The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • The knives are out

    The knives are out. ‘Crucify the coach today; hail him tomorrow fans’ have seized the airwaves. Cheap talks, such as: “Bring back the big boys who were in Brazil for the 2014 World Cup with the exception of the ageing ones.” “These new players are not our best.” “The coaches must go if we don’t go for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations,” are some of the scathing comments in the media these days by interlopers, most of who lost out in the last NFF elections or at the state levels. It is payback time for these serial grumblers. If they are not in charge, it is bad. It must be changed. Or we return to the tattered drawing board.

    Missiles are being fired at Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) chieftains for daring to recruit an “inexperienced” Sunday Oliseh as the Super Eagles’ chief coach. Does it take one day or a match to rebuild a team? Mystics too have joined the blame-game charade, with some questioning the rationale for recruiting a foreigner into the technical team. What those in this school don’t understand is that globally, coaches are allowed to pick their assistants. Lieutenants should be the coaches’ trusted men, with the same philosophy needed to change the old order.

    Before we press the panic button, we must appreciate the fact that Egypt, the current table-toppers in Nigeria’s group have not qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations since 2011. They accepted their fate, dropped ageing and recalcitrant players and built this new squad, using their Under-21 side. The Egyptian team has matured by blending through matches. If we must stop this perennial rebuilding of the Eagles, Oliseh should be encouraged to reduce the average age of the players in the team from an awful 33 years (please forget about the ages in our players’ international passports) to the competitive one of between 22 and 29 years.

    Going to Dar es Salaam, I wanted to see new players star for the Eagles against Tanzania, not the return of players who can’t make the team to the Russia 2018 World Cup – Our target shouldn’t be qualifying for the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. We should be preparing a team of young men who can give us at least six years service for proper team cohesion, not a squad that satisfies a few people’s fixations. We should play friendly games not because we want to win them, but because the coaches want to give new boys the platform to exhibit their skills.

    Today, we are celebrating Carl Ikeme. Not many would accept that they had serious doubts about his abilities to hold the line in the absence of regular goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama before Saturday’s barren draw against Tanzania? Enyeama had good reasons for sitting out of the game. I also won’t join critics who expressed reservations about the way in which he shrouded his mum’s demise. Who celebrates death? Were they expecting Enyeama to call everyone over his mum’s death? He may have delayed telling the coaches and the NFF chiefs because of the pain of the loss. Losing one’s mum isn’t a joke. It is always too difficult to accept the death of one’s mum, let alone any other sad tales? Why would anyone think that Enyeama would pronounce his mother dead because he doesn’t want to play against Tanzania? Must he play for Nigeria? Is it not time he quit?

    Enyeama must be happy watching Ikeme do well against the Taifa Stars. Enyeama hasn’t hidden his desire to stop playing for Nigeria after 1001 matches. He wants to allow younger goalkeepers to replace him. Now with the way Ikeme performed, many would beat their chests that he would be a worthy replacement for Enyeama. Now those who refused to drop goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim from the Eagles, describing him as one of our best, must be gnashing their teeth in regrets. We can safely wave a final bye to goalkeepers Austin Ejide and Dele Aiyenuba.

    The Super Eagles’ players who starred against their Tanzanian counterparts in Dar es Salaam were an admixture of the old order and new names that we expect to take us back to winning ways. Watching them file out of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Dar es Salaam, I saw some of our forgotten age grade players eager to prove themselves. My worry was that they had been away for too long from such high stake games. I was wondering if they could rise to the big occasion. But I was persuaded by the fact that the Tanzanians won’t have the talents to match us beyond the usual prodding from their fans to do the impossible. The hosts rattled the Eagles but lacked the cutting edge to deliver the killer-blow to earn the victory. I must say here that if we had gone to Tanzania with our big boys, they would have lasted only 60 minutes and we would have lost by a lone goal like we did in Sudan.

    In the course of the game, I kept my gaze on Oliseh, watching to see if his mien on the bench could fire the Eagles to play better as the game progressed. I waited anxiously to see if Oliseh would make the changes most people observed from the stands and wherever they watched the game. Oliseh’s substitutions were timely, and they corrected the flaws.

    The Eagles were expectedly disappointing during the first half. They had no leader on the pitch to galvanise them to wake up. But the first substitution made by Oliseh was the jerk the team needed to lift their game from its abysmal setting. Oliseh read the game right and promptly replaced a fumbling Haruna Lukman. Lukman’s poor show typified the sloppiness in the team’s midfield, which left the team’s attack rudderless.

    Had Lukman played to his potentials, his defence-splitting passes from the midfield would have released our faster strikers to score the required goals for victory. From the way the Eagles played, it seemed to me that Simon Moses and Ahmed Musa can’t play together. They bumped into each other many times. They appear comfortable playing on the right wing than on the left, although Moses could be persuaded to play on the left.

    I was excited when Oliseh played Musa ahead of Moses against Niger. That Moses replaced Musa showed that Oliseh is beginning to know his players. I look forward to seeing how he will integrate Victor Moses into this three-prong attack. Playing the ball on the turf instead of the aimless style of lifting the ball into the air was one strong change in Oliseh’s new team. The passing game may have been annoying to many in Dar es Salaam, but it helped them to drag the hosts out of their area just as it frustrated them by slowing down the pace to suit us.

    With seeming small men dominating the Eagles, only the passing game would have given us the draw that we secured. The Eagles pressed when they should, had enough ball possession but didn’t have the midfield general to turn the game in our favour in critical times, especially in the dying minutes of the Tanzanian game, when the hosts wanted to win at all cost. If we had a thinking defensive midfielder, we would have buried the hosts with good counter attacking play, utilising the pace of Musa and Moses.

    The passes from the midfield fell short because Obiora was being too stylish. Oliseh must warn Obiora not to sag his shorts. He spent more time adjusting the short, which he pulled down than on the trends of the game as it wound to a close.

    Readers would ask is if we had players to man the midfield effectively. Yes. Obiora has been around for a long time on the fringes. His game hasn’t moved beyond where it was when he broke into national consciousness. Obiora is immensely talented but a lazy player who admires himself on the pitch.

    The midfield is the engine-room. It requires players who will fight for the ball and provide the passes early, not those who will spend the next 10 seconds after winning the ball from the opposition dancing on one spot to savour the fans’ applause.

    Nigeria did well at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations because the Eagles had Sunday Mba, who worked his socks wet, covering up the flaws of Mikel Obi and Ogenyi Onazi. The Eagles have wobbled in Mba’s absence. The goals have gone dry for Emmanuel Emenike, with Mba’s absence. This piece isn’t one campaigning for Mba’s return. It is a clarion call on Oliseh to find hustlers for the Eagles’ midfield in the mould of Mba.

    Put properly, the Eagles need ball winners in the midfield and boys who can run ceaselessly for 90 minutes. I have seen Oliseh play three men in the midfield. But I feel strongly that the Eagles play better with a robust four-man midfield, which shouldn’t include Mikel and Onazi, until they can exhibit the trait that they show playing for their European clubs when playing for Nigeria.

    Make no mistake here -Mikel and Onazi are good players who, sadly, play in the same position. So, the issue of both playing at the same time is a minus for the Eagles. I hope that Oliseh doesn’t hand Mikel the number 10 shirt, not with what we have seen from Rabiu Ibrahim. Ibrahim has matured and appears disciplined. Ibrahim reminds me of Austin Okocha. His dribbling skills confound his markers but he still needs to watch Okocha’s tapes to know when to dribble progressively and shoot from the distance. With Ibrahim, the Eagles would be creative and the strikers wouldn’t lack passes to make games count in Nigeria’s favour, no matter the opposition.

    Oliseh wants to make Obiora to play his style and he could. But he must wear his shorts well and know that he is a footballer, whose action or inaction causes pains to Eagles’ fans. The midfield jig-saw is almost fixed with, Ibrahim. But we need to have more than one of these people to return to winning ways.

    I’m glad that Oliseh didn’t drop Emenike because of his poor outing against Taifa Stars. Emenike looked better against Niger in Port Harcourt. We need him in our matches because of his pedigree. No African nation can afford not to give Emenike a special marker. Such big players need to be fit to add value to the Eagles.

    Thinking aloud: Where will Oliseh play Victor Moses? Good luck coachie. Welcome to the most difficult job on planet earth. Eagles job, na fire, my son. True talk, Mama Oliseh.

  • Ambode’s 100 days: The shape of things to come

    Ambode’s 100 days: The shape of things to come

    It was just a few days after he was sworn into office on May 29. He was in Abuja for the National Economic Council (NEC) meeting when there were tanker fire explosions at the Idimu petrol station as well as a serious fire incident at Iyana Ipaja. He immediately took the next flight back to his state and headed for the scenes of the tragedies to personally empathise and share in the pain of the people. He gave instructions to provide immediate succour for the victims while he convened a meeting of petrol marketers to map out strategies to avoid future tanker explosions. This kind of decisive responsiveness has been a hallmark of Lagos State governor, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode’s governance style ever since his assumption of office 100 days ago.

    Let us take another example. Mrs Ruth Uche, an Igbo resident of Lagos was in a dilemma. She had just given birth to her third set of twins. Her depressed and distressed husband had absconded obviously out of desperation and helplessness. The governor read about her plight in the newspapers. He did not adopt an indifferent stance. He directed his deputy, Mrs Oluranti Adebule, to cater to the needs of the mother and help re-settle the family. Today, Mrs Uche’s absconding husband is back. The family has been fully re-settled and are living a normal life. It is obvious that seemingly little things matter to governor Ambode.

    But there is yet another example. Miss Oluwajomiloju Goodness Ogundimu is the Lagos State 2015 baby of the year. Yet, her future was imperilled, her life threatened by a heart defect requiring surgery. Again, governor Ambode intervened. Baby Goodness and her parents can today look to the future with hope and optimism. She is now hale and hearty after undergoing successful surgery in India courtesy the Ambode administration.

    An abandoned, penurious retiree can be as helpless and vulnerable as a baby. The emotional wound of being cast aside and neglected after an active life of service to the state and society can be searing and numbing. This was the plight of thousands of retirees from the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the state prior to Ambode’s assumption of office. Today the story is different. Early in August, Mr Ambode approved N11 billion to offset arrears owed retirees including those from Local Governments and Parastatal organizations since 2010. The retirees can sing new songs of joy knowing their labour has not gone unrewarded and unappreciated.

    In the early days of the governor Ambode administration, there was an alarming bank robbery incident in Ikorodu during which the bandits operated freely for hours. This was in addition to complaints of an increase of robbery incidents in traffic as well as reports of the creeping return of area boys and other sundry hoodlums to Oshodi and some other parts of the state. Governor Ambode not only stepped up pressure on the security agencies to live up to their responsibility, he has taken proactive steps to enhance their capacity to do so. For instance, at a dinner organized by the Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF), the governor presented his plans to strengthen the security of the state to members of the Organized Private Sector and requested for their support in this regard. The result was the realization of donations of over N1 billion to the state’s security efforts – an indication of confidence in the integrity of the administration.

    Over the last three months, the Ambode administration has acquired 100 new power bikes, 10 armoured tanks and a helicopter to strengthen the security of the state. This is in addition to the acquisition of 100 new squad cars for a new initiative tagged Special Operation Service (SOS), which will coordinate community policing in collaboration with the Rapid Response Squad (RRS). Of course, there is a link between free traffic flow and reduced crime as well as enhanced economic productivity. Thus, the question of traffic gridlock in Lagos particularly in the notorious Apapa axis has received the unceasing attention of the governor in the last 100 days.

    Governor Ambode has not only personally inspected the traffic situation in Apapa and appealed to the Federal Government to expedite action on rehabilitating the network of roads in the area majority of which belongs to it. He set up a task force to ensure 24 hours surveillance of traffic flow while also holding a meeting with Tanker Drivers and other stakeholders to come up with strategies to free Apapa once and for all from the menace of Traffic gridlock. Equally of concern to governor Ambode has been the rehabilitation and modernisation of the road network in the state. In this regard, he has conducted inspection tours of roads in various areas including Ipaja, Mosan-Okunola, Oshodi-Isolo, Ikotun-Ejigbo and Somolu areas. On his directives, work has commenced on the more deplorable roads including Ejigbo-Ikotun as well as Brown road in Oshodi. From all indications, it seems there will be a conscious shift by the Ambode administration from the perceived elitist focus of his predecessor to the more neglected and less privileged areas of the state.

    In the education sector, the governor approved the recruitment of 1,300 qualified teachers for the state’s public primary schools while in the health sector he commissioned 20 Mobile care Units Ambulances and 26 Transport Ambulances for the state’s General Hospitals and primary healthcare centres on Monday, August 31. Beyond this, he has approved the purchase of generators and x-ray machines for all general hospitals in the state as well as the recruitment of more paramedic staff and special medical coordinators to guarantee 24 hours service to the citizenry.

    During the electoral campaigns, Mr Ambode urged the electorate to allow his experience in governance to work for them. His sterling track record as a seasoned civil servant who rose to the apex of the service over a period of 27 years as well as an accomplished Chartered Accountant, consultant and astute manager of men and resources were some of his key selling points. His sure footedness right from his first day in office vindicates the electorate’s decision to vote for experience and demonstrated competence. Thus, some of the institutional innovations he has engineered to ensure the achievement of his objectives include re-aligning the Ministry of Rural Development, Parastatals Monitoring Office as well as the Political and Legislative Powers Bureau.

    Apart from scrapping the office of the Special Adviser on Taxation and Revenue and Debt Management Office, he merged the Office of Works and Office of Infrastructure in the Ministry of Works as well as the Office of Drainage Services and Office of Environmental Services in the Ministry of Environment. This is to enhance efficiency and cost effectiveness. He has also set up an Office of Overseas Affairs and Investment (Lagos Global) domiciled in his office to spearhead his administration’s aggressive drive for foreign investment. The governor’s appointment of 19 new Permanent Secretaries based strictly on merit, competence and track record has also invigorated the leadership of the service with the promise of greater dynamism and more qualitative service delivery.

    Governor Ambode has also moved to enhance accountability and transparency in the management of the state’s finances by abolishing the multiple account system previously in operation and introducing from September 1 a Treasury Single Account (TSA), which ensures that all government revenues accrue to one consolidated account. If governor Ambode’s first 100 days in office offer glimpses of the shape of things to come in the governance of the Centre of Excellence in the next four years, we should expect more of responsiveness, proactive action, compassion, innovation and focus to elevate Lagos to a higher pedestal of excellence.

    Of course, given his tremendous public service experience, the governor knows that his ultimate success will largely be a function of his ability to shun sycophants and cultivate alternative sources of authentic information to aid effective governance. Given his vast experience in Local Government administration, millions of Lagosians are optimistic that Governor Ambode will return governance to the people by ensuring more effective service delivery at the grassroots level of government widely perceived as grossly underperforming.

  • Justice, beliefs and corruption

    The  news  that an American  Court  Clerk  who  has refused to marry gay couples  according to the new US law  that  gay  couples  can now marry has  raised  the issue  of morality, justice  and beliefs in the world we live in today.  At  a time  when  ISIS  is  beheading people and advocating a borderless caliphate globally one  cannot but  tremble at the  way religion  and  modern culture are  moving  in the direction  of a clash of civilisations and values.

    In   consonance  with  this   concern two  problems in Nigeria and the  European  Union –[ EU] an the   proposed  solutions to them engage  our attention and analysis today. The  first  is the very  interesting solution for    fighting  corruption  reportedly  prescribed  by the former  Catholic  Archbishop of Lagos Cardinal Olubunmi  Okogie in which he said that once looters  have admitted their crime they should not  be tried publicly as  both lawyers  and judges  will  have a field day in taking their  share  of the loot one way  or the other. The  second event  was  the decision of the EU    to accept  to take 200000 migrants instead  of sending them back  to their  nations  from which they have   fled  to seek refuge in Europe.

    These  four events namely the refusal  to marry gay couples  by the Court Clerk; ISIS  bloody  and  murderous pursuit of a global, borderless caliphate; Cardinal  Okogie’s interesting panacea  for fighting corruption in  Nigeria and the EU’s  mercy  on fleeing migrants  from the Middle  East  throw  up  serious  concerns  and issues on justice , beliefs  and corruption not only  in Nigeria but globally  and that is our focus  today.

    Starting with the American Court Clerk who refused to marry gay couples  her excuse was that the  US Supreme  Court judgement allowing gay couples to marry clashes  with her beliefs  as a born again Christian. Ostensibly in  refusing  to marry gay couples  she has broken the law albeit a new one but a law  applauded by no less a person  than the US President  Barak  Obama who sees the passing of the new law on gay marriage as a major  accomplishment  of his presidency. To  the rest  of the world however especially  Christians and Muslims in Africa , the gay  marriage issue and the US Supreme Court decision  places a huge question mark on human  morality as perceived  by  the US. It  puts  God’s own country as the Americans are wont  to call their  nation on the same pedestal as a part  of India where it was reported this week that elders  have decided that a woman who  married below  her  caste  must  be gang raped  as punishment. This  is as bizarre to Africans whether Christian or Muslim as the jailing of a Court Clerk  in the US for  refusing to marry  gay couples because  of her belief in a US where  there is freedom  of  religion. This  is therefore  a definite case  of  a clash between  the law , morality  and religion and I   am  sure  that we have  not heard  the last word on this  case. I expect the Clerk to appeal  the sentence  all the way to the US Supreme Court for that august court to decide on whether religious freedom is on a lower or higher pedestal than gay rights or marriage. Definitely  the civilized world  outside the US whose motto  is In God  we  trust is watching the evolution and direction  of  US civilization over the jailing of   a court  official who refused to marry gay couples because  of her beliefs.

    There  is no need to comment  on ISIS borderless caliphate at length because  its notion and execution are against  all  human values  and culture given the way it  has been beheading human beings on satellite TV in recent times . Obviously ISIS and  its Nigerian counterpart   Boko  Haram have to be defeated and  annihilated in any part  of the world  where they carry  out their nefarious activities  for global peace  and harmony  to overcome the horror  and contemplation of the killing fields of their  proposed, borderless  caliphates.

    We  go  next to Cardinal  Okogie’s  original  prescription to  collect  looted  funds  from our  powerful  treasury  looters. According to the proffered  solution which I will  call the Okogie Solution  to corruption there is no  need  for publicity  or  prosecution once   the crook  has admitted his crime and is ready to return the loot. This is because part  of the loot  may  be frittered away in lawyers  fees and cuddling of dubious  judges who  the lawyers will lure  to give favorable judgements or frivolous adjournments  that will  make justice expensive in terms of time and state expenditure  to recover the stolen funds. I agree  to a large extent to this recipe which is distinctly Nigerian in its creativity.  I  however disagree  with the lack  of publicity option in the Okogie  Solution. This  is because publicity for  looting will  create the desired  stigma for  looters and that in itself will  be a punishment for looters as well as a deterrent for  present and aspiring  looters at  large.  Anyway  I do not think the Okogie prescription will  be popular  with lawyers and I wonder  what the reaction of the Nigerian  Bar  Association will  be to it as well as  that of National  Judicial  Institute.

    Lastly there is need to commend the  EU for accepting to take on the migrants from the Middle  East  who  have besieged  Europe  while fleeing the  war  in  Syria. It  is easy  to blame EU  governments and even  the US  for not doing enough to dislodge Syria’s  President  Assad  and to accuse the EU  of  mass sovereign compunction  over the matter.  But  the stark  fact is that the  refugees  are not wanted  by some EU nations and the Prime  Minister of  Hungary  stated that  bluntly  by asking   them on satellite TV not to come to Europe  but  to stay in Turkey  which  he said is a safe  nation. One  can also agree  with  some  analysts who  say that the EU’s  aging population needs the immigrants  who  are mainly  young people and would be economically productive in the short  and long run.  But  then the immigrants  are mostly Muslims and the fear of Islamic  militancy rearing its head once the refugees have been accommodated and integrated is a real and nagging  security  concern for  the EU nations.

    For  now   however the EU  has shown the  Christian  virtue or simply a religious  act  of mercy which  clearly shows  that Europe is Christian  although its stride toward gay marriages in even Catholic nations like Ireland  seem  to belie its respect  for Christian  values. It  was a good spectacle  seeing EU leaders  showing concern and increasing their budgetary  allocation to take care of the fleeing migrants who wanted England and Germany by all means and at grave dangers to their lives and families . It  showed  that the world has become  an interdependent, community  of  humanity and rights  and values  must  show humanity and respect for each  others way  of life to avert the looming clash  of civilization over issues  like gay  rights  and marriages.

  • Swimming with Buhari

    President Muhammadu Buhari’s frame reminds one of some the best Kenyans, Ethiopians and other East Africans renowned for running the long distance races. Buhari’s brisk walk shows that he has not lost touch with the fitness drills he was subjected to as a military man. But Buhari isn’t a known sports lover – forget the fact that in May he cut the tape to open the road where the famous yearly Okpekpe 10 kilometres Road Race is run.

    Not one to talk frivolously, many had waited for Buhari’s response to sportsmen and women’s welfare. Many still await his sports agenda and how it would address the endemic problems in the industry. Will the President sustain the monetary rewards to athletes or will he return to the uninspiring handshake policy for athletes whose sporting life span is short, unpredictable and riddled with life threatening injuries? Need I inform Buhari of the devastatingly long list of sportsmen and women who made this country proud in the past, who are languishing in sick beds, crippled by injuries sustained in their active years? How about the dead?

    So, when Buhari challenged sports administrators to ensure that they restore swimming’s glory, I chuckled. Of not is the fact that Buhari isn’t a neophyte in sports. He knows that if we dominate the multi-sports competitions, such as the all African Games and the Olympics, Nigeria will win the diadems of such sports tournaments. Buhari also showed that he knew that all our facilities are in disrepair and would like them fixed, beginning with the swimming pools, which should be the cheapest to revamp. Just to add, Mr. President, you need to speak with governors of Edo, Rivers, Ondo, Delta and Lagos to challenge their ministries of education and sports councils to revive the now moribund grassroots competitions of yore. The governors should find out if those who produced these athletes are still alive for some tutorials, especially the man who produced those awesome swimmers from the old Ondo State.

    I knew that the administrators don’t understand the metaphor in the President’s speech and it isn’t surprising because they are used to spending government money. Of course, Buhari knows that Nigeria didn’t register any swimmer for the All African Games – a big scandal – from the briefs he got during the session with our sports administrators last week. The President was being proactive should emphasise the need for Nigeria to finish in second position, otherwise he would ask questions. Buhari deserves to ask questions given our population and Nigerians’ Spartan fighting spirit when properly motivated. The President asking for swimming medals is the clincher we need to make sports the business that it is in other climes.

    Rather than reflect on the bigger picture of Buhari’s mandate for swimming medals, some busybody administrators roared that it wouldn’t happen. What Buhari literarily meant was for those who visited him to do something about our infrastructure. Buhari has shown that he is ready for this job of moving the country out of the pit in which the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) threw it and sports certainly hasn’t been left out of his dream for a better Nigeria.

    How can we talk about reinventing swimming, if we cannot have light in the stadia? The task of fixing swimming means getting enough chlorine for the water in the pools across the country. Can we talk about swimming without looking at the stadia where the swimming federations are squatters? Why fix swimming when the football pitch is balding, bumpy and overgrown with grass enough for hunters to set traps for rodents, rabbits and other animals?

    Would be right to fix swimming when the tartans tracks are an awful sight to behold? Shouldn’t we ask why these facilities are in ruins? What happened to all the cash earmarked for the maintenance of these facilities, which have been in ruination for ages?

    Buhari knows the problems with our sports even if he isn’t a sports freak. He reads newspapers and follows discussions on the electronic media. Asking the administrators to revive swimming was the best challenge and I hope that the president will ensure that his instructions are kept. No one dares Buhari anyway.

    Fixing all the swimming pools isn’t a child’s  play. Such an adventure is best achieved by the total overhaul of the big stadia. It also raises the poser about what happened to the cash budgeted for sports development in the past three decades. Another way to fix swimming would be for the government to either lease all the big stadia or sell the complexes.

    Stadium management is a huge money-spinner for those who understand the dynamics of the industry. It generates cash for investors, given the marketing windows a stadium can provide. You will best appreciate the essence of leasing stadiums to concessionaires when you visit European countries. Most stadiums have a wide range of business activities generating funds for their owners.

    The volume of business activities is indescribable. A classical example is the decision by the Sierra Leone government to play her Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers in Nigeria. NFF has picked the Adokie Amiesiamaka International Stadium in Port Harcourt because it the most befitting. Need I restate what Rivers State government will rake into its covers from hosting the matches? Trust the Garden City people to effectively maximise the marketing platform to sell their goods and services. I won’t be surprised to see miniature stock shops around the Adokie Amiesiamaka International Stadium where people can eat, drink and celebrate before, during and after the matches, not forgetting the hawkers who will mill around the stadium selling their wares. I can’t wait. Port Harcourt will come alive.

    Globally when stadia are built, the construction firms are given contracts to first maintain the complexes for a period of five to 10 years. These firms use this period to train indigenes on how the facilities are repaired. The essence is for those trained to teach others and invariably increase the pool of stadium engineers. If we had this maintenance culture, our edifices wouldn’t have been in prostrate conditions.

    Nigeria’s steady slide in athletics rests with the fact there are no competitions to keep athletes busy. Such competitions were the breeding grounds for rooky athletes, who were nurtured and exposed as new discoveries during the country’s quest for sporting glories.

    Athletics in Nigeria is all about Blessing Okagbare. If Okagbare flops, Nigeria fails. This is very sad, given our population. Athletics used to be the flagship of corporate sponsorship. The crowd at big athletics meets, such as the then annual Mobil Athletics Championships was as big as those of football. The media buzz was awesome and our home-grown athletes gave their foreign-based counterparts a run for their money.

    The athletics calendar was packed, beginning with the Hussey Shield and Lady Manuwa Cup for secondary school pupils. Inter-house sports competitions celebrated the best, who were eager to wear Nigeria’s colours. Local competitions like the inter-Local Government Challenge and the State Sports Festival served, as the podium to discover athletes who represented their states at the National Sports Festival. The buzz from the National Sports Festival is gone, no thanks to the sickening manner in which the games have been postponed by inept governors who lobby to host the competitions.

    To me, the most incredible of the problems is how the National Sports Festival became politicised. It used to be the competition for the National Sports Commission (NSC), held religiously every two years. I weep each time I find myself in stadia where National Sports Festivals hold these days. It was fun attending the Kaduna ’77 Games; Oluyole ’79 Games; Rivers ’88 Games to mention a few which I participated in. Please, don’t remind me of how the Bendel State contingent stormed Lagos in long buses driven by women in 1975. It was a show buster anchored by easily the best sports governor in Nigeria till date, Dr. Samuel Osaigbovo Ogbemudia, a man of ideas. Take a bow sir (Ughator Okpere sir, ise!). I digress!

    We have seen the effect of piece-meal reconstruction of the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos. It didn’t serve the purpose of accommodating all the indoor sports. Shortly before the D’ Tigers conquered Africa in basketball in Tunisia, there was an unfortunate incident where the country’s volleyball men’s team refused to vacate the court for the basketball team to play a competition. The renovation of the courts was done by the sponsor of the basketball tournament, which gave them the right to use the place. Perhaps, the volleyball squad stuck to their guns because the place is a federal government property. Foul. The Volleyball Federation must emulate their basketball counterparts to repair one of the dilapidating indoor courts which would give them the right to use it for training and competitions.

    Table tennis, boxing and a few other sports federations have done their bit with renovation. But it is the presidential mandate to reinvent swimming that would bring about the holistic overhaul of the National Stadium in Lagos and others, like Liberty Stadium in Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna and the Nnamdi Azikiwe Stadium in Enugu.

    Once these structures are fixed, we can be talking about returning to the old days when athletes had facilities to train. We can also talk about providing platforms for Nigerians to recreate. We can use the premises to house our sportsmen and women before big tournaments instead of staying in hotels at huge costs to the federations’ purse.

    We can only beat the best if we do the things that they have perfected. It is sickening to think that every time we want to prepare for big competitions, we talk about going to Europe to train. If we channel all that we have spent in the past to renovating our stadia, the facilities wouldn’t be in the ruination that they are in today.

    I hope that Buhari will ask these administrators for updates on his directive when they return from the All African Games in Congo.

  • Rebranding Okagbare

    Blessing Okagbare needs help. She must be educated on the traits that distinguish winners from losers. She needs a psychologist, a starter’s bloc expert, a career advisor and a sprint great to repeatedly take her through the rudiments of winning the sprints.

    For Okagbare or any other Nigerian to stand on the podium at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, the government must stop giving cash to sporting bodies. In other climes, they operate a four-yearly budget meant to train athletes, sportsmen and women the moment one major competition ends. If we continue to operate the yearly budgetary system, which most times don’t turn to cash until the middle of the year, no Nigerian will be an Olympic Games medalist, except he or she goes the way of Chioma Ajunwa, who was guided to glory by Segun ‘Mathematical’ Odegbami. Odegbami took Ajunwa on a guided training session in London after which Ajunwa won the gold medal in the women’s long jump event at the Atlanta’96 Olympic Games.

    It is about time we asked the government what happened to all the funds sourced by the sports lottery body. Elsewhere, cash from this kind of initiative goes a long way in helping sportsmen and women achieve their dreams of being kings and queens of their sports.

    Countries that plan for big events identify models that they think can help their athletes improve. They either send their wards, coaches and officials to such countries to be trained or get the good coaches to come to their home countries to prepare their teams.

    I always laugh whenever Nigerian athletes promise us medals before big competitions. I pinch myself to find out the type of facilities that they train with. I wonder how athletes who train with obsolete facilities expect to beat the others. It was a big shame watching our boxers at the London Olympics being taught the new rules of the game. They lost the bouts even before the fights began. Boxing officials stood morose as their wards fell to the modern tricks of the game which they would have known, if they had attempted to undergo refresher courses.

    Sadly, our attempt to model our National Institute for Sports (NIS) after what the Australians have has failed. We have been unable to raise the level of the NIS to achieve the goals set for it – train our coaches etc. Coaches from the NIS have been highly handicapped because of the deplorable conditions of facilities around the country. Need I talk about the state of facilities at the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, which houses the NIS? With coaches whose studies are restricted to theoretical work, it shouldn’t come as a surprise when our sportsmen and women lack the basics of their sport. For instance, we have been talking about Okagbare’s poor start since ‘God knows when.’ Nobody has provided the panacea. Nor has anyone been able to get Okagbare a coach whose specialty is teaching athletes how to explode from the starter’s bloc. I digress.

    Branding Okagbare, I dare say, doesn’t have to be through the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), that is if Nigerian firms don’t trust the body. They could deal directly with her manager which is the norm. Of course, Okagbare and her manager come from a system where contracts are respected.

    Loading Okagbare with huge government cash without the requisite technical support won’t help her grow. Sports business is big with global acceptance. Okagbare’s antecedents are such that would attract corporate partnerships, if companies are told the benefits to them. Such private sector support for athletes such as Okagbare should not be restricted to Nigerian firms. Let Nigerian companies face the embarrassment of watching Okagbare celebrate her gold medal wearing foreign firms’ colours. May be that will be the elixir to push Nigerian firms to support sports.

    The former sprint star in Okagbare’s support team would share his/her experiences with her through visuals and pep talks, preparatory to big tournaments. She has the talent to be the greatest woman athlete, only if she has backroom staff to school her on events she should attend and those she shouldn’t.

    Okagbare appears to be interested in what she can get for herself in all the races largely because we don’t care for her, not what she would be remembered for after she would have left the game. Okagbare doesn’t need to compete in all the races seasonally.

    She has no point to prove in the sprint business, having beaten all the top runners in the past. Yet she needs to ponder why those she dusts in smaller races embarrass her in the big races. Except Okagbare gets a renowned manager who would plan her races based on the athletics calendar, she won’t get any big title (World Athletics Championship and the Olympics).

    The World Athletics Championships and the Olympic Games signpost how athletes are rated for other meets. Equally important are the Commonwealth Games, the All Africa Games etc. But the Olympics and the World Championships determine how athletes are rated for the new season.

    It is laughable for anyone to blame Okagbare’s poor show at the Beijing 2015 World Athletics Championships on the lane in which she ran. Okagbare is exposed enough to know that how you finish in the semi-finals determines your lane for the final race. What this means is that Okagbare should strive at all times to be placed in-between those tipped to beat her in the finals. Their presence will galvanise her to explode out of the blocs. Being on her marks in-between her rivals will pump her adrenalin to match them as they leave the starter’s bloc.

    It is unfair for people to insinuate that her marriage could be affecting her. Okagbare has been in the relationship with her husband for over one decade. Interestingly, her husband is a sportsman who certainly met her during a sports competition. He has been Okagbare’s pillar. They must have agreed on the future, including making babies. We have also seen female athletes give birth and return to the sports to continue from where they stopped.

    Today the Jamaicans are the benchmark to measure athletics. They didn’t sit at home in Jamaica sermonising like some of our administrators are doing. The Jamaican authorities took their team to the United States to understudy the Americans, who were the kings and queens of the tracks. It took the Jamaicans time, resources and support from their government to replicate an improved template of the US model. Today, the Americans watch in awe as the Jamaicans stride ahead of them on the tracks.

    We must commend former Delta State Governor Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan for supporting Okagbare. Uduaghan has left office. It appears Okagbare has been marooned. Governance here isn’t a continuum. She needs more enduring structures to succeed. It has taken the League Management Company (LMC’s) threat to deduct points from Warri wolves’ league matches before the Delta State government reacted. Warri Wolves never lacked under Uduaghan’s administration.

    Okagbare didn’t appear for the 200 metres race – no thanks to a hamstring injury. Is anyone surprised? I’m not because she has been participating in too many races in the last two years. It could also be that she was devastated by the laughable last position she took in the 100 metres finals despite clocking one of the best times in the semi-final race.

    Okagbare has behaved like the proverbial masquerade who danced himself lame before the real dance. She must learn from Usain Bolt, who stylishly dodged small races this season to be fit for the big ones, such as the World Athletics Championships.

    I won’t join the motley crowd deriding Okagbare for shunning the 200 metres race. I’d rather ask AFN chiefs to sit down with her to discuss her problems. Okagbare can be the poster girl for Nigeria at the Rio’2016 Olympic Games, but she needs to be handed over to a new team of experts to repackage her training.

     

    Let Mikel be

     I didn’t want to dignify John Mikel Obi’s refusal to pick Sunday Oliseh’s calls with a comment. I honestly felt that Oliseh had done the right thing by dropping Mikel. The coach didn’t need any prompting to know that Victor Moses would have told Mikel that he got a call from the Eagles coach. Besides, Moses would have told Mikel that he was attending a meeting with Oliseh.

    I maintained stoic silence on Mikel’s tantrum, until I read his manager John Ola Shittu confirm that Mikel indeed saw Oliseh’s text message. I didn’t have any doubt that what Mikel did was deliberate. I appreciate the uncanny manner in which Oliseh has moved on without making it an issue.

    Oliseh should leave Mikel alone. If he wants to play for Nigeria, he can pay his way down to the country to show us that he truly wants to play. Mikel should be ignored in subsequent invitations to the Eagles, more so if Oliseh wants Nigerians to take him seriously on his vow not to invite benchwarmers, including those who perpetually come into matches as dying minutes’ substitutes. Any Nigerian who plays less than one hour regularly for his European side shouldn’t be invited to the Eagles.

  • Power, corruption and anxieties

    I start today  on the premise  or saying that power  corrupts and absolute power  corrupts absolutely. To  dilate on this matter I will  look at the life and times of three personalities  in the news recently  and the high expectations and anxieties hanging  on their actions and inactions given their offices and ambitions in their  environment. The first  is our  President Muhammadu  Buhari, his fight against  corruption  and the  public fury over the fact that most  of the appointments he has announced so far  have been lopsided in favor of  the Northern  part  of the nation.

    The  second  personality is  Donald  Trump, American  real estate  billionaire  and for now the   leading  candidate of the Republican  Party  for the 2016 presidential  elections in the US. The  third  is the EFCC  Chairman  Lamorde who is being tried for diversion  of seized money by Nigeria’s  Senate  whose leader  and his wife are good  customers  of the EFCC  on allegations of corruption.

    The  three gentlemen  are very  powerful  individuals and attention is being drawn to  their use  and misuse  of power  by their  actions or  inactions in the last  few days.  Let  me say  clearly  here that  in any democracy such as Nigeria, the largest  black  nation in the  world, and the US  the   leading global  champion  of democracy, the  quest  for equal  opportunities  and  protection  for  all  citizens, fairness  and justice should be the yard stick  to  measure  human progress  and development. It  is in the light  of these values  that I shall   look  at  the relationship of these  three leaders with  the use  of power  or the quest  for it in their  various  stations in life.

    Starting with  our President  I  think he  should  expect  the brouhaha that the announcement    of   appointments has generated  in the nation especially  the South West. This is because  it was in the Southwest  that the egg that hatched a famous presidential 2015  elections  victory  was  hatched  and there is  no need to mention any name. For  now the people  of the Southwest  are  stunned  and in  a quandary.  It  is not as if they  are the only  people in the South  of  Nigeria. But  the last  election results showed  clearly that the  South East  and South  South did  not vote for the new  president.  So expectations are not high there on appointments as in the  South  west  where there is  palpable  grief  and disappointment  on the domination of the North  on the appointments so far. Which  simply  means that the  President should do   a rethink  and redress the imbalance  in the next list  of presidential  appointments. That  is the only way  to prevent the South East  from celebrating what they  see as the emasculation  of the Southwest by the  North and that really will  be  their  way of making merry  with the embarrassment  of the South west which  is what the present  lopsidedness in announced appointments is all about.

    Undoubtedly  the President is experienced enough  as a former  Head of State  and  Commander In  Chief to know that  those  who have sour  grapes  over  his election  are  going to make mischief out of the appointments as they are and revive the fear of the Born To Rule  syndrome associated with  a once dominant North  in our recent political  history. Surely  that must be in the past now and the president’s  subsequent  appointments must reflect Nigeria’s  federal character.  A  redress in the geopolitical   in balance of the present  appointments is needed  urgently to reflect  equity  and justice and reward those  in the President’s  political  camp  who put their lives  on the line to secure  his election and  give  him the huge powers now at his disposal.

    With  regard to Donald  Trump his quest  for the presidency  of the US  was treated  with levity  and contempt before obviously because of  his controversial public  image and  outspokenness. Now most  Americans as  well as their political  leaders are laughing  with the other end of  their  mouths as Donald Trump is slowly  but  surely emerging as the popular choice  among Republican Party  members  and most ordinary Americans. Trump  is handling the campaigns masterfully  and is oratorically  sounder than the rest  of the Republican Party  candidates  and I am  not  too  sure that  he will  not   beat  the  famous Bush  name. Just  like  Barak  Obama emerged from the blues  a few years  back to beat Hilary Clinton and clinch the Democratic  Party  ticket before  going on to become the first   elected  black US president in history.

    Donald  Trump is  lucky he is  contesting  in the US where he is assured  that people  will respect  his immense wealth and know  that he  will  not use his good  offices when  elected  to loot the public  wealth and common wealth. Which  really  is a common  nagging problem in Nigeria when quite  rich people  go  on to  loot  the state treasury on getting  elected  to public  office. A situation that has made  really  honest and wealthy  Nigerians  to stay away  from politics  so  that their  clean money will  not be dirtied  by stolen public  money which some have made indistinguishable  from hard  earned money by their greed  and avarice.

    Lastly  the travails and trials  of  Nigeria’s Anti  Corruption Czar  Lamorde  is to be expected. The  saying is quite true here  that  those  who  live in glass  houses should  not throw stones. Lamorde  should  learn two  things  on the use and misuse  of power on this senate trial. The  first is that media  trial  of suspects and the destruction of reputation  of  suspects before  going to  court is not only unfair, it is unjust  and undemocratic. That  is what the allegation against him has done with his reputation and he has virtually  no sympathizers  as this has  been the modus operation of the EFCC  since its inception  and under his leadership. The  second is that  some crooks  are  bold and shameless  enough  to claim  what they stole  as their  own and are  ready  to  contest the amount in question. A former  governor of Kano State once said he left a  certain  amount in government house  far higher than what the police said  they  found  and that is the same thing happening to the EFCC  boss nowadays.

    Undoubtedly  I  do  not  see Lamorde  getting  away  with the allegations against him at a trial  in a senate which has many of its members on trial by the EFCC  in the media. In  a way  its payback  time for the EFCC  boss  and I do not envy him the grilling  and harsh  questioning awaiting him. I  pray  all  the same that   he  gets  justice in our senate. Otherwise  I  take  consolation in the statement that what is good for the goose  is  sauce  for the gander. Again, long live the Federal  Republic of Nigeria.

  • A tale of three revolutions

    A tale of three revolutions

    There is no doubt that opponents of the on-going fierce anti-corruption stance and actions of the emergent President Muhammadu Buhari administration would readily commend for his perusal and contemplation the humorous but anonymous poem quoted above. Why must PMB, they have privately and publicly asked, be expending so much time, energy and resources towards the recovery of looted funds, that constitute no more than a microscopic  ‘horseshoe nail’, in a vastly resource-endowed country like ours? As far as these critics are concerned, the PMB anti-corruption campaign is sheer rhetoric to divert attention from the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s alleged’s unpreparedness for serious governance. They call on PMB to focus on governance and his promised development agenda, rather than the current seeming hounding of former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) public office holders of the former President Goodluck Jonathan administration, by various anti-corruption agencies.

    There is, of course a subtle and mischievous sleight of hand in this argument. It assumes that fighting the anti-corruption war and pursuing a credible and productive development agenda are mutually exclusive objectives. First of all, it was because of the sheer brigandage, impunity and outright venality particularly of the Jonathan years that we have found ourselves in the current ditch of unprecedented fiscal distress. For a PMB administration that inherited a near insolvent country with governments at all levels finding it difficult to meeting their obligations, including workers’ salaries, it would be grossly irresponsible to allow a few Nigerians to keep the billions and trillions of scarce resources stolen from the public purse, all in the name of some nebulous and meaningless peace agenda. Furthermore, the APC presented an expansive progressive manifest to the electorate. It needs all the funds it can get, especially the stolen funds, to meaningfully pursue its objectives.

    Ironically, those who argue that the PMB administration is expending too much energy on looking into the financial malfeasance that assumed a contagious dimension during the Jonathan era, are also the ones who canvass that PMB’ anti-graft war be extended to the beginning of this dispensation in 1999. It is obvious that this is simply a ploy to cripple the anti-corruption war and render it useless and meaningless. For one, the phenomenal cost of such an exercise would have dysfunctional economic implications. Again, the pressure on our already overburdened judiciary would be practicably unbearable. In any case, the pro-Jonathan critics who canvass this position do not bother to explain why the anti-graft agencies practically went to sleep in the Jonathan years. The truth of the matter is that no administration will ever be humanly possible to completely wipe out corruption. But the menace can be drastically reduced from its present epidemic level, once we have administrations that allow the anti-corruption and other anti-crime agencies to function with a relative degree of autonomy from the other arms of government particularly the executive.

    In many ways Buhari is an ideological and political enigma. He cannot in any way be described as a revolutionary. His past and present political exertions were geared towards strengthening the system rather than overthrow it as a revolutionary would aim at. It is obviously his historic mission to help transform the Nigerian socio-economic and institutional system; to spearhead change as a way of sanitising and stabilising it. Buhari has clearly not come to overthrow the system but to save it through stabilising change. Is this a case of the ideological conservative as involuntary advocate of radical change? Even though his political steps are still tentative, through his sheer body language, there is palpable change in the air. The kind of sheer impunity witnessed in the pre-Buhari era has seemingly dissolved into thin air. Organisations and institutions of state are run more transparently and responsibly. Revenue generating agencies are duly remitting due amounts to the Federation Account, unlike the recent past. We have been spared the insulting spectacles of imperial First Ladyism gone rampant. Federal Government accounts have been streamlined and harmonised for greater accountability and monitoring.

    Like PMB, Governor Akin Ambode is an unlikely revolutionary who within a short time is bringing about radical changes in Lagos State-building on the solid work of his illustrious predecessors. Just as PMB is a product of the military as a professional soldier, Governor Ambode, a Charted Accountant is one of the most experienced civil servants in the country rising to the apex of his profession. Interestingly, both the military institution and the civil service have similar professional attributes of discipline, respect for authority, institutional rigidity, and hierarchical bureaucratic among others. Both men are thus unlikely revolutionaries who, nevertheless, are spearheading far reaching changes in their spheres of influence. In Lagos the Akin Ambode hurricane is gaining momentum by the day. He has merged ministries to reflect new areas of emphasis as well as reduce duplication and enhance efficiency.  He has shaken up the civil service top leadership to renew organisational efficacy. He has been proactive in responding to emergencies in various parts of the state. Near revolutionary reforms are being implemented across diverse Ministries, Departments and Agencies, which this writer gathered are already having salutary fiscal and other effects in the state of Excellence.

    Perhaps the most restless and excitable of the public officers elected on April 12, is the Kaduna State governor Mallam Nasir El- Rufai who remains as controversial as he was when he was Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. Yes, he has taken some commendable steps as governor. For instance, El -Rufai has employed one or two non-Kaduna State indigenes as his political aides. Again, he has been applauded for announcing that all Local Government funds will be fully released to them. But the governor must first of all take the trouble to ascertain that the grassroots units of government have the executive capacity to maximally and efficiently utilise the level of their current funding.

    Just as he did as Minister when he forced okada riders off the streets and massively undertook a massive demolition of structures partly to create room for urban renewal in the Federal Capital Territory, Nasir El- Rufai is at war against beggars in Kaduna State. He wants them off the streets. El-Rufai has certainly not learnt any meaningful lessons from his experience at the FCT. He is still the same old El-Rufai enamoured of neo-liberal socio-economic policies utterly indifferent to the plight of the vulnerable and poor in society. This is the verdict of renowned sociologist, Professor Patrick Wilmot, on the Kaduna State governor in his book ‘Nigeria: The Nightmare Scenario’. His words: “El-Rufai the minister of the capital territory was at ABU when I lectured there but certainly never listened to what I had to say. His and previous governments failed to provide poor citizens with public transport forcing them to risk their lives and health in Danfos and Okadas. Yet, without building trains, subways or trams he threatens to get rid of Okadas, provoking the people further to rebellion, and feeding inflation by raising the price of all forms of transport”.

  • Transparency, corruption and governance

    Given  the charming disposition, body  language  and warm smiles on our President‘s face as he receives reports from Federal Permanent Secretaries delegations in  Abuja recently, there  is no doubt  that he is  more at ease with civil  servants in governance  than politicians. That  to  me is an obvious  fact and has nothing to do  with the fact that he has not chosen his cabinet yet. Given his background and the fact that he served as a military  head of state before you  can  say  that is to  be  expected.

    For  a man  with a proven reputation for integrity  you  can even  concede that given the financial  mess he found on the ground on being elected he would  rather know the true state  of affairs  from the Permanent  Secretaries who as the Chief Administrative Officers in the Ministries are  also the bona  fide Chief  Executive  Officers in our public  service. The  danger  however  is that this  same set  of  Permanent  Secretaries  served the last government  that looted our treasury  very  diligently  and  cannot  like  Pontius  Pilate  was  their hands clean  of the looting  and rape of our  economy which the last  administration did  so  maliciously  and  majestically. Even  with  great impunity  as if tomorrow  will never come and detection  of such abysmal  crimes will never arise.

    My  contention  here is that transparency  is an inherent part  of the fight against corruption  and the present bunch  of Permanent  Secretaries  are just  incapable  of  it. Their  reports  should ipso  facto  be taken with  a pinch of salt by the president as they  cannot claim ignorance  of the various breaches of due processes that resulted  in the abysmal looting of our treasury. This has so much astounded  and  astonished  the president that he had  to cry out on the magnitude of the embezzlement  for all Nigerians to know and to assure them that he will not do much else until the culprits  have  been apprehended  and brought  to book. A    decision  which  has the approbation of all  Nigerians except the  looters,  their cronies, stooges and  beneficiaries  of their  atrocities.

    Ironically   and  unbelievably,  a  public  servant  like these permanent  secretaries blazed  a trail on transparency in public service  in  Nigeria this last week  and that person is a Nigerian. That person is  Amina  Zakari  the Acting Chairman  of  INEC, a lady  after my heart,  with  no romance intended,  but who by her revelations on the last 2015 elections  was a lesson  in vintage transparency   of   the type our president should look  out for  and reward  in his  lofty   and famous  tussle with corruption  in  our polity.  Zakari,  under attack  by the opposition PDP  not  to be confirmed as INEC boss  for  being purportedly  a relation of the president  went about her duty with great   aplomb  and candor.  She    announced that as at  now even after  the last 2015   elections, 10 m  voters  cards  have  not been collected by  registered  voters.  Which confirms  that INEC  disenfranchised 10 m  Nigerians  for  no just  cause   even  after  the postponement   and the Jega  affirmed  state  of readiness. This  fact  was  never revealed  by her former  boss  and  her  known    penchant for   truth  and frankness   must  have dissuaded her former  boss from recommending her as his    successor, as  he   chose someone else  before the  president  announced Zakari’s  name and Jega’s  choice  had  to go into limbo.

    Now  Zakari  has defined her  relationship with the president and debunked the in law issue. She  even  announced that some  44, 000 voters cards were  not delivered  at  all.  That  to  me is transparency  in the face of all odds and  regardless  of whose ox  is gored  including herself as INEC  boss. It  is such  a person that  all Nigerians should wish  to conduct  elections knowing that she  will say  the truth on the state of readiness  to conduct a free and fair elections and  receive wide  credibility in saying so.  That  really  is the catalyst   for  a real  democracy  as elections  are the engine  room of  any  viable and vibrant  democracy.

    Transparency  was on display  too at our legislature  this last week  but  it was  of a very disturbing type. The news  was that  our  Senators  and Representatives have shared N12.9bn in two months whereas  they  have not passed any bill  since they  opened  shop on June 9  and shocked  the nation  and the majority  party in the nation and legislature with a bizarre leadership election which the Police has now confirmed was   enacted  with  bent house rules. According to media reports the  109  Senators  got  N 36.4 m  each  and  the 360  members  of the House  of  Representatives  got N25m  each. While  one can commend  the legislators  for being transparent  in making their allowances  and emoluments  public one  cannot  but recoil in disgust  and annoyance  at  the huge amount  the legislators  are  paying  themselves. It  is even  more odious to recall  that they have rejected  a plea  by a Committee they set up in house  to review these same emoluments down wards. This  is a legislature that over the years have acquired  the dubious reputation of holding the executive by the jugular  over its  constitutional  duty of approving the budget. The  Nigerian legislature is noted  for asking the executive to jack up its budget to accommodate the  allowances of legislators and add it to the budget before approving. Whereas the duty of a worthwhile and really honorable  house is to cut national and budget costs  to  have a productive  and salutary  deficit. I  am  sure that when the budget is presented the legislators  will still  repeat the same chicanery  in spite  of what they have done just two  months  into their  tenure.

    It  is  necessary  to let  the legislators  know  that they are the elected representatives  of  the  Nigerian  nation and  people  to whom  they  are  accountable  every time and day  and not just at election time. Nigerians  are  hurting and are pained  by  the huge  and unrealistic amounts  our legislators are paying  themselves as if they live on the moon  and are not fellow Nigerians like those unfortunate enough to have elected them but whose   trust  they have now  betrayed by the amounts  they are paying themselves  for elective offices.

    They  should  know that they  do  not live in a vacuum and that their  present disposition is bound  to have serious repercussion given the present socio economic living conditions  of those  who elected them which are  quite harrowing as most live on subsistence  level. Meaning most  Nigerians live from  hand  to  mouth  and cannot comprehend why those they have just elected  can be earning over N20m  in  just   two  months after being elected to make laws which they  have  not found time to make. Certainly  the legislators  need to know that with such  emoluments in the midst  of so much  suffering they are virtually  getting away with  murder. For  how long they can do that is a matter  of conjecture and I  will  illustrate   from a childhood cartoon, with what  a Red  Indian Chief  told an American Officer in charge of the Indian Reservation Camp where the Officer  was  stealing the meat meant for the Indians and  giving them rotten meat instead. The Indian Chief  told the officer named Lang. ‘Believe  me Lang, my patience  grows thin. This rotten  carrion I  will  not  give to a dog. If  my people should  rise against  you in their  anger, it  were better that you and your kind had  never  been born. ‘A word  I think  is enough  for the  wise on this high legislators allowances and emoluments.   Again, long  live the Federal  Republic  of Nigeria.

  • Entrepreneurship and national development

    Entrepreneurship and national development

    On the 20th of April this year, she made history at the Universityof Abuja (UNIABUJA) when she became the first woman to deliver an inaugural lecture at the University. She is none other than Professor Sarah OlanrewajuAnyanwu of the Department of Economics. Her inaugural delivery is the 13th since the establishment of UNIABUJA with Professor Anyanwu’s presentation being the second from the Department of Economics and the third from the Faculty of Social Sciences. I must confess that when a friend,at my requisite, sent me a copy of the lecture, I was initially unexcited about the title: ‘Entrepreneurship as a Tool for Fostering Economic Development in Nigeria”. I used to belong to the school of thought that studies like Entrepreneurial studies or home economics are largely pragmatic disciplines more concerned with the nuts and bolts of practical matters and with no room for the theoretical and philosophical bases of academic subjects properly so called.

    Yet, when in recent weeks, I have been reading the inaugural culture and I must admit that my earlier sentiments were completely misbegotten and erroneous. From my reading of the lecture, Professor Anyawu, has an incomparable passion for entrepreneurial studies. Her first major paper after obtaining her Ph.Din 1992 was titled ‘Women Entrepreneurs in Jimata and Yola of Adamawa state: A profile of Features, Problems and Precepts”. This was an early indication that Professor Anyanwu was not going to be your typical denizen of the scholarly ensconced in an the Ivory Tower blissfully proffering theories far removed from existential realities. She also gained further academic and practical experience when she served as Director of Entreprenursip of UNIABUJA in 2010.

    The central theme of Professor Sarah Anyanwu’s inaugural is lecture that a passion for entrepreneurial studies is an indispensable vehicle for national recovery and sustainable development. She has been particularly influenced by the great economist, Schumpeter’s ‘theory of entrenpreneurship’ with its emphasis on creativity, innovation and venture development. Professor Anyawu underscores the critical and indispensable role of entrepreneurship in achiving national economic growth and development. In her words “Entreprenurship includes identification of individual of resources, allocation of resouces to create value through the identification of unmet needs. It involves the courage to take investment risks, the creativity to conceptualise and actualise marketable venture to meet identical needs’. Thus, the psychological prerequisites of successful entreprenuiral ventures include capacity, attitude, a talent for innovation, high moral integrity as well leadership capabilities”.

    Citing several scholars – Schumpeter, Weber, Thomas and Mueller etc, Professor Anyanwu argues that there is a positive correlation between entrepreneurial activities “and the stimulation of economic growth, employment generation and the disadvantaged sections of the population, which include women and the poor”. But how does entrpreneurship promote national development? This she contends is through its role as a generator of employment and increased productivity through innovation, the facilitation of transfer or adaptation of technology as well as the dynamic generation and utilisation of resources.

    The link between the individual – creative, innovative, industrious, daring and courageous enrteprenurship and achieving his potentials in my reading of Professor Anyanwu’s lecture is a functional, effective, transparent and accountable state, which provides the necessary environment for business and enrepreneurship to thrive”. The professor thus exhaustively explores appropriate economic, social, psychological legal and technological contents that limit the potentials of entrepreneurial enterprise in Nigeria.

    One fascinating insight, which I glean from Professor Anayanwu’slecture is that unemployment, while being a key indicator of our economic performance and development, can also be a catalyst for enhanced entrepreneurial activity and national development. Describing this as the ‘Schmpeterian’ effect; Professor Anyanwu explains that high unemployment in a country is closely associated with a low degree of entreprenuial activities, that where the propensity to set up enterprises is very low, the rate of employment is very high.  A low entreprenuiral culture and lack of skills in any society may be a consequence of low economic growth, and higher level of unemployment.

    Professor Ananwu expatiates on this fascination thesis that an ordinarily negative phenomenon like unemployment can have positive factor ‘fast tracking entrepreneuship through ‘a refgee effect’. In her words “this remarkable view dates back to Oxenfelt (1943) who pointed out individuals confronted with unemployment and low prospects for wage employment often turn to self-employment as a viable alternative.

    According to Professor Anyawu, this observation was an extension of an earlier view by Knight that individuals make a decision among threestates – unemployment self-employment and employment. This simple theory of income choice, according to Professor Anyanwu, lends credence to the refugee effect by suggesting that increased unemployment will lead to an increase in start- up buisnesses. This implies and assumes the existence of effective government that implements viable national economics, which facilitate easy access to credit at affordable rates, enhancing the ease of starting and sustaining business as well as efficient of the vital physical and social infrastrucre for buinseess to thrive”.

    Other critical issues, which attract Professor Ayanwu’s lecture include youth enrepreneruship, Women entrepreneurial developmetas well as offering a clinical dissection of extant government fiscal and socio-economic policies at all levels and their implications for poverty alleviation and rapid economic development. Professor Anyanwu’s passion for entreprenrshipbrings to my mind Chief Awolowo’s thesis that man is the sole dynamic in nature. He is the- be all and all of creation. Investment in affordable but qualitative education, health care and the provision of modern social and physical infrastructure are therefore,  etc indispensable for the liberation of the entrepreneurial potentials of millions of Nigerians and making them catalysts of development.

  • Orubebeism and the dramatics of ‘beneclientelism’

    Orubebeism and the dramatics of ‘beneclientelism’

    In his trenchant yet characteristically brilliant critique of Professor Richard Joseph’s concept of prebendalism to explain the monumental corruption that ruined Nigeria’s second republic (1979-1983) and continues to hobble our country’s potentials, Professor EhieduIweriebor comes down heavily on what he describes as ‘Africanology’ – ‘the study of Africa for the domination of Africa’. According to the City University of New York based radical historian “In the first place, prebendalism is a concept derived from the sale and purchase of offices in feudal Europe. It is, therefore, an historically alien concept and its application to African politics is an intellectual imposition…Secondly, there is nothing uniquely African or Nigerian about the competition for and use of political office for the advancement of personal and reference group- ethnic, business or military- interests. This is a practice which occurs in capitalist societies in general and especially in the United States”.

    Several other radical African scholars – Claude Ake, Okuwudiba Nnoli, Bala Usman, Bade Onimode etc – have also criticised what apparently appears as objective, scientific scholarship that in reality only insidiously and perniciously pursues the cause of western imperialism. Intellectual dependency and slavishness is obviously a key root of Africa’s persistent inferiority complex and underdevelopment. These thoughts roamed through my mind during the week as I read and re-read a most interesting paper recently delivered by Dr Dapo Thomas of the Department of History and International Relations, Lagos State University (LASU) on the last general elections.

    The paper was delivered at a national conference on the 2015 general elections recently organised by The Electoral Institute, the intellectual arm of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) headed by the erudite political scientist, Professor Abubakar Momoh. Other eminent scholars who delivered papers at the conference include Professors Adele Jinadu, Harry Garuba, Eghosa Osaghae, Victor Adetula, Abolade Adeniji, Siyan Oyeweso, Adeoye Akinsanya and Nuhu Yakub among others. I hope the Institute will adequately publicise these papers to encourage rigorous public discourse and thus enrich and strengthen the country’s electoral process as well as democratic practice.

    Of course, the antics and childish theatrics of former President Goodluck Jonathan’s electoral agent, Elder Godsday Orubebe, during the collation of the results of the 2015 presidential election is still fresh in our memories. For many, the incident was no more than the height of irresponsible tragi-comedy. Dr Thomas, who is a doctoral product of the renowned political scientist, Professor Adigun Agbaje, one of the 12 eminent aspirants for the Vice Chancellorship of the University of Ibadan, chose to undertake an intellectual dissection of a phenomenon I describe as ‘Orubebeism’. Sensing that his candidate was losing the electoral contest, the childish elder seized the microphone at the collation centre, threw tantrums, rained abuses and allegations against the inscrutable and unruffled INEC Chairman, Professor Attahiru Jega. He held up the process for approximately 30 minutes during which the nation was on tenterhooks.

    Dr Thomas’s paper is titled ‘Electoral Process and The Dramatics of Beneclientilism: A Conceptual Analysis of Orubebe’s Grandstanding and Jega’s Stricture’. One would have thought that Thomas would undertake his analysis within the well-known framework of clientelism or patron client relations routinely used to explain African politics. Thus, Orubebe was no more than a client pursuing and protecting the interest of his ‘patron’, then incumbent President Goodluck Jonathan. According to Dr Thomas, “Professor Joseph contends that clientelism is a situation whereby an individual seeks the support and protection of an oga or a “godfather” while trying to acquire the basic social and material goods – loans, scholarships, licenses, plots of urban land, employment, promotion and the main resource of the patron in meeting these requests is quite literally a piece of the state”.

    Dr Thomas considers the traditional patron-client notion as too personalised and restricted. It is in reality a more structured and expansive relationship and he thus prefers the concept of benefactor to patron. Thus he coins the term ‘beneclientelism’ to better capture the thesis he seeks to adumbrate. The relationship between Orubebe and Jonathan transcended both men even though they shared common geo-ethnic origins. Orubebe was certainly not acting alone in trying to subvert the electoral process. The service chiefs, for instance, had earlier tried to boost the floundering electoral fortune of their benefactor by forcing a six-week postponement of the polls. Again, the traditional usage of patron-client relations suggests that the client is entirely dependent on the patron. The patron dispenses all the benefits and exercises limitless power over the client.

    Beneclientilism in Dr Thomas’s usage, however, indicates that the client plays a more powerful and influential role in the process than is normally assumed. In his words “Though President Goodluck Jonathan never saw the election as a do or die affair, his aides and party associates saw it differently. To them it was a matter of life and death. He was seen by most of his political aides and associates as their benefactor on whom their political and economic survival was placed…These associates known as clients are more desperate than even their benefactor”. This position is certainly vindicated by Dr Jonathan’s confession after he lost the election that he had been held hostage in office. It was a case of the benefactor being captive to the clients.

    But then, the concept of beneclientilism also raises its own problems. The INEC Chairman, Professor Jega, was an appointee of President Jonathan. Why did he not see himself and behave as a client interested in skewing the process to ensure the continuation in office of his benefactor irrespective of the will of the people? Was the success of the 2015 election, which saw an incumbent president defeated for the first time in the country’s history, a triumph of structures and processes or simply a function of the moral integrity of the INEC leadership? If an individual of less moral fibre than Jega assumes the office, will we be back to the days of electoral impunity? In celebrating the outcome of the last election, are we overlooking the more critical task of institutionalizing electoral integrity irrespective of the personality of the occupant of the office of INEC Chairman at any point in time?

    Contrary to the widespread commendation of Jega’s handling of Orubebe’s attempt to abort the electoral process, Dr Thomas finds the INEC Chairman’s response too sentimental, personalised and patronising. As Jega remonstrated with Orubebe at the time “Mr Orubebe, you are a former Minister of the Federal Republic; you are a statesman in your own right, and you must be careful about what you say and about the allegations or accusations that you make. And certainly you must be careful about your public conduct”. According to Dr Thomas, “This in a sense was more of a personal and emotive appeal to Orubebe not to desecrate the elite institution which they both represent. It was simply an ego-massaging vituperation that evoked more of social identification than political morality”.

    Dr Thomas appears too harsh in his assessment of Jega’s response to Orubebe. If the INEC Chairman had reacted in accordance with the full powers of his office, could he have trusted the security agencies to cooperate with him? Couldn’t he have in fact fallen into what may have been a clever ploy to cause chaos and render the entire process inconclusive? Yet, I understand the point Thomas is making. If Orebebe had rejected Professor Jega’s moral suasion, what would have happened? If such an occurrence repeats itself in future, how should it be best handled procedurally and legally rather than sentimentally and through moral sermonising which may prove ineffectual? What can be done to ensure in future that the electoral umpire is able to exercise the necessary control over the security agencies without which it cannot effectively undertake its task of conducting free, fair and credible elections as well as ensuring that the results are respected by all?

    Now that it is in power, the APC has a moral obligation as part of its promised change agenda to strengthen the electoral process by enhancing the autonomy of INEC and other institutions of state to insulate them from partisan influences. On a lighter note, I also believe that the monumental role of the former First Lady, Dame Patience Jonathan, during her husband’s tenure particularly as the wife of an ethnic minority president deserves intellectual attention. I suggest a tentative study titled “Ebullient First Ladyism As An Antidote to Geo-ethnic Majority Parapoism”!