No matter how well they may have done, others should also be given an opportunity to showcase their abilities and bring fresh ideas into the struggle to confront and contain the country’s sundry security challenges. Secondly, the continuation in office of these service chiefs beyond their statutory terms creates the impression that they are indispensable and that there are no competent hands to take over from them. This will certainly have serious implications for morale, sense of fulfilment as well as self-confidence down the hierarchical chain of command. Thirdly, PMB can utilize the opportunity of appointing new service chiefs to address the very serious issue of the obvious ethno-regional and religious skewing of security appointments in favour of the north – an issue that is daily eroding the President’s good will.

    Buhari, El-rufai and Yaya Bello
    Buhari, El-rufai and Yaya Bello

    In any case, what exactly is loyalty? Are many of those proclaiming themselves to be fanatical ‘Buharists’ today, doing so because they love him or because of the benefits they are reaping from his present position? Let us take Governor Nasir el Rufai of Kaduna State for instance. Today he poses continuously as an unrepentant ‘Buharist’. Yet, is this not the same el Rufai, who as head of the Bureau of Public Enterprises, endlessly sang former Vice President Atiku Abubaka’s praises to high heavens claiming that Atiku never interfered in the privatization process?

    When Atiku fell out with President Obasanjo, el-Rufai, made a 180 degrees turn and began his new swan song portraying his new benefactor, Obasanjo, as a saint and Atiku as  corrupt villain. Today, el Rufai is at the fore front of the ‘Buhari is our Messiah’ orchestra. Where he will be tomorrow on the political spectrum will certainly not be a matter of principle or honest conviction but one of expediency, opportunism and personal aggrandizement. This is a perfect example of chameleonic loyalty.

    Or take my governor, the youthful and ebullient Yahaya Bello of Kogi State.  Here was a man who was at the forefront of the advocacy for the extension of the tenure of the Chief John Odigie-Oyegun-led National Working Committee (NWC). When he saw that PMB was unbending in his resolve that the APC constitution must be adhered to and congresses and the convention held, Bello quickly made an amazing somersault. He told an obviously astonished and startled Oyegun at a party meeting at the APC national secretariat that he was prepared to dive into fire if that was PMB’s wish.

    Pronto, the next time we saw Bello, His Excellency was on crutches, his right foot heavily bandaged. The inimitable Azu Ishiekwene, publisher of The Interview and columnist, speculated that Bello may have sustained the injury while rehearsing the art of fire diving. I am reliably informed that some citizens of Kogi State have since embarked on intensive prayer and fasting to influence PMB to request his beloved son to take a dive into a blazing inferno.

    There is no doubt that this kind of prayer is being uttered with undisguised ‘malicious and malignant’ intent (apologies to T.M. Aluko). PMB should certainly be wary of Bello’s kind of acrobatic loyalty. As for Mr. President, your loyalty should, first and last sir, be to the constitution and people of Nigeria and not to those who proclaim their love for you from the hilltop for selfish gains.

  • Playing with passion

    Sometimes when things happen, they occur for good. Otherwise, one has been pondering how many goals the French would have posted past an uninspiring Super Eagles bunch, had we crossed the Argentine hurdle. The way the French played with passion, commitment, determination and the hunger for victory, you could tell from their faces that they had scores to settle with the Argentines.

    The Eagles’ game lacked intensity and our players were not competitive. They were like feathers blown by the air, falling. They lacked the energy which African players are known for. No coach teaches team intensity and competitiveness. It is an innate skill driven by the players’ urge to excel, which the Eagles lacked. I cherish the way the Japanese rattled highly rated Belgium. It is one of the benefits of hosting the  World Cup. Since the co-hosting of the World Cup by Japan and Korea, the Asian game has grown in leaps and bounds.

    The Belgians trailed by two goals but rallied back to win the game at 3-2. But the best goal was initiated by goalkeeper Courtois, who turned a counter attack into the winning goal, with his intelligent hand throw into the midfield. You needed to see the way the Belgians were using passes to break down the Japanese. Yet the leg over by Lukaku made the goal scored by jersey 22, Nacer Chadli, a midfielder in the 94th minute, the easiest in the competition but the most vital. Such moves come from players’ intuition, not necessarily coaching, because had Lukaku being selfish, the goal would have been missed. Brazil’s confrontation with Belgium is a box office clash, not a quarter-final fixture. Blame that on the draws.

    No coach teaches passion.It comes with being ambitious to achieve set objectives. It resonates from the players’ attitude. At the senior level, coaches don’t teach players the rudiments of the game. They discuss tactics. The Eagles lack all that the French displayed against the Argentines, hence one has been celebrating that Nigeria didn’t play against France in the Round of 16 last Saturday in Kazan Arena, Kazan.

    It is true that no two matches are the same but the character, zeal and will to win exhibited by the French last Saturday would have overwhelmed       our boys, who would have heightened the tempo of the game with their usual pre-match boasting of beating the French, who eliminated  them 2-0 in 2014 at the last Mundial.

    The game between France and Argentina has been the best of the Russia 2018 World Cup. It had all the trappings of a final game but it wasn’t. The two countries paraded some of the best players in the world. And they acquitted themselves. For the first time, we saw a midfield quartet that rendered Lionel Messi otiose. Messi was virtually strolling on the pitch, largely because the French didn’t play on the side of the pitch where he likes to operate.

    The French were tactically disciplined and they played as a team. Had the French an outstanding goalkeeper, the Argentines would have been drenched in goals. The seven-goal thriller had no dull moment, beginning with the first goal which came from Mbappe’s speed from deep inside his own half, leaving the Argentines for dead as he sped past. An untidy tackle inside the penalty area was rightly given. Griesmann converted it with ease.

    The Argentines’ equaliser looked like the routine knocking of the ball around until it got to Di Maria, who looked up and fired the cannon shot which beat France’s goalkeeper hands down. It was an explosive game, with some brilliant goals, not forgetting the deflected goal by the Argentines, their second of the game off Messi’s effort. The man of the match was Mbappe, who cleverly ran into a through pass from Giroud to score the French’s fourth. Many thought the game was over but not so for Kun Ageruo, whose nifty header brought the Argentines’ third goal in the 92nd minute. The last two minutes was routine as the game had been won by the French 4-3 – to the delight of many Nigerians, who savoured the victory like they would have done if it was a Super Eagles’ win. Don’t ask why Nigerians celebrated? Trust soccer fans to stir up controversies. Argentina’s exit rubbed off on Messi, with many pundits tipping Ronaldo to qualify with Portugal over Uruguay. It didn’t happen as Urugauy triumphed 2-1, setting the stage for Messi’s and Ronaldo’s exit in the Round of 16 last Saturday.

    The Round of 16 has drawn up exciting quarter-finals fixtures. Hosts Russia bundled out star-studded Spain by penalty shootout, the first since the competition began on June 14. I’m not surprised that the Spaniards exited the competition because their FA chiefs erred in sacking the coach who got them qualified for the Mundial, a few days to the competition on grounds that he had signed to handle European champions Real Madrid. The argument that the coach breached his contract is weak since he joined a Spanish side desperate to get a new manager, following Zinedine Zidane’s shocking exit. With such a divided house and an unprepared coach in Hierro, Spain was just an accident waiting to happen. And it did when the Russians shocked them by scoring all their five penalty kicks, with the former World Cup champions losing two of theirs.

    How are the mighty fallen, many would say but the truth is that the game has grown, such that no unprepared country will lift the World Cup. Any defect in the structure of the team will be exposed by the better prepared side. The era of countries depending on particular players for victories are over as coaches now know how to cage such players with superior tactics. Football will never be the same after this World Cup.
    It was good the Russians beat Spain because of the fans. The ambience at the match venues, with the fans doing their stuff pumps the players’ adrenalin to give their best. Any time the host nation is eliminated from the competition, it rubs off negatively on the fans. Without the fans, the game isn’t attractive to watch. Empty stands discourage blue-chip firms from associating their goods and services with the competition, which has several marketing windows to help the organisers recoup their investments.

    The lesson to be learned by the Eagles from the Russian victory is self – belief, zeal and determination to win matches. No one gave Russia a chance against Spain beyond the home advantage, which was destroyed when Uruguay whipped the hosts 3-0 in one of the qualification matches. I feel strongly that the defeat changed the Russians’ mindset, as they fought like wounded lions to earn the quarter-finals berth.

    Who says goalkeepers don’t determine the outcome of matches? What will you say about the showmanship of the two goalkeepers during the penalty shootout which decided the game between Denmark and Croatia? Goalkeepers Subasic of Croatia and Schemichel of Denmark were phenomenal. Their brilliance during the shootout gave the game the character it lacked all through the 120 minutes encounter. I wasn’t surprised that big players couldn’t control their nerves to shoot the ball into the net from such a short distance.

    Tuesday’s Round-of-16 fixture between Sweden and Switzerland has been the most boring, with the Swedes securing a lone goal victory. Fans had nothing to cheer. Even the goal scored in the second half was a deflection off the right foot of Nigeria-born Emmanuel Akanji. The Swedes are billed to meet England, with pundits likely to tip the English for victory. But soccer matches are dangerous to predict. The Swedes could raise their game to fight the English to the death. I doubt a Sweden victory over England today, not with this bunch of hungry lads who crave to equal what their age-grade kids have achieved at the world stage.

    The clash between Russia and Croatia holding later in the night is the one to follow with a warning – should Russia beat Croatia, then they could give winning the World Cup their best shot. The Russians, suddenly, have self- belief, their roaring fans propelling them to victory with their songs.
    This evening’s game is a slippery pole to climb for the Croatians whose tenacity would be stretched to its seams by the hard-fighting Russians.  A semi-final game between England and Russia will get any stadium here jammed. Both countries have the numbers in terms of followership. I pray this fixture comes to pass. It will be a game to test the effectiveness of the security apparatus. I doubt if it will be a problem, with what we have seen here from the first game in Moscow.

  • Adebayo Adedeji and  Africa’s development debate (1)

    It was a dramatic encounter. The forum was one of those Organization of African Unity (OAU) Heads of State summits during the regime of Nigeria’s military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, in the 1980s.  Exactly which one it was I cannot recollect now. That was a time when the hegemonic International Financial Institutions (IFIs) were imposing stringent Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP) as a cure all for all ailing African economies as a precondition for foreign aid and loans. In attendance, as a member of the Nigerian government delegation was the eminent journalist, media administrator and lawyer, Chief Tony Momoh, who was Nigeria’s Minister of Information. Also a frontline participant at the event was the respected development economist, public administrator, international civil servant, academic and researcher, Professor Adebayo Adedeji, in his capacity as Under-Secretary General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA).

    The Babangida regime had enthusiastically embraced the Structural Adjustment policies, which included massive currency devaluation, deregulation of the economy, reduction of the public sector workforce, comprehensive privatization of public enterprises, and removal of subsidies on critical social services among others. The regime’s officials, particularly the brilliant rationalist and Secretary to the Federal Government, Chief Olu Falae, articulately advocated the IMF and World Bank positions that there was no alternative to SAP as the only path out of Africa’s protracted crisis of underdevelopment. Professor Adedeji had at several fora vigorously canvassed an opposing view to the obvious discomfiture of his home government. He was of the firm belief that not only was most of the policy components of SAP inappropriate, but there were indeed viable alternatives to them. Chief Tony Momoh, spokesman of a pro-SAP government unconventionally put on his toga as a journalist at that event, got a tape recorder and sought an interview with the Professor, which the latter readily gave. The interesting exchange between the two men was later published in the Daily Times if my memory serves me right.

    It would appear to me as a layman that the defining essence of the life of Professor Adebayo Adedeji who passed on to eternity on 25th April, 2018, was the intellectual struggle to extricate African Development Strategy and Policy from the hegemonic stranglehold of external forces, particularly IFIs that may not necessarily mean well for the continent. For those of us who do not have the requisite grounding and expertise in economic as well as development theory and analysis to appreciate and apprehend his technical disquisitions, there are luckily a number of easily accessible publications on the life, times and works of Professor Adedeji. One of these, for instance, is a collection of essays in his honour when he clocked 65 titled ‘Issues in African Development’ and edited by Bade Onimode and Richard Synge. Published by Heinemann Educational Books (Nigeria) Plc in association with the African Centre for Development and Strategic Studies in 1995, the book is divided into four sections comprising 16 chapters and runs into 323 pages.

    The book’s contributors are some of the most illustrious scholars from diverse disciplines including economics, history, politics, public administration, development as well as experts in diverse spheres of international development administration. In the preface to the book by Stephen Lewis, we have a glimpse of what Professor Adedeji meant to those who worked with him at the ECA. In his words, “Collaborating with Adebayo Adedeji was an extraordinary experience. His whole persona comes alive when he speaks, feelingly, of Africa; it stimulates everyone around him; conviction and animation are unleashed in equal measure, and just when you feel the tensions perilously rising, his voluble laugh bursts forth in a catharsis of reconciliation. Adedeji’s great strength lies in his unswerving determination to resolve the African crisis. Nothing distracts him. As a result, his contribution to Africa gives meaning to internationalism”.

    The same impression is conveyed in a statement by the former Secretary General of the United Nations, Perez de Cuellar, to the 27th Assembly of the Heads of Government of the OAU, held in Abuja on 3rd June, 1991 in a fulsome tribute to Adedeji thus: “Professor Adedeji has been at the helm of ECA for more than half of its existence and has left an indelible mark on the work and objectives of the Commission. He has made significant contributions to successive initiatives to address and to improve Africa’s economic and social situation. I am pleased to have this opportunity to congratulate him, in his native land, for a job well done, and to wish him success in his future undertakings”.

    My favourite chapter in this book is titled ‘Africa’s Development Crisis in Historical Perspective’ by the late Professor J.F Ade-Ajayi; a chapter in which a scholar I had assumed to be essentially of a conservative cast traces the developmental travails of the continent to the legacy of foreign conquests such as the Arab and Atlantic slave trade, colonialism and neocolonialism. That chapter reminds one of the immortal Walter Rodney in his ‘How Europe Underdeveloped Africa’. Writing about the legacy of colonialism, for instance, Ajayi perspicaciously observes that “The interest of the European powers in Africa was to disrupt existing lines of intra-African trade, and channel all effort into the production of primary crops required for export, and encourage importation of European goods even if it meant destroying local manufactures, crafts and industries. Thus, it has been said, Africa learnt to produce what it did not consume and to consume what it did not produce”.

    Professor Ajayi points out that our inability to genuinely decolonize after independence meant a failure to confront the past and make genuine amends. Consequently this implies “a carry-over of the disabilities from the slave trade era to the colonial period, and from the colonial period into the period after independence. This often involved a loss of self-esteem, an undue willingness to substitute dependence on charity for self-confidence and self-reliance, an attitude sometimes referred to as evidence of “colonial mentality”.

    And when he turned 70, another collection of essays was published in Adedeji’s honour titled ‘African Development and Governance Strategies in the 21st Century’ again edited by Professor Bade Onimode. This 256 page book is made up of 16 seminal essays and an epilogue also written by some of the continent’s best and brightest minds. Tracing the impasse of development in Africa forty years after independence in this book’s preface, Professor Segun Odunuga  , makes the point that “Adedeji’s advocacy of holistic human development is based on the concept that society can only develop with the mobilization of the people; hence his statement that Africa would need to set in motion a process that puts the individual at the very centre of a development effort that is both human and humane…” Is this not a foretaste of the lesson Bill Gates came to teach our leaders 14 years after this book was written? But the definitive book on this great African is undoubtedly ‘African Development: Adebayo Adedeji’s Strategies’ written by Professor S. K. B. Asante and published in 1991, which we will examine in the second part of this piece.

  • And the beat goes on

    Serious football countries know that the biggest soccer festival holds after every four years. This is enough time to plot the graph of success with minimal errors. Such countries learn to build on the lessons of previous campaigns to improve on their achievement.

    Their programmes are anchored on the grassroots initiatives designed by the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA) for all its over 2010 member- countries. It is from these FIFA programmes that the game thrives in such countries without recourse to government funding since their operations do not allow government interference.

    In such climes, football administrators think through the business prism by capitalising on the mammoth followership which the game attracts to woo the business community to identify their goods and services with the beautiful game. It is easy for the business world to key into football operations in countries, such as Germany, Brazil, Spain, England, Italy, Belgium and France, for instance, because their administrators don’t run to the government for funding.

    These big six countries run independent federations which respect their countries’ extant laws but draws a line where government interference is almost forbidden. Where there are breaches, the laws of the land are applied, no matter whose ox is gored. This is the beauty of such countries’ administration which attracts business-minded people to run for their soccer federations’ elections, held usually after the Mundial.

    This business outlay rubs off on their domestic leagues, where they discover, nurture and expose budding players to international competitions. These leagues have youth developmental schemes which ensure that talents are taught the rudiments of the game early through competitions, workshops, cadet or holiday camps etc to further encourage the youth to shun vices and embrace sports, not just football.

    Aside, providing the enabling environment to develop the game, these football countries groom coaches, retrain them and assign them to catchment areas where kids are taught the right way to play. With such a foundation, the kids are prepared mentally and physically for the game, particularly those who would want to earn a living from it.

    These catchment areas and academies afford these nations the best platform to collate the kids’ data and monitor their progress through the ranks till stardom. This system eliminates all forms of fraud arising from age cheats. In fact, pundits are able to measure the growth of their domestic game by the number of homegrown players who make the national team to big competitions, such as the World Cup.

    Only eight countries have won the World Cup in 20 tournaments with the prize going to two continents. Europe has won it five times. Three South American countries have lifted the diadem thrice. The winners are Brazil, England, Germany, Spain, France, Argentina, Italy and Uruguay. And they did so with their nationals as managers, largely because they developed the template that fills the mill which produces players, coaches, officials and administrators. But the Mundial is a leveler, with fairytale countries pulling the rug from under the feet of established nations.

    Mexico isn’t a soccer minnow, but could be termed a perennial also-ran in the Mundial. It brought the defending champions down to earth with a lone goal victory that set the pace of surprising results at the ongoing Russia 2018 World Cup. If Germany’s World Cup winning coach in Brazil 2014, Joachim Loew, thought the defeat to Mexico was a blip, his face on the sidelines when Sweden led the Germans in the second game of the group told the story of a man on the verge of falling from grace to grass, especially after ignoring pleas from people to include Manchester City’s gem Sane in his 23-man squad. It took a free-kick in the 96th minute for Germany to beat the Swedish, courtesy of Kroos’ thunderous shot from a side kick from a dead ball.

    The World Cup in Russia will surely produce a new winner with the ouster of the defending champions Germany, who were beaten 2-0 by Korea Republic, in the last group game. The Germans lost their opening game to Mexico, beat Sweden with almost the last kick but kissed the trophy goodbye with the loss to Korea Republic.

    It is important to state that the Germans have won the trophy four times (in 1954, 1974, 1990 and 2014). Only the Brazilians have surpassed this feat with five winning efforts in 1958, 1962, 1970, 1994 and 2002 in South Africa, the first time an African nation will host the Mundial.

    Incidentally, last year’s runners-up Argentina had a nightmarish outing against Iceland, drawing 1-1 in the opening game in Russia, with Lionel Messi’s penalty kick highlighting the bizarre display by the Argentines. The football world stood in awe as Croatia ran a ring round the Argentines in the second game, winning by 3-0 to set the stage for a battle of sur vival inside the Saint Petersburg Stadium on Tuesday evening.

    Argentina’s qualification for the group stage was filled with plenty of drama. Messi scored with his left foot after outrunning Kenneth Omeruo late in the first half. Until Messi’s goal, the game was a ding dong, although the Argentines had more of the ball possession than the Nigerians.

    The second half expectedly was a reflection of the first, except that the Nigerians realised that they had to chase the game, if they stood any chance of qualifying. First, Rohr substituted Kelechi Iheanacho, who had been struck in the face by an Argentine inside the penalty box in the first half, but the referee Cuneyt Cakir from Turkey looked the other way to the consternation of the spectators. And so when Victor Moses stepped forward to take the penalty kick, not many lovers of the Eagles sat to witness the goal. Many didn’t think Moses will score. But when he did, the stakes rose. The thought of an early exit for the Argentines filled the stands.

    However, referee Cakir spoilt the game when he ruled off a glaring hand ball offence committed by Rojo, who eventually scored the winner for the Argentines. Had Cakir given the penalty to Nigeria, two scenarios would have emerged – the shocking exit of a football world power and the likely fairytale story of the Eagles. Indeed, Eagles were gallant in the way they handled the star-studded Argentines so much so that Messi said in the post match interview: ‘‘The Nigerians suffered us before we got this victory.’’

    ‘‘A huge relief for us. We knew it was going to be a difficult afternoon. We didn’t think we were going to suffer as much as we did.’’

    Nigeria should sustain what we have now that it appears we have a template for the Eagles. I had goose pimples listening to Mikel struggle not to say that he was finished with international matches for Nigeria. Mikel literarily held back tears when he was asked to say if Russia 2018 World Cup would be his last for Nigeria.

    Mikel bit his lip; his voice was heavy. Slowly, he muttered out the question he was asked without saying categorically if he would quit. The pain in Mikel’s heart was palpable. You could touch it from a distance. He will definitely quit the game. The time is nigh. And he knows so.

    A few people have blamed Rohr for not having the strategy to defend the 1-1 result, with five minutes to go. The question is, is attacking not the best way to defend? Had Cakir awarded the penalty, would we be talking about Rohr, since he would have been sent off for the penalty kick offence?

    Besides, the argument in some quarters that Rojo headed the ball before it touched his hand, hence the penalty kick wasn’t given is laughable.  Since when did it become a norm to head the ball with widespread hands? Was the ball not headed onto the defender’s hand in the game between Portugal and Iran? A penalty kick was awarded.

    So much has been said about retaining the services of Gernot Rohr. I want to stay out of this debate. I intend watching from the sidelines, not losing sight of all that has been said, especially from soccer greats, on the manager and how the Eagles have fared since he was recruited. If Odion Ighalo could accept that his slips were responsible for our ouster, what else is there to be said?

    Rohr has given us Francis Uzoho, the goalkeeper. He has assembled a formidable central defence network of Leon Balogun and Troost Ekong. We have young players, such as Tyroone Ebuehi and Ola Aina, among other Nigeria-born kids willing to play for their fatherland. We have seen that with a good manager, Mikel and Moses could play in the central defensive midfield and right wing back positions like they do for their clubs.

    Lastly, our players’ comments about Rohr should serve as the basis for retaining him unlike in the past when they openly rooted for the ouster of their manager. Up Nigeria!

  • Let’s get set for Qatar 2022

    Over time, our players have escaped being chastised in the review of our participation at major international soccer competitions, such as the World Cup holding in Russia. Our sports administrators get knocks from angry fans, who are not necessarily Nigerians, who have emotional attachment to the Super Eagles.

    In the past, the tussle for the control of World Cup funds between the Sports Ministry and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) provided an alibi for our failure at such big tournaments. Nobody remembered how our players prosecuted the matches. They would rather argue that if things had been done on schedule, the team would have done well.

    In fact, the war between both bodies would have divided the players sharply, such that we would have been eliminated even before our first game. The crisis would have started during the qualifiers, necessitating the formation of Presidential Task Forces to aggravate the problems in the team. Indeed, the media would have been awash with tales of the unexpected that would have made the EFCC to begin discreet investigations of the allegations bandied.

    Of course, the board members would have joined the fray, with some colluding with the PTF members and the sports ministry chieftains, who would have promised them a return ticket to the board to buttress whatever the reforms it was that they were doing. There would have been anarchy in Russia.

    But the fear of President Muhammadu Buhari is the beginning of wisdom. In fact, those who tried to stoke the usual fire got burnt. They were forced to realign with the faithful, otherwise they would not have been here. They got a foretaste of what to expect when they were sidelined. The usual stunt of making frivolous allegations went up in the air like smoke.

    With normalcy restored in the NFF’s operations, everything went well, with Amaju Pinnick showing his full grasp of administration. Pinnick endured the antics of the ministry and dug deep into his connections in the business world to get mind-boggling financial support which made Super Eagles’ campaign smooth. This is not to say there were no problems within the NFF. In fact, we lost a point to Algeria due to some administrative tardiness.

    It is heartwarming reading comments on the need for our players to play for the country with the same zeal, commitment and determination they exhibit weekly for their European clubs. The players were paid their entitlements and grilled through quality friendly matches against England, Czech Republic, Serbia, Poland and even against one of their group opponents Argentina, who they beat them without their iconic star, Lionel Messi.

    The team prepared very well for the competition. The players promised  to bring home the World Cup. But they were disappointing against Croatia. Not a single shot at the opposition’s goalkeeper in the first half. Our players fell like weaklings at the slightest contact, the worst culprit being Victor Moses, who should be excused from future Eagles squad based on his attitude to our matches.

    Moses sees himself as bigger than the others. He plays the way he wants and has become a renowned diver at the slightest tackle when he could have easily dribbled his marker to score. Moses ought to be our poster boy in Russia – like Modric, Ronaldo et al. But his attitude is wrong as he couldn’t be bothered if he wasted goal-scoring free-kicks – to the consternation of the fans watching the match against Croatia, for instance. Why Gernot Rohr kept Moses on the pitch for the entire 90 minutes against Croatia is still a mystery.

    Moses appears to be disinterested in playing for Nigeria, considering his conduct. The late Stephen Keshi stopped using him Brazil, after he protested his substitution in one of our matches. I may be wrong, but it seems to me that Moses doesn’t think Nigeria adds any value to his game, especially as he has a dual citizenship.

    This writer doesn’t know John Mikel Obi’s plans for the national team. I  suggest that he should announce his resignation from international matches for Nigeria. He should consider taking coaching courses to prepare for the task of coaching the Eagles. It wouldn’t be out of place if NFF bankrolls his courses. I look forward to seeing Mikel sitting on Nigeria’s bench as the Technical Adviser during the Qatar 2022 World Cup. It should form part of the paradigm shift  for the future.

    Our awful display against Croatia was a reflection of how we fared in our last three friendly matches. The excuse then was that our players were being cautious and that they were saving their best for the big stage in Russia. What a fallacy. If the coaches had known, they should have invited younger, fitter and more enterprising players other than these sluggish ones at the Mundial. I wouldn’t be surprised if our players improve on their outing against Iceland. But their conduct in the first game has made the last fixture against Argentina a do-or-die affair. I only hope that international politics doesn’t swing the game with the Argentines, if they have a dog chance to qualify.

    We have seen instances where players win games that matter with doggedness, irrespective of what the coaches have told them. I was shocked to see the Croatians win all the crunchy tackles, with our players falling like earthworms. Pundits believe that one of our strengths is our physical fitness. We failed to exhibit that trait because our boys were playing without passion.

    From what I have seen of the Eagles, the future is bright, with Francis Uzoho confirming his position as our number 1 goalkeeper, that is if Carl Ikeme is unable to recover fully before the qualification series of the Cameroon 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. Tryoone Ebuehi fits in at the right wing back position since Shehu Abdullahi has not been able to defend balls on the counter attack. Abdullahi is a natural midfielder. He should be taken back to struggle for the midfield shirt.Rohr should search properly for Ebuehi’s rival in the domestic league. Otherwise, Ola Aina could function there effectively like he did for Wolves on loan last season. Aina won many Man-of-the-Match awards and scored goals which secured the promotion ticket for Wolves to the elite Barclays English Premier League this new season.

    I feel strongly that Brian Idowu is the perfect fix for the left wing back position, if only Rohr can get midfielders who can fall back quickly when they lose the ball. Eagles midfield has been problematic, largely because a lot of the players just walk on the pitch when not with ball. We must look for younger boys who can run tirelessly for 90 minutes to keep pace with the opposition.

    Until we fix our midfield, Eagles will continue to totter against more balanced teams with talented players, such as Croatia. Football is contact sport. Our players must be prepared to tackle the ball off the opposition to win possession and dictate the pace of the game.

    We have a galaxy of young and enterprising boys to assemble a good midfield at the next World Cup in Qatar, such Kelechi Nwakali and his elder brother Chiedu. Both of them will complement Simon Moses, who unfortunately is out of the Mundial in Russia, another recovering star, Onyekuru, Alex Iwobi and Kelechi Iheanacho, although coaches tend to field him as a striker.

    As for attack, the Eagles have none. We rely on individual brilliance when we don’t have world class players, such as Cristiano Ronaldo. 

     

    No Odemwingie, no

     

    Osaze Odemwingie’s comment that African football is declining is quite interesting. What Osaze didn’t say is that African players don’t know how to manage success. African players lie about their ages; this affects their staying power in the game.

    Once an African kid emerges on the international scene, he becomes heady. His disciplinary records decline. He becomes disrespectful. He sees himself as being better than his mates. He craves for special treatment in camp. He is quick to anger when tackled in training. He wants to dictate what should happen and what shouldn’t.

    This untouchable syndrome of the African star rubs off on his training, which invariably affects his form.

    Osaze was taken to the World Cup as an alternate player in 2002. He played his first World Cup in 2010. He was only lucky to be part of Nigeria’s 2014 World Cup squad because of pressure on the late Stephen Keshi by the media and Nigerians.  Keshi didn’t want Osaze in camp because of his conduct.

    Osaze’s unruly acts got to a head when he wanted to force a transfer in Europe. He was stopped from entering the preferred club’s premises because the gateman knew the rules which Osaze wanted to violate with ignominy.

    Ordinarily, with Osaze’s age, having been born in Russia, he should be playing for Nigeria in 2018, like Mikel Obi.

    A 25-year-old, who is ‘discovered’ as an U-17, with age 12 on his visa, cannot play for another 12 years, which is the lifespan of three World Cups.

    Lastly, lack of education makes it impossible for the African player to build on his career. Whereas his European counterpart employs experts to manage his affairs, the African star is the hippy on the highway, driving the most expensive cars, living in choice areas, frolicking with women and spending his earnings on ‘things of the world’, like the Christian faithful would say.

    Little wonder they are a wreck after their short career.

  • Denuclearisation, trade  and justice

    Three  events ricocheted into  the three  – in –one  headline  of  today.
    These  were the historic Trump  -Kim Denuclearisation   talks in Singapore on  June 12, the  G7 Meeting last week in Canada  and  the spat  between  the US  and  G7  nations   over  tariffs  and the aftermath  of the declaration of  June 12  as Nigeria’s Democracy  Day  by  incumbent President Muhammadu  Buhari. The  three  events as  we shall  see   here  show  clearly  that the world order  is changing in terms of the prospects  of peace  and  the emergence  of a new  world  order. They   also  show in strange unison that  in not only international  relations and diplomacy  but also in Nigerian  politics there  are  no permanent enemies  but  permanent  interests . Furthermore   the  events  show  that sovereign  and political  alignments and alliances  are  not cast  in stone and that  such  relationships are  renewable  and recyclable.   Just  like the new energy  sources we are dancing around to replace fossil  energy  in  the quest  to  make our environment    cleaner   in line with  the support    for  the  global   climate change  effort. I will  illustrate my comments with  good  examples of what  happened  on the world stage  this week  on these issues.

    The  Trump – Kim  Talks  have  come  and gone like  a fairy  tale on  denuclearization  but the hard unbelievable facts that the world  has  moved away  from a cliff  of nuclear  war are there  for all  to see. Kim  Jong  Un    the  North Korean    leader  signed  a statement committing his regime to  denuclearization  and US  President  Donald  Trump  has pledged  to stop the  provocative   Joint  Military Exercises  with Allies in the Korean  Peninsular. Later  the Americans clarified  that sanctions will  not be  stopped  against  NK until  Denuclearisation  is in place.  In    effect  the  two strong leaders simply  made  a difficult  and dangerous  issue  of  war  mongering and threat  of nuclear  annihilation to  vamoose  into thin air. As  if  we  are  talking  about  an  advertisement presentation by an agency  to  a willing client.  Yet  the  conclusion  was  not  always   that obvious  as  it happened and  such  a statement by the two  leaders  was just  unthinkable  a few  months back. It  is easy  now to compare  the June 12  Singapore  Talks  with the annual   G7  meeting  of the richest nations on earth where these  nations converge to entrench their  monopoly  and control  of world trade and finance. Except  that this time  around  the US  president  threw a bomb  at  the G7  by  introducing tariffs  as weapons of fair  trade  on  his way  to the G7  meeting.  He  did not stop at that , he  made clear  to the   G7  nations that he had  more important things to address  in  Singapore  than  the lamentations and hand  wringing of old US  trade  partners  he accused  of  stealing from the piggy  bank  they   have turned the US into, through   their    underhand    and unfair  trade  practices. Which  is a crucial   denunciation  of trade  partners  in any  language.

    That  development  leads  us to the assertion we made earlier that  alliances  and trade  agreements are  not cast in stone. The  US is  showing  that to the G 7 nations  generally  and the EU led  by its most opulent  leader  Germany  under Angela  Merkel. Trump  has not minced  words in condemning Merkel  for  allowing 1m migrants into Germany and forcing  literally  the rest of EU  to  follow  suit  or face cuts in EU  funds . Hungary, Poland, Slovak  and Czech Republics  are resisting  that for  now. Now  Trump  or the US  has  promised  to put tariffs on  German car  products because  Germany  he  said buys one car from the US for every 3 sold to the Americans.  Trump  is showing the EU  and G7  nations that  the economic equation has changed and they cannot eat  their cake and still  have it with the US on trade  at least  during his presidency.  It  remains  to be seen  how Europe  will  react to redeem itself  and continental  ego  in the face of  a leader of an alliance it belongs to  who  has no aversion to washing dirty linen of  all  members in public. Yet  Trump  took the wind out of the sail of his European  accusers in Canada  by calling on them to use tariffs  to achieve fair  trade for all which  is what they  are accusing him  of not  doing by slamming tariffs  on them. But  really  between  the G7  and  Trump’s America  who  can really  boast  of having a clean  hand  when it comes to  equity in trade? That  is the million dollar  question begging for an answer.

    In  Nigeria  the debate  is on,  on  the appropriateness or legality  of making the new  Democracy Day, June  12. To  me the president should  not lose any sleep  over those  questioning his motive. It is election time  and people  especially  opponents see ulterior  motive  in even the most salutary acts of government. That  is the nature of politics. The president  should take solace  that majority of  Nigerians  see his  action positively because of the ultimate sacrifice  made by MKO Abiola, the major  victim  and martyr  of the June  12  Election  and  injustice. Whether  that translates  to electoral  capital  in 2019  or  not    for   the  incumbent  president  is not the issue. But  then  it should, all  things  remaining equal  like  the Economists  would  say. Whether it is belated like the sage Pa Ayo  Adebanjo  has averred  is yet  to be seen. Yet    its potential  of  dampening  the horrors, pain  and disappointment  of  the June 12 Election cancellation are enormous  and   that can translate into  political  empathy and electoral  capital  for the Nigerian president  in the 2019  elections. To  me therefore the return of June 12  as Democracy Day  by the present government is a national  atonement  by a nation that  has  struggled with the compunction of cancellation  of its freest election while it keeps on calling itself a democracy  on blatantly rigged  subsequent  elections. June  12 Democracy Day  is like a restoration of justice in the direction  of a better  attempt  at a cleaner  democracy  and a promise  to make a clean break with election  rigging   henceforth. It is not too much to have such hope. Even in our Nigeria. Once again, long live the Federal  Republic of Nigeria.