The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • The state, personality and leadership

    A  State  governor, Samuel Ortom   of  Benue  Satae  is being vilified all  over Nigeria for saying that if the  Nigerian  president is sick  the nation too is sick. Also    two  African  leaders and incumbent presidents are  seeking   reelection  this month based  on their personal merit  as strong leaders  of their  nations  against all  odds at  the beginning of their tenure  of office. On  the global  scene the  US  president  signed  into  law new sanctions against  Russia for  hacking that  nation’ s 2016  presidential  elections and   for  invading Ukraine  during  the Obama  era  characterized  by the personality  clash  between  Obama  and Russian  strong man   and  president, Vladmir  Putin. Without  mincing words  my contention  here  is that the state  of health of a leader matters  in any  field  of human endeavor  more so in politics.   Furthermore   there  is nothing  wrong  in equating that state  with the   health  of the state  as the  incumbent president in  any presidential  system  is the embodiment  of the state and his personal  health affects  that  of the state  over   which    he presides,  for good  or  bad. That  is the premise  of my arguments today  on the leaders and  personalities  I want  to discuss     in tandem  with  the topic  of   the  day.

    I    start  with  the  state governor who  was  one of  those  lucky  governors  who visited  the president recently and  was talking empirically  on the state  of   the   health  of the  president in absolute  good  faith ,  which was misconstrued as mischievous  by his attackers  when  indeed  these  attackers  were  the culprit  of mischief  on the matter. The   governor  said  the president was sick  and people should pray  for him  to be well  so  that he  can perform  his duties  because if  he is sick  the nation is sick.  But  he  also  said in his absence the Acting President is performing well. That is a statement  of fact and  that   means that the state in terms  of governance is not in shambles  and confusion and  a state in that  condition  cannot  be said  to be sick.  So  what  is wrong in what  the governor has  said? Nothing  in  my  view.  What  I am  saying in effect  is that the good  governor  has been  quoted  out of context  by mischief  makers  now  mocking his genuine  concern  on not only the state of health  of  our president but more  cynically  that of  the Nigerian  state . It  is as if these strange interpreters are now invoking the  historical  phrase of  arrogance of power that permeated  French  history when  the Church  and the state struggled  for power    and  supremacy  and the’ Sun  King ‘ of France  Louis XIV    famously proclaimed –  L’etat, C’ est  moi. Which  means ‘ I,  am the state’. That    arrogance  culminated  in the French  Revolution  of  1789   when  the poor  of France rose in fury  against  the rich  and that was the genesis of the democracy   and human  dignity the world enjoys today. Certainly  the governor  never  meant that in the way  he expressed  his  concern  on the state  of health  of our president and his attackers  on the matter  should  quietly  lay  down their  arms  and go to  sleep  on the matter.

    Let  us now  go to other nations and  climes  whose  presidents are  not sick  but  whose  leadership  is equally  subjected to stranger interpretations and  mischief  than  what we are witnessing at home.  First  is Rwanda  whose  president  Paul  Kigame  is seeking  a  third  term  in this month’s  election  after  he  amended  the constitution  in  2015  to enable him be in power  till  2034. Second is President Uhuru   Kenyatta   of   Kenya  also  seeking re election  after  being cleared  by the International  Criminal  Court  of Justice  for  violence  committed  in the after math of the 2007  elections  for  lack  of evidence. Third  is the unlikely  duo  of the US President Donald  Trump  and Russian President Vladmir  Putin  and  the signing of new  sanctions against Russia  for hacking US elections, which  the Russian  strongman  has called an act of  an impotent leader  by the American  president. In  all  these  three examples we see rare  elements  of strong leadership and  willingness to  claim economic  success as  proof    of performance, although these  can  be criticized  by their  opponents who  see them  as autocrats  and leaders not ready  to  brook  any  opposition  on any  matters  of state  in their nations.

    Starting with  Rwanda  we  know  that globally  Paul  Kigame  is well  known  for bringing stability and  economic  wonders  to his nation after the genocide  that left  millions of Tutsis and  Hutus dead  in  that  nation.  His  strong leadership  has  been  supported  by France and  the EU  but  he  now seems  to see himself   as irreplaceable  in terms of leadership  and whilst  that  can  be debatable  there  is no  doubt that  he is very  much  in control  of events  in his land locked  nation. It  is  easy  to accuse  him of tenacity  of office and call  that  the bane of African  leadership but he  has a reputation  for discipline as a former  military  leader and as long as he keeps  control of his army  base,  elections will  just foregone  conclusions  of his victory  at  such  rituals. That   to me is commendable  and better  than situations  in Nigeria  where  elected representatives  see  themselves  as  elected  to fend for themselves, their  relatives  and cohorts at  the expense  of the larger public  or the general  electorate . Kigame’s  claim  to stability  and economic  progress  in his   tenure  should  see him through his reelection for a third term as  the   horror   and    memory     of the Rwandan  genocide  make it difficult  to  see  him  out of power,  perhaps  to  be replaced  by those  who  are untested  and therefore  untrusted  to sustain  the political  and economic stability  he has put in place in his nation.

    Next  is Kenya’s president, Uhuru  Kenyatta  who  was elected in  2013 and is seeking a second  term which  he  has  not taken  for granted  even though his opponent Raula  Odinga has  lost   the   three  last presidentiall  elections . Kenyatta  has a proud pedigree  being the son  of Kenya’s  first president Jomo  Kenyatta  who led his nation  to independence. The  elder  and dead Kenyatta  was much  loved and left  his family wealthy,  some say  from rampant corruption .He  was  also not well  disposed  to criticism  and once   famously  threatened  Kenyan  Parliamentarians heckling him that  ‘the hawk ‘  was in the skies ready  to swoop  and carry   ‘chickens’  to their  death. The  son  too was to  be in the Hague  for election  violence   but was elected  president  with  his Vice  President wanted  for  the same  offence and it was thought he would not complete  his  tenure  but he has,  and is now  seeking re election. He  has definitely played his card  well  both at home  where  media reports say he is fondly referred  to as the ‘digital  president‘  and abroad  where  he has  led  the  regional   global  war  on terror especially  as Kenya borders Somalia, a failed state   whose  refugees  are in Kenya in large  numbers creating tension  like Boko  Haram  is doing in Nigeria  killing  innocent people with 15  year old girls  as suicide  bombers . Kenyatta  has gotten huge  loans from China for  infrastructure  and benefited  from the fact that Barak  Obama  is from  Kenya  and the US is  not party  to the  ICC  charter  or  else  he would  be facing trial  at the Hague  for election  violence  and  would probably be in  jail  by now. But Providence  has been  kind to him  and he has secured his freedom  by bringing development and growth  to  Kenya and that  seems to  have been  sufficient  insurance  for his first  and pending electability.  Provided, of   course   that   the election is free  and fair  and not marred by violence  as typical  of  Kenya’s elections since  Independence.

    Thirdly,  we     look at  the dicey diplomatic tango  between  the two  most powerful  nations in the world outside China and  the EU  and  the furore  the 2016  US  presidential  elections  have generated in both. These  are the US and  Russia  and the charge by the US media, opposition Democratic  Party  and bi  partisan US  Congress that  Russia  meddled in the 2016 US presidential  election won by Donald Trump. Of  course  Trump  has insisted  that Russia  had nothing to do with his famous and  most unexpected  victory   as that  would question his mandate and legitimacy. He  instead feels it was a case of sour grapes on the Democratic  Party’s loss of the election and insisted  that his Attorney General ,new FBI Director, Special  Counsel, all  appointed by him  should instead   probe the findings of the FBI  that his opponent Hillary  Clinton be  tried   for destroying thousands of e mails as Secretary  of  State, an act described  as reckless by the then FBI  boss.

    It  was well known  during and after  2016   presidential  the election  that Putin  and Trump  had a soft  spot for each other.  Just as it   was  also quite clear  that there  was no love lost  between Trump’s predecessor Barak   Obama   and      Putin      throughout    Obama’s  8 year   tenure. The      reason   for this was   presumed      to  be   the US  ‘intervention in  ‘Putin’s reelection of 2011  when  Hillary  Clinton  was  Secretary  of  State   and   the present   furore  on Russian  hacking      germinated  from  that.  Obama  retaliated  for the hacking on  his departure   from  office and  the  US  Congress has approved another set of sanctions  as the Russian Hacking charge has gathered  momentum  after  election  to the chagrin  of the  new US  president  who claimed that he and  his campaign  team  never  colluded  with the Russians . He  has signed the sanctions deal  obviously  against  his ‘ personal  wishes  and desire ‘ like our former military ruler on assuming power,   but  really it   was   to avert  the humiliation  of   having his veto  overridden  by Congress if he refused  to sign the bill. His  friend  Putin  has branded  him impotent for that. It  remains to be seen how long the two  strong men  can  remain  chummy  diplomatically  given  the obsession  of the US media  to nail Trump  on the Russian  hacking and impeach  him at the same time. Yet  the same  Trump  antagonists  admit  that those who  elected Trump  are  still  in love with him in spite  of his present administrative  and political  blunders.   However  time  will  tell,  sooner  than later, what  the result will   be and how that will  affect the political  health  and stability  of the US polity, which  has  always  been taken for granted  as   vibrant  and never  sick, at  any time  compared  with other  global  democracies . Once again, long  live the Federal  Republic  of Nigeria.

  • The leap forward

    Nigeria international Kelechi Iheanacho must be ruing how he got it all wrong with his move to Europe. He will be looking for who to blame for his transfer crises. He won’t consider himself as his biggest problem because he had people to guide him, but he was carried away by the rave reviews he got from the international media.

    Iheanacho was a star everyone saw shortly before the U-17 World Cup, following his incredible skills at the Africa U-17 Championships. It was easy to guess that he would run the unholy path of former Golden Eaglets after he emerged the best player and highest goal scorer with six goals at the FIFA U-17 World Cup. The Eaglets won the trophy. Iheanacho became the star every club wanted.

    Smart agents lured Iheanacho into several deals. He started receiving calls from scouts from European clubs he wanted to handle his move out of Nigeria. He should have asked questions, but didn’t know who to speak with. I won’t blame him or his father, who later stepped in when things started going awry. They were inexperienced to handle some of the intricacies of European clubs’ contracts. They were seeing some of the agents for the first time and wouldn’t have known who to deal with.

    Ordinarily, such exceptional stars’ future should be handled by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). I recall that the Nigerian government has always tagged winning Golden Eaglets’ squads as government properties. Sadly, our players have chosen to carry their crosses, only to seek the face of the government and the NFF when they are stuck in their movement out of the country.

    Will our budding talents learn to trust the NFF? I don’t think so, with the Federation’s image battered by unfounded tales. I say so because no NFF chief has been jailed for any wrongdoing. Or is it that no one can say that the federation’s chiefs have been corrupt? It is the players whose careers have been truncated by shylock agents who hold the wrong end of the stick. Nigeria is worse off because boys who should have blossomed to be world stars retire from the game in penury, even as their agents smiling to the bank.

    Transfer rules are sacrosanct. They have been operated by the 211 countries affiliated to FIFA, Nigeria inclusive. One of the rules specifies the layers of authority, beginning from the football academies, youth clubs, clubs and the federation, leading to such players’ transfer to Europe. The importance of these layers of authority is to ensure that the player gets his dues. It also ensures credible documentation where any aggrieved party can exploit all the channels of seeking redress. If unsatisfied, such a player could head for the courts, if he suspects any foul play.

    Iheanacho was Under-17 when he hit the limelight. It isn’t right for an underage to sign a document on his future, simply because he is talented. Such documents shouldn’t be given to young boys in academies since most of them hardly pay the boys any form of remuneration. These kids enjoy playing the game. Their parents aren’t too worried because playing soccer takes them off societal vices.

    Why should academies ask for cash on boys they didn’t pay salaries? What happens to FIFA’s provision for academies when such players get deals in Europe? What image right does an under-aged player have? Such breaches exist because some coaches and NFF members are fronting for European clubs. They break the rules, which lead to large scale sharps practices when it comes to international transfer of players. Or is it not only the NFF that can issue ITC to players to play outside the country?

    The way forward is for the NFF board to get its international department to computerise its operations, such that it would be easy to capture movement of players. The board’s members should institute a law which forbids academies from inviting foreigners into the country to do football business without NFF’s approval. There should be a list of approved agents, scouts, managers, as it is on FIFA’s on their website to guide players and their parents.

    It smacks of a gross aberration for academies to unilaterally take players out of the country for football business. Such academies must be proscribed and their matter taken to FIFA. This flaw in NFF’s international department is responsible for all the falsification of players’ documents. Such sharp practices in the international department explains why players would easily ask if you want the football ages or their real ages, if you try to find out their dates of births.

    What will it cost NFF to alert FIFA about the illegal routes through which unscrupulous agents take our budding talents to Europe, Asia and the Diaspora? Any transfer without NFF’s seal of authorisation is illegal, using FIFA’s rule book. How come ours is different? Or does the NFF’s competitions department not have the data of these talents? If yes, how about those who have played for the country?

    We cannot continue to be the laughing stock over issues that can be resolved using FIFA rules. 

     

    National Sports Festivals

    Sportsmen and women looked forward to the biannual National Sports Festival with one goal – to excel by winning medals for their states, which ultimately guarantees them the path to represent Nigeria at international sporting competitions. Indeed, states ensure that competitions are held at the grassroots, largely through catch-them-young programmes and the traditional sports tournaments.

    Sports thrived in the past through the synergy between the states’ ministry of education and the sports ministry. After all budding stars abound in the 774 local government areas.

    The states’ Sports Council coaches are drafted to those areas to fish out talents, after getting offices and accommodation for those assigned to discover new talents. These new kids on the block were invited to camp to prepare for the National Sports Festivals.

    The festival was a spectacle because the venues were fixed – inside the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos. No stories. Most governors or administrators of yore, ensured that athletes’ welfare and remunerations were top priority. Some went to the extent of training with them and eating their meals. This relationship emboldened the athletes to give their best. Of course, those who excelled were adequately rewarded with certificates signed by the governors and cash. Those who wanted to combine schooling with sports were given scholarships.

    I wonder what the governors discuss at their meetings beyond looking for cash to run their campaign programmes. I wish some of the governors realised that sports is the biggest public relations tool that they need to mobilise the people. I wonder if governors know that it is their duty to ensure that the people can use sport to improve on their health.

    The governors should reinvent the industry in the states to convince investors to key into the business of sports. The National Sports Festival was tagged Nigeria’s Olympic Games and it attracted our best athletes and new ones to compete. The National Stadium and other centres were filled to capacity.

    Many people in the nooks and crannies of the country who partook looked forward to visiting Lagos as it afforded the opportunity of seeing structures that were not in the states. Inside the bus, we looked downwards to see vehicular movement while we were cruising on the flyover bridges. Those of us who had cameras took memorable pictures. We prided ourselves as having been to the country’s commercial nerve centre and capital in the 1970s.

    All that glamour and camaraderie is gone. The National Sports Festival was held in 2012, interestingly in Lagos – courtesy of the interest of former Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola.

    Since that time, it has been tales of the unexpected, with Cross Rivers Government offering all kinds of reasons why the sports fiesta is on its knees. The athletes have been training since 2012 till date, with no word from the owners of the event, the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

    The importance of the festival is best appreciated by the need to build new facilities around the country. States which hosted the event in the past are still benefitting from some of the facilities built, although most of them are derelict, no thanks to the dearth of competitions.

    I’m sure that if the governors prioritise the festival, it will hold biannually even if the owners of the event don’t know what to do. One of the things that the private sector needs to splash their cash on the festival is the concern of government. And, of course, what they stand to gain from investing in it. Tax relief to sports friendly firms is one of the ways to get them to key into the sporting industry.

    It hurts when Nigeria rushes to convince Nigeria-born athletes to represent us. It amounts to a slap on our faces when such Nigeria-born stars who shunned us in their prime, accept our offer in the twilight of their careers.

  • Tunde Olusunle’s fingermarks on the trail of history

    It was a most exciting and exacting period at the Daily Times of the mid-eighties as the then new Managing Director, the dynamic, energetic and resourceful Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi, sought to restore the newspaper to the dizzying heights it had attained under the leadership of the inimitable Alhaji Babatunde Jose in the seventies. Along with his team of outstanding Editors and senior managers – Chief Onyeama Ugochukwu, Mallam Farouk Mohammed, the late Dr Femi Sonaike, Mr. John Araka, Mr Ndu Ughamadu, Mr. Dapo Aderionola, Mr. Kunle Elegbede and Dr Chidi Amuta among others, Ogunbiyi recruited and inspired a team of talented young men and women who were burning with a desire to make a mark in the profession. One of those young Turks of the time was none other than Tunde Olusunle (now a double chief) who was easily one of the most proficient wordsmiths and indeed a shining star in the Editorial Department of the newspaper.

    Tunde’s career over the years was to take him, among several other endeavours to serve as Director of Press Affairs/Chief Press Secretary to two chief helmsmen of Kogi State and later Special Assistant to President Olusegun Obasanjo for eight years. In the past few weeks, I have been perusing two books of poetry and a collection of essays written by Tunde Olusunle principally to find out if there had been any contradictions between the values he espoused as a journalist and artiste and his disposition and outlook as a public officer in a position of great influence given his proximity to power at the very apex of political authority in the country for nearly a decade.

    Olusunle’s first poetic offering ‘Fingermarks’, published in 1996 by Kraft Books Limited, Ibadan, showcases the poet’s linguistic dexterity, his eye for detail, and his passion for social justice. I remember that as a Senior Staff Writer and later Assistant Editor at the Daily Times, Tunde Olusunle travelled extensively throughout the country working on several stories for the newspaper. What struck me at the time was that in addition to whatever assignment he was asked to work on, Olusunle would also write detailed travelogues or eyewitness accounts of life in the various towns and cities he traversed. Thus, under his practiced hands and aided by his vivid artistic imagination, places such as Kaduna, Ibadan Kano, Enugu, Minna, Jos, Ilorin, Port Harcourt etc came palpably alive before the reader complete with names and descriptions of the major streets and attractions of these locations. This facility is evident in Olusunle’s ‘Fingermarks’ particularly in poems like ‘Lagos’, ‘Benin revisited’ and “Lokoja”. The bard sings of Lagos as the: “Album of oddities/The good and bad/The absurd and bizarre/Catalogue of contrasts/The fair and foul/the funny and furious/ Encyclopedia of opposites/The grand, the squalid/The chic, the chequered”. In ‘Benin revisited’, the poet makes allusions not only to the city’s glorious past brought to a humiliating end by the British conquest but also the notorious robber Anini whose gang ravaged the city at will in the mid eighties till the law caught up with them. He writes: “So sadly now tonight/Within the wink of seventeen seasons/You stare, dumb like an earthen image,/ Awed by the reign of Anini’s scions,/The throat of your mirth stifled to ghostly quiet/By rattling rifles and the frightened bark/Of a thousand Alsatians/While the xylophonic music of crickets and toads/Seizes by installments the tympanum of night”

      And of Lokoja, the poet waxes lyrical: “Come with me to Lokoja/Confluence of culture, terminus of tongues/Hedged by hills, robed by rocks”. In the poem ‘City life’, Olusunle skillfully depicts the inflationary spiral engendered by the Structural Adjustment Programme of the period when he writes “Prices are horses/Perpetually galloping;/Pay-packet snails/Permanently lagging”. Echoes of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) also redound in the poem “Epitaph for the Naira”. Here the poet laments the fate that has befallen the country’s national currency due to massive devaluation. In his words “Memories of your past/So virile and so vivacious/ Rise now and becloud my skull,/Deepening my bewilderment/About your premature rupture/Your sunset at noon”.

    He continues in this melancholic mood of mourning for the badly humbled Naira: “They drained your blood with profligate fangs/Till you lay lifeless and limp/a cadaver for jobless flies/Alas! All your glitter and gloss/Is withered and worn/ All that satin sleekness/is rot and rust. And in ‘Prophecy’, Olusunle comes nearest to predicting a revolutionary response to the economic recession and unbearable poverty engendered by SAP. Warning that Mansions, Villas, Government Reserved Areas may be turned into Ghost ridden Areas; bedrooms into blood-pools; cosy cars into comfy coffins; silk suits into silk shrouds; club houses into cemeteries, the poet roars “For the time is near/When the underdogs suddenly shall rouse/From their depressed slumber and deathly nap/Hewing recklessly the harbingers of their calamities”.

    Most of the 25 poems in Tunde Olusunle’s second collection, ‘Rhythm of the mortar’ also published by Kraft books and running into 68 pages have to do with nature, love and sundry features of human existence. Thus, he writes about the grassroots in a rustic village in ‘Grassroots’, a rural people gradually shrugging off the sleep of the night and awakening slowly to the reality of a new dawn in ‘Dawnscape’, the rhythm of a million pestles turning ‘sky-white yam slices’ in mortars  into ‘doughs of luscious promise’ in his native Yagba to be enjoyed with ‘efo and iru, oya and akika’ when ‘They are joined in their culinary matrimony of the seaming simmering pot/when a thousand savoury soups/ Escort balls of iyan/Down the salivating thoroughfare of a million throaty aisles”.

    Yet, even in this collection, the author writes about the danger of poverty and injustice in a poem like ‘The prisoner’s chant’. In this poem, the prisoners lament their pathetic situation but with the poignant warning that “We swerved into sin in despair/When bleak hopes of surviving tomorrow/Stared starkly in our pupils /At the dawn of our lives”. The prisoners warn ominously that “But sinners whose outshine our crimes/Eat no sapagiri, munch no grass/They perch safely on the pulpit/With saints and pastors…Time will judge”.

    In ‘The King’s visit’, Olusunle addresses the issue of those who wield positions of power without responsibility, sensitivity to the plight of the people or a sense of decency. The King visits his people amidst pomp and pageantry and while displaying all the splendor and power of his position. Yet he was absolutely uninterested in the plight of “Diseased babies and disheveled mothers,/Hungry urchins, school-less youngsters,/Unpaid teachers, despairing fathers/Whose farms have seen no fertilizer in several seasons. Although he is seemingly and deceptively enthusiastically received by the people, the poet warns that “A caressing moon/Always succeeds the tyranny/Of a brutish sun….A King will come/Who knows, the same blood runs through/In the arteries of the palace and the people/ A King will come with a steel-resolve/To soothe the pangs of our pains. Thus, even in this seemingly politically innocuous collection, Tunde still speaks truth to and warns about the ever present danger of power corrupting and absolute power corrupting absolutely.

    While in the two poetry collections referred to above, Olusunle deploys his skills as a creative writer of no mean distinction, in the third book, ‘On the Trail of History – A Reporter’s Notebook on Olusegun Obasanjo’ Tunde writes as a consummate newsman who combines the capacity for in-depth reporting with an eye for detail. Also published by Kraft Books, this book runs into 247 pages divided into five sections, namely The Man, The Statesman, The Politician, The Pragmatist and The Legend. There is hardly anybody better placed than Tunde Olusunle to comment authoritatively on the Obasanjo presidency because he worked at very close quarters with the tempestuous Ota farmer right from the commencement of his campaigns and throughout the eight years of his presidency.

    This book thus offers authoritative glimpses into the former President’s personal style and idiosyncrasies and offers useful insights into his extensive diplomatic forays abroad most of which he was accompanied on  by Tunde Olusunle. It is unlikely that anyone can write a definitive history of the Obasanjo presidency without this book as an indispensable reference point and critical secondary source material.

    But what  I find most intriguing is that, given the sensitive roles Olusunle played at various times in the Obasanjo presidency serving at various times as Special Assistant on National Orientation, Public Affairs, Press Liaison, Special Services and Special Duties, he went about his job unobtrusively without any airs. He never for once descended into the gutter to engage his boss’s opponents or traducers in unhealthy verbal brickbats. He saw no dignity in playing the role of attack dog against anybody and refrained from doing so. Even more importantly, in a country always swirling with allegations and counter allegations of scandals and corrupt enrichment, Olusunle left office with his banner of integrity untainted. A detached and dignified sense of professionalism, a meticulous recorder of his boss’s words and actions behind the scenes and a reputation of incorruptibility in the notoriously kleptocracy-ridden wasteland of Nigeria’s public life may yet be Tunde Olunsunle’s indelible fingermarks on the trail of history.

  • Back to regionalism?

    Back to regionalism?

    For their valiant and unparalleled efforts to forge stronger economic integration and cooperation as well as socio-cultural cohesion within the states that constitute their territorial jurisdiction, the present South-West governors deserve the commendation of all. The South West governors have surely taken concrete actions that demonstrate that, for them, the issue of South West economic integration goes beyond mere rhetoric. Not only have they met fairly regularly to brainstorm on how to collaborate across diverse spheres for the collective benefit of their people, they have decided that henceforth, the group will be known as Western Nigeria Governors’ Forum. In doing so, the governors are putting the interest of the region above partisan proclivities, ideological differences and individual idiosyncrasies.

    The governors showed their seriousness in this regard when they readily accepted, endorsed and facilitated the establishment of the Development Agenda of Nigeria (DAWN) as the institutional Think Tank to drive the idea of Western Regional Integration on the intellectual plane. It is a testimony to the efficacy of DAWN within its short life span that the governors have adopted its proposed 25-year master plan for the continuous integration and development of the region’s economy in different areas including agriculture, industrialization, commerce and security among others.

    Beyond this, the governors have helped in no small measure to facilitate the ongoing resurgence of the O’odua Group of companies, owned by the six states in the zone, as the Special Purpose Vehicle to spearhead the rejuvenation of the region’s economy. This they have done by not only allowing the emergence of a competent Group Managing Director of the company, Mr. Adewale Raji, through a rigorous and thorough process but also ensuring that the conglomerate no longer experiences the kind of partisan interference in its management that had been its bane in the past. Beyond this, Lagos State has been absorbed into the O’odua Group with her phenomenal resource base as well as tremendous expertise. This is a giant stride forward.

    However, at their last quarterly meeting which took place in Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, the governors made some assertions, which are quite thought provoking, provocative and even not a little incurious. Their central contention was that the splitting of the old Western Region into six states had hampered the development of the South West and created dysfunctional divisions among a people once bonded in unity. The host governor, Senator Ibikunle Amosun, set the tone of the meeting when in his opening address he lamented that the West is no more recording the kind of feats that dazzled the world when the region was one entity under the leadership of the great sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo.

    According to the governor: “However, the creation of States from the old Western Region in 1976, which should have been an impetus for further socio economic development has been allowed to create artificial boundaries between our people. And to further worsen the situation, some of our people are also making themselves available as instruments of division because of their selfish political gains. The consequence is that our people begin to see themselves as a people of one state or the other rather than as a sub-unit of the entity of the Yoruba people.”

    Reinforcing this view, Osun State Governor, Ogbeni Raufu Aregbesola, was no less unambiguous when he said that “We must be mindful of the fact that as a singular state then, we achieved more than now when we are divided into six states. We must identify our strengths, unify those strengths and explore the strengths for the benefit of our people. We must use the development to galvanize our people”.  It was, of course, bold, courageous and selfless of the governors to have made this point. However, the logical conclusion of their postulation would have been to suggest a regression to the four-regional -structure of the First Republic.

    Yet, the governors know that this is not an idea that will fly with their people. It has become empirically and logically impossible to go back to the politically monolithic regions of the past. The states have taken on a life and identity of their own. No state will be willing to exchange the perceived suzerainty of an all powerful federal government for that of a no less dominant regional behemoth. It would amount to what the noted Political Scientist, Mahmud Mamdani, described as ‘decentralized despotism.’

    In any case, the four-regional structure was broken down into 12 states in 1967 largely due to pressure from the minorities who wanted to be free from the perceived dominion of the ethnic majorities within each region. It is certainly not fortuitous that the first state creation exercise took place when the then Colonel Yakubu Gowon from a minority ethnic group was Head of State. Ironically, the 2014 National Conference convened by the Dr. Goodluck Jonathan administration, rather than recommend a reversion to four or six zonal- structure wanted the number of states increased to 54! In spite of whatever anyone may think of him, there are still many Ekiti indigenes that remain grateful to the brutal dictator, General Sani Abacha, for creating for them a state they ardently desired. Right now, the sentiments are still very strong for the creation of Ijebu, Ibadan and Oke-Ogun states, for instance, in the South West.

    In any case, Awo himself wanted the regions broken down by advocating the creation of states along ethno-linguistic lines although unviable but contiguous merged. Even then, going by Awo’s formula, the major ethnic groups would still have remained intact within their states while the minority ethnic groups would have been atomized into a multiplicity of states. That would still have skewed the overall structure of the polity in favour of the ethnic majority groups.

    It is true that the military abused the state creation process by allegedly creating states sometimes in favour of wives, concubines or cronies. Overall, however, I think the stated reasons for state creation, which is to bring government closer to the people, have largely, even if insufficiently, been met. Many parts of the country that today have been opened to some basic artifacts of modernity would not have had that opportunity but for state creation. The problem has been an over centralized structure where everybody has become addicted to and dependent on oil and the states have been constitutionally constrained from utilizing the resources within their jurisdiction for the benefit of their people and ultimately boosting the fiscal health of the country as a whole.

    Now, could the attainments of the Awolowo-led regional government in the first republic be attributed solely to the fact that the region was one entity? I think not. In the first place, the Yoruba have never in this country’s political history followed a one way traffic in terms of partisan political affiliation or even ideological orientation. However, a not insignificant part of the population has oftentimes expressed preference for progressive parties with federalist and welfarist bent. But we must not forget that it was the bitter, irresolvable fight to the finish among factions of the Yoruba political class, some in alliance with outside forces that led to the turmoil in the Western Region that eventually engulfed the entire country, brought down the First Republic and eventually led to the tragic civil war. This was long before the creation of states.

    Beyond the existence of the Western Region as a single entity, I believe that the remarkable success of the region’s government particularly between 1952 and 1959, could be attributed to Awo’s own capacity and vision as a leader, the Action Group’s discipline, sense of purpose and ideological clarity as a party, Awo’s predilection for picking and working with highly capable aides who had the freedom to debate the leader on policy issues with everybody in the end bowing to and implementing the demonstrably superior idea and the caliber of first rate intellectuals that constituted the Action Group’s Think Tank. This is why when he was Minister of Finance and Vice Chairman of the Federal Executive Council (FEC) during the war, Awo was able to demonstrate once more in unmistakable terms his wizardry in financial management and his overall leadership capability.

    To their credit many of the current South West governments are delivering commendably on quality infrastructure, environmental renewal and social services. They are following creditably in the footsteps of their forbears including Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Chief Olusegun Osoba, late Chief Adefarati, late Alhaji Lam Adesina, Chief Bisi Akande, Otunba Niyi Adebayo and later Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola (SASN), Dr Kayode Fayemi to name a few. There is a smattering of governors across the country that is also reported to be taking commendable developmental strides in their respective jurisdictions.

    In the Second Republic, the performances of Governors like Alhaji Lateef Jakande in Lagos, Chief Bola Ige in Oyo, Chief Adekunle Ajasin in Ondo, Chief Bisi Onabanjo in Ogun, Professor Ambrose Alli in Bendel, Mallam Abubakar Rimi in Kano, Alhaji Balarabe Musa in Kaduna or Mr Sam Mbakwe in Imo showed clearly that whether you have states or regions, a visionary leader with discipline and a sense of purpose will make an impact for the greatest good of the greatest number of the people.

    The South West governors would do well not to waste valuable time in nostalgia over a past that cannot be recalled. Given the current constellation of forces in the country, too much energy and time must not be dissipated on the endless debate on restructuring. The governors have adopted an ambitious and audacious  regionalroad map in Abeokuta. That must be the object of their undivided focus and energy.

  • Restructuring ignores bad leadership

    There is a hit song on the airwaves and it is called restructuring. Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar croons it with the passion of a Marvin Gaye. The Alaafin of Oyo Oba Lamidi Adeyemi III lends royal gravity to it. Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka intones it with a finality, in fact saying that virtually everything can be negotiated or, in another word, restructured. Eminent writers and commentators have nearly sung themselves hoarse. Such is the currency of the song that, at the rate it is being belted out, the 2019 presidential campaigns will be completely colourless without the ‘r’ word.

    The mission of the restructuring orchestra is clear: to knock it into the heads of those in authority and make them see the necessity and urgency of rejigging the country. They point out that rather than going forward, the country is in fact in retreat, that federal authorities are robbing Peter to pay Paul, and that infrastructure is suffering, as are security jobs, national cohesion, and virtually everything.

    The other day Southwest governors who gathered in Abeokuta were looking back nostalgically to the days when their states were once one region, when they managed their own resources and built institutions and infrastructure, some of which still endure till this day. Restructuring will do them a lot of good, I imagine.

    To their Southsouth counterparts, who in fact have kicked up more dust over the matter than anyone else, no music is sweeter than that of restructuring. Such is the fever that a wide-brimmed hat favoured in the region was christened ‘resource control’, which their leaders often wore as they harassed federal authorities for more oil cash.

    Let’s stop the restructuring lullaby for a while and consider its inherent dangers. First, it gives governors the impression that the problem with their unflattering states is first and foremost failure to restructure. This is false. Second, it also absolves them of culpability in the underdevelopment of their states. Ask them how much their states get each from the federal purse, how much they, themselves, personally get in security vote, how much their states make in taxes and levies, and what they do with all of it. Ask the Niger Delta state governors, who often cry over oil cash derivation, what efforts they have made to develop several other resources in their states. Ask them to honestly declare their daily, weekly and monthly expenditures, so that we might have a fair idea what their priorities are, whether their hearts are really in governance, and not in travelling or unsettling their political opponents. Has it not been reported that governors not only buy expensive  bulletproof vehicles for themselves but also for their wives? Which one of them has a heart for governance?

    The governors should provide the development plans they drew up for their states and their people over a decade. But don’t ask them what they have done, because they will mention a few roads they repaired, a bridge or two they are building, three or four classroom blocks they are rehabilitating or some soft loans they gave to a few widows, all of which count for pretty little. It is doubtful if any governor has a development plan for their state. When they hear the restructuring song, especially from such reputable individuals as Prof Soyinka, the governors get a sense that the trouble lies elsewhere, that some man in Abuja is in fact their number one enemy. Former President Goodluck Jonathan even asked President Muhammadu Buhari to implement the report a national conference held before Buhari took office, hoping to score an inconsequential political point.

    Much as rejigging the country is good, there is something else that needs to be rejigged first: the process that produces pretenders to the throne. Several governors clearly misgoverned their states, and many are still doing so. There is little we can do about those who wrecked their states and went away; not even jailing them or getting them to vomit what they stole will do justice to their atrocities. But we can ensure that pretenders do not go near the state house again. Voters can shun their campaign rice, reject their monetary offers, and cast their votes for the candidates whose backgrounds are checked, cross-checked and certified good. The electorate can also refuse to be distracted or deceived by the restructuring song and ponder on the character and motives of some of the singers. When they say they want restructuring, will they stand aside and watch a crop of young people take over the reins of power? Are the restructuring crooners not merely scheming to worm their way to power?

  • New helmsmen and old ways

    The deafening noise from the election grounds of the 31 sporting federations shows why Nigerians like to acquire positions without preparing for them. I have been excited since the results of the exercise were published because most of the winners were previous critics of the sacked boards.

    What we have in most federations are cliques from the past who would soon realise that there is a big gulf between being a critic and providing the enabling environment to make sports thrive. What most of these federations’ politicians don’t understand is that the national federations are clearing houses.

    Which of the national federations owns athletes or pays their emoluments? How developed are sporting bodies in the 36 States and Abuja, when compared to the storm associated with the electoral process at the national level, thus far? The states discover, nurture and expose the players, pay the coaches and provide the facilities which they train with. Does any Federation have a sporting complex where athletes train?

    The Sports minister should include in the rules the condition that aspirants must show what they have done for sports at the grassroots. And how well are their states’ associations run?

    There may be some aspirants, such as the new President of the Nigeria Badminton Federation (NBF), Barrister Francis Orbih, who is an Edo State indigene but has developed the game tremendously in Lagos State. In Orbih’s case, Nigeria is his constituency but what he has done explains why lovers of Badminton voted resoundingly for him as the president. The new president has started on an excellent note, with the Lagos International Badminton Classics, which ends today at the Molade Okoya-Thomas Hall of the Teslim Balogun Stadium.

    The transition for badminton is seamless because Orbih has a relationship with sports friendly companies. This relationship is reinforced by the fact that Orbih accounts for cash that he receives. The firms also have returns on their investments, devoid of conflicts among members or allegations of fraud during competitions.

    For Orbih, getting support from firms comes with showing prospecting companies what the federations did in the past. A telephone call from these prospects to those doing business with the federation is the seal for sponsorship.

    Otherwise, what would one say about a new federation boss seeking for take-off grants to run the judo federation at a time when people are canvassing for less involvement of the government in sports? If the judo federation chief had Orbih’s pedigree, he won’t be making such medieval times requests. The government should be involved in providing the facilities and creating the enabling environment for the sporting industry to thrive. Not forgetting the government’s responsibility to bankroll the country’s representatives to international tournaments.

    The President of the Nigeria Judo Federation, NJF, Prince Timothy Nsirim was quoted in the Vanguard to have said: “I want to appeal to the Minister of Sports, Solomon Dalung, to give us take off grants so as to enable us to kick start our programme.

    “I am not only speaking for myself but also for other Federation Presidents, most especially the first timers, because this is not the best time to woo the private sector as majority of them are done with their budgets for the year.”

    “I don’t expect the Minister to give us the grant and go to sleep but to set up a committee to monitor how the grant is spent to ensure accountability,” he said.

    We don’t need federations’ members who cannot think outside the box. We want proactive members who will see the running of the federations from the prism of business albeit building a brand which marketers can package for the corporate world to support.

    There isn’t any sport in the world that isn’t run as a business in countries with administrators who know their onions. Our federations’ chieftains must think of what they can do for sports not what they can get. If they cannot think of what to do, they can seek advice from their continental and international affiliates for the blueprint to make the difference. Otherwise, they should quit for others with the vision for sports to blossom. The government should never spoon-feed any Federation with cash. The members should do the needful. I wonder what they promised during their campaigns. We are tired of having feeding bottle administrators running sports here. It is about time we exploited the marketing windows in sports to run the industry.

    I’m glad the Muhammadu Buhari administration won’t give freebies to indolent sports administrators. I won’t be surprised if Nigeria becomes a pariah sporting nation. Those masquerading as new leaders don’t see the job as a business but one in which they will aspire into federations’ international bodies, even if Nigeria doesn’t participate in competitions.

    I won’t be surprised if Nigerians depart from here to other countries in order to sustain their quest to earn a living from sports. Not many of these members can tell us what they have done for their sports in the states or for their Alma Mater. Who do some of these members know in the corporate world? How do blue-chip firms relate with people who would be seeking their support through proxies? Did I hear you say that era of marketers making more cash than the federations are here? Don’t bet against the fact that some of these marketers will be friends and relations of top members of the federations concerned?

    Not all the new boards will grope in the dark. It is heartening to note that Barrister Wahid Enitan Oshodi participated in the emergence of the new man in the Nigeria Table Tennis Federation (NTTF), Engineer Ishaku Tikon. This means that there is a synergy between the new and the old. We don’t expect any acrimony between the two men just as we anticipate deliberate attempts to sustain the gains of the past.

    Companies sponsoring table tennis will happily consolidate on their contributions, having interfaced with the new helmsman when Oshodi was in charge. The players will have confidence in the new man, who should know that Aruna Quadri needs a competent coach to improve on his game.

    Tikon’s biggest legacy will be to get Quadri a good coach because he can be the world’s best table tennis player. Quadri has beaten most of the good hands. Tears drip down my face anytime he loses matches he should have won, only if he had a good coach. Oshodi has set the template to produce budding stars. I feel strongly that with a good coach, many of the younger players could beat Quadri’s records.

    The emergence of these “feeding bottle” members in the various federations may have put paid to the glorious era of the likes of Reverend Moses Iloh of the then Cycling Federation. In Iloh’s time as the Cycling Federation chairman, he used his clout and influence in the corporate world to fund (and get sponsorships for) the association’s programmes. Cycling became a prominent sport then because of its various events. The federation had a busy calendar. Of course, this came about with the calibre of the chairman. This Reverend gentleman, I can boldly say, positioned his federation to attain glorious heights in the sporting arena.

    Since Iloh left that position, what has happened to the Cycling federation? What has happened to the equipment corporate bodies donated to the association? What has been the calendar of the association? Granted that those types of equipment would have been obsolete by now, but if, had the association had another leader with Iloh’s clout, such equipment would have been replaced by other sponsors.  This explains why we do not need “feeding bottle” members in our sports federations.

    Don’t blame me if I don’t dwell so much on the basketball and athletics federations. I don’t know what the combatants in these two federations want. I can’t understand why they can’t sit in a closet and appreciate the bigger picture – ensuring that Nigeria qualifies for the Olympics. It will be a big shame if Nigeria doesn’t qualify for the men’s basketball event in Tokyo 2020. Our target should be for both the male and female teams to be in Tokyo. That is the proper way to measure growth, going forward.

    For athletics, the stakeholders must return to the era where Americans chased our boys, girls and kids with scholarships, which helped them to improve on their performances. Any athletics body that fails to get an athlete to win an individual gold medal at the Olympics has failed. We achieved that feat in 1996, over 21 years ago.

    One is miffed at how ex-internationals would allow a sport that brought them fame to be enmeshed in needless controversies. One would have thought that with their emergence as members there would be stability in both federations.

    Now that FIBA, the international basketball federation, has given Nigeria till November 30 to resolve her crisis, I hope and pray that national interests will take precedence over administrators’ ego. The dunking game has lately attracted quality sponsors, which should not be diminished because this platform can provide a means of livelihood for all basketball players. It is important to remind those heating up the polity in basketball that Hakeem ‘The Dream’ Olajuwon started his rise to stardom on the courts at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos. This tradition must be sustained, not destroyed.

  • Agenda, corruption, and the law

    A statement by a US senator this week that the US president, Donald Trump should not fire the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions because the Attorney General swore to protect the US constitution and should not be considered by the president as his lawyer, provokes the discussion of today. I want to take this alongside an article by the renowned Development Economist Jeffrey Sachs on CNN this week which noted alarmingly that the US is facing not only the threat to its democracy as identified by the US President Donald Trump in Poland recently on his way to the G20 meeting in Germany, but a greater threat of a ‘’tsunami of unethical activity‘ in the US fuelled by the incumbent US president himself. I want to compare this with the way the Nigerian government is being run by the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo, a law professor, and the Attorney General, Abubakar Malami in the absence of our ailing President Muhammadu Buhari whose mandate or agenda, to all intents and purposes the two Senior Advocates of Nigeria are expected to pursue and implement in his absence.

    Especially as the absent president’s integrity was what made Nigerians to give him the mandate of governance in the 2015 presidential elections and the war against corruption has been his selling point politically and in terms of commitment. Undoubtedly, a discussion like this cannot avoid veering into an examination of the concepts of loyalty, ethics, as well as integrity and constitutionalism. This is because Attorneys General and Acting Presidents don’t just drop from the skies either in the US or Nigeria. They were appointed by the Presidents in both nations as elsewhere globally and are expected to follow the agenda of their bosses at whose discretion and direction they are supposed to perform. Indeed, Jeffrey Sachs article was titled – ‘ On Ethics, Trump is leading America in the wrong direction’.

    Sachs in brief in his article cited examples of recent US Supreme and Appeal Courts rulings reversing guilty verdicts on corrupt US politicians on the amazing grounds that bribes were not bribes according to federal laws in some cases and that certain expenditure on elections did not violate the legal ceilings on such expenditure as such relations were expected between politicians and their constituents in the American democracy. Sachs scoffed at such legal gymnastics which made an ass of the law and said outsiders were astonished at the ethics of US politics especially the sort of lies in the Trump Administration. And that this is really the threat facing the US, and not the survival of civilization that Trump so gleefully highlighted to EU nations in Warsaw.

    Sachs then concluded quite ominously – ‘Donald Trump, you are right. We are indeed fighting for the survival of democracy .And You and the ethical collapse you represent, are our greatest threat.‘ Let me concede that it is difficult to dismiss Sachs observations as mere Anti Trump rhetoric common in the US media nowadays. Although one should point out that what Trump said was that what was at stake for the EU nations was a threat to western civilization and not democracy as Sachs has twisted it, albeit controversially. But in taking on Trump, Sachs has highlighted corruption in high places in the US legal system and that is by far a greater threat than Trump’s irritating but powerful tweets as well as the way and manner he has been harassing his Attorney General and prodding him to prosecute those in the intelligence community who have leaked government information to the press at great cost to national security and public interest. Certainly Trump is right to expect his Attorney General to prosecute those who made the leaks as the Attorney General is his appointee and such leaks are criminal and even treasonable breaches against the state. So, I disagree with the senator who said the AG is not his lawyer.

    As AG and Chief Legal Officer of the US, Sessions acts in that capacity as the government’s agent and that government is headed by the man who appointed him and that is President Trump. If the AG cannot do his bidding he should just quit and go his way. Similarly it is childish for any president to be criticizing his appointee incessantly with tweets as Trump has done with Sessions.

    This violates the ethics of collective responsibility and responsible leadership and makes a mockery and caricature of leadership by example. More so in a leading global democracy like the US. The ideal thing was to fire Sessions for poor or nonperformance as the buck stops on the US president’s desk in their presidential system which Trump has ridiculed immensely with many nuisance tweet tirades fit only for the market place in most instances. The saying that who pays the piper dictates the tune is surely applicable in any government including that of even Donald Trump and he should as they say in civil service parlance, do the needful on Sessions and get on with his mandate.

    Quite interestingly and unexpectedly, the Nigerian political situation presents a loftier spectacle to the‘ tsunami of unethical activity‘ in the US highlighted by Jeffry Sachs. Indeed the immediate contrast is that while the American president has been verbally violent with tweets against friends and foes alike, the Nigerian president has been silenced by illness but not sidelined as the prosecution of the war against corruption continues unabated. And that is because of the commitment and loyalty of the Acting President and the Nigerian Attorney General.

    That really is a lesson for the American political system to learn from Nigeria no matter how painful they may feel about it. Nigeria may be the most corrupt place to practice democracy in the world but its leaders for now have not shot themselves in the leg or set the house on fire in the absence of their president. Indeed you may say that while the US has a tsunami of unethical activity, in Nigeria’s case it is sheer tsunami of looting and embezzlement by politicians who cannot however claim ever like Trump that they want to make Nigeria great again. Indeed the clarion cry in Nigeria could be –Make Nigeria Clean, if you can -, but unfortunately the person with the mandate or agenda to do that is quite indisposed. Yet it has not been a case of if the cat is not around mice would play as events involving both the Acting President and Nigerian AG have shown so far in the president’s absence, especially in the prosecution of the war against corruption. It is not as if the war against corruption is going on smoothly in Nigeria.

    It is not because of the man – made mines and political booby traps set on its path to derail it. Especially as corruption is fighting back furiously and its agents, if wishes were horses will reduce themselves to beggars to ride cars in the hope that the president does not get well or get back to his post. But they are not God and God cannot support looters and thieves at the expense of the larger society and our general welfare. What Sachs has shown on corruption in the US judiciary is a tip of the iceberg when compared with what we see going on in our judiciary. It also shows that even in the comity of nations, and in terms of ethics in the US, the rich also cry. Which in a way means that we must appreciate the efforts of the two leaders also SANs who have kept the war on corruption going in the absence of our President. Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

  • New dawn for African soccer

    New dawn for African soccer

    Soccer is an enchanting game. You get hooked unwittingly, after a passing interest. What pulls the faithful to the beautiful game is the passion. The ecstasy of the crowd; the noise when players exhibit incredible skills. The roof tops are almost blown off when goals are scored.

    Scoring of goals is the crescendo of the game. You cannot miss backslaps and hugs among supporters. And the celebration styles are enthralling, although such celebrations could end in a fiasco, if the losing sides have drunken members.

    The game is exciting because the organisers always have innovations to reduce some of the complaints from the fans. New rules, such as goal-line technology, golden goal, Video Assistant Referees (VAR) e.t.c, have been introduced to remove some of the contending problems inherent in the game.

    For example, the goal-line technology has helped the English game since FIFA introduced it. The Video Assistant Referees (VAR) model helped to correct certain human errors committed by referees, even as some of those controversial situations happened in flashes faster than what the human eye could comprehend. When the VAR overruled some of the referees’ faults at the Confederations Cup held in Russia, everyone applauded, with many federations asking for the use of the gadget during matches across the globe. Need I remind you about such referees’ oversights at the Confederations Cup, which Germany won by beating Chile 1-0?

    With the game gradually been embraced by most nations, it is no surprise that there are presently 211 nations under the umbrella of the Federation of International Football Associations (FIFA). There are a few other nations waiting to satisfy some of the stringent conditions put before them by FIFA chiefs, such that the rules are the same for all federations.

    Interestingly, big nations where the game was hitherto being played as a novelty have joined the league of soccer-playing nations by first hosting the senior World Cup or developmental competitions organised by FIFA to get their citizenry to embrace the game.

    Hosting of the World Cup by the Americans in 1994 raised the awareness in that part of the world; now United States citizens can be found playing the game in other nations. The game has undergone a massive improvement after the 2002 Japan/Korea Cup, with Asian business moguls and their firms virtually funding some of the biggest English clubs.

    Aside the presence of Asian kids playing the game in many countries, Asians have built on soccer’s popularity to market their goods and services.

    With this influx has come the need to restructure the game’s competitions at all levels. FIFA, the world body, has remodeled its competition structures to include more nations. This has enhanced FIFA’s finances, increased funding from various marketing windows, and boosted revenues of citizens where major competitions have been played beyond just raising the awareness of the world to the game which Brazil great Pele, once described as beautiful.

    FIFA chieftains have accepted to increase the 32-nations structure, beginning with the Qatar 2022 edition. More countries will be representing their federations, unlike in the past where it was termed an elitist group. Indeed, Nigeria’s football changed for good after we qualified for our first World Cup. We have not grown as expected because of our refusal to respect certain ingredients of the game that enhance growth.

    Nigerian administrators’ penchant for doing things the Nigerian way has greatly brought the game to its feet here. In fact, soccer would have been moribund, like most things in Nigeria, but for the fact that FIFA’s rules are such that they must be respected much to the annoyance of those who feel that the sovereignty of any nation should tower above FIFA’s rules.

    Most of FIFA’s innovations have helped developing nations, such as ours. There have been blatant attempts to destroy changes that have worked in other climes have only been actualised in Nigeria, for instance, after threats of FIFA bans. Yet, there are interferences from sports ministers who would rather dictate what happens at the Glasshouse in Abuja than seek for ways to get the corporate world to embrace sports, such that the maintenance and refurbishing of major sporting structures are done by these thriving firms.  Today, nothing works in Nigeria, largely due to the refusal of our sports ministers to encourage the state governments to see the benefits of making sports a business where only those with the capacity to rebuild the sporting sphere to attract blue chip businesses, which will identify their goods and services with repackaged sporting brands like it is being done elsewhere.

    The world won’t wait for us, hence the need to applaud the repackaged Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) for deeming it fit to embrace the 24-nation structure for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations. Africa has been stuck in the old format because its previous leadership refused to embrace changes that were adopted by FIFA and UEFA. The world expects certain countries to make such tournaments as the World Cup tick. Debutants in World Cup in the last 10 editions have come to surprise older football nations, with such examples as Nigeria beating Bulgaria 3-0 in 1994, only for the Bulgarians to be placed third at the end of the competition. Senegal, also in her first appearance, qualified for the quarter-finals, having beaten some big football nations, enroute getting to that position. It will be sacrilegious not to acknowledge what Cameroon did at the World Cup, with Roger Milla being the oldest player at the Italia 1990 World Cup.

    The new CAF 24-nation format for the Africa Nations Cup competition in 2019 opens fresh windows for some sleeping African nations to reinvent their squads to qualify for the next edition. Had CAF embraced this 24-nation format, perhaps the Egyptians wouldn’t have been part of the unenviable historical record of not qualifying for three consecutive editions of AFCON, after winning the competition’s trophy three times on the trot.

    I’m glad that the new CAF board members are eager to emulate some of FIFA’s and UEFA’s rennovations. It won’t be long before Africa witnesses regional AFCON involving closely linked African nations. It has been a while since after the 2000 AFCON co-hosted by Nigeria and Ghana, where the Indomitable Lions beat Super Eagles in the finals on penalty shootout. Goalkeeper Ike Shorunmu hasn’t forgotten the nightmarish experience of seeing the ball slip through his legs for Cameroon’s first goal inside the now derelict National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos.

    League Management Company (LMC) boss ShehuDikko told this writer in Rabat, Morocco on Wednesday that the VAR will be used during the domestic matches later this year, once FIFA gives the gadgets to affiliate federations.

    Rabat in Morocco

     

    Of what use would it be to anyone here, if I said that we have not experienced any power outage in Rabat, Morocco. Would it shock anybody if I also said that KekeMarwa and Okada as means of transportation don’t exist in Morocco? Is it right to tell anyone here that the rail system thrives in Morocco? I wonder what our leaders see when they leave our country.

    Staying at The View Hotel in Rabat has been revealing. State-of-the-art facilities at affordable rates raise the poser of how much it could cost anyone in Nigeria to stay in such a place. How many hotels in Nigeria have pressing iron and boards for guests to do their laundry, for those who cannot afford the hotel’s rates?

    In Morocco, life is easy.

    And this…

     

    Travelling from Casablanca to Rabat on Monday morning didn’t come without an intriguing story, although many people would be wondering why I mentioned it.

    The distance between Casablanca and Rabat is one hour by road. But that isn’t the story. With less than 30 minutes to Rabat, the luxury bus taking us to Rabat had a flat tyre.

    Ordinarily, that shouldn’t be a problem, but it was as we spent two hours waiting for someone who also could replace the tyre.

    The bus driver, surprisingly, didn’t know where the spare tyre was. He called his colleague who didn’t know.

    As things were playing out, my mind raced back to Nigeria. Such a problem wouldn’t have been a big deal, since there would have been many vulcanisers who would have tyre jacks to do the job in record time.

    Not so on this day in Rabat, with many of us inside the bus sleeping, having left Nigeria at 4am for Casablanca.

    Respite came for us after two hours when one of the conference buses conveying the South African delegation picked us up.

    Aside, not knowing where the spare trye was, the driver didn’t know where to get the tools for the job.

    What was clear to us was that the driver was a volunteer, whose duty was to convey guests from one point to the other. The volunteer’s conduct during the distress period was marvelous.

    As the clock ticked, he brought his fruits bag to give us what we wanted. He pleaded for understanding. We saw him making frantic calls for a relief bus to take us out of the place.

    When the bus came, the driver literarily jumped for joy as he ran from one bus to the other moving our bags for the homeward trip to Rabat.

  • Politics, leadership and destiny

    GIVEN the spate of speculation on the state of the health of the Nigerian president nowadays I think it is time to look at the issue of destiny and how it affects political leadership in the conduct of the affairs of state. Quite convenient and relevant in this regard is the fact that the ailing Nigerian president is on record as having lamented publicly before, why God has made him president at this time which was an indirect reference to the poor health that has dogged his presidency. That really is the import of destiny in the discussion of today’s topic. Destiny or fate is like the blind lady that depicts justice and deals it out blindly not seeing or knowing who is brought to justice as she wields her legendary sword. Today then we look at the impact of destiny on world affairs both locally in Nigeria and Africa and historically in the world at large.

    In Britain this week, we see, rather amazingly, a modern example of a drunk electorate waking up with a hangover of the Brexit referendum and trying to retrace its steps and avoid the result of implementing what it had voted for with its eyes wide open, and examine the role of its neighbor France in the matter.

    We then look at the collaboration between France and the US on the war against terrorism and the import of that for Africa. First we go back to Nigeria to look at how destiny has affected the conduct of a government that came in on a note of optimism and hope based on the victory of our sick president who had lost presidential elections thrice before being lucky to be elected massively by Nigerians in the 2015 presidential elections.

    In a way destiny has caught up with the leadership of the Nigerian government in several ways. Aside from the president whose health has prevented him from enjoying or fulfilling his mandate to clean the Augean stable of Nigerian politics, the Acting President too is a product of enduring destiny. It is an open secret that the former Governor of Lagos state Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was to be Vice President on the APC ticket but for the objection to the Muslim – Muslim ticket and it was Tinubu himself who recommended the Acting President-AP- as his replacement on the ticket as acknowledged by the AP himself. Undoubtedly the AP has acquitted himself successfully in office to the admiration of all Nigerians and in spite of the flurry of abuses hauled on him by those who accuse him of not saying the truth on the state of the health of his boss after declaring that the president will soon resume after visiting him in the UK.

    But there is no denying that as destiny has incapacitated the president in terms of health when the nation most needed him and his reputation to clean the polity, the same fate has been kinder to the AP than the two most famous Nigerian leaders from his catchment area, the South West, namely the immortal sage Obafemi Awolowo and the AP’s mentor Asiwaju Tinubu. Both leaders of the illustrious Yoruba race never made it to the presidency in which Osinbajo is the AP with such admirable unobtrusiveness and high quality level headedness. That again is the handiwork of destiny which is still unfolding as the saga of the absentee president unfolds daily in our now restive political system. In the case of France the US, the UK and the global war against terrorism and Africa, we look to history to explain the import of destiny on contemporary events in these nations this week.

    On Brexit it was speculated authoritatively this week that the French are out to make Brexit a hard realty for the UK especially as it seems the British are about to make a U- turn on the Brexit result which is a cause being championed this week by former PM Tony Blair. But the French have always had an axe to grind with the English long before Brexit and very much during the time of former French President Charles de Gaulle who did not allow Britain to join the European Community at the outset. De Gaulle’s grouse could be rooted in the innocent killing of over 1000 French sailors and the destruction of the French fleet by the British Navy in 1940 on the instruction of British War PM Winston Churchill who felt that the Vichy regime would allow Hitler the use of the French fleet against Britain in theMediterranean sector of World War 2.

    The attack happened on July 3 at Mers EL Kebr on the coast of French Algeria and resulted in the death of 1297 French servicemen, the sinking of a battle ship and the damaging of five other ships. Obviously the death of those innocent Frenchmen led to a rupture in relations between Vichy France and the UK but the tragedy convinced the US to give military and financial aid to Britain as US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt felt it showed clearly that Churchill was ready to fight Hitler to death by all means.

    This week’s French animosity on Brexit and its implementation in a hard way is therefore a reminder of an ancient feud between the two closest European nations of modern times. Lastly the relations between France and the US seems to be heading for a positive result in terms of the wiping out of ISIS and of course our Boko Haram. Collaboration with Russia on this in the Middle East especially in Syria seem destined to wipe out global terrorism or at least minimize it. Trump’s bull in the China shop diplomacy amongst the Arab states which has isolated Qatar seem to be yielding some dividend as negotiations continue to put pressure on that nation to stop supporting ISIS, Hizbollah and Hamas and to stop its hobnobbing with Iran, the nation most feared by the west for the sponsorship of global terrorism. Although two presidents of US and France are differ in the manner of the age of their spouses they have a meaningful and positive attitude in their diplomacy on fighting global terrorism.

    Trump is married to a wife old enough to be his daughter, while the French president’s wife is old enough to be his mother. Yet both leaders have jelled in the way they have taken the fight to the lion’s den of global terrorism . Trump has set the Arabs against each other from his recent visit to Saudi Arabia. Macron made a visit to Mali his first state visit and has secured funds from his government and the EU to fund a multinational armed group to fight in the Sahel and on the fringes of the Sahara from where terrorists roam and flee into the north of west Africa to wreak havoc like Boko Haram has done defiantly in our vast but poorly populated north east for a long time. One can only pray for a fruitful collaboration between these two unusual world leaders to make the world safe for all of us as they pursue their unexpected mandates based on their equally unexpected emergence on the world stage in consonance with their unusual pedigree and leadership destinies. Once again long live the federal republic of Nigeria.

  • Geopolitics, history and civilisation

    THE visit of the US President Donald Trump to France to commemorate the French Independence Day of July 14, the day the Bastille was stormed in 1789, trigerring the historical French Revolution is remarkable in many respects.

    These are in terms of the history and geopolitics of the EU and the US as well as the resonant and reverberating effect of that on global diplomacy peace and stability in our world today. Here in Nigeria a reaction to my column of last week called Acting President Yemi Osinbajo [the AP] the ’Gorbachev‘ of Nigeria and I want to take issues with that today in the context of today’s topic. Donald Trump’s visit to France this week to mark the anniversary of the French Revolution of 1789 should be viewed not only in contemporary terms but also historically to appreciate its immense significance. This is especially necessary since the media hostile to the US president have seen the visit and the utterances of the American president on French soil as conflicting with his presidential campaign rhetoric on France. Similarly it is important to examine the unique election of the new French president in terms of French history, since his election has been hailed as the Second French Revolution by the leading world media led by Time Magazine. It is my contention today that the description of Macron’s election in comparison with the original French Revolution was an exaggeration.

    This is because the French Revolution threw up a leader for France and that leader Napoleon Bonaparte [1769 – 1821 ] is head and shoulders above both Donald Trump and Emanuel Macron and that unusual as the elections of both were in their two nations, Napoleon’s legacy should drive the way in which both seek to lead the world after their meeting this week in Paris. A brief narration on Napoleon’s legacy will show the way on how that legacy built our world and civilization as we know it today. Napoleon was an Army Officer who came into power in 1799 in a military coup during the French Revolution and was Emperor of France from 1804 to 1814. He was a soldier born in Ajaccio on the Medoterranean Island of Corsica which was ceded to France a year before he was born which meant he had his first loyalty to his native town before he became a French soldier.

    That simple event dogged his early life as he furthered his military career amongst royalists, revolutionaries and nationalists and he had to know when to dine and flee amongst the three groups in the extremely bloody environment of the French revolution from 1789 to 1799. But Napoleon survived and went on to become First Consul for life and used plebiscites to establish his dictatorship until the French so trusted him and relied on him for their security such that he made himself Emperor of France in the presence of the Pope in an era in which the Church was the state while the monarchy had been decimated by the French Revolution. Nevertheless it is Napoleon’s legacy as a military and political leader that attracts our attention today.

    Historians, great ones at that, have conceded that all the trappings of civilization that we enjoy today in the modern world came from the rule of Napoleon after the French Revolution. Napoleon instituted meritocracy, equality before the law, religious tolerance, property rights, secular education, and the codification of laws called the Napoleonic Code and spread these in all parts of Europe and the world that he conquered in his many battles and invasions during his life.

    Napoleon also introduced rational and efficient local governments, stopped rural banditry, encouraged the arts and culture, promoted scientific research, and spread his Napoleon Codes every where there was French rule in his time. Equally and importantly he tried to strangle France’s major enemy the English by attempting to cut off England from having access to its rich colony India by capturing Egypt but was defeated by Admiral Horatio Nelson at the Battle of Trafalgar and later by the Duke of Wellington at Waterloo. So, how then can we compare the two leaders of France and the US with the legacy of Napoleon Bonaparte without conceding that the hood does not make the monk? But then that is a set task for today.

    First let us look at the state of the politics and culture of both nations today as these two are sufficient to see us through any fair comparison in terms of relative and global civilization. The two nations face the terrorism of ISIS but are confronting it differently because of their politics. Donald Trump is trying to block Muslims from entering the US and for now the Supreme Court has given him the green light for sometime on that. But France cannot do that ever because colonization and the French policy of acculturation has opened France up to Islam such that France has the largest population of Muslims in Europe today. Indeed Macron was elected on the fear of Brexit and the prospect that migrants would be expelled like Trump was threatening in the US. Yet France has had the worst types of terrorist attacks in Europe in recent times.

    The French see the election of Macron as the victory of tolerance and accommodation in civil society but really I see a surrender of the French state to hostile forces that have penetrated Europe and France in particular in terms of labor, capital, talent, religion, and technology. Again let us look at culture and especially religion and its state in both France and the US. In fact feminism has taken over the high point of the social and political life in both nations. Both nations practice and recognize gay rights and marriages.

    In the US the Obama Administration called the endorsement of gay rights by the US Supreme Court as a major achievement of its tenure while in France the gay marriage bill was endorsed before a belated massive demonstration against it took place in Paris. Nowadays it is difficult for any politician in either nation to get elected without overt endorsement of gay rights and feminism. Yet this is a major axe that not only the bloody ISIS but also China and Russia the two nations that are about to take leadership of the world from the US, EU and NATO have to grind with the western world. I presume this was what Donald Trump had in mind when he said in Poland on his way to the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany that what was at stake is the fate of Western Civilisation. In addition Christianity is dwindling in Christian Europe France and the US but the freedom of worship and religion is still a well observed tenet of the law in these nations .

    In a democracy of demography of one man one vote it is not difficult to see the looming power shift in western democracies as the election of the Mayor of London has shown quite recently. Surely Western Civilisation may be about to stew in its own urine politically, demographically and religiously and Donald Trump’s alarm may have come too late. Anyway I make bold to say the wily and innovative Napoleon in his time would have seen that well in advance and strategized against in the interest of his beloved France. Lastly, an sms from phone number 234701117902 sent by Dr Ekeanyawu, Imo State to me reads thus –‘ you concluded your Saturday JUNE 8 2017 commentary with Long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    I pity you because Nigeria is history already. Osinbajo will be the Gorbachev of Nija zoo soon. He will be in Abuja speaking to no one. And for the igbos in the north, the quit notice means nothing. Those who gave the ultimatum will be the ones that will be on the run if they make the costly mistake of killing any Igbo come Oct 1 ‘- My reaction to this sms is that I definitely disagree that the Acting President will be the Gorbachev of Nigeria because he has said the unity of Nigeria is not negotiable and I believe the government is capable of implementing and sustaining that no matter whose ox is gored. In addition when the Soviet Union broke into its constituent 15 states under Gorbachev, no lives were lost unlike the Balkans in the nineties when there was bloodshed and genocide. That will not happen in Nigeria by God’s grace. I have in recent times been ending this column with the phrase – long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria – before the calls for expulsion and secession gathered momentum and cacophony in our polity and will not be deterred from doing so. Especially today, which happens to be my birthday. Once again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.