The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

Before the next pilgrimage

CAN anyone please come forward with facts and figures on the dividends of state-sponsored pilgrimage? I will speak only for myself. Beyond a few goldcoloured teeth here and there, the title of JP (for Jerusalem Pilgrim) or an appellation announcing that you have indeed visited the holy land, branded caps, some rare souvenir grains and not a few inflated egos, there is little else to justify the billions of taxpayers’ cash shoveled into the

annual pilgrimage ritual. Saudi Arabians and Israelis, who cope with the horde of the world’s pilgrims every year, including a significant mass from Nigeria, love their well-ordered countries. The Saudis relish their functional infrastructure. The Israelis pride themselves on the transformation of a once arid land

into a green, prosperous nation. What do their Nigerian guests thump their chests for? Pretty little, indeed. And what do the state governments, which sponsor them, celebrate? Um, um and more um! That is why the Akinwunmi Ambode administration in Lagos State deserves praise, as does the Abubakar Bello government in Niger State. Lagos announced this week that it will no longer pay out state money to pilgrims going

to Mecca or Jerusalem. Similar words have also issued from Minna, the Niger State capital.

It is about time, too. Every year the states, from Sokoto to Bayelsa, fork out billions of nairas covering pilgrims’ flight

tickets, meals and whatnot on a religious exercise that is purely and exclusively personal. One unconfirmed report

said that Niger State paid as much as over N5b in such sponsorship in one year just over two back. Governor Bello

has questioned the logic in paying as much as N1m per pilgrim per year. Governor Ambode has similar worries.

They are both right. Such cash from across the states in one year over five years would probably be enough to scale

back the infrastructure deficits that have made nonsense of the entire country and its people. There are no clean public water sources to speak of. Therefore, youths have no idea what a public tap looks like. Most borehole facilities are no more than deep wells whose water is not fit for drinking.

Any wonder why water-borne diseases ravage the country? Roads remain woeful, in fact, public enemy No 1. It is

doubtful if the hospitals are any better than mere consulting clinics, as someone labelled them years ago. It is also

beyond debate that in the clinics these days, the consultants are few and far between considering the huge number of ailing people seeking diagnoses and treatment. Public school infrastructure has so decayed that almost everyone

wants to have as little as possible to do with them. But the tragedy is that the private institutions, except those of the

rich churches, are also decaying, leaving one with hardly any choice as to which to send one’s kids, that is, supposing

the cash were there.

Apart from the woeful infrastructure narrative, the states are broke, unable to pay monthly salaries, an obligation

that is otherwise basic. This required the painful intervention of the newly-formed Buhari administration which had

to bail out the cash-strapped constituents. Even in the best of times, all the states had was little more than the federal

government would allocate from the oil cash vault. Now the central government is struggling for breath, its oil revenue

down to a mere pittance. To whom will the states run for cash?

As in almost everything Nigerian, opinions are divided as to whether or not Government should stop the pilgrimage

sponsorship. So many want it to stop but some also made a case for its perpetuity. Olumba Olumba Obu,

leader of the Brotherhood of the Star and Crescent, reportedly wants Government to keep sponsoring pilgrims but

he also wants the pilgrim contingent to be expanded and diversified to include worshippers of other religions, not

merely Christians and Muslims. O. O. O. did not, however, name the other faithful he deemed deserving of the sponsorship cover, nor did he mention which destination they would be headed in the event of their inclusion in the

annual party.

Another pro-sponsorship respondent was quoted as essentially arguing that pilgrims go to the holy lands to

pray and renew their spirituality, a disposition that enhances their prayers and makes for a better country.

While it is impossible for me to make light of the efficacy of prayer or of its national value, I think it is incontestable

that ours remains a very religiously volatile nation, in which we often hack down one another on matters relating

to faith and ethnicity. As I tapped out this piece, a colleague called on the telephone to report one of such clashes in a

part of the country whose soil has soaked much of its inhabitants’ blood.

I am persuaded that if our faith is any good or better, it is not because Government pays our way to Mecca or

Jerusalem. Neither is our interpersonal relationship or national cohesion any smoother on account of the annual

flight to other people’s lands. For Muslims, the pilgrimage is only the fifth obligation;

even then, it is for those who can afford it, not those who rely on state sponsorship. For Christians, it is not mentioned

at all. Also, after doling all that money, Government commits much resources into ensuring through talks and

workshops that the pilgrims do not defect or annoy their hosts in any way especially by breaking their laws.

Before the next pilgrims’ flight to Mecca or Jerusalem, every state government should hands off all pilgrimages

and make some restitution even if only by a public broadcast saying they are sorry for wasting the people’s money

for so long

March 12, 2016
Soyinka, Nietzsche and Odia Ofeimun’s quest for Ogun (2)

In the first essay in Odia Ofeimun’s book, ‘In Search of Ogun: Soyinka in spite of Nietzsche’, discussed last week, the poet and essayist, Odia Ofeimun, undertook through a critical analysis of the works of Wole Soyinka his quest for Ogun. We interpreted this as part of a wider and deeper search to rediscover the indigenous spiritual, cultural and knowledge systems that had been largely eroded, discredited and distorted by the violent contact with foreign cultures, values and exploitative economic systems. His second essay in the book, ‘Wole Soyinka: The Writer as Cultural Hero’ was delivered at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, to commemorate Soyinka’s 70th birthday. Perhaps because he delivered the lecture at a foremost citadel of learning named after Awolowo, Ofeimun chose to compare and contrast the similarities and differences of the literary and artistic aesthetics of Soyinka with the political vision, values and ideas of Awolowo. A key factor that emerges from Ofeimun’s discourse is that Awolowo had as much impact on the literary, cultural and artistic terrain particularly of western Nigeria as Soyinka has had on the politics of Nigeria.

Ironically, the wily ‘Maradona’ of Nigerian politics, General Ibrahim Babaginda, had shortly after coming to power in 1985 described Awolowo, some say patronisingly, as being the main issue in post-independence Nigerian politics. It is difficult to say how the relationship between Awolowo and Babangida would have evolved if the sage had lived longer to see how the military regime was turning out. Soyinka initially agreed to put his expertise at the service of the nation by helping to curb the horrendous loss of lives on our roads as head of a widely acclaimed Federal Roads Safety Corp (FRSC under Babangida). The radical playwright, however, soon became a fierce adversary of the General when his annulment of the June 12, 1993, presidential election made it obvious that he indeed had no plans to relinquish power to a democratically elected civilian-led administration. But then, as emerges from Ofeimun’s narrative, Soyinka as an impassioned fighter for justice with an instinctual understanding of the dynamics of power and politics, can also be rightly described as a central figure in Nigeria’s political evolution and one of the key shapers of the country’s political history.

Justifying his decision to focus on these two iconic figures of Nigeria’s artistic and political terrains, respectively, Ofeimun argues that “My tack is simply to relate Soyinka’s performance to the politician who in my view has come closest to being the man of mind and action in Nigerian politics. Described by the journalist, Dan Agbese, of Newswatch and echoed by ex-Biafran leader Odumegwu Ojuwku, as the best President Nigeria never had, Awolowo has a centrality to the national argument which makes him the most consistent reference point for serious engagement with national questions. A lot, I insist, is to be gained by relating Soyinka’s artistic performance to what may be called Awolowo’s politic;l reason”.

Ofeimun argues that while Soyinka has consistently and easily been the face of the moral opposition to tyranny in post-independence Nigeria, Awolowo has been both the de facto and de jure leader of the political opposition against Nigeria’s tyrannies. The sage’s influence still looms large on the country’s political stage long after his death. Both Awolowo and Soyinka both served unjust prison terms at different times because of their principled commitment to justice, good governance and the rule of law in the face of conscienceless and malevolent civilian and military despotisms. The two men have written copiously on Nigerian politics, society and economy within their respective spheres of the artistic and the political. As Ofeimun graphically puts it: “Soyinka’s two deathless aphorisms: that justice is the first condition of humanity; and that the man dies in all who keep quiet in the face of tyranny can serve as caption for their civic practices. The aphorisms square with Awolowo’s quote that it is not life that matters but the courage you bring into it”.

Interestingly, Ofeimun takes on the Afrocentric polemicists like Chinweizu and his self-styled ‘Bolekaja’ collaborators who stridently accused writers like Soyinka, J.P. Clark, Mike Echeruo and Chris Okigbo among others of exhibiting too much Euro modernist influences to the detriment of African culture in their works. According to Ofeimun, “What is African to the troika is not exactly clear from the nebula of representations that they project as a basis for the assault on Euro-modernists. Nor do they address the problem of how one should view those elements that are to be found in the European traditions and the pre-colonial traditions of many societies. Impliedly, they give these elements away as factors of European influence, thus leaving to Africa’s heritage a more constricted room for self-defence against the widening gyre of western hegemony”.

Of course, it is difficult to disagree with Ofeimun’s critique in this regard. Several studies have demonstrated that Soyinka’s works are deeply influenced by his native Yoruba language and culture. Indeed, he translated Fagunwa’s novel, ‘Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Olodumare’ into English (A Forest of A Thosand Daemons) – a feat impossible without deep immersion in and familiarity with Yoruba cosmological universe and idioms. Even then, as Soyinka himself has argued, he does not have to deny other influences on him beyond his Yoruba milieu for the absolutely needless objective of proving his ‘negritude’. Interestingly, there is also, Ofeimun demonstrates, a nexus between Soyinka’s artistic and literary universalism that does not compromise his African cultural authenticity and Awolowo’s own ideas for language and development in the country’s educational policy.

In Ofeimun’s words, “None of our languages has a proper conversation, through translation, with the European languages that dominate the world’s knowledge industries and airwaves. The consequence is that we are light years away from the dream of one of our founding fathers, Obafemi Awolowo, who set out believing that if education was given to all with speed, we could arrive at a plateau of development upon which all knowledge(s) of the English language would be domesticated in the indigenous languages and all the knowledge(s) in the indigenous languages would be transferred to the English language. What a rounded personality that could have placed at the centre of our national identity”!

The author demonstrates this thesis when in the last essay on ‘Taking Naija-movies to the next level’, he decides to address his audience of the country’s leading lights in the film industry through the medium of Soyinka’s collection of poems – ‘SAMARKAND And Other Markets I Have Known’. Now, this is a collection I had mostly had problems deciphering the Nobel laureate’s rather obscure and dense imagery. Yet, in Ofeimun’s presentation, many of them actually became lucid, accessible and a joy to read. The author believes that such works and other classics would actually be more readable and accessible to a wider public only if we had a viable translation industry and critical publishing infrastructure that makes books available in our indigenous languages. Ofeimun certainly raises in this book issues critical to our quest for mental emancipation, cultural liberation and accelerated national development as a people.

March 12, 2016
Odua group, South West and regional integration

At a meeting of the five governors of Oyo, Ondo, Ogun, Osdun and Ekkiti states in January, the historic decision was taken to admit Lagos State into the Odua Investment Group of companies as the sixth member state. The Special Adviser to the Lagos State Governor on overseas affairs and investment, Professor Abass Adewole, was spot on when he said “The admission of Lagos into the group is not just a promotion for the state but also the completion of Oodua itself. I am happy that Lagos has finally joined the Oodua group, which can now say it is complete. With a population of about 22 million people and N136 billion GDP and the fact that 95 per cent of Foreign Direct Investment comes to Lagos, the state is expected to be a hub. We are hoping that other Southwest states can start thinking of regional infrastructural development”. Incidentally, this column had made a case for strengthening the Oodua group and for Lagos to join the conglomerate on January 11, 2014. I reproduce the piece today to refresh our memories.

This column makes a distinction between regional integration and regionalism. The former is a necessary condition for national economic revival and development. It refers to spatially contiguous states leveraging informally on their collective resources to elevate their economies and the well- being of their people. Dr Alex Ekueme has in this respect done us an invaluable service by coming up at the 2005 national conference with the six-zone concept- South-West, South-East, South-South, North-West, North-East and North-Central.

Regionalism on the other hand is the illusory, even hallucinatory, notion that Nigeria can ever go back to the regional structure of the first republic. The present states have come to stay. In the South-West for instance the pressure for the creation of Ijebu and Ibadan states remain as intense as ever. It is the same story across the country. Anybody who believes that the current states will ever subsume their autonomy to some regional authority is utterly deluded. Rather there will be continued pressure for the creation of more states.

In any case it makes absolutely no economic sense to seek to create an additional layer of government at the regional levelwith the attendant administrative and logistical costs. Nigeria is already one of the most over-administered territories in the world with much of the resources that ought to go to improving the well- being populace being gulped up by administrators at the varying levels of government.

But geographically contiguous zones can plan and harness their resources to accelerate their development and elevate the country’s overall economic performance. It is not surprising in this respect that the governors of the South-West have been most vocal in articulating the imperative of regional economic integration. Yet it would appear to me that these governors have paid more of lip service to the concept and have not taken concrete action towards genuine regional economic integration.

On the issue of regional integration, the South-West governors certainly do not need to re-invent the wheel. The great sage, Chief ObafemiAwolowo, had already laid a firm foundation for the region in this respect. For those who do not have the time or patience to read Awolowo’s major works (although it is a most worthwhile investment) I suggest OlufemiOgunsanwo’s racy and thrilling book ‘AWO: UNFINISHED GREATNESS’.

As this book shows, the current Odu’a group of companies is a an agglomeration of several companies formed by the Awolowo administration in the western region including the Western Nigerian Development Corporation (WNDC), the Finance Corporation, the Western Nigeria Housing Corporation and the Western Nigeria Ministry of Industries.

It is instructive that The Economist magazine, the unrepentant and ideologically bankrupt mouth piece of neo-liberal capitalism, on June 21 and October 13, 2012, published cover stories titled ‘The rise of state capitalism’ and ‘True progressivism’ respectively. Not even this bastion of journalistic conservatism can deny that neo-liberal capitalism is in deep trouble globally and the quest for material gratification by a few must be balanced by a humane consideration for the welfare of the majority if human society is to survive.

Yet, Awolowo, an accomplished Keynesian economist, had realized as far back as the 1950s that aggressive state investment is a necessary condition for rapid economic development especially where you have a weak indigenous capital base. The neo-liberal notion that companies perform poorly because they are publicly owned is absolute nonsense. It is not a question of ownership but one of work culture and ethics. The tragic fate of Nigeria’s privately owned failed banks amply demonstrates this.

Let me quote extensively from OlufemiOgunsanwo’s book to demonstrate my point: “WNDC spread its tentacles to manufacturing, banking, insurance, hotels and catering, property development and real estate. It floated a large number of companies and industries wholly owned by government or held in partnership with several foreign investors. To give a few examples, it set up the National Bank of Nigeria, Wema Bank, the Nigeria General Insurance Company, Great Nigeria Insurance Company, GravilEnthoven and Company, Lagos Airport Hotel, Vegetables oil, Cocoa Industries, Odu’a textiles, Wrought Iron Ltd, Union Beverages Ltd, Sungas Company, Wemabod Estates, Western Livestock, Fisheries Services Ltd, Caxton Press, Epe Plywood, Askar Paints, Nigerian Crafts and Bags Ltd, Nipol Plastics, Phoenix Motors and several others. More than half of these companies are still viable today and have been consolidated in the Odu’a Group of companies, the largest conglomerate in the history of Nigeria with total assets in excess of 10 trillion Naira in 2004”.

What have succeeding generations made of this illustrious legacy? It is a tragedy that it has been largely squandered particularly during the military era and the PDP years of the locustsin the South West. Yes, the immediate past Chairman of Odu’a Group, AlhajiSharafadeen and the Group Managing Director, Alhaji Adebayo Jimoh, deserve commendation for consolidating on the strength of the Group especially in the area of property development. However, it would appear to me that the current South West Governors are not paying sufficient attention to the Odu’a Group as a principal medium for regional economic integration and development.

Let me take the Lagos Airport Hotel (LAHL) as just one example. Established in 1942, it is easily the oldest hotel in the country. My investigations reveal that it is one of the major revenue earners of the Odu’a Group. It occupies a space that would be the envy of any other hotel. The LAHL has the only Olympic size swimming pool in Lagos apart from the National Stadium. One of Nigeria’s leading public intellectuals, for instance, said a few years ago in an interview that “When my wife visits from England she wakes up at six o’clock and starts bothering me about going for breakfast., because she loves the indigenous food and so she will rather stay in LAHL than any other hotel”. The hotel has a peculiar brand of its own.

Yet, the truth is that the J.K. Adenigba- led management team of the hotel is only striving to squeeze water out of stone or turn stone to bread. That the LAHL is able to hold its own in the face of fierce competition from foreign competition in the industry is a testimony to the acumen of its management and the dedication of its staff. But the South-West Governors must take decisive action in investing adequately to upgrade facilities in the hotel and boost staff morale. The same goes for the Premier as well as Lafia Hotels both members of the Odu’a Group based in Ibadan. Minimal investment in such ‘low hanging fruits’ will yield maximum revenue for the benefit of the region.

The Odu’a Group in my view already provides a solid base for economic integration and development in the South-West. But the region’s governors must be more determined to revitalise the group, realize the vision of its founding fathers and transform it into a Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) for regional transformation. And why for God’s sake is Lagos State not part of the Odu’a Group?

March 12, 2016
Can we trust Eagles?

I’m scared. Anytime Super Eagles players promise to beat any opposition the way they are sounding now, they falter. I’m worried about the loud noise of what they promise to do to the Pharaohs of Egypt. I would rather our boys keep quiet and allow their feet do the talking on the field instead of the words of assurances from everyone.

Our players have caused us pains with their lacklustre approach to key matches. They have not shown commitment to our matches, especially the crucial ones, such as the two impending ties against the Egyptians. They prosecute these games as if they are doing us a favour.

Make no mistake about my intentions here because our players are incredibly talented and formidable – if they play to their full potential like they do with their European clubs. They never produce a quarter of what we see them exhibit with their European teams, making most pundits tag the Eagles – big-for-nothing. Perhaps the only exception to this rule is that the Egyptians are no minnows, hence the Eagles could fight them to the finish – that is just a wish on paper which must be actualised over the two legs in Kaduna on March 25 and in Alexandria on March 29.

With the players’ reassuring words, Eagles chief coach Samson Siasia may be tempted to parade the big boys – much to his peril. Our big boys have failed us when it mattered most. They hardly give their best. They jump before the tackle and run aimlessly on the field. Siasia needs to pull his ears to know what happened in the past. We need boys who can run for 180 minutes in the two-legged ties. We need boys hungry for glory, not millionaires who would be playing safe, securing their feet for their next European club’s match.

Against Egypt, we want boys who place their feet firmly on the ground to win balls from the Egyptians. We need boys who don’t need any prompting to know that no Egyptian should be left unmarked in vital areas. We need boys who won’t spend the better part of the 180 minutes running to the sidelines to drink water to quench thirst. We need boys who won’t put their hands on their hips in the course of the match due to exhaustion.

Simply put, Siasia should parade more of home-based players than these millionaires, who will simply walk away, if we don’t qualify (God forbid) and remain in Europe until the next national assignment. We are tired of seeing our Europe-based stars line up before games to apologise to Nigerians after a failed expedition. I insist Siasia that an admixture of home-based players and those millionaires who are actually playing for their teams should be fielded. No to 100 per cent Europe-based stars. Dare to take a risk with the home-based lads who have the strength and who live here and know what to expect from Nigerians if we fail to qualify (again, God forbid).

Of all the goalkeepers, Carl Ikeme stands out. The team’s defenders, I dare say, should include many home-based players since the Egyptians are fast and operate best from the flanks. Home-based players can slide, tackle the Egyptians and won’t bat an eyelid to check their bodies for bruises. Our turf’s grass is rough, not the carpet-like ones that our foreign legion are used to in Europe. None of our Europe-based stars dares celebrate sliding on our pitches. He will leave the pitch immediately into an ambulance – no hyperbole. We need Trojans to fight the Egyptians. We need men who will stand toe-to-toe with the Egyptians and play as if their lives depend on the two ties. I won’t pick them for Siasia because he is better qualified than I am, but he should heed my plea.

I don’t blame Siasia for inviting 42 players to camp. I must commend him for having the courage to sack two home-based players who reported late to the team’s camp. I hope he has the guts to send home any foreign-based player who comes late. What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Siasia must not encourage any Animal Farm setting in the Eagles camp, if he hopes to succeed.

If I were Siasia, I won’t parade Oguenyi Onazi in the first team. He hasn’t played for Lazio FC of Italy in the last five games, although I suspect that the Nigerian is being punished for daring to inform the club’s management that he should be allowed to join Liverpool FC of England during the last January transfer window. I feel strongly that John Mikel Obi should be allowed to function in the team’s holding midfield position like he does for Chelsea. A situation where coaches give Mikel a free role in the midfield is laughable because he doesn’t look like one who can score goals effortlessly. Anytime Mikel scores a goal, the world celebrates because it is a rarity. Make no mistake, Mikel is talented. But such free roles should be given to more enterprising players who score goals with aplomb. Oghenekaro Etebo is strong and quick. He is a master at hitting the balls on rebound and marks tightly. Onazi can perform this role too, but I doubt his fitness level. I also hope that Onazi has learnt how to control his temper after the needless red card he bagged in the game against Swaziland in Kaduna.

I will suggest we rush the Egyptians from the blast of the referee’s whistle, taking advantage of the inclement weather. The Egyptians will take us to high altitudes in Alexandria, which should suit our foreign legion. Early goals will unsettle them since we need to win the game and set the stage for the fight-to-the-finish clash in Alexandria, four days later – not enough time for either side to prepare adequately.

Siasia is already talking about making Victor Moses and Mikel the pivot of his team against Egypt. Good talk coach, but Moses’ fitness level is questionable. He has not played for West Ham recently. Even when he is fit, Moses plays in the second half or plays for not more than an hour if he starts a game. This should worry us, especially for a player who has been out of the Eagles for a while. Siasia needs to ask Moses critical questions, if he wants to function at the team’s pivot in Kaduna and Alexandria. Moses functions best as an impact player – one who sits through the first half and goes into the game in the second half to destroy the opposition. But will Moses not feel hurt, if he is asked to sit on the bench in the first half? Moses won’t dare say a word if he is asked to start a game from the bench but for Nigeria, he would think that he is too big to sit on the bench. Pity. That is where the Nigerian has a problem and I hope Siasia can massage these big boys’ egos while selecting his team for the two matches. Siasia could play Simon Moses, who did well in Genk’s UEFA Champions league game on Tuesday. He played for 69 minutes which means he is fit.

I share in Siasia’s sentiment that we should believe in this team and support them but he needs to plot his strategies right, including ensuring that key men, such as Saleh in the Egyptian side are rendered otiose. If he thinks that the Egyptians won’t man-mark Mikel, Moses, Ighalo and Musa, he has a shocker awaiting him, first in Kaduna, then in Alexandria. These players play in Europe and Egypt’s manager, Hector Cuper, is too experienced to allow the quartet enough space.

The Egyptians collectively don’t need anyone to show them who the best players are. An intriguing line of home-based players would serve as the first shock for the visitors in Kaduna. It would also send them thinking about what to expect in Alexandria. The element of surprise is critical. I urge Siasia not to pick a predictable line-up that would suit the game plan set by the visitors.

I expect the Eagles to attack from the referee’s whistle – vintage Siasia. But what kind of system would he opt for? Frankly, if Mikel plays as the holding midfielder, then the coach can parade Ahmed Musa, Ighalo and Moses, with the West Ham loanee dropping into the midfield intermittently.

The trio can outrun the Egyptians. Their speed can compel the visitors to commit fouls in vital areas. This raises the poser if Siasia has the men to convert dead ball situations. Aside, the coach’s message to the trio and indeed his players should be a selfless approach to the game. The freest person in front of the goalpost should be given the ball to tuck into the net. Even if he misses the first chance, he shouldn’t be denied a second bite at the cherry.

With 43-year-old goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary recalled for the Nigerian assignment, Siasia needs to stress the need to hit the ball on target whenever they need to do so. Asking an elderly man to man the goalpost means that they have problems in that area. Such an ageing star should be retired from the goalpost in Kaduna with a dozen goals. Wishful thinking? That is the spirit, dear reader.

If you don’t crack the ball to beat the goalkeeper, you don’t win the game. Our players must not play to the gallery because goals come from direct efforts towards the goalpost to beat the goalkeeper.

We need goals because they could count in our favour, if both teams tie on the same points. The head-to-head rule will apply. Siasia must ask NFF men for the rules of the competition. We don’t want a repeat of what happened in 2012 where the Eagles surged forward to score more goals rather than hold tight to their 2-1 lead against Guinea in Abuja.

If Siasia and indeed the boys knew the rules, they would have sat back to defend the lead, which was relatively easier than to look for more goals. It was the search for goals that gave the Guineans the leeway to score the equaliser and send Nigeria out of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations.

Good luck Super Eagles.

March 12, 2016
BATTLE AGAINST THE PHARAOHS: Siasia gets Egypt’s tapes

•Eagles’ coaches study Pharaohs’ vidoes
•NFF perfect logistic details

Super Eagles players would not confront their Egyptian counterparts blind folded following the efforts made by chieftains of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to secure the video tapes of the Pharaohs.

Consequently, the NFF technical committee gave the team’s chief coach, Samson Siasia copies of the tapes that they have just as they duplicated them to give to body’s Technical Director, Shuiabu Amodu to peruse.

Indeed, the NFF chiefs are leaving no stone unturned in their quest to ensure that Nigeria beats Egypt in the first leg game slated to hold inside the Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna from 4pm.

Already, the NFF have literally relocated to Kaduna to monitor how the stadium complex and playing pitch are been redesigned to meet the international standard with emphasis laid on security before, during and after the game to avoid a situation where the egyptians experience any unsportsmanlike conduct which could neccessitate reprisal attack on the Nigerian contingent when they head for Alexandria for the return game on March 29.

Interestingly, those who should know at the Glasshouse in Abuja informed Sportinglife on Sunday night that Eagles’ foreign legion have been directed to fly straight to Kaduna on March 20, while those who have their ticket routed through Abuja should arrive in the country on March 19, where they would be taken to Kaduna the next day by road.

March 7, 2016
Pdp, APC and the party decay thesis

A school of political analysis adumbrates the interesting thesis of party decay. As Professors Rod Hague et al put it in their book on comparative politics, “This theory suggests that parties will eventually outlive their usefulness. They arise in response to important problems – integrating the mass electorate into politics, say, or hastening the departure of colonial rulers. Once successful in overcoming the problem, the party loses its purpose”.

The scholars cite the example of defunct communist parties of the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, which successfully industrialized and modernized the countries under their jurisdiction. However, “with this mission largely accomplished, ruling communist parties lost heart and drive. Instead of leading society, they became a brake on its further development. Once the prop of support from the Soviet military was removed, they fell down dead”.

Does the party decay thesis offer us some insight into the trajectory of political parties in Nigeria’s post-colonial political evolution and particularly the pathetic position in which the hitherto invincible People’s Democratic Party (PDP) currently finds itself?

The mass parties of the First Republic, the National Council of Nigerian Citizens (NCNC), Action Group (AG) and Northern People’s Congress (NPC) in particular, were key constituent elements of the anti-colonial nationalist movement. They succeeded splendidly in achieving nominal ‘flag independence’ for the country in 1960. In the first six years of independence, these parties were at the vanguard of impressive developmental strides under a genuine federal arrangement that fostered competitive transformational dynamism.

However, the primordial ethno-regional fissures masked by the pro-independence euphoric illusions of a common nationhood soon bubbled to the surface and incrementally undermined both stability and development. The party system began to decay rapidly with corrosive implications for democracy and political order. The first republic parties had apparently fulfilled their historic purpose as they became too organisationally and ethically exhausted to stem the country’s slide to anarchy.

In January 1996, the military intervened. It was the historic mission of the military to keep Nigeria one and seek to engineer her transformation from a mere ‘geographical expression’ to genuine nationhood. In pursuit of this objective, the military fashioned Nigeria’s federal structure in the mirror image of its unitary, hierarchical organisational configuration.

After over three decades in power, it was obvious that the military had largely failed in its self-imposed historic mission of the socio-political and economic modernisation of Nigeria. The assumption that it possessed the organisational attributes of discipline, efficiency, focus and patriotism that could foster unity and rapid national development proved illusory. National cohesion and progress cannot be decreed ‘with military alacrity’.

The military had become horrendously infected with the corruption virus it had promised to extinguish. Its organisational cohesion had been badly fragmented by divisive intra-organisational politics as well as primal ethno-regional, religious and partisan influences. Unsurprisingly, therefore, the military had become too morally, psychologically and professionally famished to effectively and sustainably resist protracted civil society agitations for its return to the barracks. Organisational decay had set in. it had fulfilled its historic purpose on the political terrain and withdrew in disarray in 1999.

Enter the PDP. Its historic mission was to provide a transition from military dictatorship to democratic governance in Nigeria. Fashioned in the organisational image of the military, the PDP established an emphatic dominance of the polity by winning not just the presidential election but 21 of the 36 state governorship elections in 1999.

It was certainly not fortuitous that a retired General and former military Head of State, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, emerged as President in 1999 on the platform of the PDP. But then, in the bowels of the PDP’s electoral supremacy lay the seeds of the incipient and insidious decay that culminated in its electoral implosion in last year’s general elections and its continuing organisational, moral and psychological unravelling today.

First, the PDP had a unitary organisational structure, which was quite incongruous within the context of a complex plural and federal society like Nigeria. Just like the deformed Nigerian federal polity, the PDP had an excessively centralist structure that stultified its internal flexibility and dynamism. Second, the PDP was subsumed under the asphyxiating grip of the Obasanjo imperial presidency. Intra-party democratic structures and processes were thus undermined resulting in enervating organisational sclerosis.

Third was the PDP’s active attempt to transform the party system from a one party-dominant to an absolute one party state in which it exercised a totalising control of the polity. The resultant destabilization and decimation of the opposition compounded the complacency and lethargy within the former ruling party engendered by the lack of internal intra-party opposition. It also accelerated the process of the party’s organizational desensitization that worsened steadily climaxing in the electoral rout of April 28 last year.

Today, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) sits atop the country’s political structure. Its historic mission is to preside over the transition from mere civilian rule of the last 16 years to a genuine democracy. Ironically, to achieve the feat of ousting an incumbent government from power at the centre, key opposition parties – ACN, CPC, ANPP and a faction of APGA – had to come together to fashion themselves in the centralist organizational image of the PDP!

Thus, the APC’s essentially unitary organizing ethos is not reflective enough of the country’s federal diversity. Furthermore, the new ruling party seems to be following the PDP pattern of subordinating party to government in a way that immobilises and incapacitates the latter. Again, the National Assembly leadership election fiasco, the on-going Kogi governorship election debacle and its unimpressive management of the economy thus far suggest a paralyzing policy ambivalence as well as philosophical and ideological dissonance capable of hobbling the APC’s change agenda.

Has the APC begun the process of decay even before settling down to govern effectively? Will the APC, like the monstrous child in the novelist, Ayi Kwei Armah’s ‘The Beautyful Ones are Not Yet Born?”, vault straight from childhood to old age without experiencing the invigorating and exhilarating intervention of youth? We are watching.

HURRICANE OBY EZEKWESILI

She is fiery. She is feisty. She takes no prisoners. Former Federal Minister and Vice President of the World Bank, Mrs Oby Ezekwesili, this week in a widely published article, aimed missiles against the economic policies of President Muhammadu Buhari and the APC. As far as she is concerned, Buhari is trapped in a time warp dating back to his first coming as military Head of State when he resolutely but wrongly (in her view) refused to devalue the Naira or throw the economy to the invisible hands of the market.

Ezekwesili does not consider that it was the succeeding Babangida regime that adopted the IMF/World Bank imposed Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP), massively devalued the Naira and enthusiastically embraced free market doctrines that did incalculable and enduring harm to the economy. The Naira has ever since never regained its pre-SAP vibrancy and the economy has remained inextricably prostrate.

For some strange reason, Mrs Ezekwesili believes that a so obviously conservative President Buhari is a socialist or communist ideologue of sorts! She is also under the illusion that the received neo-liberal economic nostrums she espouses are not ideological after all but embody what she characterises as ‘economic pragmatism’. Nothing can be more untrue. It does not occur to her that the communist parties of China, the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, which she so contemptuously deride, laid the industrial and infrastructural foundation that facilitated their countries’ latter transition to market economies on a viable and sustainable basis.

Ezekwesili wants Buhari to devalue the Naira and subordinate the economy to market forces. But as Professor Noam Chomsky of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) has noted, “At least since the work of Alexander Gerschenkron in the 1950s, it has been widely recognised by economic historians that “late development” has been critically dependent on state intervention. Japan and the Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) on its periphery are standard contemporary examples”.

Commenting on the role that strong state intervention played in the “early development” of the United States, Chomsky writes “High tariffs and other forms of state intervention may have raised costs to American consumers, but they allowed domestic industry to develop, from textiles to steel to computers, barring cheaper British products in earlier years, providing a state-guaranteed market and public subsidy for research and development in advanced sectors, creating and maintaining capital-intensive agribusiness, and so on”.

It is certainly not for nothing, for instance, that Donald Trump, the leading American Republican presidential candidate promises if elected to compel Apple to produce its computers in America rather than China to safeguard American jobs. As far as he is concerned, national interest must take precedence over market forces. That should tell Mrs Ezekwesili something.

Ambode silent as Lagos pupils abducted?

Was Governor Akinwunmi Ambode ‘silent’ and by implication insensitive to the news of the abduction on Monday of three girls from Babington Macaulay Junior Seminary (BMJS) in Ikorodu as reported by a national newspaper? Luckily, a media colleague (name withheld) is a Minister of the Anglican Communion and his child attends BMJS. He told me: “When I got wind of the incident, I naturally rushed down to the school. I got in touch with my Bishop and I am aware he called Governor Ambode. The governor immediately called the Commissioner of Police and security agents were swiftly deployed to the school”. Well, governance is not showbiz. It would have been most cynical for Ambode to seek media mileage out of the sad and unfortunate occurrence. Let us pray that the girls return safely to their families.

March 5, 2016
Public mood, expectations and anger

The revelations of blatant misuse of public funds by the EFCC at the trial of former Chief of Defence Alex Badeh was the most provocative and nauseating one, in the orgy of looting of public funds that has been let loose on the Nigerian public in recent times. The details are suffocating and will not be repeated here,   but suffice it say it has dented the image of not only the Nigerian air force, as I told a friend who happened to be a retired AVM   a few days ago but that of the entire Nigerian military. My military friend’s defence was a feeble retort   after which he kept thunderously   quiet    and ponderous in my company. His   reply was that politicians too are corrupt to which I told him that that was well known and that was why Nigerians welcomed the military in the several coups that have truncated our fragile democracy. I told   him bluntly that today the military’s image or capability for such welcome intervention has become an abomination and a thing of the past given the way top Airforce bosses have used money meant   for ammunition and fighter jets, to buy properties and had kept such money with their wives who are now returning the loot to in millions of naira and dollars to the   emptied treasuries of a raped nation. That reply or rebuke of the military is the mood I am in as I tackle the topic of the day.

Public mood is a human phenomenon that moves with the times, with no apologies to those unleashing it or those at its receiving end. It is like a fashion or fad, here today, gone tomorrow. That is the context in which I want to look at the issues and personalities I want to deal with on this page today.

The first is the meteoric rise of the Donald Trump presidential candidacy for the Republican party in the US and the concern of that party leadership and hierarchy,   with   the disturbing prospect of the possibility of not only a Trump Republican presidential candidacy but the prospect of a Trump victory and presidency in the November presidential elections in the US .

The second was the news that the Brazilian Police have raided the home of former President Lula da Silva as part of the Inquiry into corruption at Petrobas the Brazilian oil giant and equivalent of our own NNPC. The inquiry code named – Operation Car Wash-is following trails that Lula bought houses for his son like our Badeh who also renovated the house with 60m naira of looted funds. In addition the Police in Brazil are working on the intelligence that Lula’s famous ranch had been built from bribes from contractors handling Petrobas sprawling and lucrative oil business.

Let me now go back to the greedy use of public funds by the former Airforce Chief and Defence boss Alex Badeh. I go into the archives to recall some utterances of this military leader in order to reconcile them with the exposures by the EFCC. First it was under this man that some Nigerian military officers and other ranks were put on court martial for cowardice and refusing to fight because they complained of lack of equipment or supply of poor and inferior ammunition. Badeh insisted then on the trial and but for people like Femi Falana some of these people would have been summarily executed.

Yet at Badeh’s military retirement pull out ceremony he revealed that he fought the Boko Haram insurgency   during his tenure without adequate arms and ammunition. If you look back at the court martial and the admission of inadequate equipment by this Air Marshal and compare that with the acquisitions he made with money meant for arms to fight Boko Haram, you see such inconsistencies, greed and unbridled acquisitive tendencies that propels you to want to register his name in the Guinness Book of Records for acute mendacity and you can imagine the public mood of rage and fury over the   sordid and ongoing   revelations at his trial.

Next is the Donald Trump prospect for US presidency which has sent jitters around the US and indeed the entire world including Nigeria. My friend Eric Teniola an ace and veteran journalist himself sent me a text early one morning this week ,which said – It looks as if America will not accept a possible Donald Trump presidency. I replied Eric who I fondly call Erico – Nobody can stop an idea or a man whose time has come. That really is my view on Donald Trump and his present robust foray into presidential politics in the US . I have written this way before and I stand by it even now that Mitt Romney the last presidential candidate of the Republican party has   come out to condemn Trump as a ‘fraud‘ and as phony. I will explain.

The fact that Mitt Romney has used such words on Trump showed that Trump is important in the presidential race for people like Romney to want him abused and disgraced out of the way. Unfortunately Romney has used language that Trump had been condemned for and that makes them birds of the same feather. So if Romney could contest for the Republican Party why cant Trump who is richer than him in a party of the rich and wealthy and who also has the gift of the garb which Romney obviously lacked against Obama when they contested for the presidency last time around in 2012, when Trump endorsed Romney?

More importantly, the public mood in the US is for a change from the usual politics of business as usual, as well as the dynastic politics of the Kennedys, the Bushes and the Clintons. That explains why Hillary Clinton is finding it tough suppressing Bart Sanders in the Democratic Party Presidential candidacy race as widely anticipated before. This is because Sanders is presenting himself as an outsider like Trump and both are campaigning on the rhetoric of failure of leadership by the present political establishment of the two major parties in the US. That coincidence of strategy, the politics of the outsider in both parties , is the dominant and resonant theme in this 2016 US presidential elections and the reason is not far fetched.

It is simply a reaction to the performance of the Obama Administration in the last 8 years. The record is there for all to see. Poor performance of the US economy, the global rise of Islamic State and Boko Haram, global hatred and mistrust of Americans and feeling of insecurity by Americans in their home land. That is the Obama legacy which Hillary is sworn to continue if elected president. That to me alone is enough to make Donald Trump the sweet bride of the majority of the US electorate especially as he was bold to call a sitting US president a security risk and he got even more popular for saying that . Surely Donald Trump may be a very crude maverick yet it seems that the time and tide are made for his brand of politics and rhetoric and that would be difficult for anyone to change or stop at the 2016 presidential campaigns and elections in November.

Lastly we come to Lula da Silva my favorite Brazilian President till now. Lula was a trade unionist and working class person but he made it to become president of his nation. He was much loved for his common and simple background. The nearest thing to Lula in terms of oratory and defence of workers rights in Nigeria is Adams Oshiomole, the fiery governor of Edo state and I wish him the same trajectory   as Lula, minus the present unfortunate Petrobas debacle.

Lula was a president after my heart for bringing the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympics to Brazil. He canvassed personally for the two bids and defeated bids from the US and Britain even when US President Barak Obama and   Britain’s Prince of Wales, Prince Charles were present at such bids. He also had the leadership foresight to pick his successor Dilmar Rusself who is the present president of Brazil in her second term. Dilmar was Lula’s Chief of staff when Lula was president of Brazil. Now things have turned sour over corruption charges against Lula in a Dilmar presidency and that is politics. The Brazilian public mood has changed as in Nigeria and there is anger against corruption in high places no matter whose ox is gored.

For Brazil the misfortune started with the 2014 World Cup when Brazilians who normally love football took to the streets to protest the inflated and exorbitant prices of construction of stadia for the World Cup as well as the corrupt and expensive life styles of Brazilian soccer officials. That disrupted the soccer fiesta and earned Brazil a bad name in terms of organizing successful sporting events. The worst part was that Brazil, the host nation confident of lifting the World Cup built a fragile team around an even more fragile and much inexperienced Neymar and got knocked out in disgrace by Germany who beat them by 7 goals to one. Now the government of Dilmar is probing her former boss in what they have called Operation Car Wash which is the equivqlent of our Dasuki gate. Except of course for the fact that we are yet to muster the courage to question the man on whose table the buck stopped while the NSA reportedly gave out funds meant for arms for campaigns during his tenure as Dilmar has done on her predecessor. Again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

March 5, 2016
Bad losers at work

The long knives are out again at the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). Failed football administrators and those who lost their positions in previous restructuring of the Glasshouse are back at their old game. They want the house flattened because they are no longer there. It doesn’t matter if this distraction costs Nigeria the right for her flag to be hoisted at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations in Gabon.

Sadly, even those who have been indicted by probe panels over their nefarious activities when they were at the NFA, as the body was then known, are now shouting at the roof top concerning the body’s maladministration. If those disturbing the media with their warped comments had set the right templates for growth during their time, we won’t be faced with the systemic problems inherent in the Glasshouse.

Indeed, such unguarded utterances by failed NFF members and staff gave credence to the new accounting order by Muhammadu Buhari administration meant to seal some of the flaws in the system. Now that the administration has come to grasp with the uniqueness of funding sports which must compete with other nations with discerning templates for revenue generation, it should do everything possible to get the National Assembly to pass the NFF Act. That way NFF would be run by professionals, whose pedigree in business is profound, not this setting where jobbers, influence peddlers and lickspittles seize the unfriendly environment arising from a defeat to heat up the polity.

This crossfire of tales not backed by facts put the NFF in bad light, making it extremely difficult to woo investors to do business with it. No credible firm will associate its goods and/or services with a product mired in controversies. These cynics must learn how to take defeats on the chin. There are three results in the game of soccer- wins, losses and defeats, which most times help such teams to know their strengths and weaknesses. The NFF has suffered yearly reorganisations which have done us no good in terms of results, largely because we are bad losers.

Need I restate my previous argument that a body which bankrolls 11 national teams every year cannot be solvent, especially with its critics heating up the polity with frivolous claims and craving that these teams win all their matches?

Unfortunately, policy summersaults, including frequent changes in the personnel at the Glasshouse, have made it difficult for anyone to do business with the body. One of such policy changes is the TSA, which accounted for the delays in paying Oliseh’s wages. And the coach wasn’t convinced by Sports Minister Solomon Dalung’s plea that he would be paid soonest. The minister met his promise but Oliseh’s mind was made up and he quit the job. Sports in Nigeria, especially football, need a four-year budget meant to ensure that cash is available over the period to adequately prepare the sportsmen and women like it is done in other climes.

Perhaps, the government needs to adopt the community-based sports sponsorship programmes and see how it can constitute a sports lottery board to have enough cash to run the industry. It also could set up a probe panel to find out how money sourced under previous lottery schemes was spent. Of course, such funding will be adequately monitored and those given the money made to account for.

Sunday Oliseh’s resignation has stoked the fire, with fifth columnists creating incredible scenarios as if the incumbent NFF board members weren’t the same people who piloted the country to a back-to-back FIFA U-17 World Cup wins by the Golden Eaglets and guided the U-23 Olympics Eagles squad to winning the African Championship, for the first time, in Senegal, among several laurels that we have recorded.

Oliseh has the right to resign. He is free to spit venom at his employers, provided his facts are correct. But he must remember that Nigeria is bigger than he is. And having helped to raise the country’s profile in the game, it would be a travesty if he destroys such a legacy on the altar of getting back at a few people who he feels has hurt him.

If Oliseh feels strongly that his contract was breached, he should seek redress at the appropriate quarters. I’m glad that NFF men have apologised for the error in recruiting Oliseh, if indeed it was. I’m excited too that the NFF didn’t flinch in naming Samson Siasia, Emmanuel Amuneke, Salisu Yusuf and goalkeeper Alloy Agu to lead the Eagles through their two-legged ties against Egypt in Kaduna on March 25 and Cairo on March 25.

It is true that the first-place team in Nigeria’s group will immediately qualify for the 2017 AFCON. What is equally true is that Nigeria stands the best chance of being the best loser among the qualifiers, if the Eagles beat Egypt in Kaduna and win her remaining two games against Tanzania in Nigeria and against Niger. So what is the fuzz about Oliseh’s resignation that has brought out the beast in most interlopers in this issue?

Is this the first time that Nigeria has changed coaches deep inside the qualifiers? So, what makes Oliseh’s case different? After all, Shuaibu Amodu has got us qualified several times from more difficult settings. So, why is Oliseh likened to Pep Guardiola by many fifth columnists who keep harping on the refusal of the NFF chiefs to consider the coach’s conduct before employing him, as if it is a criterion for picking coaches? If NFF ignored Oliseh for another person, these same people would have cried wolf, given the way they stampeded the Glasshouse chiefs to making Oliseh the only candidate for the job after Stephen Keshi was eased off.

I hope that Oliseh can learn from Siasia’s return. I recall telling Siasia in one of my columns here to withdraw his law suit against the NFF when he was sacked because he could return to the job. I urged Siasia to learn from “sacked” Amodu and Adegboye Onigbinde had been brought back to the Eagles job anytime there was a crisis in the team? Siasia, are you not back to the Eagles job despite the harsh words you used against me at a press conference? Such is life Oliseh. It isn’t too late to put all that has happened behind you and focus on watching Nigeria at the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations than being linked as one of the remote causes of Nigeria’s absence (God forbid) at the tournament in Gabon.

If Oliseh sticks to his guns, then Siasia will write his name in gold if he pulls the Eagles through the games against the Pharaohs of Egypt in Kaduna and Alexandria. Siasia said he is used to this pressure cooker setting. All he needs is the support from everyone. And they can’t but back Siasia in this daunting task.

The biggest fillip in his favour ahead of the two games is the assurance from the players that they would fight for the points in the two games as if their lives depend on them. Well said guys but please save the commentaries for the pitch. Anytime our players run their mouths before matches, I panic. I hope their battle against the Pharaohs will be different. The players should strive to scale the Egyptian hurdle to stabilise the workings at the Glasshouse.

I’ve seen Siasia’s 42 men, comprising 20 stars from the foreign legion and 22 domestic league players. The interesting aspect of those selected is that they represent close to 80 per cent of the good players that we have. It won’t be difficult for Siasia to pick his best 23, having worked with many of them. He also has seen them play.

Siasia’s three goalkeepers, Carl Ikeme, Daniel Akpeyi and Ikechukwu Ezenwa from outside Nigeria, can do the job in Kaduna and Alexandria. I admire his choice of defenders, except that I don’t see how he can play younger boys from the domestic league. Well, it is his job and he has it cut out for him. Good luck, Siasia.

The defenders hold the key to our qualification for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations, especially in the second leg tie in Alexandria, where I expect the Egyptians to deploy all the tricks in the books to win. I expect the Egyptians to fall freely even from the sound of Nigerian defenders tracking them in any of their onslaughts. Defenders Abdullahi Shehu, Elderson Echiejile, Efe Ambrose, Godfrey Oboabona, Stanley Amuzie and Kenneth Omeruo are experienced to know how to keep the tricky Egyptians out of the vital areas. Mistakes shouldn’t be made.

How many countries in Africa have the quality of midfielders that Siasia wants to use to inflict pains on the Egyptians over the two legs? Oguenyi Onazi, John Mikel Obi, Kelechi Iheanacho, Okechukwu Azubuike, Alex Iwobi, Aminu Umar and Aaron Samuel are some of the best that any team needs to rev its attacking onslaughts – only if they are focused. The strikers are Ahmed Musa, Victor Moses, Moses Simon, Odion Ighalo and Fernando Adi. These strikers have been scoring goals with aplomb in Europe.

No expertise is needed to know that the home-based lads are training materials, who will hold fort until the arrival of the big boys. However, some of them such as Aggrey, Chikatara, Etebo and Mohammed could make the cut as reserves or possibly additions to the squad for them to watch the big boys pull the chestnuts out of the fire in Alexandria.

For me, it doesn’t matter who plays. What is sacrosanct is the unity of purpose among the players before, during and after the two matches. Up Nigeria! Up Super Eagles!

March 5, 2016
New dawn for the local league

Good old Onikan Stadium is still looking derelict. The management and members of the Ikorodu United FC Lagos tried to repair the edifice ahead of its Nigeria Premier League matches. But the repair works could not cover the fact that it had been long abandoned. There were still structural defects but Ikorodu FC’s management should be congratulated for bringing life to stadium. The scruffy dressing rooms have been cleaned. The sanitary systems are functional. There is hope that the place could be better as the matches hold weekly. The drainage has been dug but not tested because the rains are not here yet. Onikan Stadium’s pitch is notorious for its waterlogged conditions when it rains.

In fact, I kept pinching myself at half time when I saw several sprinklers watering the pitch. It meant that there was sufficient water for the players and match officials to wash up and, perhaps, make a decent appearance at the post-match conferences like we see in most European matches.

I like entering the stadium three hours before the kick-off. I like to capture the off-field details that people ignore. I want to see the level of security provided, especially at Onikan where urchins run amok when unchecked. Last Sunday was different. The Chief Security Officer of the stadium was truly in charge. He stopped early callers’ vehicles. He allowed you in after vetting the documents he saw. He wasn’t overzealous. He was courteous. This is commendable.

The arrival of the two teams (Ikorodu United and Abia Warriors) was dramatic because they are not traditional teams with immense followership like Enyimba FC of Aba, Enugu Rangers FC, Shooting Stars Sports Club (3SC) of Ibadan etc.

The players walked pass to the dressing rooms unheralded. The management of Abia Warriors didn’t help by hiding the fact that CHAN Eagles sensation Chisom Chikatara was still with the team. The fans would have stormed the stadium had they known that Chikatara would play. Nigerians love such stars, irrespective of the clubs that they play for. The thought of taking pictures and getting autographs is enough to motivate them to watch Chikatara live.

Most journalists were stunned to see Chikatara in Abia Warriors’ line-up. He lived up to expectation. Credit must go the young but talented Ikorodu United boys who fought their visitors till the end of the game.

In vain did I search for those bottled drinks and alcoholic beverages that brought out the beast in the yoyos in Onikan. Not a bottle. Instead, there were plastic water bottles with the sellers standing by to collect them once the contents have been guzzled. It simply means that such items will no longer serve as weapons for those vagabonds.

The car park behind the state box wasn’t rowdy. Parking was orderly. It was quite nostalgic seeing ardent fans again. Many I had not seen since the 90s. Some took me by surprise from behind, covering my eyes and it was quite a difficult task knowing who it was. Once set free, the loud noise and backslapping told the story of how long ago we had seen. Many had died like I later found out. How time flies.

Soon it was time to move towards the sitting areas since the teams and the referees were on the pitch loosening up for the thriller later in the day. I was appalled by the poor quality jersey worn by Abia Warriors players, knowing that their chairman Emeka Inyama dresses very well. In contrast, Ikorodu United’s shirts and pants showed clearly that the owners of the club were ready for business. So poor was the quality of Abia Warriors’ warm-up kits that it was difficult to spot Chikatara.

Trust me, I asked Inyama why his team’s warm-up kits were of poor quality, reminding him of Sunday Oliseh’s jibes that such jerseys could give the players skin disease. Inyama laughed his hearts out, telling me that his kits for the season would be in the country the next Trust me, I asked Inyama why his team’s warm-up kits were of poor quality, reminding him of Sunday Oliseh’s jibes that such jerseys could give the players skin disease. Inyama laughed his hearts out, telling me that his kits for the season would be in the country the next Tuesday. I believed him.

I felt out of place watching the game inside the state box. I had no choice because I was a guest of the LMC. But sitting there gave me the opportunity to see how Ikorodu United’s management would manage the small space.

As the clock ticked closer to the kick-off, I noticed a surge of high profile Nigerians wearing replicas of Ikorodu United shirt. I was excited that many of these distinguished Nigerians came with their wives and kids – a forbidden thing in those troublesome times of the Nigerian league.

I was bowled over when the chairman of the club stopped intruders from hijacking the seats in the state box. I shouted “thank God” when the chairman told everyone that those in the state box were gold card holders. I wasn’t shocked, given the successes recorded by GOTV, which incidentally was the crest on the shirts worn by Ikorodu United’s players.

What the chairman’s revelation about gold cards told me was that all the seats had been paid for the whole season, albeit for Ikorodu United’s remaining 18 home games. It also meant that there were silver cards to be bought, if not already sold out for the state box extension down to the popular side, where the bronze card holders can watch the matches. Are you surprised? Certainly not. It meant that there are Nigerians who think that all that is practised in other climes can be perfected here if the owners of clubs have the political will to implement the new ideas.

If Ikorodu United’s owners can use their clout to get their friends and business partners to buy up the tickets in all the three categories, the cheats at the gates who ruin the business, knowing how much clubs earn per match would go home hungry – that is if they are not caught when two fans meet to sit on one chair. A fake ticket holder would be in soup. It would also help the club checkmate all the fraud-gates within the stadium. I’m excited.

Sitting at the state box didn’t stop me from doing my job. I walked around to see how the referees, the players and their officials interfaced before the match. I looked out for the match commissioner and was encouraged that he was a young man who did his runs before the game, during and after. Gone are the days of appointing tired people who dozed off during matches and relied on views from people around to for their warped reports in the event of any unsportsmanlike incident.

All the rules for the game to hold were met. I saw retired FIFA badge referee Calistus Chuwkujekwu scribbling notes from where we sat at the State Box, doing his job as the independent referee assessor. I wasn’t surprised by Chukwujekwu’s conduct. We met at the back of the stadium. He didn’t fracternise with the two clubs’ officials nor did he announce himself as the assessor. It didn’t occur to me that that was the reason he was in the stadium until there was roar over the delay by the referee to sound his whistle when an Ikorodu United player was fouled.

“Ade, I knew you would ask me my view on this incident. The referee was right to see if the tripped player would ride the tackle. The moment the referee knew that he had lost the control of the ball, he sounded the whistle,” Chuwkwujekwu said. I nodded in approval and a few people around us when I asked the question shook their heads in approval.

As the game continued its ding dong no thanks to the fact that it was the first game of the season, I watched to see how the referee would conduct the match, using his linesmen and how he would protect them from the overzealous fans who would take advantage of the perimeter fencing around Onikan Stadium to intimidate them.

The referee was brilliant. Again, I must commend Ikorodu United’s management for keeping some of the club’s officials in the black spots of Onikan Stadium to control irate fans. There was this incident where the linesman signalled rightly for a goal kick but the fans felt it was a corner kick decision. They ran towards the linesman but close to six Ikorodu United officials rushed to the spot to calm the fans and lead them back to their seats. They beckoned on the plain clothe security men who stayed there till the end of the game. Need I say that the security arrangement was water tight?

But my star attraction of the day weren’t the 22 players and the six substitutes that played. It was not the match officials or the retinue of LMC chieftains at the Onikan Stadium. Nor was it the galaxy of journalists who watched the 1-1 draw game.

Stand up and be counted little Tomisin Adewole, the seven-year-old, who awed me with his faultless understanding of the trend of the game. His comments after most incidents shocked me. I was shocked further when he did the right thing when a player missed a sitter. I couldn’t resist his sharp knowledge of the game. I engaged him and went home thinking.

His English was top of the drawer. His receptive knowledge of the game was stunning. Tomisin spotted a Manchester United shirt number 7. And I asked him why?

Tomisin said: “I wanted to wear this shirt. You can see that my brother has his (touching his brother, Tomilola, who wore shirt number 9 but was also engrossed in the game). Manchester United is my English team. But I support Real Madrid.”

Tomisin’s, Tomilola’s and their elder brother’s presence at the Onikan Stadium last Sunday represents the new dawn of the domestic game. It is also in sync with the Buhari administration’s change mantra. Take a bow, Daddy Tomisin for having the courage to come to the stadium with your three young soldiers. I hope many would take a cue from the Adewoles and identify with the beautiful game.

I felt fulfilled after the game. The players and officials hugged themselves while the fans walked out the stadium discussing the high points of the game with glee.

February 27, 2016
Corruption and the rumble in the jungle of justice

Ibrahim Magu, the acting Chairman of the EFCC is the anti corruption czar of Nigeria and the helmsman of the new government’s war against corruption. This week he unmasked himself as a man ready to die in the fight against corruption because corruption ruins any society with impunity and must be stopped by all means. Let me state clearly here that I not only believe him, I admire his courage and pray that he does not die in harness. Which means that he does not die in the course of his duty and to ensure that, I feel, is the duty and responsibility of all right thinking Nigerians. It   follows therefrom,   ipso facto   that he utterances of the Nigerian anti corruption czar this week form the kernel of our discussion today.

As reported widely in the media Ibrahim Magu accused Senior Advocates of Nigeria – SANs-, and journalists of trying to sabotage the war against corruption by blackmailing the EFCC by accusing it of selective prosecution and violating the rule of law in prosecuting those being arraigned on charges of corruption. He reportedly said that SANs are being paid from the proceeds of corruption which are   invariably used to pervert the course of justice when judges are bribed on the corruption cases before them. The anti corruption czar went on to accuse journalists of taking bribes to write against the EFCC   and by accusing the body of selective prosecution and flouting the rule of law. Magu went on again to stress that his organization does its home work well before dragging suspects to court and has not violated any rules in the fight against corruption.

He cited boldly the case involving a SAN accused of obstructing the course of justice in which 113 SANs showed up in court where only one of them appeared before the judge and in which the EFCC defeated the armada of SANs in court on that case.   There is therefore no doubt that the EFCC boss is mad at both SANs and journalists as stumbling blocks or road blocks in the fight against corruption which must be confronted and dismantled all costs.

Again I agree totally with the EFCC boss that such journalists and SANs should be dealt with if they are doing such nefarious and odious things like shielding treasury looters and corrupt people. But then, the EFCC boss must be told that   bluntly   that he is committing a fallacy of generalization in making such sweeping statements. This is because in reality not all SANs are corrupt and not all journalists are corrupt too. In addition the EFCC needs to adopt a strategy of collaboration rather than one of confrontation which appears to be his working strategy for now and which is exacting a price akin to that of a suicide mission. I will elaborate.

The law, anywhere,   operates in the temples of justice which are the courts spread over our towns and cities   spread all over Nigeria. The way the EFCC boss has spoken about SANs and lawyers in the fight against corruption informed my calling the courts a jungle of justice instead of temples and that is an unfortunate development in the fight against corruption. It is unfortunate in that the EFCC cannot operate outside the courts in the fight against corruption simply because that is the nature of our judicial system and the rule of law. The judiciary is the third arm of government and is equal in power to the executive which the EFCC represents, and the legislature. The judicial system includes the judges, the Lawyers, including SANs – 113 of which the EFCC boss says are ganging up against the anti corruption war. This is a division in the house of justice and it   is an extravagant waste of energy. There must be synergy between the EFCC, the legal profession and judges for the war against corruption to succeed. They do not have to agree as litigation is about disagreements and disputes but they must all be devoted to the pursuit of justice and constitutionalism. Anything else is dissipation of energy and does not help the fight against corruption when justice is delayed and made too expensive in terms of time and money.

While I will not hold brief for both SANs and journalists on the charges made against them I cannot resist a rare opportunity to make some observations on the two very important professions especially in the fight against corruption. Let me start with the SANs where I think the EFCC boss mistook a solidarity or class issue for conspiracy. I think the way so many SANs showed up in court was not necessarily to fight EFCC or to intimidate the court.

But the SANs are Nigerian enough to know that such a show of solidarity could be interpreted as judicial blackmail. No SAN certainly is above the law and that is what the EFCC has boldly shown and that is quite commendable.

On the allegations that SANs benefit from the proceeds of corruption I leave it to SANs to defend themselves on that. One thing is certain though. Lawyers and SANs live on the briefs they get and in the Nigerian context there is a lot of money flowing from those fleeing from the strong arm of the war against corruption. All SANs need to do in the name of transparency and show of integrity in the fight against corruption is to publish their clients payments on the anti corruption cases and the taxes they have paid. I am sure that Nigerians would appreciate such patriotic and salutary gesture immensely as we pursue the fight against corruption. It would certainly show on which side of the law our legal luminaries are in the fight against corruption.

With regard to the charge against journalists, I think Chairman Magu was exaggerating as both need to work together against corruption. That does not mean there should be media trials which means suspects are condemned before court trials. That is not fair.

While I agree that the odium or stigma of stealing should be used to deter people from stealing that should be used as a means to an end and not the end itself. Magu admitted this as much when he lamented that Allison Madueke’s aide had been in their custody for three days and he wondered how he had managed the publicity. What publicity? Obviously the bad news that the man was in EFCC custody.

Which means that the EFCC expects, as a matter of course that any news of arrest must be front page news. If the suspect is found guilty in court that is quite okay. If not, that is media trial and that is unfair because our law presumes a man innocent until proven guilty. The war on corruption needs to be pursued with this in mind and journalists don’t have to take bribes to point this out anytime, anywhere. Indeed journalists don’t have to agree or endorse everything government or EFCC does in the fight against corruption as long as they are committed to the fight. Which really is their responsibility as the Fourth Estate of the realm, the meaning of which I urge the EFCC boss to find out before his next outburst. Again long live the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

February 27, 2016