The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Curriculum vitae: Goodluck Jonathan vs Muhammadu Buhari

    Curriculum vitae: Goodluck Jonathan vs Muhammadu Buhari

    “I do not make empty promises in my campaign because whatever I promise to do, I had already carried out adequate study to make sure I can accomplish it in the next four years”. That was President Goodluck Jonathan speaking at Onitsha while on the campaign trail on February 27, 2011.  It was a campaign in which Dr Jonathan made over 90 documented promises across the country. He promised not less than two or three projects in virtually all states of the federation.

    Incredible as his promises sounded, many Nigerians sincerely believed in Jonathan’s capacity to deliver. After all, he is not only a trained scientist, he holds a PhD in Zoology. There was, thus, no cause to disbelieve his confident claim above that all his promises were predicated on careful and meticulous planning. The doctorate degree in any discipline is expected to confer on the holder the capacity for sustained and exhaustive research, rigorous and methodical thinking as well as meticulous planning.

    It was on this rock solid foundation of intellectualism that Dr Jonathan’s promises were supposedly predicated. Things have turned out most unexpectedly. His palace of promises seems to have been built on sinking sand. As he desperately seeks a second term in office, it is no easy route back to Aso Rock for the former shoeless school boy from Otuoke. Practically 80 percent of his 2011 promises remain unfulfilled. Nigerians are worse off today than they were when Jonathan won an emphatic pan-Nigerian victory four years ago. His PhD has hardly reflected in the quality of his governance. Some of his unfair critics claim that Dr Jonathan’s PhD may be just a Port Harcourt Diploma after all. Of course, I do not believe them.

    Despite his dismal performance in office, Jonathan’s fervent supporters continue to proudly flaunt his doctoral degree as a major factor in his favour. This, they claim makes him clearly superior to his major opponent and emergent nemesis, General Muhammadu Buhari of the All Progressives Congress (APC). The Jonathan campaign has sought to make a major issue of Buhari’s educational qualification. They claim that  a man who rose to become a General in the Nigerian military, a former military Head of State and who has contested for the country’s presidency on three previous occasions under the present constitutional dispensation does not possess the minimum constitutional, academic qualification to run for the office.

    Of course, Buhari has since convincingly dispelled all misleading and mischievous insinuations about his educational credentials. My teacher, Emeritus Professor of Political Science and civil military relations at the University of Ibadan, Professor Bayo Adekanye, demonstrated compellingly in this space last week that the case against Buhari’s educational qualification to run for the presidency rests on feeble, logical, empirical and constitutional foundations.

    But then, does President Jonathan’s doctoral degree necessarily make him a superior leadership material to Buhari? Let us take a closer comparative look at their curriculum vitae starting with Jonathan. Born in Otuoke, Bayelsa State, on 20th November, 1957, Jonathan obtained his First School Leaving Certificate (FSLC) in 1969, the West African School Certificate (WASC) in 1975, and the General Certificate of Education (Ordinary Level) in 1976. He also obtained a B.Sc in Zoology (Second Class Upper Division) in 1976, an M.Sc in Hydrobiology/Fisheries Biology in 1985 and a PhD. in Zoology in 1995. All his higher academic degrees were from the University of Port Harcourt.

    Now, let us look at Dr Jonathan’s employment history. He started work as a Preventive Officer in the Department of Customs and Excise between 1975 and 1977. He must have got this job on the basis of his WASC. Between 1982 and 1983, Dr Jonathan was a Science Inspector of Education at the Rivers State Ministry of Education. It was obviously his B.Sc in Zoology that qualified him for this job. Dr Jonathan was a lecturer in the Department of Biology, Rivers State College of Education, Port Harcourt, from 1984 to 1993. His M.Sc degree qualified him for the job. He served as an Assistant Director in the defunct Oil Minerals Areas Development Corporation (OMPADEC) between 1993 and 1998. Again, his M.Sc degree was the basis for this job even though someone with a first degree could also rise to the position with the acquisition of the requisite experience.

    Since his obtaining his doctorate in 1995, Dr Jonathan has not taught in any higher institution or research institute. There is no evidence of his having published any academic papers or engaged in any other form of academic research. He has no record of relevant experience as an academic. His PhD has thus added little or no value to his career progression.  The University of Port Harcourt has recently confirmed that President Jonathan indeed obtained his PhD from the institution. But given Dr Jonathan’s often embarrassing quality of intellection and articulation, the university may either have to re-appraise the quality of its certificates or throw Dr Jonathan’s dissertation open to external peer review. Between 1999 and now, he has risen from Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State to Governor of the state, Vice President and ultimately President of Nigeria largely on partisan and not necessarily meritocratic grounds.

    Now let us turn to General Buhari. Born on December 17, 1942, he obtained his primary education in Daura and Maiádua (1948-1952), attended Katsina Model School in 1953 and Katsina Provincial School (now Government College Katsina) from 1956 to 1961. He obtained his military training at the then Nigerian Military Training School, Kaduna (1963), Nigerian Military College, Kaduna (1964), Mechanical Transport Course at the Army Mechanical Transport School in Borden, United Kingdom (1965), Defence Services Staff College, Wellington, India (1973) and the United States War College (June 1979 to June 1980).

    Unlike Jonathan’s scanty experience as an academic, consider Buhari’s rich experience in his chosen military profession. Buhari began his career as a Platoon Commander, 2nd Infantry Battalion from 1963 to 1964. Thereafter, he served as Mechanical Transport Officer, Lagos Garrison (1964-1965), Transport Company Commander, 2nd Infantry Brigade, (1965-1966), Battalion Adjutant/Commander, 2nd Infantry Brigade (1965-1966), Brigade Major, 2nd Sector, 1st Infantry Division, (April to July, 1967), Brigade Major, 3rd Infantry Division (August 1967-October 1968), Acting Commander, 4th Sector, 1st Division, (November 1968-February 1970), Commander, 31st Infantry Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, (February 1970 –June 1971),  Assistant Adjutant General, 1st Infantry Division Headquarters, (July 1971-December 1972), Colonel , General Staff, 3rd Infantry Division Headquarters, (January 1974-September 1974), Acting Director, Supply and Transport, Nigeria Army Corp Headquarters (September 1974 – July 1975).

    Other strictly professional military positions Buhari has occupied include Military Secretary, Army Headquarters (July 1978-June 1979), Member, Supreme Military Council, (July 1978-June 1979), General Officer Commanding, 4th Infantry Division, (August 1980-January 1981), General Officer Commanding 3rd Armoured Division (November 1981-December 1983). I do not include here Buhari’s political experience as Military Governor, Petroleum Minister or Military Head of State.

    Now, what awards have the two candidates garnered in the cause of their careers? President Jonathan was named Best Performing Deputy Governor Award in the Federation in 2002 by the Institute of Public Administration of Nigeria (IPAN), won Award of Exemplary Leadership Quality and Good Governance conferred by the National Association of Women in Education Development in July 2003 and the Honorary Award for Democracy and Good Governance conferred by the NUJ, Abuja Council. He is also a Grand Commander of the Federal Republic (GCFR).

    On his part, Buhari has won the following awards and professional military medals: Defence Service Medal (DSM), National Service Medal (NSM), General Service Medal (GSM), Loyal Service and Good Conduct Medal (LSGCM) Forces Service Star (FSS) and The Congo Medal (CM). He has also been awarded the GCFR.

    If, dear reader, you consider these two CVs, who has the requisite experience and qualities to tackle Nigeria’s current challenges?

  • 2015 elections, looming disenfranchisement and security

    NIGERIA’S 2015 presidential elections of February 14, which is lovers day all over the world appears too close for comfort given large number of Nigerians that are yet to get voters cards. More worrisome is the desperate attempt of the rulin party to disqualify the opposition candidate on educational qualifications and the reluctance of INEC the electoral authority to consider any hint of a possible postponement because of an apparent disenfranchisement of 50 % – about 30m- of the electorate, because of lack of voters cards. Add to this the unbelievable news report that a coalition of four Northern Civil Society Organisations have dragged the same opposition candidate to the International Court of Justice – ICC – over post election violence in the 2011 elections and you want to wonder why some people are so desperate that the change of government which appears imminent and unchangeable if the February elections hold in a conducive, should not be allowed to happen. Unfortunately such people and their antics or strategy of mischief and digression are like a dog barking at the moon to go away at night. It is a folly and a crass exercise in futility.

    They are trying to manage and stop change and experts in Strategic Management should tell them, if they will listen, that Change Management is an oxymoron as change cannot be managed or stopped. You may go along with change if you are wise but you cannot stop it and I am not talking about natural disasters like tsunamis or volcanoes alone. I am talking about the kind of political change imminent in Nigeria this February which has spawned a monster movement aimed at stopping APC candidate retired General Muhammadu Buhari from becoming the next president of Nigeria at all cost. The ‘Stop Buhari from contesting‘ campaign is an odious oddity in our political system created by those who are desperate to keep the incumbent president at his job because their lives depend on his continuing in office after 2015 lovers day and beyond.

    Yet, the incumbent is busy campaigning all over the nation and has pitifully lamented that the Boko Haram insurgency has not allowed people to appreciate his numerous achievements and that really is an understatement. As it is also a tautology. What sort of achievements can allow, that under the watch of a president and Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces on whose table the buck stops, over 200 Chibok girls have vamoosed into thin air like the Malaysian aircraft that did the same thing last year? The Chibok school girls have not been seen since April last year and no achievements can drive that under the table or earn the achiever responsible for their lives and security any or many accolades or votes in this February election. Inability to find the Chibok girls and the growing capacity of Boko Haram to seize Nigerian towns on Nigeria’s soil and kill thousands of Nigerian with impunity makes a mockery and a misnomer of any achievements of this administration and that can not be wished away by a thousand campaign speeches all over the nation. That is the stark price on the 200 Chibok girls disappearance, and it is the electorate’s payback time at the February elections.

    Going back to the issues highlighted at the beginning involving the lack of voters cards for half the electorate, it is pertinent to note the issue was raised by no less a person than our National Security Adviser but in far away London. I listened to the BBC interview when he said he could not see INEC getting the remaining over 30m voters card ready before February 14.

    Given that concern he asked for a postponement but as allowed within the constitution. Which sounds responsible and fine by me. But some people are treating this sensible advice like a cancellation. Which is wrong and disruptive. Equally alarming was the reaction of the INC Spokesman that postponement was not on INEC’s agenda. That certainly is unbelievable given the fact that INEC had all along insisted that the Security experts will decide whether elections will hold in the beleaguered North East as INEC is not an expert on such issues. Obviously INEC is short sighted in seeing the security implications of disenfranchising about half the Nigerian electorate and should do a quick rethink before it is too late. Indeed the NSA is trying to save the neck if not the ass of INEC on this although such an important advice should have been given at home to his employers and not on foreign ground. The political parties too should close ranks to prevent a gross disenfranchisement to happen in this election as it will damage the credibility and legitimacy of any such election results sooner than later. Disenfranchisement in any election has always been a recipe for post election violence and that should be carefully avoided by all stakeholders in this election. That again brings up for discussion the matter of the four Civil Liberty organisations that have taken the APC candidate to ICC at the Hague over post election violence in the 2011 elections. Together with those trying to make a mountain out of a molehill on Buhari’s school certificate credentials, timing is the weapon of confusion in both cases. Since 2011, why have these civil liberty organisations not gone to court till now that the retired general is a presidential candidate of a popular party and the 2015 election is less than a month away? Similarly with those raising the school certificate brouhaha one should ask – why now? After all, this same retired general contested in 2007, and 2011 and no such issues were raised. Obviously the APC candidate’s detractors have seen the handwriting on the wall that 2015 is different from earlier elections and is going to be third time lucky for the APC presidential candidate. I certainly share their vision but not their fears as what they are manifesting is crass premonition that this election will be their nemesis as the APC candidate is very well on the way to victory.

    I can however offer them some comforting ideas, if they will consider it and that is that they should exercise some patience for the elections to hold, and recall what happened in Kenya at the last presidential elections.

    Kenya’s President Uhuru Kenyatta and his running mate were distracted like this over post election violence in the last presidential election – 2007/2008 before they were elected into office in 2013. They were charged for post election violence in the 2007 presidential elections although neither contested then for the presidency. They were indeed in opposing camps. They won in spite of this and both have gone to the Hague as sitting President and Vice President of Kenya, and Kenya is moving on marvellously. The APC candidate’s detractors should just take things easy on their hate mongering, as President Muhammadu Buhari will not be the first African president to go to answer spurious charges at the Hague. The February 14 elections will surely see to that. God willing, Insha Allah.

  • Okocha and soccer’s future

    I’m really excited. We are beginning to emulate what most football-loving countries do in preparing a potential for key offices in their soccer administration. Charting a new dawn for anything isn’t a one off task. We need to identify charismatic people, expose them to assignments as assistants to competent people and then allow them grow on the job.

    Football administration in Nigeria today is comatose because at the state level, jobbers, influence-peddlers and lackeys of the ruling party occupy key positions with one goal in mind – share the proceeds, not minding if the game is on its knees.

    With such empty vessels at the state levels, nothing happens at the grassroots. Structures meant to discover talents become moribund and funds meant for the local government areas are either been misappropriated or spent on funding meetings that have produced no results.

    In the past, several primary and post primary soccer competitions were held. In fact, prominent citizens sponsored competitions either in their names or on behalf of the kings of the local government areas. Indeed, the state FAs sent their coaches routinely to teach the games masters or physical education teachers the rudiments of the game. These re-trained personnel then teach the kids. Such programmes were not restricted to soccer. All other sports got the same treatment, depending on the plan for such catchment areas.

    I recall being introduced to cricket for the first time on January 27, 1972 as a class one student in Government College Ughelli. This orientation didn’t start with using the conventional cricket bats and balls played using jute mat on concrete pitches. At GCU, we improvised with carved wood as bats and empty tins of milk served as the balls. God help you if the edge of the tin cuts your fingers or your palms while trying to catch it. But it was fun and GCU became famous for playing cricket in the old Midwest and Bendel states. Don’t ask me what the practice is today. Indeed, at GCU, we knew the sports kits to come with every term. I digress!

    When the Delta State Football Association (DFA) elected Austin Okocha as its vice chairman, my inner instinct struck me that we are on the verge of actualising a dream of grooming a former Nigeria international for the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

    In the last four years, Okocha has worked meticulously with NFF President Melvin Amaju Pinnick in Delta State. Amaju is smart. He must have reckoned that running the game should be anchored on robust marketing initiatives. And there couldn’t have been a better person to serve as one of the faces of the game in Delta than legendary Okocha.

    Please, make no mistakes about my intentions here. I don’t want to pitch Okocha against Amaju. Rather, I feel that they enjoy a symbiotic relationship in the way that they think the game should be administered here. I also know that Amaju is not s it-tight leader. He is ambitious and would love to do bigger things with the ideas that he has. Amaju doesn’t like one to do two terms as NFF president. I will be shocked if he does.

    That Amaju and Okocha worked seamlessly as key men in Delta football in the last four years shows that they have struck an understanding on how to work in tandem to make the game grow, which is sacrosanct. I digress!

    There isn’t any firm in Nigeria desirous of identifying its goods and services with Nigeria football that wouldn’t throw its doors open, if the management chieftains are told that the delegation has Okocha.

    There would be temporary pandemonium in such complexes if Okocha steps out of the vehicle to be ushered into the office. Anxious soccer lovers in such offices would rush for autographs and photographs with Jay Jay. The marketing officers in such offices would be grinning, knowing that any idea anchored on Okocha will fly like hot akara in any Nigerian village. Little wonder Delta FA has been the most innovative in the country, with its businesses driven by the private sector. Amaju, its president, tells anyone who dares to listen that accounting for cash received from firms is part of the body’s DNA.

    However, what happened in Delta was small. Now Amaju and Okocha need to understand that marketing is beyond fame and who you know. There must be a discerning template that will answer all the questions that the firms will ask them. And such templates can be created by those who are in the business. Light weight guys cannot handle such processes because they would be thinking of what will come into their pockets, not what the sponsor stands to gain from the sponsorship. What NFF has is a marketing partner who understands the rudiments of the trade.

    Besides aggressive marketing for sponsorship, NFF must probe the internal revenue generating system in the Glasshouse. The cash coming from inter-club and intra-club transfers is one of the biggest revenue items of soccer-loving countries. But, in Nigeria, it is a racket for shylock NFF chiefs need to get the clubs to pay their dues on the gate takings of games hosted by them. Except the NFF insists on collecting its royalties, domestic league clubs won’t take gate fees collection seriously.

    Did I hear you ask if Okocha is equipped for the job? Yes, in terms of exposure and the fillip his presence as the head of the football association will bring in any business transaction. No firm will flinch to give Delta FA good cash, knowing that Okocha won’t want to tarnish his reputation. Is Okocha ready for this job? Why not? What does it take beyond nursing dreams and getting technocrats to crystalise your vision into working documents to be presented to the bodies concerned with such an exercise?

    If Okocha is really serious – I know he is – he would attend seminars and get the best brains in the world to fashion out a blueprint that would make Delta FA the model for the 21st Century football administration.

    Again, imagine an NFF where Nwankwo Kanu is a member along with other cerebral Nigerians; I can’t wait to see this happen. The problem with our game rests with getting cash to do its business. There is also the phobia of the corporate world not trusting eggheads of the NFF to judiciously use cash. Many firms still rue the lack of proper accounting at the Glasshouse, just as their chiefs lament the NFF’s inability to convince them why they should invest in the game.

    Of course, no company would want to do business with a body that is eternally enmeshed in controversies. No firm will be willing to give money to a body that doesn’t think it is expedient to account for cash received until it is asked to do so. Indeed, it is about time we stop this idea of allowing a few disgruntled people hijack our football administration and turn it into a casino.

    Football is big business – not Nigeria. Why? We have refused to head-hunt people who can do the job. We must therefore get Okocha to go through the mill that would terminate in his being the next NFF president, if we must bring our game to be in sync with global best practices. Thank you Amaju for deeming it fit to allow Okocha take over from you. Not many leaders would allow such succession exercise.

    What we need to make the NFF buoyant is for the public to trust its members. It is what the public discusses about the calibre of people on the board that helps the big firms to associate with the Glasshouse’s businesses.

    Already, NFF has a credible marketing partner who has brought most of the cash that the body has relied on to run its business; only the government has provided more. We need to stop this tendency of relying on government money. NFF needs to organise more international friendly matches in Nigeria to attract more cash and, invariably, showcase the teams that it wants the corporate world to support financially.

    Thank goodness, Nigeria has an international friendly game against Brazil at the magnificent Uyo International Stadium. I look forward to seeing how the new NFF would handle the build-up to the game and eventual packaging of the event before, during and after the match, irrespective of the result. I will look out for the look-and-feel around the stadium. I would like to see how the NFF packages its sponsors and the mechanism put in place by NFF to shut out ambush marketers.

    I also hope to hear the NFF tell the public how much it spent on organising the game and how much it realised from the gates. This is the RCM that would-be sponsors would looking out for to see if it would be worth their while to put their cash into the game.

    I expect to see radical changes in the composition of the team. I expect to see new players who would be the integral part of the Super Eagles’ campaign at the Russia 2018 World Cup.

    The matches of the Africa Cup of Nations holding in Equatorial Guinea tell the story of the need for Eagles coaches to discard those benchwarmers in the team. The pace of the games has been amazing and I have been asked by concerned Nigerians what my views are, had Nigeria qualified for the tournament. Big question – indeed.

  • Clash of values, elections and security

    WHEN it was first used by Samuel P Huntington, the term ‘Clash of Civilisation‘ was played down as alarmist by a nervous global international and intellectual audience. Nowadays however, after the recent Charlie Hebdo Magazine massacre in Paris, France and the subsequent printing of millions of the cover copies of the magazine depicting the picture of Prophet Mohammed, a taboo in Islam, I doubt if anyone can boldly call Huntington’s description an exaggerated alarm any longer. In addition in Nigeria where Boko Haram is slaughtering human beings in their thousands while a general election is slated for next month and the sect has just killed thousands in Baga and threatened to kill the Emir of Kano, there is no denying that that there is a also clash within Islam on the practice of the religion which Boko Haram claims to be fighting for and defending to the horror of peaceful Muslims all over the world.

    No where is the clash of civilisation and the attendant befuddlement and dilemma with regard to religion better illustrated than in Senegal where the President joined the Freedom March in Paris with other world leaders but banned copies of the magazine from being sold in Senegal after the Solidarity Freedom March in Paris. Some newspapers in Kenya and S Africa have had to apologise to their Muslim readers after outrage by Muslims in such nations after the publication of the Charlie Hebdo cover there. Surely the covers are a time bomb in any language or community where Muslims live and congregate and you can imagine the mood in the entire Middle East especially in the hotbeds of Islamic radicalism and militancy like Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Iraq; even theocratic Iran of the Ayatollahs – and of course the base of Boko Haram, Nigeria. Really I doubt if any Nigerian newspaper would publish the Charlie Hebdo post Paris Massacre cover and I would lend my support to that decision for the simple reason that we must show respect for the values and beliefs of those with whom we share society and environment. Freedom has never been absolutely free and there is a saying that your freedom ends where my nose begins. That is what the decision to print the covers has ignored and it is one that France and Europe would pay a steep and costly price for in terms of security and social cohesion and stability now and in the immediate future. For now I keep my fingers crossed on the consequences of the cover publication for Europe and the world as I try to examine the reason for a decision that is no less than a slap in the face for another religion by those who have long abandoned their own faith which they have replaced with freedom of speech at a gargantuan cost.

    Before the Charlie Hebdo Paris Massacre there were demonstrations in Germany especially in Dresden by a group called Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of Europe with the acronym – PEGIDA -. Prominent Germans like former Chancellor Helmut Schmidt and Chancellor Angela Merkel rightly denounced the group as extremists and victims of xenophobia with hatred in their hearts. It was no surprise that Angela Merkel was one of the first to arrive for the Paris March because after France which has the largest Muslim population in Europe [5m], Germany is next with 4m, while Britain is next with 3m. But then the Muslims did not just show up in these European nations, they are products or bye product of European colonialism which built the wealth and economies of these European nations with the exception of Germany where the Turks have always provided cheap labor to oil the robust

    German economy which is the most buoyant in Europe. In most European nations especially France the immigrant Muslim communities have always suffered from violence, discrimination and unemployment. Now with the publication of the Charlie Hebdo cover magazine you can add religious provocation to their woes. This certainly cannot be fair in an environment where some extremists and immigrant haters are advocating increase in recruitment discrimination to save jobs for indigenes and are advocating a limit of social welfare and benefits for such indigenes only while leaving out immigrants. Certainly such measures cannot promote social and environmental trust needed for social stability and cohesion now or in the future. For now it is certain that European parties that hate immigrants will win more elections in France especially and in Europe generally. Le Pen’ daughter is growing in stature in France and some have predicted she would win France’s presidential election in 2017. But the fact and the truth is that while the French Muslims live in ridicule of their religion and fear of discrimination, they cannot fully pull their weight as part of Franc’s overall social capital because they cannot fully trust the system. How they react to their plight will determine the future of France because as an African proverb goes – No one puts fire on a thatched roof and goes to sleep. Of course the wily French have their own version – Eternal Vigilance is the price of liberty. Certainly the French have set for themselves a very long and arduous vigil on this Charlie Hebdo affair and I do not envy them at all.

    At home in Nigeria the authorities are more concerned with conducting a free and fair election rather than putting an end to the killing of Nigerians in the North East by using the armed forces to chase Boko Haram away into the night from which it emerged bloodily in our midst some time ago. The two presidential candidates have signed a truce that there will be no post election violence so that the elections must just hold as scheduled. Even the budget for the year has been post poned to after the elections by a National Assembly whose members are more preoccupied with elections than appropriations. At last the President has visited the North East capital of Borno State, Maiduguri 267 days after the over 200 Boko Haram girls were abducted and have not been found to date.

    The elections going on as scheduled, the loss of the Chibok girls, and the unabated blood letting of innocent Nigerians by Boko Haram show that our respect for human life and dignity as a nation is shallow and inhuman. Undoubtedly the rest of the world must be wondering how we can as a nation be so thick skinned on the loss of so many lives in such a short time while the quest for power goes on at all costs and in spite of the attendant insecurity of life and property in a section of the nation with a large percentage of our population. Anyway every cloud has a silver lining and in spite of our misfortunes and lack of regard for human life we have an election to look forward to and the hope that those who have led us to our sorry Pass of Thermoplae will not come again, come February 14 2015. That is the only wish that is comforting nowadays and one prays and hopes it materialises. Again, Amen.

  • Quiet please, Hayatou

    Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) President Issah Hayatou likes playing pranks with Nigerians wherever he is here. He enjoys revisiting bad decisions taken against our senior national team Super Eagles and leaves us with the impression that he had nothing to do with the fate that befell us.

    Hayatou speaks English fluently, but he comes here to speak French, no doubt his mother tongue as a Cameroonian. But Hayatou uses this code switch to hit us below the belt. Of course, Hayatou has a right to express his views, but such comments must not unearth a disappointing past like his last opinion on Austin Okocha’s loss at the CAF Awards in 1998 and 2004. We don’t need any reminder of the past since it is irredeemable.

    Hayatou was here for the 2014 CAF/Glo Africa Footballer of the Year award. His salvo this time is that regrets not seeing Austin Okocha decorated with the award. This insult on our sensibilities reminds this writer of the goal scored by Henry Nwosu against Cameroon in the final of the Africa Cup of Nations in 1984. A very good goal, but it was controversially disallowed, with many pundits suggesting that the referee may have done that in awe of the CAF president.

    In 1998, despite Nigeria’s shambolic outing at the France’98 World Cup, Okocha was easily the most exciting player to watch. His breath-taking dribbles earned a mouth-watering contract at Paris Saint Germain (PSG). Pundits thought that Okocha would without doubt be the default winner of the 1998 Africa Footballer of the Year award.

    Not so for CAF. We were bored with the diabolical machination of having voters coming from Francophone countries voting their own. Where were these Francophone voters when Victor Ikpeba, Emmanuel Amuneke, the late Rashidi Yekini and Nwankwo Kanu won the award? When these Nigerians won the award, they were as exemplary as Okocha was during the 1998 World Cup but they were not as skillful as the one also called Jay Jay. Indeed, Morocco didn’t qualify for the next round of the World Cup. Nigeria did, losing 4-1 to Denmark in the second round.

    Okocha’s deft dribbles could rock a skeleton. His silky skills and wizardry leave his markers sprawling on the turfs. His footwork left spectators yelling for more. So good was Okocha that he was named twice BBC Africa Footballer of the Year. Many still yell watching clips of Okocha playing for Bolton Wanderers FC in the Barclays English Premier League. In fact, in one of the footages, the then Bolton manager Sam Allardyce imitates Okocha’s dancing steps after scoring some terrific goals.

    How CAF came up with Moroccan Mustafa Hadji, the pony-tailed striker, as the continent’s best player in 1998 confounded the world. Had CAF crowned Sunday Oliseh, who placed third in that year, there would have been the silent grumbling from football’s aficionados. Not the loud disapprovals that trailed Hadji’s choice.

    At the 2002 World Cup, El-Hadji Diouf rightly got the award because of his meteoric outing for Senegal at the 2002 World Cup, which was co-hosted by Korea/Japan. The Senegalese hit the quarter-finals in their maiden appearance at the Mundial, with Diouf being the Teranga Lions’ undertaker. Sadly, Diouf was a very bad advertisement for the African game with his conduct in-and-out of the field. He hit the headlines for the wrong reasons, earning the bad sobriquet of ‘spitting cobra.’

    It was clear to everyone in 2004 that CAF and its clan didn’t want Okocha among the winners when they shamelessly denied Jay Jay the award, in spite, of being voted the player of the tournament, again in Tunisia. Without any doubt, Samuel Eto’O is a gifted player not as skillful as Okocha, even as he is a ruthless finisher.

    But what ought to have swayed the 2004 award in Okocha’s favour was his awesome display against Cameroon to qualify for the semi-finals. Many still savour the beauty in the curly free-kick that Okocha took to earn Nigeria the semi-final berth. The selectors opted to crown Eto’O as Africa’s best. No grudges though, considering the way the Cameroonian held the world spell-bound with his knack for goals playing for FC Barcelona in Spain.

    Hayatou should save us his regrets. History will judge his body better when clips of African stars who shone in Europe and the Diaspora are watched by discerning people. Perhaps, it is this pain that Hayatou wants us to forget by saying: “Players like Jay Jay Okocha would have been very worthy to feature in the list of winners. But the technicians decided otherwise; it is the law of the game.” Hmmm! If Hayatou is convinced that they did the right thing, he should let us have some quiet. Nobody asked him to remind us of this decision.

    We have forgotten about it, except for occasions when Okocha rightly captures this denial as his biggest regret, like he did some time ago when he said: “If I have any regret, that will be not winning the Africa Footballer of the Year award. But I don’t think I was meant to be because I gave my best, but at the end, it wasn’t good enough.”

    Vintage Okocha; he isn’t one to rock the boat. A good sport – if you ask me. But when you look at those who got the crown in those years when Okocha was not favoured by CAF, you shudder because in one of those instances, Okocha was playing in the French Ligue Un for PSG. Would these technicians say they were not watching those games, if not physically but on television? God help us all!

     

    Crocodile tears

    Daily, the media is inundated with lamentations of Super Eagles players over Nigeria’s elimination at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations, which begins today in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea, without defending champions Nigeria.

    The players feel that Nigerians are gullible. They are hoping that their pleas will sway the fans to forgive them. They must be joking because the losses incurred by Nigerians transcend the ardent football followers. Various facets of the football industry are counting their losses, with many pledging not to do business with the NFF, if these bunch of Eagles stars continue to play for Nigeria.

    These disappointing Eagles are the reason why manufacturing giants Adidas don’t want to renew our kits contract. Their refusal to do business with Nigeria is germane because our players found it difficult to respect the terms of the Nigerian deal by wearing Adidas kits during the country’s assignments.

    From the coaches to the players, they breached the rules, with one of the coaches dressed for pre and post-match conferences in Adidas kits but wearing a blue Nike fez cap. It was that bad.

    The essence of having such international brands associated with our football is best seen with Adidas’ resolve to fund Manchester United FC of England’s £200 million quest to sign Lionel Messi. £200 million is chicken feed for Adidas, but they recognise the fact that having pictures of Messi wearing Adidas kits further raises its profile in the kitting industry, especially with a big football brand such as Manchester United.

    Why would Adidas want to splash as much as $750 million on a jersey deal for Manchester United, with the caveat of getting Messi to Old Trafford? Simple; brand war. Did I hear you say how? Here is it; Messi plays for Barcelona FC in Spain, which wears Nike jersey. Yet, Messi is the poster boy of the Adidas brand, and they have long hoped to be able to help move him away from Barcelona – who are sponsored by main competitors Nike – and place him with a club sponsored by Adidas.

    So, you can see why our coaches and players in the last set of Eagles should not humiliate us further by shedding crocodile tears for missing the AFCON 2015. Nigerians are worse off for our absence than they think. It would pay them to keep quiet. They have caused us enough pain.

    Again, no brand worth its onions will do business with players and coaches who don’t see anything wrong with holding the country hostage over their entitlements. True, they have a right to demand their wages but with a lot of decorum not this style of making us the world’s laughing stock.

    I hope that many of these disgruntled players know that they have no place in the Eagles as we rebuild for the 2018 Africa Cup of Nations and the 2018 World Cup in Russia.

    NFF chieftains must warn the Eagles coach not to go near most of those who were at the Brazil 2014 World Cup, especially those who are not playing regularly for their European clubs.

    We should rebuild the new Eagles, using the country’s Olympic Games team, the All Africa Games team and the Flying Eagles squad members. Those who were in Brazil have lost the appetite to play for glory. Rather, they are interested in knowing how much is in any game for them, largely because they know that they are in the twilight of their national team appearances. This is why whenever they assemble, what tickles their fancies most is what they would be paid for matches won, lost or drawn. They even have the audacity to ask to be paid upfront and such ridiculous requests of being paid for ‘lost’ game because they played their heart out.

    Would it shock readers of this column to hear that each Super Eagles player got $5,000 for the drawn game against South Africa in Uyo? Their coaches received theirs too. No record of any coach or player rejecting the cash because Nigeria didn’t qualify for the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. Yet, they are shedding crocodile tears in the media, thinking we are fools.

    Whereas shell-shocked fans around the country couldn’t eat, sleep or do anything reasonable after the game, the Eagles and their coaches hurried to the Government House to collect another $200,000 from the Akwa Ibom State governor, which they shared while we mourned. Enough.

  • Lagos: Experience or experimentation?

    Lagos: Experience or experimentation?

    Next to the presidential election on February 14, the Lagos State governorship election two weeks later, will be the most interesting, significant and critical in the country. The office of Lagos State governor is easily the most powerful and influential in Nigeria after the Presidency. Lagos is miniature Nigeria. There is no ethnic group in Nigeria that is not represented in Lagos. She has a population that is equivalent to or larger than at least 30 African countries. The megacity is Nigeria’s commercial and industrial nerve centre. While she has recorded steady and easily demonstrable progress over the last 16 years, Nigeria has experienced undisguised retrogression in virtually all critical sectors under the leadership of the PDP since 1999.

    It is against this background that this column has consistently made a case for continuity in Lagos but change at the centre at the forthcoming defining polls. The two leading governorship candidates, Mr Akinwumi Ambode of the APC and Mr Jimi Agaje of the PDP have since stepped up their campaigns. The APC on Wednesday held its first mega rally at the Airways ground in Ikeja. Agbaje answered Lagosians’ questions in a live video chat the same day commencing from 6pm the same day. On Thursday, the two candidates squared up with those of other parties in a debate at the Archbishop Vining Memorial Church Cathedral, GRA, Ikeja.

    In picking Agbaje as its governorship candidate, the PDP seeks to mitigate its unsavoury public image that has so far denied it electoral success in Lagos State through the credibility and appreciable goodwill of the pharmacist and politician. Despite his understandable public endorsement of President Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election, Agbaje has delicately projected his own candidacy rather than his party platform. In this respect, he walks a difficult tight rope. But then, as Dr Dapo Thomas of the Lagos State University (LASU) has pungently argued, his chosen platform raises serious questions as regards Agbaje’s consistency and fidelity to political principles.

    As a member of the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD), Democratic Parties Alliance (DPA) and Afenifere, Agbaje has always identified with parties committed to the re-structuring of Nigeria in the direction of true federalism. In joining the PDP, he has undertaken an amazing ideological and philosophical somersault. The PDP symbolises the opposite of all that Agbaje has espoused in his political career. If a man will sacrifice his cherished values to gain political office, will he not readily jettison ennobling principles to remain in office? It is not an invalid question.

    On the hustings, Ambode has rightly projected his public sector experience of service that saw him rising from the local government cadre through the state civil service to reach the zenith of his career as Permanent Secretary and Accountant General of Lags State over a 27-year period. To be fair to Agbaje, he has not claimed any public leadership experience. He has only contended with characteristic honesty that his private sector experience as an entrepreneur and industrialist is sufficient to acquit himself creditably as Lagos State governor.

    After all, Agbaje argues further, what public service experience did Awolowo, Dr Goodluck Jonathan or even Asiwaju Bola Tinubu have before the commencement of their public leadership careers? As Ambode aptly quipped at the Archbishop Vining church debate, President Jonathan’s below par record is an excellent example of why relevant public service experience is critical for effective and positive leadership in a complex polity like Lagos or Nigeria. It was a wrong example for Agbaje to cite.

    What about Tinubu? True, he had no public sector experience when he assumed office as Lagos State governor in 1999. But then, in the private sector, he had risen to become treasurer of Mobil, the international oil giant before opting for a political career. Tinubu thus had some experience of complex organisational dynamics. Even then, Tinubu had to spend a considerable learning period before he settled down to effective governance. Thus, the period between 1999 and 2001 were years of intense criticisms by the public of the perceived non-performance of the Tinubu administration. It was as he gradually understood and mastered the system that the tempo of governance increased under Tinubu.

    As Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola has publicly said, a key factor in the outstanding success of his administration was his prior experience as Chief of Staff and member of the Lagos State Executive Council for about five years in the Tinubu administration. Unlike Tinubu, Fashola thus had an appreciable understanding of the system and could hit the ground running.

    Ambode stands on even firmer ground than Tinubu or Fashola. On a general level, he had operated in the service for 27 years. He understands the system thoroughly. On a more specific note, he has been a key participant in the conceptualisation and implementation of the development master plan under which Lagos has taken impressive strides. These invaluable experiences stand him in good stead to take Lagos to the next level.

    How then about Awolowo? His case must be placed in the appropriate historical and political context. First, Awolowo was an exceptionally gifted human being who remains intellectually, morally and spiritually unequalled by any politician in this dispensation. Secondly, Awolowo’s generation of politicians inherited a qualitative colonial civil service of the highest standard that made it easier for them to quickly adapt to the demands of public leadership. Thirdly, the parliamentary system under which Awolowo operated placed greater premium on collegiate rather than personalised leadership. In the presidential system, much more depends on the personal experience and effectiveness of the chief executive.

    Fourthly, even as talented as he was, Awolowo had to undergo a learning period when he emerged as Leader of Government Business and Minister of Local Government in the Western Region on 7th January, 1952. As Olufemi Ogunsanwo writes in his book, ‘Awo: Unfinished Greatness’, “For some time, the lieutenant-governor himself continued to preside informally at cabinet meetings to guide the proceedings…The governor eventually took a backseat as Awolowo stamped his political authority and administrative competence on the government”.

    Lagos State for the last 16 years has been implementing a development master plan under which it is widely agreed that the state has made tremendous progress. Yet, Agbaje promises a new master plan, which can only be experimental. Lagosians are thus being asked to jettison a working master plan for a speculative and untested one.

    One of the components of Agbaje’s new master plan is to build 150,000 new houses for Lagosians in his first four years in office.  These houses, he promises, will be private sector driven but made affordable for ordinary Lagosians and non-Lagosians using mortgages with reasonable interest rates. First, how will his proposed mortgage plan be different from or superior to the current one of the Fashola administration? Again, if his housing scheme is private sector driven, how will it at the same time be mass-oriented and affordable? The private sector is motivated by profit and not philanthropy.

    Again, Agbaje plans to open up Epe, Badagry, or Ikorodu rather than the on-going Lagos Atlantic project, which he claims will have a negative impact “on the congestion of the Victoria Island axis given the increased growth in traffic flow to the area”. First, does the Lagos Atlantic City project, perhaps the most sophisticated and ambitious project of its kind in Africa, in any way clash with or obstruct the numerous on-going projects such as the Lagos-Badagry Expressway to open other parts of the state? Second, can you magically develop other parts of the state without elevating the current economic and revenue generating capacity of the state as the Lagos Atlantic City project seeks to do?

    Agbaje is unhappy with the debt profile of Lagos State. He has the view that debt is inimical to development. As Ambode has argued, however, debt must always be considered in relation to GDP and the total economic capacity of the state. Debt is an inevitable feature of modern public finance. What matters is its effective use to generate further development as is the case in Lagos State. Agbaje is against debt. Yet, he wants to reduce taxes and at the same time enhance welfare services. This can be nothing but government by magic – a dangerous experiment Lagos can ill-afford.

  • Lagos: Continuity or change

    Lagos: Continuity or change

    Is it not the height of inconsistency for this
    column to vigorously articulate the case for
    change at the centre in the February 14 presidential election but argue for continuity in Lagos in the governorship election two weeks later? After all, just as the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been in power continuously at the centre since 1999, the same political tendency now encapsulated in the emergent All Progressives Congress (APC), has been piloting the affairs of Lagos State since the commencement of this political dispensation. Should sauce for the goose not also be sauce for the gander in objective political commentary? These are indeed valid, even if hardly logical questions.

    The case for continuity or change cannot be made in a vacuum. Neither must change nor continuity be sought simply for its own case. The argument for either must be anchored on appropriate contextual and empirical realities. The case for change from one political party to another becomes unassailable when the continued tenancy of the incumbent party has, by its appalling performance, become a road block to the continued peace, progress and prosperity of society. In the same way, to effect change from a demonstrably performing party to one without a superior track record or agenda simply for the sake of change will most likely have serious negative implications for the developmental trajectory of the affected society.

    We have, in this space, consistently made the case for the imperative of change at the centre at the February 14 presidential polls. If Nigeria continues on its present course, she is headed for utter disaster if not irreversible ruination. From all developmental indices, Nigerians are worse off today than they were at the beginning of this dispensation in 1999. And this is despite the humongous amounts of revenues the country reaped from oil in the last 15 years before the onset of the current economic recession attendant on the steep fall in international crude oil prices.

    Yes, the performance of the Obasanjo administration between 1999 and 2007 was largely mediocre and uninspiring. Yet, the administration recorded modest achievements, which have been completely eroded, first by the physical incapacitation which hobbled Obasanjo’s immediate successor, President Umaru YarA’dua and the industrial scale mediocrity, venality and incompetence of the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan presidency that is rapidly unravelling before our very eyes.

     So bad have things become that even the wily Ota farmer is now one of the most vehement voices insisting on the urgent need for change at the centre in next month’s polls to save Nigeria. Agreed, Obasanjo has his own ulterior and selfish motives for his scathing public excoriation of the Jonathan administration. But his allegations against a man he raised, controversially, from the relative political obscurity of Bayelsa State as governor, to the acme of presidential authority in Abuja cannot be dismissed as lacking in credibility.

    True, Lagos is part of Nigeria and residents of the megacity are not immune from the socio-economic consequences of the PDP’s misrule at the centre since 1999. But the Lagos of today is not the veritable jungle and fiscally bankrupt entity she was in 1999. Back then, mountains of refuse formed repellent skyscrapers on major highways across the state. Public primary and secondary schools were in a state of utter dilapidation.

     A common sight in Lagos then was that of school children laboriously carrying desks and chairs to and from school daily. Classroom walls routinely collapsed wounding and killing innocent children. Men, women and children could be seen in 1999 carrying all sizes of buckets and basins in search of potable water throughout Lagos State. Metropolitan and rural roads across the state were crater and pot-hole ridden. Ah! Human memory can be so short.

    Today, Lagos is a different story. In a decade and a half she has taken remarkable strides towards becoming a model global megacity. Under the Tinubu and Fashola administrations between 1999 and now, Lagos has become a bastion of fiscal solvency, a laboratory of creative innovations that add value to governance and a model of radical transformation of infrastructure across diverse sectors. No, don’t get me wrong. Lagos has not yet reached the Promised Land. She is still very much a work in progress. But it is indisputable that the state has left Egypt and crossed the Red Sea.

    To lead Lagos to the next level, the APC has elected as its flag bearer from a pool of no less astute and distinguished aspirants a man, whose life and career have been closely intertwined with the destiny of Lagos. He has been a key brain behind the cutting edge financial innovations that have made the on-going transformation of Lagos possible.

    An alumnus of some of the best academic institutions in Nigeria and abroad, Mr Akinwunmi Ambode is a chartered accountant, a financial expert, proficient public sector administrator and now a successful operator in the private sector. Being a key player in both the Tinubu and Fashola administrations, there can hardly be anyone better placed to build on current successes, remedy identified weaknesses and elevate the quality of governance in Lagos State.

    Yet, the PDP has responded brilliantly to the emergence of Ambode as APC candidate. Eager to actualise its ambition of wresting power from the progressives in Lagos State, the PDP has elected as its governorship flag bearer, Mr Jimi Agbaje, a pharmacist, successful entrepreneur and activist politician. Agbaje contested unsuccessfully for the governorship of Lagos State in 2007 on the platform of the defunct Democratic Parties Alliance (DPA) even though he made a good impression on the public. He has a charming personality, a winsome smile and a huge dose of credibility.

    Ambode is amply endowed with those qualities too. But he has something more. A record of 27 years of public service in Lagos State rising from the lowest rungs of the local government service to the apex of the service as Permanent Secretary and Accountant General of Lagos State. He can hit the ground running. Agbaje has little or no public sector experience. He would require a considerable period of learning and experimentation in office – a hardly affordable luxury. That could make a crucial difference in the election.

    Beyond this, Agbaje will have to convince Lagosians on why they should vote for a party, the PDP that has performed so catastrophically at the centre bringing the country to the very edge of the precipice. The sheer impunity, wastefulness and recklessness in the management of the Federation Account under the Jonathan presidency has negatively affected the states including Lagos, which now receive depleted statutory allocations monthly. Despite the huge revenues that continue to accrue to the nation’s treasury from the Tin Can Island and Apapa ports in Lagos, the PDP’s promise to rehabilitate the Apapa-Oshodi federal expressway remains a pipe dream.

    Agbaje’s advocacy for the re-election of President Goodluck Jonathan for a second term may erode badly from his hard earned political capital. It would mean his endorsement of Dr Jonathan’s glaring mediocrity and make him vulnerable to insinuations that he may not aim himself for a higher standard of performance if elected Lagos State governor. Yet, the good pharmacist’s dilemma is understandable. He cannot run on the platform of the PDP and not campaign for his party’s presidential candidate.  Taking all the variables into consideration, the only rational option is for change at the centre and continuity in Lagos.

  • Wielding the stick

    Nigerian football needs a breath of fresh air. We need proactive approaches to resolve the problems. We need to apply scientific methods to formulate a new roadmap for the game and its actors. Except we take drastic measures against fraudsters who have brought the game to disrepute, novel changes meant to give it the desired fillip will melt away like ice-cream under the scorching sun.

    Football is big business in countries which understand its dynamics as the largest vehicle for employment. No aspect of football is wasted – from players who graduate to coaches and others in other facets of the industry.

    Imagine the volume of artisans who make the stadium a beauty to behold and those who manage the players – as physicians, doctors, dieticians and physiotherapists; bus drivers, gatemen et al. How about the mammoth crowd that watch games? How about those who bet in the pools, casinos, lottery, etc? We should not lose sight of the insurers, those who exploit the various marketing windows in the game to make the billions that attract the stars, who lure the fans to match venues. How about those who rely on the incomes made by players, coaches and officials for their upkeep, not forgetting the domestic staff of these people? The chain is endless, depending on how profitable it is to the practitioners. Football is a huge money spinner- if effectively utilised.

    So, why is the game trouble in Nigeria? We have made it a platform for settling political jobbers who would do anything to remain relevant, even if it means destroying the game to stop others from exposing their inadequacies. Our football is run without a discerning template, largely because sports ministers and commissioners ensure that only their lackeys get into key positions at the national and state levels. These lickspittles around ministers, commissioners and high ranking officials in government cause all the confusion that attracts FIFA’s interventions, especially after every World Cup. We spend quality time trying to resolve the mess such that we enter a new term always rebuilding our teams. Gains acquired from previous expeditions are lost on the altar of change even where the previous order had tremendous achievements.

    Officials see the football federations as an avenue to siphoning government cash since accounts are never rendered. Whenever a team wins a trophy, it is assumed that money was well spent. And so, these officials ensure that quantum cash is splashed on the game but they don’t create structures that can make the game run seamlessly without government funding in the long term.

    With ill-equipped men running the game, nothing works because they are thinking of when the next tranch of government cash will come. As the different tiers of government, officials are willing to splash the cash to serve as a distraction from the ills of the society. Of course, when Nigeria is doing well in football, everything is taken for granted. It is the opium of the people.

    We are feeling the pain now because our jaded style cannot outfox other countries that have applied science in trying to rejuvenate their game. And the biggest calamity before us is the absence of the Super Eagles at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations slated to hold in Equatorial Guinea from January 17.

    We must move. And it starts with changing the way we do things here. Thank goodness NFF President Melvin Amaju Pinnick has set the ball rolling, sending referees and other key managers of the game on a refresher course in England. They are back and singing new tunes. It means that they learnt some lessons, but can they implement the ideas acquired in England. They can if the supervisory body (NFF) has the guts to take drastic decisions against

    defaulters. We must stop playing politics with key aspects of the game, if we must attain the heights where Nigeria would be default winners of big soccer tournaments like our age-grade teams.

    Amaju has vowed to investigate, blacklist and prosecute erring referees who bring the game into disrepute. The best security in any game is the presence of unbiased referees who are ready to interpret the laws of the game to the best of their knowledge. But Amaju must ensure that the referees get the right environment to handle the game properly. Match venues must be adequately secured with security operatives whose loyalty mustn’t be to any of the participating teams.

    Hoodlums caught disturbing public peace at match venues should be arrested, charged to court and punished for their unsportsmanlike conducts. Such punitive measures help in convincing soccer-loving Nigerians to leave their homes to watch the domestic league games the way the throng viewing centres for European matches shown on big screen television sets.

    The influx of fans into the stadia brings increased revenue for the clubs to settle their players and officials’ bills. No player or official can give his best during matches on empty stomachs. And when the matches are exciting, with winners emerging from their performance on the pitch and not on pre-determined acts from the referees, the corporate firms and wealthy individual would want to identify their goods and services with the clubs of their choice.

    Of significant importance is the recent trip of some coaches to England for refresher courses, which I know would improve the quality of matches in the local league. There is the need to challenge the NFF and indeed the League Management Committee (LMC) to ensure that games are shown live to Nigerians in as many television stations willing to pay the requisite cash for such coverage. Such games should be shown repeatedly, as it is done in Europe. Erring referees would even be ashamed of themselves when their relations and friends call them over their shoddy handling of matches.

    My worry here is what we will do with the new discoveries when we get things right. I must state here that most European clubs thrive on cash earned from inter and intra club transfers. I shudder each time I hear Nigerian teams cry over inadequate funding. Yet there is a yearly mass movement of players among clubs here and in Europe.

    The NFF must insist on due process in the transfer of our players. This way, they would be able to keep tabs on our best. Our players must be encouraged to join teams outside Nigeria not on bent knees like most of these shylock agents and scouts present them but on the basis of their outstanding performances in our national teams.

    Interestingly, FIFA has outlawed third party ownership of players. This gives the NFF, for instance, the power to only issue International Transfer Certificates (ITC) to our players after scrutinising the documents that they have signed.

    Part of the problems of our players is their limited education. There is also the urge for fast cash, having been playing the game at the local scene either on empty stomachs or delayed salaries.

    Last week, I wrote about the shenanigans in the transfer process here. Thankfully, the Emen Eduok case will help the NFF discover some of the loopholes that greedy agents and scouts exploit to enslave our players in obscure leagues in Europe and the Diaspora.

    I’m glad that the NFF president expelled Eduok from the Eagles camp. Being in camp is the peg that most unscrupulous agents and scouts use in luring gullible players out of the country. The next step is to find out who took him to those places. Eduok is also culpable for failing to inform the new club that he had signed a deal already.

    The NFF and the LMC need to educate the domestic league players on the need to read documents presented to them before appending their signatures.  Both must start this campaign by insisting on seeing what each player has signed with all the 20 Globacom Premier League teams.

    Every club must have a legal department that would make it impossible for any irritant player to sneak out of the country to fall into the kind of trap Uduok may have found himself. Perhaps, if the Nigerian club had a concrete contract with Eduok, it could nullify what the greedy agent lured him into because it can be tendered in court.

    Youth clubs and their managers should be told that their players don’t attract transfer fees. Youth academies are only entitled to developmental fees for discovering such talents, with the acceptable figures stipulated by FIFA.

    Thumbs down for Amokachi

    Psychology is one of the greatest tools of warfare to motivate people to give their best. Leaders urge their followers not to be scared of the opposition but to follow their strategies. So, when the leader starts to instill fear in the led and surrenders even before the first salvo is fired, such a leader ought to be sacked.

    Daniel Amokachi has failed the first test of coaching the Super Eagles by raising the alarm over players he wants to use to prosecute two friendly games against Cote D’Ivoire and Sudan. Amokachi has been all over the media complaining about the boys’ fitness and telling anyone who cares to listen that the team is Stephen Keshi’s not his. If Amokachi isn’t sure of his players, he should just opt out of the two matches.

    Amokachi must be told that Nigerians are not fools. They know that friendly games are meant to expose new players even though it is also appropriate that a team wins matches. Nigerians know that home-based Eagles can beat the Ivorians, if the coaches tell them what to do. If they don’t, soccer fans would be interested in watching out for the new stars. They also would love to see how the coaches have been able to integrate the age-grade players into the senior team.

    Soccer fans are not enthusiastic about the outcome of the two friendlies meant to rebuild the Eagles. Many are still ruing Nigeria’s exit from the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations.

  • 2015 and Nigeria – Between Bush, Brazil and Nigeria

    2015 is  like  George  Orwell’s    book  1984  published    in 1949 which  I  read  in the sixties  when it seemed 1984  was so far away  it would never come.  The  same is true  for 2015  the year that  the Americans a long while ago predicted  that Nigeria will  disintegrate.  Well  2015  is here  and now and as  I said  happy new year  to  my friends  on new year’s  day,  I  felt  great, that at long last the year has met  all  of us in good  health and great  spirit,  in spite of  the predictions  of doom  it brings.  Which –  predictions – out    of  necessity,  must  take a back seat,  as we face the more  daunting and unavoidable duty  of living through a year  that will  not wait, or go away and has  to be lived  through, whether we  like it or not.

    George  Orwell’s  1984  was  about  the former  Soviet  Union and  how human  freedom  was trampled  on with impunity.  Indeed  the dominant  cliché on  security was  ‘Big Brother  is  watching  you‘  Which  briefly  meant that the long arm  of the state is watching every aspect  of the citizens  life  to ensure they comply with the dictates  of the  one party state which  the  Soviet  Union  was  at the time.  The Soviet  Union  survived 1984  but it collapsed  in 1991  under the weight of its tyranny, lack  of transparency and party  leaders  corruption  when  Mikhail  Gorbachev  came into power in  1989  and introduced ‘Perestroika’  and’ Glasnost ‘ which were all about transparency, openness and accountability  in Soviet governance  by the Communist  Party  of the Soviet  Union. The  former Soviet  Union  dissolved  into 15  states  and given  the mass demonstrations that brought people  to the streets  not many lives were  lost  in  the  dissolution  of the  massive empire  that Russian  President Vladmir  Putin  is trying to resurrect  as  he admitted  in his happiness at seizing the Crimea  from  Ukraine  last year  in his New  Year  Message  to  Russians in December  2014.  The passage  of  1984,  the dissolution  of the Soviet  Union  and  the flourishing of  democracy  in the  succeeding former  15  Soviet Republics  and their  jealous  guardian        of    their  individual sovereignty,  showed  that the  human  spirit  values  choice  in terms  of  leadership    and  would  suffer  any  injustice, indignity,  threats  and  many  incivilities  as long as  he has hope that he has an opportunity  at  an  election, the master ritual  of democracy  to vote and bring in leaders  of his  or her choice, according to the constitution  of his state or nation.

    That  is  the sort  of hope  that 2015  brings  to the table  for  Nigerians in spite  of the evil  prognostics  of  the  Americans  on  our impending disintegration  this year.  Nigerians are a  hopeful, prayerful, sanguine  and warm  people who  take  their fate in their hands even though they believe in God in their  peculiar  way  more  than  any people  on earth.

    That  explains  why  the  Nigerian  President  Goodluck  Jonathan  has been  the  most  eloquent preacher  at  the many  churches  he has visited  during the yuletide season and New  Year  to  thank  the churches  that but  for their  prayers  Nigeria would  have collapsed.  He  even admitted  that Nigeria’s problems are growing by the day but God  is  in  Charge.  In  the last  message  I  read  in a church at  Abuja  he  promised as Commander  in Chief  to defeat  Boko  Haram at  the end  of  the day.  Since  he was speaking at a church service one did  not expect  him  to say he would defeat Boko  Haram  if re elected  since  he is the candidate  of the ruling party  for the 2015  presidential  elections.  But  then  is a church the sort  of place  to say  what he says with  such pious innocence for a  man  who really  is in charge and on whose table the buck  stops  in our presidential  system? Really  I  think  what  the president says at church  services  should  be taken as personal as they  can  be quoted out  of context  for political  purposes.  Yet  the president  is entitled  to seek  his personal  salvation  with  his God except perhaps  to  add    that, that should  not  be a problem  or concern of Nigerians. This  is  because  our  constitution says loud and clear that  Nigeria  is a secular  state and  the president’s religion and salvation are  his personal  problem  as long as he makes the nation safe  for all  Nigerians  to  sleep safely  in their  beds.

    In  England where  the Monarchy  is the bedrock of  British political stability in a parliamentary  system which  we abandoned for a presidential  system,  there  is  a  saying  in  political  science that  ‘with    the Queen  in  Buckingham  Palace  every  Briton sleeps well  in  his  bed‘.  I doubt  if we can say that with  any confidence as Nigerians in connection  with  the present occupant  of Aso  Rock  in  Abuja  our  fount  of power,  political might and distribution  of political  largesse  and wealth  in  Nigeria.

    Yet  even  the president at  another Church  service  has admitted that security  and  corruption are  key  issues  bedevilling  the Nigerian  nation  today.  On  corruption  he said he was busy trying to put on the ground  the institutions  to fight  corruption so that people will  not just  be put on trial  and  set  free.  Since he said  this at a church it  should  not be a matter  for debate but as he is contesting re  election and has  been  in  power for so  long what has he been  doing since.  But  again, the  church should  not be a place for a political  debate.  One  can however remind  our  president  of how  a former      US  president got  re elected  on the way he handled  security  and  how  Brazil’s  President  Dilma Rousseff  aged  67  and  a woman,  who  was sworn  in this week for a second term,  got re elected  because she  fought  corruption  and lifted  Brazillians  out  of  poverty.

    US  President  George  Bush  was  president  of the US  from  2001  to 2OO8  and  he started  the present global war  on terror  because 9/11  happened  on his watch  in 2001. While  many Americans  loathed him fiercely  for  the invasion  of  Iraq  in 2003 on the false premise  of availability  of weapons  of mass  destruction  which were not found  during the invasion,  he was able  to get  re elected overwhelmingly in 2004  when  he  defeated  Democratic  candidate John  Kerry  the  present US  Secretary  of  State, because Americans  felt  that  he has  done enough to make  the US homeland safe  for them  to  live  in. In  2015  Nigerians  in the  North East  and  the  North  and  in  Nigeria  should  judge  the incumbent president on  his record  in this regard and  not  on his  musings and rationalisations at  church  services  where he  is  entitled  to his  privacy  and  his  communion  with  his God  and  his  Maker.

    The  name  of the game  in politics and democracy is renewal  of power as reward  for responsive  governance  and  the  punishment  is removal  through  the  ballot  box    for unfulfilled  promises  and mandates. That  was what George  Bush  experienced  positively  in 2004  and  he was also  able  to extend that electoral  goodwill  to the mid term  elections in 2006 for  Republican  legislators  in Congress.  Which  is something his successor  President  Barack Obama  was  not able  to do in  last year’s  mid term  elections  for Democrats  and  he  admitted this failure  by saying that he has heard the American  people  loud  and clear.

    In  Brazil  the newly  sworn  in President Dilma  was Chief  of Staff to  former President  Lula  da  Silva  of the Workers  Party  which came  to power  in 2003  and  whose  campaign  promise  was to lift people  out  of  poverty  during Lula’s  two  terms.  Now  at Dilma’ s    second  coming, making  more  than  a decade  of  their party  in power,  she announced  last week  that the  Workers  Party in  Brazil  has lifted  37m  Brazilians  out  of poverty  and  that the year 2015  is  the  Year  of  Education  in  Brazil.  Dilmar  won this election  narrowly  because protesters  felt  that  Brazilian sports  administrators  were  corrupt  and were  making  money  out of Brazilians  love  of sports  and soccer.  She  fought  the election on her record  of performance  and  did  not take the electorate  for granted  and was  successful  at  the polls  because of the goodwill  and support  of the Brazilian  electorate. That  is a working democracy  and  that is what  we want  to  happen  in Nigeria  in  2015.

    Lastly  let  me end  on a lighter  note, if  that  is possible  in a passionate game like soccer.  on an analogy  involving  my  favourite Premiership  team Arsenal  and its  famous  Manager  Arsene  Wenger who  happened  to be one  of the most  enterprising and  successful managers  of  his time,  till  recently.  I  say  this because recent results showed  that he has  lost  his  magic  wand  for success as  most Arsenal fans would  honestly  and painfully  attest.  What  Arsene  Wenger  has  not lost  however  is his excellent oratory  and  presentation  skills    for post  match  analysis  in which  he becomes  absolutely  objective  as if he had  no hand  in the result  of  a match in which  his team, which  he supervised and  led in strategy and tutoring for the game,  took  part.  Arsene Wenger  has  an absolute  talent  and knack  for  rationalising failure  that is unmatched  by any  Soccer  Manager  in  the world.

    Fortunately  for  him  but  most  unfortunately  for Arsenal  fans  a collection  of his post  match  analysis  has  become  a best seller book in  England. Which  means while Wenger  smiles  all the  way to  the bank  the fans  must  seek  help  for their    health  and security  of  mind and body while watching their  favourite  team.

    It  is definitely not an  acceptable  situation  and the fans  have started  demanding for  a change  of  Management  to    maintain their  peace  of mind and body. This  is  because C’est  la vie  [Such  is  life]  may  be French  just  as  Wenger  is  –  but Arsenal  is an English  team  with  a  global  following and change is inevitable  in  2015  for  the sake  of the sanity  of Arsenal teeming  soccer  fans.  Sorry  for  the digression  but change  is in  the air  for Nigerian  politics  in 2015 too  as  performance  or prospects  must  have  their    reward  or  punishment as the case may be.  Happy  New  Year.

  • Who will advise our stars?

    It is the third day of a new year. It is a season of resolutions in which many people wish away spells and look to God for a new direction. January is the period where plans are made with the firm belief that a greater part of the wish list is achieved.

    This New Year will usher in good tidings for all the readers of this column. The Lord will answer those wishes that are worthy in his eyes because we know that even before we kneel down before God, asking for anything. He already knows those things that we truly need. May the good Lord bless us all this year.

    Most times when some of our ex-internationals complain about how they are being treated in the twilight of their careers, I wonder if they have bothered to ask themselves what they did with their fortunes. They blame everyone but themselves, forgetting that when the going was good, they splashed good cash on vanities such as cars, shoes, necklaces and bracelets, to mention but a few of their frivolities.

    In their opulence, not a few of our stars thought of engaging financial experts who could plan their future for them. Our stars likened the quantum cash to a broken oil pipe from an endless ocean. They apparently thought the cash would flow till eternity. I wish they asked what became of their predecessors.

    Those who ten years ago flew in jets across the country for owambes are struggling to rebuild their future, pursuing national team jobs. Indeed, in one of my trips to Uyo in November, many people inside the aircraft couldn’t fathom the loss in weight of some of our big stars who stopped playing in the year 2000. Many inside the aircraft couldn’t reconcile the difficulty in seeing those stars in the past and now. A few argued about their identities.

    They had emaciated. No bouncers around them anymore. They walked up to greet you now, not the other way round. Things have truly changed. The jets are grounded. Many who had major cities named after them are loafing and holding on to anything to show that they played the game. Many of them in their heydays moved around at breakneck speed in convoys of the best cars. Now, they sneak into smoky jalopies, hiding their identities by wearing big hats.

    When will our stars start to plan for their future? When will our big boys enjoy the kind of rave reviews that megastars, such as David Beckham, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi et al, get from the media in terms of their emoluments? We are tired of the rag-to-riches and then riches-to-penury of our players who earned hefty figures playing the beautiful game in some of the countries where some of these megastars played. This writer is surprised at the penury in which some of these former stars live. They appear to have forgotten where they were discovered. They were street-wise kids, whose absence from their homes brought relief to the family since they would cater for less the number, as a means of punishment to them.

    I cringed when I saw another Nigerian feeling cool inside a 2015 Roll Royce car worth £250,000 (N46.2 million). What struck me was how much he was worth to make such a purchase? I reckoned that he didn’t know what to use such cash for? I wish I could tell my readers his background to find out if such hefty cash wouldn’t have been better spent. Our stars have a right to satisfy their fantasies but they must remember that the life span of an athlete is short, making it imperative for them to keep much of their windfall for the future. Some of our past stars are inscrutable in their appearance when you see them now. You can tell that they have lost it all.

    This is a clarion call to the so called Nigerian Players Welfare Union to contact some of them who are likely to go astray to look back at others before them and do the needful. If any player has so much cash to handle, he can seek advice from his banker. He could also reach out to the players union to help assist others who are bedridden and need to get back on their feet.

    What will it cost our players to return to the grassroots to rejuvenate the playing grounds that produced them. They could also provide the cash to encourage the kids in the hinterland to play the game, using them as role models instead of this lascivious life style. 

    January European transfer window

     In Europe, this is the period where clubs rush to the transfer market to fortify their stock of players. These clubs go for players that they know will make immediate impact in their teams, having languished in relegation since the season began in August, last year.

    Most of the European club managers will be sending their scouts to Malabo, Equatorial Guinea to watch the matches of the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations. Sadly, Nigeria, winners of the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, will not be in Equatorial Guinea.

    When the matches begin, it will dawn on our players and coaches the level of grief that they have brought to soccer fans in Nigeria. They would have lost the opportunity to affirm their supremacy in the continent. As for the players, they would understand why every game should be taken seriously, especially when new players from the continent use the games of the Africa Cup of Nations to get lucrative contracts.

    When the window opens, one expects that Nigerian stars in Europe who have been confined to the bench should walk up to their managers, seeking to move on to other clubs, if the opportunity beckons. It must be said that the biggest reason why Nigeria isn’t at the 2015 Africa Cup of Nations is because our Europe-based stars spent the period before these matches on the bench in the European clubs. This match rustiness greatly inhibited the Eagles’ performance, with the coaches having few options to pick players from.

    The media have been awash with the interesting story of CSKA Moscow’s Nigerian import Ahmed Musa going to Tottenham Hotspurs this month. CSKA is a very good club in Moscow. The club is a regular feature in the UEFA Champions League. Musa must consider the fact that he plays regularly for CSKA, hence it will be tragic if he rushes to Tottenham and ends up sitting on the bench or watching the game from the stands.

    Playing for Tottenham offers Musa the best platform to show his talents because of the tremendous media coverage of the Barclays English Premier League. But Musa must understand that if he takes the leap into Tottenham, he loses value in the transfer market if he is dumped on the bench. And with the 2018 Africa Cup of Nations and Russia 2018 World Cup qualifiers set to begin by the middle of the year, one would plead with Musa to opt for the club where he would be first choice in his position.

    Another player in the transfer radar of European clubs is Oguenyi Onazi. Onazi plays for Lazio FC in the Italia Serie A. He is on the wanted list of Liverpool FC. In fact, the media splashed the story of a swap deal between Liverpool and Lazio with Onazi and Boronini walking in different directions.

    Onazi’s purported move to Anfield is to understudy Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard, who many pundits believe should be given less games to play next year. It looks like a proactive idea but my fear is that what happens if Gerrard continues to churn out top performances for Liverpool? My candid advice to Onazi is to remain at Lazio to fight for his shirt.

    Thank God John Mikel Obi is back to reckoning with Chelsea. Chelsea’s manager Jose Mourinho knows that Mikel can play alongside Matic instead of the earlier option where Mourinho played Matic ahead of Mikel. I wish Mourinho realised this arrangement earlier in the season. Mikel would have influenced Nigeria’s AFCON campaign better than he did because he wasn’t playing regularly for Chelsea.

    Emmanuel Emenike has resolved to remain at Fenerbahce FC of Turkey instead of running to England to play for Tottenham or Chelsea. And it is the best decision. My candid advice to Emenike is that he cannot find a shirt in present day Chelsea side. Chelsea attackers have struck a ruthless chemistry playing together, culminating in their awesome goal-scoring record in the team’s matches this season.

     Home-based Eagles’ transfers

     Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President, Melvin Amaju Pinnick must today call for the files of the movement of our domestic league players to Europe. This idea of a particular agent doing the business of the transfer of our local stars is unacceptable.

    Such an agent has a right to do the business of transfers for our local boys. But when he takes charge of all movements, it is worrisome. Most of the local boys sign for one of these agents because he fronts for most of our national team coaches. His offer isn’t the best. But the players must join his camp if they hope to play for Nigeria.

    Amaju must be told that transfer of players isn’t the exclusive prerogative of a particular agent. He must work in tandem with the NFF, especially national team players discovered here. NFF should help guide these new discoveries in the national teams, such as Super Eagles.

    It is ridiculous for a Super Eagles player to undergo screening in novelty leagues outside the country. Our league may not be paying the best wages but our players in the Eagles can get better deals playing against bigger teams in the country’s international friendlies at their own terms rather than kowtowing to the whims and caprices of greedy agents working with our national team coaches.

    This slavish movement of our best local players into obscure leagues in the Diaspora explains why there isn’t any transition from one national team to the other.  Amaju, please this trend where one agent takes charge of all our discoveries is wrong. It is foolhardy for a Super Eagles player to undergo screening in Belgrade, for instance.