The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

Onazi’s pain, Eagles’ gain

Call me a killjoy, I will accept with thanks.
Call me a spoilsport, I will bow and move on. What happened to Oguenyi Onazi at Birmingham is enough for our foreign legion to play Nigeria’s matches as if their lives depend on them. Anytime Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo are playing for their countries, they exhibit the kind of passion, commitment and determination that we see them display at their European clubs. They even play for their countries using pain relievers, if the need arises.
Need I remind you of Ronaldo’s conduct when he was substituted in the final of the Europe Cup with his strapped leg? Ronaldo endured the pain from his injury, which happened in the 25 minute of that final game against France and almost took over the manager’s job by shouting out instructions to his colleagues. As far as Ronaldo was concerned, his country’s global standing as a soccer nation was sacrosanct. Is anyone shocked that Portugal beat France in the game?
The Portuguese and Argentine FAs have the type of administrative problems that our players complain about NFF, but Ronaldo and Messi forget those intrigues and play for their fatherland. Messi quit the national team because of the administrative lapses in Argentina’s FA. The Argentine President persuaded Messi to return to the national team. Messi is the team’s captain. Ronaldo is Portugal’s.
The United Kingdom’s refusal to grant Onazi work permit as a Birmingham player due to Nigeria’s low ranking on FIFA’s monthly chart is a wake-up call on our players. It shows that they need Nigeria more than the country needs them, even though it ought to be a symbiotic relationship. Our players now know that their future rests with how well the country performs at global competitions.
Under the indigenous coaches, our players did what they liked. They reported to camp days after being released by their European clubs. At other times, they allegedly collude with their foreign clubs to skip some of our matches, especially when such fixtures clash with their clubs’. Since they are key players, we didn’t have the courage to punish them. Rather, we condoned their antics, which affected Nigeria’s rankings on FIFA’s chart and culminated in some poor outings.
Today, one of the big boys, sadly the one who honours all our matches, except when he is injured, has seen his quest to play for a foreign side that pays salaries monthly dashed. Poor Onazi.

The era where players play as if nothing is at stake is over. This isn’t a new rule. It is part of the rule where players must have played 75 per cent of their countries’ games to qualify to play in Europe. The English are dogmatic on this rule and insist on it for all transfers involving foreigners.
No surprises about Onazi’s fate because most

European clubs consider players based on national teams’ performances, not because they are too skillful. Of course, these players don’t get exposed until their countries field them in big tournaments.
There isn’t any Utopian setting anywhere. People strive to excel despite all odds. This is the spirit we expect from our players in Uyo on September 1, when Nigeria confronts Cameroon in one of the Russia 2018 World Cup qualifiers inside the Nest of Champions Stadium from 5pm.
Nigeria, with a population of over 170 million should make her participation at the Mundial a birthright, given what our players are doing in Europe. We hardly hear of issues of allowances from big players during competitions. Eagles’ players have truncated our chances to excel at the big stage due to the shortcomings of the federation only to play again under the same setting. Messi and Ronaldo have issues with their federations but they give their best, knowing that the issues will be resolved. Ours make it look like the world will end if they are not paid. Don’t get me wrong. They deserve their wages. Till date, no federation chief has been found guilty of misappropriation of funds. It means that our players must learn how to believe their federation chiefs, especially if things remain the same.
Our players know the importance of playing at the World Cup. Many Nigerians haven’t recovered from their wasted revenue when we failed to qualify for the Mundial. Nigerians make a lot of money when Eagles are doing well in major competitions. The media are awash with stories and people do brisk business selling wares with our players’ pictures, business centres accommodate more fans and eateries, bars and hotels increase their stock.
Onazi’s fate should bring back the long lost patriotism in our players. It is now time to re-enact the patriotism that saw the late midfield maestro, Sam Okwaraji, paying for his flight to honour national calls. Okwaraji never needed the country as much as the country needed him; he was an established player in the Bundelisga; the 75 per cent appearance for national team rule never existed in his days.
However, the Onazi episode, it must be stressed, should not be seen as an opportunity for NFF officials to exploit the players. For years, Nigerian players have cried of exploitation and maltreatment. They are right.
Have you wondered that 28 years after Okwaraji died right on the turf of the National Stadium in Lagos while playing for Nigeria in a World Cup qualifier against Angola, the best the country and the NFF have done for his family and his memory is a bronze head statue of him placed in front of the stadium, which has been overgrown by weed.
Okwaraji has a mother? Who’s taking care of her? What about his children? What benefits were paid to his family?
I am sure the NFF will want to take me up on this. If a civil servant dies while in service, is he not paid death benefit plus five years pension and gratuity? The players must have a union to set the pace for others to emulate. What does it cost to religiously make an event out of the Okwaraji statue each year? That way, the structure won’t be in the derelict state it is, most times without the head.

Hello… Abiola Ajimobi

In developed countries, sports is introduced to kids in schools. The exceptional ones get the apparatus to blossom to greatness. Indeed, anytime such chosen few excel in their sport, the neighbourhood where the kids live gets all the attention, including those responsible for the discovery of the stars.
In fact, there is hardly any neighbourhood in Europe and the US that you don’t find sporting facilities. Primary, secondary and tertiary schools have sports programmes in their curriculum unlike ours where sport is tagged as “play play” by those who should provide the foundation for talents in the 774 local government areas here.
Elsewhere, coaches don’t wait until talents are discovered to train them. They take the initiative to discover them knowing that structures abound to nurture them. These structures take care of things, such as getting the athlete insurance schemes, combining education with sports, having health care packages etc. Once a talent is seen to have the potential to hit the headlines in sports, he/she is secured for life, except such an athlete misbehaves, But it is rare.
Since we don’t have such development programmes, our leading lights in sports, such as Blessing Okagbare, Aruna Quadri, Funke Oshinaike, among others deserve to be encouraged, beginning with where they come from.
I’m glad that the Bayelsa State governor and his deputy are solidly behind former Olympic Games gold medallist, Daniel Igali, himself a Bayelsan, who heads the Nigeria Wrestling Federation (NWF). The Bayelsa government has repeatedly sponsored Nigerian wrestlers to international sporting competitions.
Today, Odukuoroye is the second best female wrestler in the world in the women’s 55kg free style. Nigeria’s anthem was sung, not Bayelsa’s as she collected her prize. I just hope that the Muhammadu Buhari administration finds a way out of this quagmire where our sports ambassadors risk missing competitions if they cannot find governors, such as Dickson, Ambode, Nyesom Wike et al to rescue their dream. It is important to stress that participating in sports, for many of them, is a vocation, not a recreation. Indeed, at the amateur level, it is the prerogative of the government to pay their way to such competitions.. imagine if Dickson didn’t fund this trip and the spiral effect of Adekuoroye’s career?
Lagos State governor Akinwunmi Ambode has continued to support sports programmes. Ambode has improved on these events using the marketing window of the corporate world. Most, if not all the sporting events which Lagos government organises are heavily supported by firms and banks under the CRS or PPP initiatives. Ambode has shown that governance in Lagos is a continuum by improving on how sporting events are organised.
Quadri is the only Blackman to have reached the quarter finals in the Olympics men’s singles. He is the African champion. What would it cost the governor of Oyo State Senator Abiola Ajimobi, to spearhead the campaign to get Quadri a coach?

August 26, 2017
Much ado about six-minute broadcast

President Muhammadu Buhari’s 100 plus days in London with his doctors was enough to trigger strong emotions back home. Some friendly folks simply wished him speedy recovery. Some declared without evidence that he was effectively dead, challenging anyone who said otherwise to come forward with their proof. Yet some others feared there were too many alarm bells in the country. Separatist voices were growing louder alongside hate speech. Herdsmen menace was unrelenting. The effect of a recessed economy was harsh. There was also concern that Vice President Yemi Osinbajo, then acting president, was too hamstrung to halt the slide.
Yet, when the president returned, rather surprisingly, exactly a week ago, and made a national broadcast two days later, the communication lasted barely six minutes. It was too short, uninspiring and insensitive, some cried. It also did not calm frayed nerves, people like Oby Ezekwesili said, adding that the president missed an opportunity to be presidential.
Such reactions are misplaced and largely a storm in a teacup, as they say. President Buhari is not known for great speeches, and I think it is a bit farfetched to expect him now at 74 to start learning the ABCs of oratory. He believes in making his point in as few words as can be permitted. During the campaigns he left few uplifting sound bites, but what he lacks in speechmaking he makes up for in strength of character, a fact that drove better speakers in his camp to do the job on the hustings.
In any event, the president’s broadcast, while not being exhaustive, covered enough ground. He addressed the separatist agitations, stating clearly that Nigeria’s unity “is settled and not negotiable”. He mentioned terrorism, Boko Haram, kidnapping and farmer-herdsmen clashes, declaring an all-out war against them.
He glossed over the economy, and in my opinion he shouldn’t have. There was also one other glaring omission: his hard-working second-in-command Prof Osinbajo, who impressed even the opposition while the C-in-C was away. That oversight, if that is what we call, would have provided the president’s critics with another weapon to fight him, insinuating that he undermines his deputy. These critics are simply mischievous. For everyone knows that President Buhari holds his deputy in the highest esteem, proving it in many instances. Glance back to the days of Obasanjo and Atiku. Any similarities?
Failing to address Nigerians on the economy or applaud his deputy’s sterling work is not a putdown anymore than failing to claim a few credits for himself and his administration. For instance, President Buhari did not gloat over the fact that for the first time in 10 years the country pulled out of the notorious 10 most corrupt nations in the world, as per Transparency International. President Buhari also failed to mention that 82 Chibok girls returned before his flight to London. Nor did he say anything about new impetus in growing rice locally and halting capital flight through importations.
Nor did he, for that matter, seize the opportunity of a national broadcast to reply some prominent Nigerians who wished him dead and mouthed all manner of thrash about his health. A Trump would not have let such an opportunity slip by.
President Buhari’s brief broadcast should not have annoyed as many people as it did. True, it will not go down as one of the greatest speeches in recent years, but that is hardly surprising. Our man is not for speeches. It is enough that he is healed and back home. Now we can nudge him to crack the tough nuts he has identified and proceed to those he failed to mention.

August 26, 2017
Oshiomhole, restructuring and restless agitators

FORMER Edo State governor Adams Oshiomhole deployed his immense elocutionary and rhetorical skills some three weeks ago in Benin to persuade his audience to take a second, if antagonistic, look at the cry for restructuring. He avoided the definitional maze in which many Nigerians, pro- and anti-restructuring, are entangled. In the lecture held in honour of Prof. Wole Soyinka in Benin, he simply went ahead with deconstructionist proficiency to isolate certain parts of the restructuring argument, hoisted them loftily, and offered them as proof of his fidelity to the new restructuring buzzword and perhaps too to his highly nuanced progressivism that now gets many people writhing in agony. The media were astounded, and so, too, were many Nigerians who had associated Mr. Oshiomhole’s labour union fame as an indisputable evidence of his acceptance of the general principles of progressivism. This astonishment was reflected in the way newspapers cast their headlines the day after, expressing both surprise and dismay.

But Mr. Oshiomhole is obviously unapologetic about his position on restructuring. Explaining his position at the lecture, the former Edo governor insisted Nigeria’s problem was not structural but that of leadership, attitude and character. Nigerians should strive to make their country work, not advocate for restructuring, he argued amorphously. Three weeks after that lecture, and having of course been pilloried in the media by those who disagreed with him over his unusual perspective on restructuring, he met with a far more vocal and disapproving public which had wised up to what they suspected was his reactionary and expedient position on restructuring. At a one-day colloquium on restructuring organised by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) in Abuja last Wednesday, Mr. Oshiomhole drew the ire of the audience when he again repeated his apparently unwelcome opposition to the regnant view on restructuring.

Despite being heckled and greeted with boos, Mr. Oshiomhole insisted on being heard. Said he: “I believe in the unity of Nigeria. I have said, and I am not saying it for the first time, the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable. Just like the unity of the NLC is not negotiable. But, the governance of our country, the quality of leadership, we must continue to review it and continue to engage it…I ask us to recognise that no structure will be permanent, or will be perfect. We will have to do devolution of power; we must also do review of our attitudes, our characters, and join forces to fight corruption, because what has been taken from a few will not be available for the rest…” After the boos died down, particularly because of the NLC president’s intervention, the newsmen who covered the lecture did not indicate how the rest of Mr. Oshiomhole’s arguments panned out.

The former Edo governor is a gifted rhetorician who knows how to tug at the emotional strings of an audience. Whether by polemical accident or sheer rhetorical design, he guilefully conflated the problem of corruption, which bothers everyone, with the campaigns for restructuring, which many have touted as the needed national elixir, thereby probably disarming and defanging his audience. He zeroed in on the alleged humongous greed of former Minster of Petroleum, Diezani Alison-Madueke, whose properties scattered in some parts of the country have been temporarily forfeited to the government pending the resolution of court cases against her. No one who has read the case against Mrs. Alison-Madueke can fail to be horrified by the stupendous abuse she allegedly masterminded during her stewardship at the Petroleum ministry. Knowing this full well, and knowing that no one could safely excuse her greed or dissociate that greed from the crisis that afflicts the country, Mr. Oshiomhole used her as an example of the character and attitudinal reform Nigeria needed to transcend the crisis in reference.

Corruption is a cankerworm, but the campaign against that vice, which must of course be vigorously pursued, must be separated from the campaign for restructuring. As many societies which had broken up or been restructured prove, a low level of corruption is not necessarily a catalysing factor for political and structural changes. Neither the breakup of the former Soviet Union nor the dissolution of both Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia were caused by corruption. Their political structures showed deep, endemic and corrosive fissures, and they strained badly under various weights including ethnic, economic and spatial, among other factors. Mr. Oshiomhole’s ad hominem argument was a not-so-clever ploy to prejudice the minds of his audience. Sadly, that same argument has begun to receive currency in other parts of the society, especially in government circles. The argument for restructuring, whether the people agree with it or not, must be disentangled from the skein woven around it by those who view it snidely.

The former Edo governor made two other arguments that gave worrisome indications of just how specious his perspectives are. Whether he believes it or not is not clear, but Mr. Oshiomhole poll-parrots the trite and incomprehensible statement that Nigeria’s unity is settled and non-negotiable. The problem is not that the ex-governor has adopted that controversial position on unity and its non-negotiability; the problem is that given his antecedents, his vocal advocacy of the rights, welfare and liberties of the people, and promotion of other general and non-specific libertarian values, it seems antithetical that a man who espouses such great causes should in the same breath embrace very stultifying political and constitutional paradigms. It does in fact seem that at bottom, Mr. Oshiomhole is not quite the radical and progressive he is cracked up to be. He may be a nationalist, a fine and effective governor, and a leading and successful labour activist, it is however doubtful whether he has given the matter of restructuring and national unity much thought, not to say principled thought.

Mr. Oshiomhole also, secondly, suggested that most of those campaigning for restructuring were those still smirking from the electoral defeat of 2015. In other words, for him, the issue is not the concept itself, but the advocates of the concept. Apart from offering no validation whatsoever for that sweeping generalisation, it is shocking that given his standing in the society and the fact that he and his party were once in opposition, he also demonstrates the penchant by ruling parties and their functionaries to deride the opposition.

Not only does his party include in its manifesto a pledge to pursue restructuring, there is nothing to suggest that anyone, whether in the opposition or the ruling party, cannot hold a principled and philosophical stand against unitary government and in favour of full restructuring. Demonising the opposition is both wrong and unwise. After all, even the All Progressives Congress (APC) spokesman, Bolaji Abdullahi, in a statement he issued early this week, insists that much more than the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the APC is in favour of restructuring and is in fact taking deliberate steps to actualise it. According to him, “For the avoidance of doubt, the APC believes in the restructuring of the country. It is at the very heart of our party’s manifesto as explicitly stated in Section 3 (1) thus, ‘We will devolve more revenue and powers, such as policing to States and Local Government so that decision making is closer to the people. We pledge to bring the government closer to the people through fiscal and political decentralization, including local policing.’ “

Mr. Oshiomhole’s arguments are on the surface sensible and attractive. In reality, however, they are weak, desultory, diversionary and, for a politician of his reputation, shocking and embarrassing. He is at liberty to oppose restructuring — a right he seeks to deny those who oppose it, and a group he tries to demonise — but he must not in the same breath try to pass himself off as a progressive and visionary.

Restructuring talks about the future. But the political palliatives Mr. Oshiomhole tries to sell deal with stabilising the status quo and producing a new form of beguiling conservatism. His party is reportedly attempting to properly define or redefine the concept, and it has saddled party leaders knowingly and openly sceptical and contemptuous of its definitions with the task of harmonising those disparate definitions, no matter how liberally or conservatively they have been presented. The suspicion now is that the party itself has appeared to fall in line with President Muhammadu Buhari’s nonchalant approach to the subject; and Mr. Oshiomhole, perhaps because he does not wish to exclude himself from future national office and assignment in the coming cabinet reshuffle, and also because he is reluctant to sell himself as a non-conformist radical and isolationist his labour union antecedents presuppose, is mouthing egregious opinions on restructuring to the point of even name-calling the opposition.

Restructuring will be a veritable campaign issue from next year. It will be risky for any of the two major parties to treat the matter with disdain. In fact, though the concept is now roughly dichotomised between the North and the South, the dividing lines will become much more obfuscated as the 2019 electoral season draws near. Then, Mr. Oshiomhole will have a lot of clarifications to make, and much more hemming and hawing to engage in, as he and other leading politicians jostle for prominence and seek interparty and intraparty alliances.

August 26, 2017
PDP convention and the blame game

DETRACTORS of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had half expected the previously fractured opposition party to hold a peaceful, rancour-free and upbeat convention, whether elective or non-elective. To the relief of its fretful members, many of them on tenterhooks before the great gathering, the convention went very well, indeed far beyond their expectations. The Abuja Eagle Square venue was last Saturday packed, and members who had just gone through more than one year of convoluted and nerve-racking dissension mostly orchestrated by the intransigent Ali Modu Sheriff, a former governor of Borno State, were grateful for the celestial benevolence that saw them through a difficult period. Mr Sheriff, partly because of his spirited and aggressive politics, and given the PDP’s desperate need for someone to serve as a tough and ruthless counterpoise to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), was virtually handed the leadership of the party on a platter to act as the National Working Committee chairman. For about three months beginning from February 16, he did just that before he was ousted with judicial pomp and circumstance last month.

Unfortunately for the PDP, its desperation to promptly stand up to the marauding APC before it was too late led it to embrace the unphilosophical option of adopting a brawler’s method for a considerably nuanced problem that began with a huge electoral loss. Unhorsed in May, 2016 during the party’s convention in Port Harcourt, Mr Sheriff, also a senator, nonetheless stood pat for another 11 harrowing months cantankerously defying the party and plotting to undermine its mores, values and binding principles. Last month, the Supreme Court finally put paid to Mr Sheriff’s shenanigans and upheld the position of Ahmed Makarfi, a former Kaduna State governor, as the party’s caretaker chairman. Senator Makarfi finally conducted the much-awaited convention last Saturday where party members sighed with great relief and celebrated what they saw as their party’s restoration.

The convention recorded three main achievements. First was the inevitable extension of the tenure of the caretaker committee chairman by four months, a tenure originally expected to end with the conduct of the convention. Second was the popular and upbeat statement by Senator Makarfi himself that, going by the success of the convention and the ongoing restoration of the party to its founding principles and values, particularly its rousing conservatism, the PDP would sack the ruling party in 2019. And third was former president Goodluck Jonathan’s highly controversial speech in which he laboured to convince the party faithful and general public that both his tenure and 16 years of PDP in government did the country much good. It was not immediately clear why Dr. Jonathan chose that inauspicious moment to salve his wounded pride.

Buoyed by the shambolic leadership of the APC in the past two years, it is not surprising that the PDP felt particularly exuberant about its chances in the next general elections. There was little hint of the seismic soul-searching the public hoped it would order after leading the country into a cul-de-sac during 16 turbulent years in office; and there were no indications whatsoever that it planned to fine-tune its founding principles, its guiding philosophy, and its leadership style, all of which had become absolutely enfeebled by lack of intellectual depth and general inattentiveness to the little, existential things that matter. In fact it was only the Delta State governor Ifeanyi Okowa who had the presence of mind to touch on the absolute necessity of the party anchoring its revival on the enunciation and execution of a paradigm shift in its leadership style and leadership recruitment. Senator Makarfi, who by his customary taciturnity is thought to be fairly intellectual and contemplative, strangely did not touch on that esoterica.

It is unlikely, therefore, that the deeper things needed to re-engineer the party and produce a philosophical and ideational transformation in its ranks may be far-fetched. As speaker after speaker showed during the non-elective convention, no one seemed interested in compelling the party to grapple with the horrendous misrule of the past 16 years, let alone in finding ways of coming to terms with the errant ideas and misbegotten practices that led the party and the country astray. Worse, party leaders who masterminded that misrule, exemplified by its finagling excesses, will neither be identified nor disgraced. They appear to hope that the current ineptitude of the APC should be sufficient to either cancel out or at least mitigate the PDP’s remorselessness and past excesses.

Of all people, ex-governor Makarfi should know that it takes more than one convention or two, not to say exuberant political campaigns, to unseat a sitting president. The PDP has done and said nothing to give hope that it could sack the APC in 2019. But this has not deterred Senator Makarfi from expressing and embracing that hope. It is mystifying that Dr Jonathan himself, in the said convention, gave vent to that same unfounded ambition despite failing to retain office when he superintended what was demonstrably Nigeria’s most extended period of high oil earnings. Perhaps he was seduced into that hope by the Supreme Court victory that helped the PDP to unhorse the hated Senator Sheriff; or perhaps his enthusiasm flowed from the boisterous crowd that turned the convention into a mafficking. Whatever the causes of his high-spirited talk about the integrity of the government he led, Dr Jonathan could be seen in the convention launching into what so far is probably the most energetic and unrestrained defence of his legacy.

Quite apart from restating Senator Makarfi’s wish for their party to reclaim power from the bungling APC in 2019, Dr. Jonathan spoke longingly of his party’s and presidency’s legacy in politics and electoral reforms, and in economy and international relations. Of course no president is wholly without achievements, but his robust defence of his anti-corruption record, though devoid this time of the definitional pitfalls his presidency was noted for, appears quite baffling. Said he: “…Our approach to fighting corruption may not have plugged all the leaks in the system; in fact, no nation has ever been successful in eradicating the cankerworm of corruption. But we went about it in a sustainable and measurable manner, by, among other measures, creating institutional tools like bank verification number (BVN), the treasury single account (TSA) designed to block leakages, as well as the Integrated Payroll and Personnel Information (IPPIS), which eliminated tens of thousands of ghost workers, during our time.”

Unimpressed, officials of the Muhammadu Buhari presidency have suggested that Dr. Jonathan in his six years in office earned nearly half a trillion dollars in oil revenue, compared with the paltry amount so far earned by the current government in two years, with little or nothing to show for it. He was also reminded that his boasts and asseverations are anchored on thin air, especially considering the humungous amount stolen by many of his officials during his presidency. He was reminded that he understated the true position of what went on in his presidency when he suggested that he could not plug all loopholes in the system as indeed no nation could. Angry and bewildered, critics reminded the former president that he was a failure and should have stuck to some other themes to inspire the crowd at the convention.

For the umpteenth time, the PDP must be reminded that they have unwisely leapfrogged over the critical things they need to do to reform their party, inspire a revival, and enunciate and institute the values and principles by which their party could flourish or die. That they have refused to do that so far, but have instead preferred to pin all their hopes and future on the anticipated misadventure of their political opponents, is indeed sailing near the wind.

Not only must they fine-tune their conservative ideology and refine their value system, they must also go beyond purging their ranks of those who misled their party into defeat by putting some distance between themselves and former presidency officials whose image and ideas rub off badly on the party, reminding the electorate of the deceit, depredation and appalling wastage of the recent past.

Sadly, so far, they have remained adamant.

August 19, 2017
Looters’ paradise?

So much obloquy, resentment and outright anger has the National Assembly attracted to itself from the public since the commencement of this dispensation in 1999 that a sizable number of Nigerians have come to believe strongly that no good can come from either chamber of the national legislature. Even as the recession takes a heavy toll on millions of underprivileged Nigerians, for instance, the legislators are acquiring brand new official vehicles at humongous amounts of otherwise scarce funds. Again, despite the widespread and vehement clamour for members of the Senate and House of Representatives to make public their salaries and allowances, the figures remain a top secret. Indeed, the national law makers gave former President Olusegun Obasanjo, an opportunity to, in his characteristically ebullient and hypocritical manner, lob devastating verbal cruise missiles in their direction. At an event this week, the Ota farmer described members of the two chambers of the National Assembly as ‘unarmed robbers’ given the gargantuan salaries and emoluments they collect, which is said to be about the highest for any legislature in the world. The issue of budget padding and the abuse of constituency projects, both in terms of funding and actual execution, are other issues that have tainted the image of the National Assembly in the public consciousness.

Against this background, the honourable member representing Ebonyi State in the House of Representatives on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, (PDP), Mr. Linus Okere, deserves plaudits for summing the courage to initiate a bill in the House seeking to provide legal amnesty for those who have looted the treasury if they willingly submit themselves to the authorities, disclose the amount they illegally acquired, forfeit a percentage of the loot to the Federal Government, as well as being compelled to invest the rest of their ill gotten funds in the Nigerian economy. As Honourable Linus Okere, sponsor of the bill explained “the bill seeks to allow all Nigerians and residents who may have any money or assets outside or have acquired such money or assets illegally (looted or any myriad of cliches) to come forward within a set time frame, to declare same, pay tax/surcharge and compulsorily invest the funds in any sector of the Nigerian economy; and be granted full amnesty from inquiry or persecution”.

The draft bill reportedly covers all assets held both within and outside Nigeria. It provides for 30% of such voluntarily relinquished funds to be released to the Federal Government as tax and an additional surcharge of 25% of the recovered sum. The proposed tax will be remitted to the Federation Account for distribution to all tiers of government; the sub charge will be channeled directly to critical agencies such as National Agricultural Research Fund and the Nigerian Infrastructure Fund. It will be managed by the Central Bank of Nigeria while the declaration would be made to the Chairman of the Federal Internal Revenue Service.

Of course many people particularly civil society groups have condemned the proposed bill on the grounds that it will encourage and embolden treasury looters while also protecting their identities. Some others have said this is another instance of corruption fighting back. I do not know Honourable Linus Okere and I am completely oblivious as regards his antecedents. But what is of concern to me for now are not his motives, whatever they may be, for sponsoring the bill. It would appear to me that the legislator had keenly observed the President Muhammadu Buhari administration’s largely lackluster fight against corruption and has proposed legislation to help the country achieve the aim of repatriating its lost funds through alternative systems to the established ones so firmly entrenched in support of the status quo.

It is obvious from the anti-corruption war so far that we have had more noise than meaningful action. A number of high profile cases have been lost some in rather embarrassing and inexplicable circumstances. Despite the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, for instance, cases continue to be unduly prolonged due to the antics of clever senior lawyers and with the connivance of some indulgent judges. It would be interesting for some scholar to undertake research on the costs in terms of time, energy and resources of the endless rigmarole of prosecuting corrupt persons from one level of adjudication to another that constitutes our complex and complicated legal system.

And this is where I find the proposed bill most useful. In many jurisdictions, we have alternative dispute resolution mechanisms that help resolve cases among aggrieved parties without going through the rigours of full legal trial. Have the results obtained so far in terms of actual convictions justified the amounts of funds expended by the anti-corruption agencies in prosecuting these cases? Indeed the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has obtained seizure through the courts of huge amounts of ill acquired money. It appears to me that the Linus Okere Bill is already partially at work. Most of the looted funds received by the EFCC, are from sources that have not been publicly identified. Thus, those who criticize the proposed bill on the ground that the looters will not be named and shamed as future deterrence to others are greatly mistaken’

In the first place, President Buhari had promised shortly after assuming office in 2015 that the identities of all those from whom illegal money had been retrieved would be named. The APC administration has so far gone back on its words in this regard. The truth of the matter is that we glibly talk about fighting corruption in an emotive manner without trying to unravel the root causes of the problem. Thus, the many people who have been indicted for corruption or even spent time in jail for corrupt practices are still champions and heroes of their communities. It is the duty of the government to bridge the current huge communication gap with the people as regards the anti-corruption war. Until that is done and the people take ownership of the anti-corruption war, then judicial officers will be careful on the kinds of judgements they deliver and legislators the kinds of laws they propose.

For now, the anti-corruption war is widely perceived as President Buhari;s personal battle. The fear of Buhari, some say, is the beginning of wisdom. But that is not a route to take – a way to lead our country to new ethical and moral terrain. Linus Okere’s proposed bill, in my view, offers a systematic way of dealing and possibly avoiding as much as is possible the byzantine maze that is the country’s judicial process. No matter how much we loathe the National Assembly, this is one of its proposals that should be studied carefully rather than tossing it aside in a cavalier manner. However, on a personal note I would want the amnesty for corrupt persons who voluntarily acquired ill-gotten wealth proposed in the law to be reduced from three years to one year. And anyone who doesn’t seize the amnesty period of grace to quietly return their loot, should face stiffer penalties like the death sentence, for instance, as reportedly is the case in China.

August 19, 2017
Terrorism, politics and democracy

I do not   think it is mere coincidence that   on his way to Rwanda to attend the inauguration of Paul Kigame as the president of his nation for the umpteenth time, the Nigerian Acting President   Yemi Osinbajo read the riot act to hate promoters in our midst while addressing the National   Security Council   at a summit   organised by National Economic Council   made up of state governors   and some ministers. He seized the opportunity to stress that not dealing with some trouble makers in time was the sort of problem that led to the Rwanda genocide in which Hutus killed minority but politically dominant Tutsis in that horrible genocide. While the Nigerian scenario for treating tribal and ethnic loud mouths as terrorists   was   being midwifed, the US president, Donald Trump was literally branded a terrorist of sorts for blaming both sides in a bloody    face off   between white supremacists and anti    racist   protesters in an American city, Charlottesvile, that left one dead and several wounded. The icing on the cake, if   one could call   callous   bestiality   such, in this week of    bloody killing of innocent people, was the one in Barcelona where an 18 year old teenager drove through a crowd killing about 14 people and injuring over 30 others.

Today, we look at politics and the    reaction of world leaders to acts of violence calculated to disturb the public peace,   in which terrorism stands at the top of the bloody heap. We do this not only on present and contemporary issues and reactions of leaders to them, we also look back at history to see how such bloody and violent disputes were resolved for the benefit of peace and harmony in various societies world wide. We start as we have done with Nigeria and the daunting task before the Acting President as he starts equating   hate agitation with terrorism in accordance with the Nigerian law and warning both real and potential offenders that it can not be business as usual, because the law is clear on the matter. We look at the predicament of US President Donald Trump as both friend and foe lambast him for the language he has used while   reacting to various   terrorist acts recently,   including the removal of war statutes   in Virginia, which he condemned as distorting American history.

In terms of history, we look at the effects of   both the first and second world wars on both the victors and the vanquished and the lessons of history from that. We also visit the end of apartheid   and the   crucial role that Nelson Mandela played in setting up The Truth and Reconciliation Committee after apartheid and how that has affected political stability and democracy in that nation.

Starting with Nigeria again the Acting president reportedly invoked   the Terrorism [Prevention ]Act 2011 – as amended – which defined terrorism as an act which is deliberately done with malice which may seriously harm or damage a country or seriously intimidate its population. According to reports the Acting President declared –‘ we have drawn a line against hate speech, it will not be tolerated, it will be taken as an act of terrorism   and all the consequences will follow.’ This   again to me is what we have been advocating for some time now    here   and I am happy that the government has woken up to its responsibilities to protect the Nigeria nation and its people from the   destabilizing propaganda hoozing from the Expulsionists, Secessionists and Insurgents in our midst , who speak and `roar with impunity and have gotten away with it for some time. The Acting President’s speech is a call to arms against such people and is the required deterrence we have advocated in recent times that the state must muster enough resolve and clear, palpable capability to enforce its rule of law at anytime and in any place within its territorial borders. That is the meaning of territorial integrity and it is the state that wields   such   power and authority. Not agitators and trouble makers who act with insolence as if they   are above the law as we have seen in recent times.

Next we look at the perils of the US president on the use of language and twitter to react to the various terrorist acts and protests in the US this last week. The way I see the matter, it appears   the US media as well as the op[position Democratic Party have simply adopted a policy of giving a dog a bad name in other to hang it with Donald trump’s utterances on all issues, so he can in their books never can say any thing right. Donald Trump too has adopted a scotched earth policy on his opponents culminating in his offensive tweet that branded fake news people as –such bad people –meaning of course, CNN. So really the battle line is drawn   between    both sides,   but let us look at   what really happened as distinct from what ought to have been. Which   means separating what Trump said from what he should   have said in the views of his attackers.

On the event in Charlottesville that led to a death,Trump condemned racists, bigots and hate mongers but blamed both sides for   violence. Blaming both sides earned him immediate opprobrium and contempt from those who felt he should not brand anti – racists in the same class as racists which white supremacists are, very definitely. But if both were violent why should he not blame both sides as he did? In   addition he called the white supremacists names like bigots and hate mongers but his opponents were not assuaged till he called their acts repugnant which I find less condemnatory than the earlier ones .On   the statue    lowering of a Confederate general   in Virginia, Trump lamented at the destruction of the beauty and lessons of history   and   l think he was right. The American Civil War   was won by the North which was against slavery and lost by the South which was pro slavery. But the pro slavery forces did not operate in a vacuum and had their military    heroes acknowledged with such statues. That is history and the truth . Removing them is rewriting history. Even the   Japanese who lost in the Pacific to the Americans still rever their war heroes and Abe Shinto , Japan’s PM has always unrep[entantly   found time to visit the cemetery for Japaneses war    heroes, no matter the objection of some Japanese and his American friends in the White House.

The Americans can learn on how they treat their civil war vanquished from two unlikely sources namely South Africa and Nigeria with regard to the      aftermath   of   brutal   racism and   a bloody civil   war.   In S Africa Nelson Mandela spent 27 years incarcerated on Robben Island as a convicted terrorist   who acknowledged at his trial that he planned violence to end apartheid, the racist regime and ideology of Apartheid S Africa . After his release from prison Mandela was elected president and he set up the Truth and Reconciliation Committee   to find out how and what led to apartheid and who did what and when, during the period, so that all involved, both racists and victims, can forgive and forget, and S Africa has moved on in peace and harmony ever since.

In Nigeria a brutal civil war was fought over the secession of Biafra and the rebel army surrendered and its leader fled to exile in the Ivory Coast. General Yakubu Gowon, the Nigerian Commander In Chief and Head of State at the end of the war said that there was no winner or vanquished and instituted the three Rs of    Reconciliation, Reconstruction   and   Rehabilitation to move the nation forward in peace after the war. More importantly the rebel leader was pardoned and he made a triumphant return to Nigeria and its politics ,and remained a respected political force in the affairs of the nation till his death. Even though there are some dissidents trying to reinvent the theme of the   failed   secession, there is no doubt that they cannot reverse the onward march of the Nigerian nation as largely supported by the leadership of the former rebel enclave in the Nigerian nation.

Lastly, and on the last two world wars, reparations and punishment of the loser, Germany, on both occasions created the monsters of Hitler, Nazism, Racism and Anti Semitism. The lesson here is that there should be magnanimity in victory. Just as in Democracy where the majority must have its way while the minority    must have its say. It cannot be the other way round. That I presume is what Donald Trump has been trying to say with his tweets this week and I think both his nation and the whole world can never be the same again. Once again, long live the federal Republic of Nigeria.

August 19, 2017
Hope and tragicomedy in three months

Even before May when President Muhammadu Buhari flew to London, the second time in about two months, to consult with his doctors, there was enough drama to engage Nigerians. Since the second flight, however, the drama has intensified. Within these months we have heard a band of northern men, some of whom claiming to be youths, barking out a quit order to the Igbo living in the North. We have also had a sense of screaming vultures circling in the skies, while on the ground hyenas were laughing and jackals howling, all doing their best to either snatch a quick meal or throw their weight around while the king of the jungle was away. And then from the Queen Herself we heard that all would be quiet again in the jungle, everyone in their place, as soon as the king returned.

And while all that was playing out, there was no small amount of activity in some quarters, in which were such frenetic individuals as Femi Fani-Kayode, who essentially and persistently pushed out the word that President Buhari was either effectively dead or nearly so, at best hooked up to a machine, unable to see or tell what the London weather looked like nor recognise the person in front of him. Not everyone found Mr Fani-Kayode and company’s methods and perspectives in good taste, but they may have had their uses. For instance, we soon started noticing growing traffic on the Abuja-Lagos-London flight path, some of the travellers genuinely going to wish the president well, and some probably just to see things for themselves, hear the man speak, eat and walk, before they believe he is alive.

Over these three months we have heard of some Abuja characters deliberately bypassing the acting president Yemi Osinbajo and taking files directly to President Buhari in London. Thankfully, the president saw through their dark hearts and darker schemes, and turned them right back with specific instructions to lay the files on the desk of Professor Osinbajo. Needless to say that the president’s firm rebuke not only dampened the troublemakers’ ego but also laid to rest insinuations in certain quarters far afield that the vice president could do nothing by himself.

In these intervening months while the president is away, Nigerians have heard hate speech and hate songs, the likes of which have thrown nations into atrocious wars. The latest of such hate products is an anti-Igbo song waxed in the North, where the Igbo quit notice was issued earlier on June 6.

The jury is out on how to curb such hate and divisive tendencies. The federal government is trying to push out an executive bill to criminalise hate speeches, though this has raised questions as to whether we do not have enough in our laws to deal with such troublemakers.

Against the backdrop of recession, have we lost it?

Not at all. A few great things have been happening. One, even before the president left for London, some 82 of the Chibok girls returned. The International Monetary Fund has said Nigeria is clawing its way out of recession. In July Transparency International said the country has exited the top 10 most corrupt nations in the world, sitting in the 28th position. This is something to cheer, because for over a decade the country never cleaned up its acts, sometimes ranking among the three sleaziest nations on earth. We cannot over-cheer, though, because we are still no better than such nations as Gabon, Colombia, Panama, Liberia or Niger, corruption-wise.

The best news is the recovery of Mr President himself. This silences the likes of Mr Fani-Kayode, at least for a while, and heartens many compatriots. President Buhari’s recovery may cut no ice with Charles “Charly Boy” Oputa who, with crowd, has been baying for the president to return or resign, but at the least, it inspires hope that the man who helped to remove Nigeria from the 10 most morally depraved country will not pass away just yet.

This is something to cheer.

August 19, 2017
Who will lead the way?

In Nigeria, we engage the reverse gear and expect the car to move forward. It won’t happen. This is the story of the country’s participation at the IAAF World Athletics Championship, seven years after the country’s shambolic outing at the 2012 Olympic Games. What changed in the way athletics had been run since 2012? Nothing. Yet we were expecting a miracle to happen, forgetting that our conquerors at sports meet plan for their feats for over 10 years. They don’t wake up from their sleep and expect to succeed.

After the London 2012 Olympics, stakeholders across all spheres, including prominent sports administrators in other countries, met inside Aso Villa in Abuja, with former President Goodluck Jonathan in attendance, for a whole day, charting the way forward for sports.

The foreigners at the meeting shared their experiences. Their submissions opened the eyes of the Jonathan-led administration to see every facet of the industry through the prism of business, not the play play stuff, like former Edo State governor Adams Aliyu Oshiomhole always tags sports, albeit, jokingly. At that meeting, there was the call for the corporate world to key into the industry. Indeed, those present at the presidential conference broke into groups to produce a document that would serve as the rule book for sports development.

Most of those who spoke at the conference were not convinced that the blueprints would be implemented. They alluded to previous conferences whose reports lay on the dusty shelves at the Sports Ministry. Jonathan’s reassurance was doubtful, especially when aspiring federation Chieftains read out what wasn’t decided by most of the break-up groups. Simply put, the new document was dead on arrival. No surprises that nothing happened to our sports thereafter.

At the conference, I was wondering how anything useful would be achieved with the absence of most of the 36 governors. The states own the facilities just as the governors institute the programmes and provide the cash to run the competitions. So, why were all the governors not in Aso Rock? The government in power was PDP. So those who were there belonged to the ruling party. Yet, sport is the only endeavour that unites Nigerians. When sport is on, Nigerians forget creed and religion. During competitions you find Nigerians agreeing on one issue.

The former sports minister, Bolaji Abdullahi, anchored this sports referendum, but when it was time to implement the policies suggested, Abdullahi had been replaced on the altar of politics. Those proposals agreed at the conference are inside the dusty cupboards at the Ministry of Sports.

Abdullahi’s replacement signposts the era of policy summersaults in sports, such that the industry has seen 14 sports ministers in 18 years. From the Olusegun Obasanjo administration in 1999 till date, 14 politicians have held the portfolio. They are Damishi Sango, late Engr. Mark Aku, Steven Ibn Akiga (also late), Col. Musa Mohammed (RTD), Dr. Saidu Sambawa, Bala Ka’Oje, Abdulrahman Gimba, Sani Ndanusa, Alhaji Ibrahim Isa Bio, Prof. Taoheed Adedoja, Alhaji Yusuf Suleiman, Bolaji Abdullahi, Tamuno Danagogo and Solomon Dalung. This ridiculous figure explains the chaos in the industry.

Abdullahi led the Nigerian contingent to the London 2012 Olympic Games. He took notes of what transpired. He provided the template for the Presidential Conference in sports, where he again noted all the points raised to improve the industry. He indeed organised the elections into the federations.

Abdullahi had commenced grassroots development for six sports, culminating in the Performance Enhancement Centre (PEC) in Port Harcourt, which was supervised by renowned sports coaches from the United States. Had Abdullahi been allowed to prosecute the template, we would have had a large pool of talents from the chosen sports to represent us in London.

Abdullahi’s exit meant the collapse of most of the federations, with election losers becoming big impediments. Rather than establish a structure for sports to thrive, those who lost the elections returned to the trenches.

In other climes, big athletes, such as sprinter Blessing Okagbare and table tennis star Aruna Quadri would have been introduced to one of the indigenous firms by the government for sponsorship, with the corporate bodies enjoying tax reliefs for their contributions. Okagbare and Quadri need world class coaches, who will draw out programmes for them. These coaches will get them the required backroom staff whose duty is to condition them for the big competitions. With this arrangement, they won’t participate in needless tournaments.

This writer on Sunday asked Quadri what it would cost him to get a good coach. He said the coach he wants would cost N20 million, stressing that for the coach to leave his other wards, he must be guaranteed minimum things in one year. I asked again what he would need to get a coach to accompany him to key tournaments over six months. Quadri said N10 million. My mind went straight to his state’s governor. But the other question rests with his interest in sports. Will Senator Abiola Ajimobi splash the cash on Quadri to actualise his dream? He is so close. Oyo State government can easily cough out N5 million in a fund raiser that would compel the big players in the corporate world to donate towards the course. Simple. The governor has 200 friends who can easily bring out N500,000. Quadri needs a good coach.

Okagbare has problems with getting off the starting bloc early and it showed in 2017. What Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) chiefs ought to have done if they were proactive was to get her a starter’s coach who would have corrected the flaw. Besides, such a specialist would not allow Okagbare run in every athletics meet to earn a living. Rather, the specialist will draw out a programme which will spell out her roles and what the federation needs to provide for her to stop running for cash.

I know that Okagbare has a corporate sponsor in Nigeria. But the problem with such arrangements is that those who package them get more than what is due to the athletes. The bank sponsoring Okagbare can effectively take care of her needs to leverage on its sponsorship. I don’t know if the bankers were told about getting her a dietician, a doctor, physiologist and a psychologist, for instance, which are integral units crucial to her build-up for new seasons.

The making of world champions is a project which the sponsors will leverage on if they are told the benefits of such a relationship. A life and style interview session with Okagbare on CNN, BBC etc wearing such companies’ apparels is unquantifiable in terms of public relations. The look and feel the effect of having a world champion wearing kits with a Nigerian firm’s insignia around competition venues will spur other athletes to give their best.

Indeed, champions don’t come from infighting among federations’ members. They are discovered, nurtured and exposed to the world through competitions, starting from the grassroots. No competition, no athletes will be discovered. We don’t lack talents. What is missing is the enabling environment for the youth to embrace sporting activities.

It is sad that Nigeria, which once dominated the African tracks and a force to reckon with at the world stage, has suddenly been relegated to oblivion. This calls to question the relevance of the sports associations. Suffice it to say that they have all failed woefully and need surgery. Or how do we explain that after the exit of athletes such as Innocent Egbunike, Sunday Bada, Chidi Imoh, the Ezenwa brothers, Mary Onyali, Falilat Ogunkoya, to mention a few, the country has not been able to produce athletes to match these peoples’ achievement. When will Nigeria hear her athlete being referred to as “Egbunike of Africa” again? Oh yes! That was how a foreign commentator referred to the Nigerian ambassador at an international meet after Egbunike powered out from behind the pack to coast home to victory in the men’s 4X400 relay in an international meet. That was one of the glorious moments in Nigerian sports.

Today, Ghanaians, South Africans, et al make mincemeat of our athletes. Today, Nigerian athletes are no longer dreaded on the tracks. Such is the failure of the sports associations and administrators. But should any sports pundit be surprised at the nosedive? A Nigerian contingent has more administrators and hangers on the plane heading to a major competition. This presupposes that what is uppermost in the minds of these so called administrators is the estacode they will collect rather than the country putting up a sterling performance.

Perhaps if they have been considerate to inject the interim estacode benefit into developing facilities across the country, then we will not be where we are today.

We should have maintained our dominance and challenged others where we did not dominate. For instance, long distance races are better suited for people living in high-altitude areas. Therefore, nothing stops the AFN from having a training camp in Jos, Plateau State, for athletes in long-distance races. Any wonder Kenyans, Ethiopians, and East Africans see this segment of athletics as their birthright? Our associations are bereft of ideas. They have lost the confidence of the corporate world. Where is the Nigerian Mobil Athletics classic? This is a competition athletes looked up to yearly. It also served as our avenue for selecting our team to major athletics competitions.

What has the swimming association done to discover and nurture talents from the riverine areas of the Niger-Delta to become world beaters? Officials will rather sit in the comfort of their Abuja offices while talents waste away. We need a revival, but who will lead the way?

August 19, 2017
Stadia of violence

Poor Shehu Dikko. The boss of the League Management Company (LMC) is working his socks wet to reposition the domestic league, with the signing of mouth-watering packages geared towards making the practitioners enjoy what they are doing. Dikko has taken his innovations to Europe to showcase the domestic league to the world.

These innovations have been rubbished by some criminals who have exploited the laxity in security across the country’s stadia to maim people, especially the referees. It must be said here that only indigenes can cause mayhem and go scot free. This is why nothing serious has been done to arrest the dastardly acts. I hope we are not waiting until a referee is killed before we set up the usual panel to find out why it happened. Now is the time to act.

I’m not surprised that roughnecks have seized match venues, largely because most of the match commissioners are weak. They don’t have the character to assert their authority before, during and after matches. These match commissioners are too friendly with club officials. They close their eyes to certain laxities in the security arrangement. Otherwise, how have these mayhems gone without the hoodlums being caught inside the stadia?

Perhaps, this is the time to ask the Inspector General of Police whose duty it is to ensure adequate security in any gathering. How come the police are disinterested in securing our match venues, knowing that football is an emotional game where some criminals can take the laws into their hands?

Dear Inspector General of Police, the thugs, roughnecks, and urchins storm the stadium with raised chests, warning that they are around and not scared to repeat the mayhem. This impunity won’t occur if security operatives whisk them away for punishment. Others will behave properly. The IGP should, as matter of urgency, ask his units in the states where matches are played to immediately storm these venues before a referee is killed simply because some fans are unhappy with a match rule. Teams which suffer from such unruly behaviour return home to await their hosts in the second leg game.

Sadly, the league chiefs are poor students of history. Otherwise, venues that are notorious for violence ought to have been locked up or matches held there shown live on television. With matches shown live, it would be much easier to spot these criminals and their acolytes from replays after the violence.

Such stadia should be locked for one year as the rules provide for. The club should be denied revenue from its home games – one of the consequences of being banned. A club that plays over 28 matches outside its home will definitely be better behaved after serving the ban. Such clubs’ managements must source for cash to travel, feed, accommodate their players and provide other logistics. The burden of such expenses would compel clubs owners to be orderly.

Until club chairmen and their board members are prosecuted and jailed for not producing the hoodlums who harm referees and spectators, these buffoons would continue to make league venues death traps and not recreation centres. How would as many as 40 able-bodied men use all manner of weapons on a hapless referee, a woman, in Bauchi, who gets no help from anybody?

I’m sad that the referee who suffers the most would get N250,000 and perhaps the urchins are made to pay for their missing phones and wristwatches. What is that? Is that what his life is worth? How would such a referee be firm next time, knowing the pains he went through? The referee deserves to be paid N2 million because the bodily harm suffered on that day may trigger untold illnesses. You never can tell. Three referees could be paid up to N6 million. It would be difficult for board members of such clubs to defend this when tendering their statements of accounts to their sponsors at the end of the season.

The LCM, through a bilateral relationship with the La Liga in Spain, took coaches and players to interface with their Spanish counterparts in a bid to increase the capacity of the coaches. The players saw firsthand how the game is administered. They played with some of the greats they watched on television. What this experience meant to them is better imagined. But for sure, it has improved their skills and changed their mentality towards the game. This tour raised hope among the players and coaches that they can earn a living playing the game. The administrators saw how things are done, such that they can replicate them here.

Rather than help to improve the quality of the game in terms of getting the fans to appreciate the results of matches in a sportsmanlike manner, these initiatives have become wasted. Some beasts have chosen to bring the domestic game to disrepute by maiming match referees and those who dare to call them to order.

The LMC has done a lot in meting out punishment promptly. But it appears the body must ensure such violent acts are treated as criminal offence, so that those caught are made to face the wrath of the law.

The Dikko administration has made clubs to see players’ and coaches’ welfare as a necessity. The LMC has made the payment of players and coaches a right not a privilege such that only three clubs are indebted to their wards.

Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) took referees, FA chairmen, coaches, key stakeholders on a refresher course in London, where it was discovered that many of our coaches were analogue compliant. The English trainers were shocked that some of them couldn’t operate a computer. They were awed to see top rated coaches mope at the computers. They drew diagrams on notebooks. Laughable! Please don’t laugh. It explains why our domestic league winners flounder at the continental levels.

The best form of security is the referee. But the referees must have the right environment to interpret the laws of the game appropriately. A situation where referees have to meander through the route where irate fans could easily descend on them is condemnable.

Indeed, the stadium designs expose the referees, players, and coaches to assaults from the fans. Sadly, match commissioners who should insist on clearing fans within the inner perimeters of stadia look the other way. They are ones to pelt the first stone. These intruders’ unholy acts spur those sitting in the stands to cause mayhem.

We shouldn’t wait until deaths are recorded in the stadia before taking appropriate actions. Match commissioners must insist on having 80 policemen to man security. The LMC must get the Commissioners of Police in the states where games are held to post their men to the stadia. The few security operatives seen in most stadia are supporters of clubs. You see them where referees are molested but no arrests are made. Where arrests are made, eminent personalities influence prosecuted in the law courts.

The LMC has taken many of these urchins to court, with few let off the hook or given a slap on the wrist. But with the magnitude of injuries inflicted on referees, the three fans caught in Bauchi should be allowed to go through the court process. The media must follow this case to its logical conclusion.

The backlash from the fans’ misdemeanours explains why the league is struggling to have a sponsor. Dikko et al have done well to reinvent the workings of the league. But these criminals’ invasion at match venues is a big smear on the game.

The English game begins

Over one billion pounds has been spent by Barclays English Premier League clubs for the 2017/2018 season, which begins today. And with 20 days to the end of the European transfer window, pundits are wondering if this massive expenditure would translate to some spectacular displays by the new recruits.

Indeed, the figures could increase to 1.5 billion pounds mark, if the much-touted move of Liverpool’s midfield gem Phillipe Coutinho to Barcelona comes to fruition. The Spanish side has decided to spend the bulk of what they received from Paris Saint Germain for Neymar on Coutinho. But whispers from Anfield suggest that Coutinho’s absence from the Reds’ last matches has to be because of a backache. Will Coutinho join Barca? Time will tell.

As for Manchester City and Manchester United, their massive investments in new players leave them as the odds on favourite for the title. Both teams have world class managers who understand the dynamics of rebuilding their teams. I expect these two teams to take the race for the title to the wire, not forgetting Chelsea, the defending champions, Liverpool and Arsenal’s quest to leave Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola ruing why they spent so much cash on new players. Arsenal and Liverpool are the teams to watch this season. They appear lightweight in their squads but the two teams are best playing sides in the EPL. It will take some time for the Manchester teams to blend. This season will witness a fight to the finish for the top four positions.

As for newcomers Brighton, Huddersfield and Newcastle, two of them may return to the lower league if they don’t fortify their squads. I see only Newcastle remaining of the three, largely because of the stature and technical savvy of their manager Rafa Benitez. Stoke, Watford, Swansea and West Bromwich Albion must gird their loins if they don’t want to be demoted. Let the most exciting league in Europe begin.

August 12, 2017
Deterrence, language and politics

In the ongoing imbroglio between   the US and North Korea, and   the threat of its leader to send missiles to Guam an American territory in the Pacific, the North Korean leader was quoted as saying that the US President Donald Trump is ‘bereft of reason‘. It was a roundly insulting statement   in defiance of diplomacy, its protocols and niceties of   international   relations. Yet,   given the nature of the verbal vitriol with which the US media had been branding their newly elected president   in recent times, especially   on his handling of   the business of governance from the White House, the insult could have come from any   of the   numerous the anti Trump media in the US. Indeed I make bold to say that worse has   been said   by the US   media about Trump   in his   nation including hints at his imbecility as well as his state of sanity, since   his inauguration    this year as   the 45th US   president. So now, who is the   owner    of the copy right   on Trump’s stupidity or unreasonableness between, the US   media and the North Korean leader? The   answer is the conundrum we are dealing with today.

This     is because    the use   of   language matters in any human endeavor most especially in politics and diplomacy. If the lexicon of America’s most dangerous enemy in terms of nuclear threat in describing the US president coincides with those of leading US media houses   in criticizing or vilifying their president, then something is rotten   in the state   of the United States. Just    as Shakespeare said in the great tragedy, Hamlet   that something is   rotten   in the state of Denmark.

To dilate more on this unfortunate coincidence or unity of language between common enemies of the US president ,    now at home and abroad, it is pertinent to bring in two instructive quotations, albeit in quite differing contexts, for    serious appraisal. The first   says that’   we have seen the enemy and the enemy is us. The other is a   warning or threat in one of the famous James Bond    spy   novels. It says –‘ first time is happenstanc, second time is coincidence, third time is enemy action‘ The   first one on sighting the enemy was reportedly said by a general   to     his officers   to point out the disorganized state of    their   command strategy to defeat the enemy. It   was meant    therefore   as   a clear challenge for   a rethink to avert the prospect of a catastrophic defeat before it is too late. The other from the James Bond archives is more like diplomacy based on the reactive type,    but    with a high dose of pragmatism to avert any expensive mistake, in a type   of ‘play me foul and I play you tricky’ scenario. Either way you can still find its   prototype in the title     of    another Shakespeare classic, ‘Measure for Measure‘.

In   a way,   given   the rabid media enmity of   the US president , it   could be said   that Trump   has committed the    fatal   error   of   misjudging     business acumen and success as a ready   tool, recipe   or   panacea to unravel political and diplomatic puzzles. Now, he certainly knows better that his books on Deals and his much vaunted business skills have not prepared him adequately at least to deal with   his     native news    media    and    North Korea without bringing the global wall of peace and stability down, both at home and    abroad. In the same vein, it should shock those opposed to his presidential style and world view that they are providing verbal artillery for the enemies of their nation and that could hardly be their intention although their use of violent language of   criticizing     their president     has fuelled    the ready    ammunition    of    their nation’s enemy, North Korea. That is the truth and such language should be discarded if the US is to avert the tragic fate of a house divided against itself, which is sheer and   inevitable collapse.

It   is necessary   also to bring in another type of reaction to nuclear threat which is dangerous even though its proponents claim it to be pacifist. The culprit here appears to be the UK Opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn who asked both Trump and North Korean Leader to moderate their language   to avert   war which   could be nuclear. I wonder at his concern since he is on record   as championing the    cause    that nuclear weapons should be discarded by all   nations. These are the weapons that the US and N Korea are inventing and realigning to destroy each other with the US Defence Secretary warning N Korea not to confront the US except it wants to be annihilated by America’s superior military might. Of what use in terms of deterrence are the admonition of a pacifist    like   Jeremy   Corbyn who does not understand or acknowledge the currency of this imminent confrontation, which are the use and   application of   nuclear technology and   bombast      for    the resolution of this looming conflict in the   Pacific? On this matter the British Opposition leader stands on feet of clay in terms of relevance, deterrence or persuasion of either side because he has always behaved like the proverbial ostrich   with its head buried in the sand on the use of nuclear weapons and he should just keep quiet on the matter. Or face reality and acknowledge their existence and use, to be at least   considered    electable in his native UK as a future PM.

We now come home to look at the day’s topic in the context of the clamor for restructuring which is the fashionable political concept in our polity for now. Restructuring in my view is a weighty concept in politics since politics   at the end of the day decides who gets what, when and how. How badly we have dispensed that so far since independence   in 1960   on our own, and with what we inherited from the forced marriage of 1914, called amalgamation,   is the cause of the present clamour for restructuring. But political restructuring is different from economic restructuring like the Structural Adjustment Programme which we embraced sometime   and from which we have not emerged from the gutters of poverty and penury to which we subjected our nation and its long suffering people. While the executioners    SAP created an aristocratic, military complex and      hierarchy   that   misappropriated the common wealth to themselves, their families and cronies and have used that to control the state   and our economy ever since, and are at the heart of the present agitation to fill their bulging pockets and assets both at home and abroad    with such ill gotten    funds.

Restructuring politically is also not like corporate restructuring or   strategic management where you    do an assessment of your strengths and weaknesses internally and use that to combat the opportunities and threats   in your environment, in a strategic plan from such analysis. Anyway, the Board or   Management is in charge of both the strategic plan or any corporate change ensuing from any   such    SWOT analysis. In political restructuring such as is being advocated now, who will be in charge of the start as well as the process, its contents, goals and objectives ? Already this government has said it is not interested, so who will bell the cat? Is it the secessionists , expulsionists, or the insurgents we are fighting in the North East who now use little girls as suicide bombers? These   are punishable assaults    on the    security and stability   of the Nigerian state   and are political    irritants    testing the legitimacy of   government. We have a government in place and it is the duty of government to direct the affairs of the Nigerian state and secure the lives and property of the Nigerian nation and its people   according to the Nigerian nation.

It is not the   duty of government to preside over its own liquidation in pursuing restructuring    outside its mandate and the Nigerian constitution which of course can be amended as required given its provisions for   such amendments. What Nigeria needs is a clean census that shows the real number of people that government feeds and looks after. We also need to cut the cost of governance especially    emoluments,   perquisites and pensions for past and present political actors as well as government functionaries. We surely   need to combat corruption as the government of the day is doing although it is being challenged by powerful people and politicians in high places who have a stake in derailing the war on corruption . If we do all these and the state is firm   and strong to deter those contesting and seeking to subvert its goals and objectives in this regard, we shall improve our present political arrangement without inventing the wheel of restructuring. Otherwise we can safely say- we have seen the enemy, and the enemy is us. Once again, long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

August 12, 2017