The Nation Newspaper

Category: Saturday

  • Between the US, Egypt and Nigeria

    As Nigeria’s President Goodluck Jonathan took the stage in Davos, Switzerland at the 2014 World Economic Forum to talk on’ Africa’s Next Billion’ Egypt announced that it was piqued by President Barak Obama’s decision to excludeEgypt from the list of 47 African nations the US President was inviting to a confab in the US in August this year. I do not know the theme of the Obama African Conference from which it has omitted Egypt, its staunch ally in the Middle East, but the theme of this year’s Davos Conference was – The Reshaping of the World; Consequences for Society, Politics and Business.

    Nothing mirrored the challenge of the 44th Davos World Economic Forum theme more than the immediate response of israel’s President Shimon Peres to the speech of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Day One at Davos. Peres, at 91 the oldest Head of State in the world, lamented that while the Iranian president had spoken eloquently at Davos on cooperation with the UN on its nuclear programme, he had been silent on asking Hizbollah to stop sending rockets into Israel and in asking for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. This, to Peres, is a missed opportunity for the Iranian leader, as according to him, the Israelis and Iranians have not been historical enemies in the past. That deep diplomatic rumble and new expectation on the socio economic platform of Davos, provides the parameter for our topic of the day as we reflect on the theme of Davos 2014 – The Reshaping of the

    World; Consequences For Society, Politics and Business – with regard to the relations between the US, Egypt and Nigeria in recent times.

    Really, we should start with the nature of the relations between the three nations which has often been patronising on the part of the US against the two other nations in recent times. With regard to Egypt its Foreign Affairs Spokesperson did not mince words in condemning the exclusion of Egypt from the Obama African Confab in August as lacking in vision while admitting that Egypt remained suspended from the AU because of the military intervention that deposed former President Mohammed Morsi.

    In Nigeria’s case, helping Nigeria to contain the menace of Boko Haram has reportedly become the cornerstone of US policy in making the Sahel region safe from the ravages of terrorism and religious militancy.

    In either case the leadership in Egypt and Nigeria has shown great incapacity to contain threats to national security and stability and Uncle Sam had offered help and direction in that regard and the two nations could not but oblige. What then had led to this hand wringing and thankful postures from these two nations in the face of what could have been termed, at other times, as meddlesome and intrusive diplomacy on the part of the US and its foreign policy Advisers? These are the issues we are addressing today to show that the Davos 2014 World Economic Forum theme is very apt indeed for the contemporary politics and international relations involving these three nations.

    First, let me state clearly that it is not fair for the US president to give the Egyptians the cold shoulder over his August 2014 African Confab. This is because he had a hand in the situation in Egypt ending the way it has, with a military coup and the deposition and trial for treason of elected Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi. Indeed the Obama Administration claimed responsibility for the success of planting democracy in Egypt when Morsi was

    elected as the candidate of the Muslim Brotherhood, in the best tradition of former President George Bush’s American policy of planting democracy in foreign lands. Obama’s foreign policy on Egypt spurred the demonstrations that dislodged former dictator Housni Mubarak but relations turned sour when a counter demonstration against Morsi was hijacked by the army which deposed Morsi and installed a puppet Interim Adminstration in a military

    coup. Legally US policy on coups is not to recognise any government that stem from military coups but the US government like the proverbial ostrich has refused to admit a coup happened in Egypt and applying the appropriate sanction according to its policy. Instead, it has cut arms sale to Egypt.

    Meanwhile a referendum last week approved the new Egyptian constitution erasing the Morsi era for ever and paving the way for the Egyptian Army chief General Sissy to be the new bride being sought now for the presidency of Egypt by a confused and embittered Egyptian electorate.

    It is my considered view that rather than leaving Egypt in the cold, the US could have shown magnanimity in inviting the N African nation to the August conference rather than isolating it, after pushing its people into a heady and intoxicating desire for democracy which did not come the way Obama had planned and expected. Anyway whether Obama admits it or not, the people of Egypt are happy with their democracy because they know it has taken an Egyptian route and has its root in Egyptian blood shed at Tahrir Square and Egyptian cities and towns where Egyptians demonstrated first against the dictator Mubarak and later against the Muslim Brotherhood. No US snub of Egypt can change the history and course of the street revolution of the Egyptian people and their yearning for democracy in their own land and according to their wishes and aspirations.

    With regard to Nigeria the Americans seem to have adopted a policy of helping a drunk out of a china shop. This however is not out of pity but from an urgent need in curtailing the spread of terror in the Sahel, a danger lost in plain sight to the Nigerian government. Before now US policy in Nigeria was based on oil. With ascendant militancy in the Niger Delta and the discovery of oil in Gabon and Angola the US has found alternatives to Nigeria’s oil in the same vicinity and can afford to step aside which it would have done conveniently and speedily, if Boko Haram had not arisen. The US has had to take the initiative in prodding the Nigerian authorities in taking Boko Haram seriously because it knows how deadly its spill over effect will be in the Sahel and ECOWAS sub region. The US knows that the Abuja government does not want anything to rock the boat of governance hence its pretending that the Boko Haram menace is being contained , although the daily statistics on casualties on both sides, don’t agree with this posture.

    That explains why the US has offered to train the new Rapid Response force that the former Army Chief said had been put in place before his removal last week. It also showed why the new Chief of Defence Staff promised on behalf of the new service chiefs recently that Boko Haram threat will be put out by April this year. Which is really cheering news for now, which however could be an albatross later if the self imposed deadline is not met.

    There is no doubt that Nigeria has a well trained and large army but Boko Haram is not an army neither has it scruples on disrespecting the established rules of military engagement or using civilians as human shields or burning churches and mosques.

    Aside from US squirming on Nigeria’s handling of Boko Haram, France set the tone on Sahel region protection with the forceful intervention in Mali last year. Now the new Interim Prime Minister of Central African Republic who was elected in Chad has asked for the aid of even the EU in preventing sectarian and religious violence in that African nation whose parliament had to move to neighboring Chad because it could not meet in the capital Bangui because of the religious anarchy there. It is such danger that the US proactively sees in the Sahel and that is what is propelling its new foreign policy in Nigeria and one hopes that this policy succeeds in the best spirit of reshaping the region along the line of the challenging theme of Davos 2014.

  • Who are the enemies of Ndigbo?

    Who are the enemies of Ndigbo?

    One of the finest minds in contemporary Nigerian journalism, Ochereome Nnanna of the Vanguard Newspaper wrote in one of his recent columns that he was elated that Dr. Chris Ngige lost the last governorship election because his triumph would have meant a victory for the enemies of the Igbo. I wondered who exactly are the enemies of the Igbo? It is a question that baffles me especially coming from a mind as refined as Nana’s.

    I have always held the view that the Igbo cultural group is one of the brightest and best resources that the Nigerian nation is blessed with. It is no exaggeration to claim that the Igbo are the Jews of Africa. They are inventive. They are creative. They are innovative. They are adventurous. They are daring. In chapter twelve of his book, ‘The tragedy of Victory’, Brigadier-General Godwin Alabi-Isama, details the genius of the Igbo.

    He presents pictures of Biafra’s home-made armoured tanks. There is a particularly striking photograph of Biafra’s ‘Red Devil’ a crude but deadly home-made armoured vehicle. According to Alabi-Isama “However, the Biafrans that we thought would collapse after Port Harcourt still continued to use its two hands to crawl after losing its two legs. They deserved credit. They had proved that they were not a pushover by any standard. So, Biafra developed a new navy and fought in the Delta and riverine areas successfully. They had their own homemade bombs and armoured tanks. Though crude, they killed nevertheless. They deserved our respect”.

    The role of the Igbo in Nigerian history and politics is most intriguing. The Igbo were at the forefront of the nationalist struggle to free Nigeria from colonial bondage.  In his book ‘Radical Politics in Nigeria, 1945-1950’, Professor Ehiedu Iweriebor, meticulously documents the role and activities of the radical Zikist movement in the bid for Nigeria’s liberation from colonial bondage.

    Inspired by Dr Nnanmdi Azikwe, the Zikist movement consisted of such brilliant Igbo as Nwafor Orizu, M.C.K. Ajuluchukwu, Osita Aguwuna, Nduka Eze, Mokwogu Okoye, Marshall Kebby, I.V.C. Ebo, Ndo Eze, B.O.U. Elihwu, Othman Zarma, Don Eluwah and C.O. Mkpari and Kate Steane to name a few.

    Yet, the Igbo were also the first to attempt to break out of Nigeria and establish an independent Republic of Biafra! Of course that is now history. The question is what are the Igbo making of themselves in post war Nigeria? In his book ‘Instability and Political Order: Politics and Crisis in Nigeria’, the late Professor Billy Dudley posited his analysis of Nigerian politics on a tripod of Hausa/Fulani, Yoruba and Igbo.

    The truth of the matter is that the Igbo have virtually disappeared as a viable power bloc in contemporary Nigerian politics. It is amazing for instance that in the 2011 election, the Igbo political elite showed absolutely no interest in the presidential election. In the run up to the 2015 election again, the Igbo political leadership is exhibiting an astonishing ineptness.

    Ravaged by ecological crisis of epochal dimensions, devastating inter-state high ways, the second Niger Bridge that successive PDP administrations have been threatening to construct since 1999, the Igbo political elite continues to throw its weight behind the PDP.  Ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo flagged off the purported construction of the second Niger Bridge both in 2003 and 2007 shortly before elections. He reaped massive votes in the East. The project remains a mirage.

    In 2011, President Jonathan suddenly realized he was an ‘Azikiwe”.  He reaped massive votes from the East. It is not unlikely that come 2015, the Azikwe name tag may go into fashion once more. And the gullible Igbo will dance to the music. Yet, it has not always been this way. The Igbo political elite have always been the most astute and strategic in Nigerian politics. Not anymore. Can you imagine the hallucination of anybody thinking that an Igbo indigene can be President in 2019 even if Dr Jonathan realizes his undisguised second term ambition?

    When I look at the pictures of the periodic South East/South-South Governors’ meeting, I am amused at the obvious timidity, tepidness, insipidity and utter callowness of the South East Governors as compared to confidence and boisterousness of their South- South counterparts particularly Seriake Dickson and Godswll Akpabio.

    Having fought and lost a long and bitter struggle to be autonomous of Nigeria, the next best option for the Igbo is not to seek to produce a President of Nigeria. It is to be at the forefront of the struggle for a truly federal Nigeria where the component parts are genuinely autonomous and the genius of the Igbo exhibited during the civil war can flower for the benefit of Nigeria and Africa.

    …Encounter with Jonathan’s aide

    No matter how acerbic or unsparing of his boss this column is, Dr Sanya Awosan, Senior Special Assistant to President Goodluck Jonathan on public relations always makes sure he remains in touch with me at least once a month. Of course, our professional relationship dates back over a decade now. During the last festive period, Dr Awosan was in Lagos and he insisted we met over drinks to brainstorm. He assured me that President Jonathan is totally misunderstood and means well for Nigeria. In any case, he argued, can Jonathan’s meteoric rise to the presidency be by chance? Could it not be an indication of a divine mission? Dr Awosan gave me a lot of insight into the President’s thinking and actions. But I also had a word for him to the President: “You have a God given opportunity to salvage Nigeria. Don’t squander it sir”.

  • Beyond Agbim’s mistakes

    Football is not played by the children of the elite. It is a game that kids of the down-trodden embrace at the grassroots. In fact, parents get angry whenever their kids sneak out to play the game. Most times, they flog them when they return, especially those who want their wards to be educated. But the lure of the game – and the passion for it – keeps some of these kids playing until such a time when their parents will give up trying to stop them.

    Soccer is the cheapest game to administer. At the grassroots, most of the kids improvise by constructing weird round objects which they kick around until, prominent indigenes visiting the villages buy them balls.

    Several names have been given to these balls, such as Peter’s ball, Felele (rubber ball), hazard (medicine ball) e.t.c. it is always a spectacle watching kids play the game with stockings. So, whenever Nigeria has a game across the national teams, we are introduced to new talents (boys and girls), whose background we don’t know, but who with time become greats. They become bread winners of their families and serve as models to other children at the grassroots.

    It is for this reason that I feel bad anytime our national team’s coaches pick players on other grounds than merit. Our coaches must look at the bigger picture of projecting only the best and not think through their pockets while their choices.

    It has been quite interesting reading how some Nigerians have situated Nigeria’s predicted 3-1 victory over Bafana Bafana on Sunday to goalkeeper Chijioke Agbim’s heroics as if he was chosen by providence and not competence. If he was picked on merit, then he ought to have shown us why he is the best among the equals.

    For there to be such massive cry for his substitution means that he was certainly the wrong choice for the job whether or not he does well in subsequent matches. And the coaches must bury their heads in shame because we deserve only the best for the Super Eagles. Need I say that one of the reasons we have tottered in FIFA’s monthly rankings rest with our coaches’ inability embrace excellence and abhor mediocrity?

    The overwhelming condemnation that dogged the goalkeeper’s first two outings, including the veiled smack from the team’s coaching crew, underscored the fact that Agbim was rusty, having barely played two domestic league games. This obvious lapse raises the issue of the parameters used in picking players for the national teams.

    I shudder when I read comments that suggest that we are slow starters in competitions that the current coaches have prosecuted. It says a lot about their competence because if we start with a loss in Brazil, for instance, we are doomed. We have wobbled and fumbled into the quarter-finals because we have coaches who specialise in doing television analysis on foreign leagues when Globacom Premier League matches are played. They rely on views expressed by scouts and agents who have vested interest in those they recommend. A win over South Africa does not mean that the team is back to winning way. For a change, our coaches must watch the domestic games when they return. They must have weekly records of how the players have fared. It won’t cost the coaches anything to ask the LMC to send them match reports, if they are too big to go to the body’s office to fetch such vital documents.

    Do our coaches see what their contemporaries are doing in those foreign league matches shown television? Whenever big games are played, you see national team coaches at the stands watching their lads to see how well they play for their teams. Not so for ours. When they are not junketing around, they are taking holidays or possibly becoming incommunicado. No one can talk to them because they guided the country to lift the Africa Cup of Nations. Their word is law. We only get the required shock therapy whenever FIFA releases its monthly ranking and we keep experiencing a steep slide down the ladder.

    Frankly speaking, winning the Africa Cup of Nations on February 10 in South Africa is no big blessing. Nothing has changed with our football. It is still the usual blind chase. The only difference with Garba Manu’s Golden Eaglets is that he picked very talented players who are now the toast of European clubs.

    We are told that Alampasu is being courted by Juventus FC of Italy and I say hurray. Italy is the home of some of the world’s best goalkeepers. If that is where Alampasu has opted for, he is in the right direction.  Italy’s tradition with world class goalkeepers is legendary. They include such greats as Dino Zoff (1974-82), Giovanni Galli (1986), Walter Zenga (1990), Luca Marchegiani (1994), Guanluca Pagliuca (1994-98) and Gianlugi Buffon (2002 till date). Or did we not see how an Italian goalkeeping upstart Victor Mannone stopped Manchester United’s players’ three penalty kicks in the second leg semi-finals game at the Old Trafford Stadium on Wednesday, when Sunderland qualified for the finals against Manchester City at Wembley Stadium March 2? So, who are those pundits querying Alampasu’s movement to Italy?  Please tell us something else.

    Again, the team’s captain Mohammed is in Beskitas of Turkey. Our coaches should tell us why he is not in South Africa? Two of the coaches played for Nigeria at the senior level as teenagers. So why are they scared of taking risks on the 2013 Golden Eaglets? Must Nigeria always win competitions? Did our coaches think Mohammed would be the smallest in CHAN? Can’t they see smaller boys enjoying the exposure of playing on such a big stage for the first time?

    Another Eaglet, Chidera Ezeh, is a Porto FC of Portugal junior star. This is a very good move for Ezeh, especially to a club where Jose Mourinho won both the UEFA Champions League and Europa Cup.  Andres Villas Boas also won the Europa with Porto. I want to predict here that Ezeh will be the first Eaglet to force his way into the Super Eagles through his exploits in Portugal, like Nwankwo Kanu did. There is also Nwabili, who has joined Manchester City, like Kelechi Iheanacho.

    It really hurts when one hears knowledgeable people say that Iheanacho’s move to Manchester City is wrong on grounds that the club doesn’t have a history of nursing talents. Is there any club in England that doesn’t have a thriving nursery for young boys? These Nigerians think that Manchester City is a yesterday club. They have also forgotten that the new investors have pumped colossal cash into the system, based on a template produced by some of the best technocrats in that business. I won’t blame them. They think Manchester City plays in the Nigerian league where such details are ignored.  Take a bow Garba Manu for reinventing our football. Let no Eagles’ coach lay claim to these boys when they blossom. I digress.

    This writer’s angst over the calibre of players in the CHAN Eagles is that good ones have lost the biggest opportunity to storm Europe to showcase their talents. They are now at the mercy of shylock scouts and agent who connive with unscrupulous club managers to secure slavish contracts for unsuspecting players, eager to change their environment on the platform of seeking greener pastures. What a pity.

    At the CHAN tournament in South Africa, we have been reduced to a one-man squad and that is where our problems will begin. The Moroccans will man-mark Uzoenyi. They will ask a big player to outmuscle him. If that happens (God forbid) the CHAN Eagles will totter. Perhaps, they will depend on divine intervention (mother luck) or the typical Nigerian fighting spirit to scale the hurdle. May God help us today against the Atlas Lions of Morocco.

    South Africans lack the talent to match us. So, when Agbim shines in such a game, it shows the level of his game. The CHAN Eagles in South Africa are raw diamonds. The only polished star is Chrisantus Uzoenyi, who did well in the early matches prosecuted by the current technical crew as an Enugu Rangers player. Uzoenyi was discovered by Gateway FC in Aboekuta before he moved to Enyimba where he was benched, until Enugu Rangers came to rescue him from the grips of some of our bad coaches who cannot identify good players.

    He was taken to Europe to play Rennes in the France Ligue 1 for six months. The impact of Uzoenyi’s short sojourn there is evident even though he didn’t play for any club in the last three months. I won’t be surprised if Uzoenyi is following the regime given to him while he was with Rennes to keep fit. That is the whole idea of professionalism that we are talking about, where every detail is situated in the club’s handbook, which we have chosen to call Code of Conduct and all hell is let loose by our players.

    It is obvious that the European coaches have impacted greatly on the way Uzoenyi plays. His interplay is swift and his finishing incredible despite his diminutive stature. He returned to Nigeria recently but couldn’t get any club. This qualified Uzoenyi to play in CHAN. He is our best.

    Today against Morocco, the clarion call isn’t Agbim but the need for the coaches to raise Nigeria’s profile in FIFA by beating the North Africans decisively. Years back, the Moroccans were difficult nuts to crack. Not anymore, especially with Nigerians’ movement to European competitions and our dominance of the age grade tournaments.

    The coaches may not admit it, but Agbim’s howlers have taught them a few lessons. This slip will guide them when picking Nigeria’s World Cup squad to Brazil.

    I have seen the pack of teams left. I’m angry that we would struggle to lift the trophy, when we would have lifted it with swagger, reminiscent of how the Golden Eaglets ruled the world in the UAE. By the Eaglets’ third game in UAE, it was obvious that they would be the world champions. The Eaglets were discovered from the nooks and crannies of the country. Manu threw away fixations and combed everywhere to find the talents. Nigeria deserves more than what our coaches have showcased at CHAN.

    Good luck CHAN Eagles, despite my reservations. Some of our players can use this platform to get contracts with South African clubs or other African teams where football is real business. Up Nigeria!

  • Political culture, morality and globalisation

    I watched a CNN program anchored by well known Iranian American Amanpor this week in which she interviewed a self- confessed Nigerian gay man and I was amused by the way the famous CNN presenter was trying to literally cuddle the views of the gay Nigerian while ignoring the expressed, happiness of some Nigerians over the passing of the gay bill punishing homosexuality and its public display in Nigeria. The bias and patronage for the gay Nigerian was palpable and most patronising and must have been provocative to Nigerians who do not share the western perception and understanding of homosexuality. To me however the issue is not one to be annoyed over, but it is an issue which creates an urgent need for an enlightenment campaign, which this time is to flow in the opposite direction of the usual flow of global communication occasioned by the current drift of globalisation, well represented by the global pervasiveness and reportage of western media like CNN and BBC. This reverse enlightenment campaign is necessary if the rest of the world is not to drift into a second phase of cultural and mental colonisation occasioned by the internet and information technology and the use that western nations led by the US seem determined to make of the two awesome instruments, in achieving a new cultural domination of the world as we know it today. I call this cultural manipulation very active in Amanpor’s interview of the Nigeria gay man, a new mind colonisation based on the usage of the internet and IT and today I will dissect its threat and lay bare its strategy as well as start a campaign on this page to make sure it does not fly. Aside from Nigeria whose leadership inertia has been wrongly diagnosed as the reason for the passing of the anti gay laws in Nigeria, I intend to look at the plight of the French President Francois Hollande and his romantic affair in France and use that to some advantage in showing that global political culture is relative and may have little or no effect on global civilisation except in a relevant context. I will also look at the refusal of the Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni to sign the anti gay law in his nation into law and his language in not doing it, as well as his foray into the war in South Sudan. Let me start by acknowledging a similarity between the French political culture on adultery especially by political leaders and the attitude of the average Nigerian to homosexuality. The French are not bothered by the romantic or extra marital, affairs of their leaders unlike the British and Americans and according to reports the French people are mute on the Hollande affair. With Nigerians homosexuality is a sexual aberration and even the two major religions in Nigeria- Christianity and Islam – are united in its condemnation totally and nationally. Let me now treat the issue of France before Nigeria. In France, the present president has a partner, a lady, not a wife, as his First Lady and the lady Valerie Trierweiler is hospitalised now over the affair of the French president with an actress, which a French newspaper reported has been on for two years. Before his election as president of France, Francois Hollande had a partner who had four children for him and that was Segolene Royal who lost the presidential election to former President Nicholas Sarkozy who was later defeated last year by Hollande to become president of France. Obviously Hollande did not take Segolene Royal, the mother of his four children to the Elysee Palace as First Lady, but took a new partner Valerie now sick over his new affair with an actress named Julie Gayet. In addition, thousands demonstrated in France when gay marriage was legalised under the new Hollande presidency, but it was too late , because the Socialist Party of President Hollande which won the presidential election had included it in its manifesto that it would legalise gay marriages on getting elected. This is definitely unlike Britain where the Conservatives and Liberal Party coalition in power never went through parliament before legalising gay marriages in Britain, while later threatening to cut aid to African nations with anti gay laws. In the Amanpor interview and anti Nigerian propaganda on the anti gay laws on the internet, the impression was given that the Nigerian president had popularity problems over his re election in 2015 that was why the anti homo laws were passed. Nothing could be further from the truth. Yes, the president had problems of defection in his party and the Boko Haram issue but both are unrelated to the passing of the anti homo laws which were expected as normal and in place. To show he was in charge the president changed his security chiefs and his embattled party chairman in one week and both actions had not made him more popular just as the passing of the anti homo law has not changed anything in his low popularity rating because he did the expected by not rocking the boat of expectation on the matter .More importantly even Britain which has threatened poor African nations like Malawi and Botswana over the anti gay laws has announced it would do nothing to Nigeria over the matter . Which shows that Nigeria’s stature in the comity of nations is to be respected on the matter. In Uganda however the situation is different even though the Ugandan president had used very denunciatory language to describe homosexuals and lesbians by saying that they should be rescued from their aberration and not killed or imprisoned. Ugandan parliamentarians have however pledged to pass the bill weather their president signed it or not . Again , Uganda is land locked and needs western aid to fight its many regional wars especially the new one it is getting into in South Sudan. With that new military involvement in South Sudan however Museveni has shown his solidarity with S Sudan’s leaders just as he showed his disdain for the homos and lesbians in his nation while calling for their rescue. This type of regional intervention is what Nigeria should have initiated in Central African Republic where Christians and Muslims are killing each other so ferociously that a UN official has said that the UN and France have underrated the degree of hate between the two religions in the area. This to me should provide food for thought for Nigeria which has lost regional leadership to Chad which hosted a conference of neighboring states in the area that asked the last interim president of CAR to resign and proceed to exile in Benin Republic. As in Mali, France under President Francois Hollande and through Chad , Nigeria’s neighbour , is dictating the pace of returning normality to CAR just as it did in Mali while ECOWAS and Nigeria were dithering and prevaricating on supplies and logistics. Nigeria should emulate the strong actions of the two leaders of France and Uganda on regional control and security. Especially now that the Nigerian president has changed his security chiefs. For now Boko Haram is limited to the North of the nation. But the South west of Nigeria is a mixture of Christians and Muslims and if Nigerians from the S.East are fleeing CAR because they are being killed by Muslims the Nigerian government should send a strong regional signal that the two religions should accommodate each other. This is in the best interest of regional peace and security and Nigeria should be ready to foot the bill as a way of guaranteeing regional peace as we once did in Liberia and Sierra Leone under the aegis of the well respected ECOMOG led by Nigeria. Complacency pussyfooting on CAR and concentrating on party issues or local election matters while confusion, murder and mayhem pervade our borders with our neighbours, may turn out to be a dangerous distraction in the short run if we do not strike while the iron is hot in putting out small, potentially contagious, diplomatic bush fires, early enough. Lastly, let me roundly disagree with those Nigerians who have said that the government should concentrate on fighting corruption rather that chasing Homosexuals and lesbians. I think they have really missed the point. Both issues involve cultural values and integrity as well as the maintenance of morality and the rule of law. This is because the laws of a society stem from its customs and traditions which must be maintained and sustained for the society to grow in the right direction in consonance with the wishes and aspirations of its people. To maintain peace and stability in any society social deviants as well as corrupt people need to be under watch and scrutiny so as not to destroy the moral fibre of the larger society. Indeed, on both scores eternal vigilance is the real and expensive price of cultural, political and moral liberty.

  • The heat is on

    I dread Wednesdays. It is my busiest day. It is the day I sit down before the computer to knock out this weekly column. Thoughts rush through my mind like water through a broken tap. I scribble several headlines from the time I wake up till I eventually settle down to put my thoughts together.

    This Wednesday at about 7.30pm, I was experiencing the writer’s block and chose to walk around the office in soliloquy. Whilst prancing around the office, a huge noise came out of the room where my colleagues were watching the game between Nigeria and Mozambique. I thought the Super Eagles had scored and continued with what I was doing. I then chose to walk into the room. I was confronted by a naughty boy who asked me where the coaches picked goalkeeper Chigozie Agbim from.

    I pretended as if I didn’t hear him because he is such a funny character who speaks his mind. He wanted my comments, but I kept quiet since he lauded me for likening Agbim’s quest to replace goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama in my last column to the search for a virgin in the maternity ward. This boy called ‘Prof’ works in the production section (an unrepentant supporter of Manchester United). Sensing that I wasn’t ready to talk about Agbim, he said: “Editor, where una for get this Agbim from? Na real Egbin?” Everyone in the room laughed. I asked Prof what Egbin meant. He told me straight: Disgrace. Yes, egbin in the Yoruba means disgrace. I leave you, dear reader, with the decision; does Egbin aptly describe Agbim’s performance in the CHAN Eagles matches in South Africa?

    Agbim is dancing in the frying pan in South Africa with two embarrassing performances. If he continues with this poor form, he is definitely out of Nigeria’s 40-man squad to pick the final 22 to hoist our flag at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil. Agbim’s poor outing was predicted here. The coaches must tell us where they saw him man the goalpost. He played only 350 minutes, about the duration of four games last season. Is anyone shocked that he has been the weakest link in the Eagles? Our coaches can be agents to foreign clubs but they must please expose good players, not mediocres. We must get our coaches to explain how they pick players, given the way the CHAN Eagles have played so far.

    There has been nothing to cheer from the two games played in South Africa. It has been a wobbly outing with many proffering excuses for the CHAN Eagles’ sloppy play. A few have argued why Stephen Keshi didn’t allow one of his assistants take charge of the team whilst he sits at the stands to make corrections. Others feel that the domestic league is rotten and incapable of producing new kids to shine in such competitions as CHAN. My response is simple: where did the Golden Eaglets boys come from? Didn’t they come from the domestic competitions?

    The coaches did a shoddy job of picking CHAN Eagles. In other climes, a combination of players in Kano Pillars FC, Enyimba FC, Warri Wolves FC, Sunshine FC of Akure and Dolphins of Port Harcourt would have been assembled. The advantage of the arrangement is that the coaches would be picking players who have played outside this country several times and would have conquered the fear factor associated with rookies. The excuse by the Eagles coaches that the boys had stage fright is bunkum, especially for coaches who had in the past used at least six of those boys to play international friendly games. Our best players in the domestic league are not in South Africa. I need to tell Keshi et al this home truth.

    Watching the two games played so far, I have asked a few people around if they saw anything outstanding in central defender Egwueke. Egweukwe has been so ordinary.Perhaps his performance has been affected by the poor quality of talents in the team. What this development shows is that the NFF technical department needs reengineering, irrespective of what the coaches’ contracts stipulate. We are the ones who bear the brunt when the team plays poorly. Any coach who isn’t prepared to work with the technical department must be relieved of his job.

    The task of building national teams is a collective responsibility. Goalkeeper Dele Alampasu ought to have been given the opportunity to develop, using the CHAN championship. After all, he wouldn’t have performed worse than Agbim. Our domestic coaches like to err on the side of caution. They wait until they have failed before they hinge their failure on the system.

    I feel strongly too that at least five boys in the Golden Eaglets would have done better than the bunch in South Africa. Kelechi Ihenancho, Mohammed, the Eaglets captain at right back, Isaac Success and Taiwo Awoniyi would have recreated some of the exciting moments that we saw when the Eaglets ruled the world in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), last year. The coaches shouldn’t return home with the excuse that they didn’t have the time to blend the team. Not once have the coaches assembled an Eagles squad without long programmes for the home boys. If they couldn’t use those periods to know who to invite, then they don’t deserve to be coaches of a prospecting football nation such as ours.

    If the coaches don’t want to find themselves courting disaster at the Brazil 2014 World Cup tournament, they should ignore everyone in the CHAN Eagles from our 40-man squad, Egwuekwe inclusive. One would have said that Alampasu should make the selection. But we have lost the chance to invite him with the coaches’ refusal to take a risk. The World Cup isn’t a tea party, especially this edition where talents such as Lionel Messi, Neymar, Ibrahimovic, Ronaldo, Ribery, Suarez, Rooney etc will be on parade.

    Talking about Ihenancho, this writer had a good laugh when chieftains of the NFF revealed that the chairman of the body’s technical department was queried for failing to ensure that the Eaglets’ pearl dressed well to the Glo/CAF Awards held at the Eko Hotel and Suites last week Thursday. Ihenancho wore thick beards which, according to the NFF men, was embarrassing and capable of sending the wrong idea about his age.

    Please don’t laugh. It is a serious issue even if he is such a hairy fellow. If Ihenancho wore thick beards, according the NFF men, then something is wrong for a boy who would be 17 this year, having played in an Under-17 competition last year. The panic from the NFF buffs is germane because they are fathers and should know the characteristic features of a growing 16-year-old, which definitely wouldn’t include having thick beards. Nigeria, I dare say, is a huge joke.

    Going to Brazil for this writer is a watershed for our football only if the Eagles’ coaches can surrender themselves to quality advice from discerning stakeholders. They would be deceiving themselves if they know it all. Nigeria has the reputation of being a potential world-beater, provided we can build on our past successes devoid of bickering and enthroning mediocrity by refusing to imbibe the culture of change – in line with global best practices.

    Going to Brazil in June, Nigeria’s U-17 side, the Golden Eaglets boys, are the World Cup champions. What it means is that we have the pool at the grassroots to produce the talents that can change people’s perception of Nigeria with their sublime skills, which most times they acquire through repeating some of the acts showcased by top stars on television.

    If we do well in Brazil, the grassroots would gain immensely because foreign scouts would invade our country, looking for young boys to groom to stardom. The star trek to Europe will translate to more income for those families where the lucky kids come from just as it will encourage others to persuade their talented kids to embrace the game.

    If European scouts invade our league clubs for players, it would translate to added income for those clubs just as it could provide the link for exchange programmes between our clubs and those in Europe.

    FIFA ranking for January 2104 rates Nigeria as the seventh best African nation, despite our status as champions of the continent. This miserable setting means that we are 41st in the world. Expectedly, there would be plenty of noise about the ranking. Truth is, our coaches must learn how to pick our best players for any competition. They shouldn’t hide under the cloak of rebuilding to insult our sensibilities with sickening performances.

    The rebuilding of the Eagles should stop. Let us see how we would play in Brazil by parading our best. Playing with our best ensures that they understand themselves properly and it also helps the coaches to know their weak links and correct them.

    Except we do this quickly, no country will accept our request for friendly games, knowing that such games wont enhance their placing in FIFA ranking. We are tired of playing friendlies against weak African nations. If we wanted to be rated highly, we should strive to confront the big 20 teams. Beating Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Rwanda, Niger republic etc translates to running in circles (you know the effect of this kind of exercise), if such feats are meant to attract points for FIFA’s ranking. I hope we can do well Brazil 2014 World Cup so that bigger countries can scramble for games against us like we saw after the US’94 World Cup and the Atlanta’96 Olympic Games.

  • When corruption corners leadership and security

    It is always a thing of joy when an economy is growing and performing as planned and the dividends of democracy, hard work and diligence are consumed as and when due in any nation in any part of the world. Hard work and growth galvanise wealth and its enjoyment, usage and distribution. However, it is in the management of wealth and who has it, when, and how, that the problem of corruption arises to throw spanner in the works for even the best planned economy, again, in any part of the world. Today we look at the way and manner corruption has bedevilled the political, and economic management of some nations in recent times and, how it has in turn, taxed the leadership styles of such leaders in such a way as to threaten the political stability and security of their nations. These nations are Turkey, Brazil and Nigeria which are rich or well off in terms of economic bounties, endowment and natural resources and Central African Republic – CAR- a poor nation whose mismanagement by its leaders has turned it into a failed state, whose leader on Thursday was asked in a meeting in another nation, namely Chad, to resign for sanity to return to the CAR. In the last few days and weeks, the leaders of these nations have been in the news with the cross of corruption dangling around their necks like a modern, proverbial sword of Damocles. In Turkey a rattled but powerful PM Reccep Tayyip Erdogan sacked 350 police bosses in many Turkish cities for the way and manner they have brought corruption charges against and arrested sons of his ministers leading to the resignation of three of such minsters – with one of them saying on his way out of office, that the PM too should resign. In Brazil, President Dilmar Rousseff had to assure FIFA President Sepp Blatter that Brazil’s stadia will be ready for the World Cup this year, whereas protests and city riots in 2013 over corruption and inequalities in the Brazilian nation had stalled construction of stadia and sports facilities needed for the World Cup in Brazil this year. Nigeria presents a different scenario amongst the nations being considered here. The Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan is unrattled or unfazed by corruption charges especially those concerning the Aviation Minister who was also reported to have changed her credentials several times over on the internet this week, in response to accusations that she did not attend a school in the US which said it never offered the Accounting degree in her credentials. Indeed the Nigerian President said he is a good example of how anyone can reach the top in Nigeria as all that is needed is education. He also emphasised that those calling themselves’ progressives’ in Nigeria qualify for the tag because they are criticising him and he is not bothered by that as the economy is on course. CAR too provides a different kettle of fish in terms of political mismanagement and injustice leading to anarchy arising from religious violence. The Interim President who was forced to resign at a conference of neighboring states in Chad was the first Muslim president in a nation where 50% of the population are Christians and only 15 % are Muslims. Already over one million people have been displaced in that nation with many Nigerians sent packing home by the crisis. These then are just the tip of the ice bag of the quagmire these nations and their leaders face in their battles with the stigma or reality of the cancer of corruption in their polity. It is necessary to now dilate on how they have reached the sorry pass that is now rocking their various political and economic systems. In Turkey’s case the PM – Reccep Tayyip Erdogan – is confident that the police are using corruption charges to smear the integrity of his government and has ignored calls for his own resignation. He surely has cause to be that confident because his party the Justice and Development Party- AKP – has won three elections back to back and he is preparing to be nominated for the more senior position of President of Turkey having exhausted his constitutional term as PM. He however should not be too confident on that score as he has stepped on a few powerful toes in the way he has used his sweeping mandates at the polls . Indeed what has emboldened Erdogan is that he has emasculated the army which is the guarantor of Turkey’s secularity under its constitution handed down by founder Kemak Ataturk in 1923. Under Erdogan’s three terms many generals in the Turkish army have been tried and jailed for plotting coups. Erdogan had the support of a religious leader now in exile in the US as well as that of the police in rounding up military officers and trying them for treason and jailing such officers. Now the religious leader and the police are at loggerheads with Erdogan and it can not be business as usual in Turkey’s volatile politics. This is because the army is lurking and licking its wounds at the hands of Erdogan but bidding its time to strike with the sword of secularity. Will these corruption charges or saga be the death knell of the hitherto success story of the Erdogan- AKP era that had an Islamist party that used the power of elections to successfully handcuff Turkey’s military into a toothless bull dog, afraid to re-enact its time honoured duty of using coups to protect Turkey’s secularity? Surely time will tell, and very soon too, if you ask me. In Brazil, FIFA’s Sepp Blatter said he cried foul over Brazil’s state of preparations for the 2014 World Cup because he said Brazil had more time than any previous host to prepare for the tournament. In addition Brazil is to host the 2016 Olympics and it is both competitions that have brought out the anger in Brazilian youths about corruption and quality of life in Brazil. At the last Confederation Cup in Brazil last year, which was expected to be a test-run for this year’s World Cup, there were protests at the venues and stadia in Brazil. On being interviewed, Brazilian protesters complained of the high costs of the construction sites and the level of corruption in Sports administration in Brazil. A well known Brazilian soccer star called one of the bosses of the Brazilian soccer administration a thief. The protesters also accused the government of presiding over high transport costs and long hours for poor Brazilians in commuting to and from work while executing fantastically expensive stadia projects in the midst of dismal poverty. Luckily Brazilians have a president they can vouch for in terms of integrity and honesty and she has pushed through the Parliament reforms and palliative measures to fund infrastructure, transportation and education from and beyond. President Dilmar Yousseff has also assured FIFA that soccer is the main sports of Brazilians and that the Brazilian Stadia will be ready for the 2014 World Cup. Although I am not a Brazilian I urge Brazilians to believe their president and give her time to clean up the mess in their soccer stable as soccer is one of the high revenue earners for the Brazilian economy all over Europe as at this point in time. Nigeria’s fight against corruption has been an endemic and half hearted one. Right now many Nigerians feel that the fact that the president has not sacked his Aviation Minister is sufficient proof that the fight against corruption has derailed totally. In effect then the Nigerian President reminds one of Frederick the Great of Russia who once told a visitor to his palace – My people and I have reached an understanding which satisfies us both. They are to say what they like and I am to do as I wish. That seems to be the attitude of the Jonathan Administration on corruption and that is a great pity indeed given its reverberating effect on the political stability and security of a great nation like Nigeria.

  • Politics versus governance

    In their raw, basic forms, politics and governance may offer something to lift your spirits. While the one basically entails influencing other people, the other essentially hints at the tangible and intangible contribution of a governing body to the welfare of the governed. At home, since they say both terms exist there, too, a father or mother may actually relish balancing the strengths of one child over the weaknesses of another, the boisterousness of one over the aloofness of the other, the nagging of a girl-child over the independence of the boy. Parents must work hard at this and succeed, not just for their own peace of mind but also the welfare of the children. At this level, politics and governance may be fun, even something to look forward to and acquit one well in. But at the level to which our politicians, sometimes also called people in government, have brought them, both terms have since become unwholesome, dirty and scary. Last year ended on such an inglorious note. And the new year is taking off on an even more troubling note as we count down to election year. Putting politics and governance side by side, I sometimes wonder which is better. Can you take one and leave out the other? They say both are inter-woven, but I ask, why do we have more politicking than governing? And why is the politicking getting more devious by the day, and governing less apparent as the clock ticks? The politics and governance of today are measured by the standards of our past heroes, and oftentimes modernday efforts fall far short of what used to be. Now, that is a tragedy. Society must progress or it retrogresses. There is no luxury of mid-point stagnation. This is because the world continues to revolve, and this is not merely a geographical fact. Ghana was once derided in this region, its people thought of merely as itinerant cloth-menders and the like. Those days are long gone. The table has since turned, and Nigerians are besieging Nkrumah country for education, for business and for a breath of fresh air. Japan once inspired little respect, thought of as that country of copycats. In time, the copycats began to come to their own, even exporting their produce, mostly electronics, to a once scornful world. The China apotheosis is much too loud and clear to warrant analysis in this space. Politics and governance in these parts fall far short of the country’s famous potential. To that extent, the world’s most populous black nation is yet to take off, and even its eventual takeoff is difficult to see. Last year ended with Nigeria’s leaders and their aides quarelling in, or over, open letters. The same year, Nigerians watched, bemused, as governors simply could not choose any of them to chair their common forum. So what did they do? They promptly split in two, with Rivers State Governor Chibuike Amaechi presiding over the majority half, and Plateau State Governor Jonah Jang settling into the smaller part. But as if that was not troubling enough, the Presidency fancied cosying up to the Jonah half, rather than the Amaechi camp, neither mending the rift nor minding the reproach it brought to the entire country and its people. Beyond party politics, there should be standards below which no society should fall. Such divisions detract and distract. They rob a country’s leaders of focus, of their debt of governance to the people. I mentioned a while ago that our national politics and governance are gauged by the standards of past leaders. The names of Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Sir Ahmadu Bello and some others are invoked by present-day politicians partly to lead us to believe that today’s men and women have not forgotten yesterday’s heroes, and partly to further claim that the new players are keeping pace with Nigeria’s genuine leaders of yore. This mindset is disgusting, in the least. First, by this token, present-day politicians and office holders create the impression that they are still under the shadows of their predecessors. This is a multiple tragedy. A child is expected to achieve more than the parents, not tell the world that the shoes of his father is too big to be filled. Our past leaders were great, but they were nowhere perfect, nor did they achieve even half of what they should have achieved. Awolowo blessed the Southwest with free education. Why shouldn’t the crop of new leaders in the region better his effort by significantly raising the quality of learning? Awo fought poverty with agriculture. Have we checked to see how many are poor and unemployed in the Southwest? Michael Opara left unforgettable infrastructure in the Southeast, in places far removed from the state capitals of today. But what is the profile of growth in the region now? How does the Igbo man fare today? The Sardauna unified the North but how united is the region after his departure. Now, if we today’s leaders cannot match yesterday’s heroes, what hope is there of even bettering past standards? The fundamentals of politics and governance are missing in this country.

  • Odua group, South West and regional integration

    Odua group, South West and regional integration

    This column makes a distinction between

    regional integration and regionalism. The

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    …Still on Governor Amosun

    “If all you were to say about Senator Ibikunle Amosun in your column of January 4 could be confirmed to be so, then other inept governors that are only performing on the pages of newspapers need to borrow a leaf or two from him. At this time of failed leadership all over the place in the country, Nigerians earnestly pray for the emergence of such development-driven leaders at all levels of our governance. Of course, just as you also pointed out, the pragmatic governor still has to watch it however. For, the saying that the darkest hour of the night is just before dawn is also valid in reverse”, Emmanuel Egwu, 08037921541.

  • Waiting for new Eagles

    Waiting for new Eagles

    Today in South Africa, the search for a new Super Eagles squad begins with Nigeria’s first game against Mali in the home-based version of the Africa Cup of Nations, otherwise known as CHAN. Less emphasis should be paid on lifting the trophy, like their senior counterparts did on February 10 in Johannesburg, when Nigeria beat Burkina Faso 1-0, courtesy Sunday Mba’s strike.

    On that night in February, Nigeria re-wrote her football history, lifting the trophy for the third time, the last it happened was 19 years ago in Tunisia, when Emmanuel Amunike scored the vital goals that earned the Eagles the trophy with a nail-biting 2-1 victory.

    Both victories came with costs, like the first time we achieved the feat in 1980. We couldn’t defend the trophy, largely because the victories were pyrrhic; not laid on any solid foundation that could guarantee the emergence of new lads to replace ageing and retired stars. It is for this reason that one is tempted to celebrate the Confederation of Africa football (CAF) for introducing the home-based version of the Africa Cup of Nations.

    In fact, Nigeria is the biggest culprit of fielding an armada of foreign-based soccer players in her senior national team. This flaw is chiefly responsible for the dearth of talents in the domestic league since the emerging stars know that the only way they can play for the country is to be tagged foreign-based. It doesn’t matter if the country is a soccer power or not. This sickening trend has thrown our best players into such obscure leagues, with many forced to do odd jobs when they retire from the game. Those very talented ones in these novelty leagues change nationality to survive.

    It is reassuring that Nigerians don’t expect much from the home-based players. Yet, this team could spring surprises akin to the Eagles’ character of rising to excel when they are underrated. This is my wish and I say so because we need to reduce the average age of the Super Eagles players from 33 years old to a manageable 27, if we hope to compete with the best at the Brazil 2014 World Cup.

    Flipping through a brochure of the 2013 Confederations Cup held in Brazil, I noticed that the average ages of the participating countries was between 21 and 24, as against Nigeria’s 33; forget about what our players have in their international passports.

    Those countries with higher number of older players had them playing for their countries for close to 18 unbroken years, starting from age grade competitions. What this connotes is that such countries have healthy developmental programmes at the grassroots, unlike ours when a player’s age is determined only after he gains national prominence.

    It is instructive to state that Nigeria will be the biggest beneficiary of this CHAN competition only if we can see the tournament as one in which we should strive to discover new talents and not win the trophy. If we win, it should be seen as a bonus and not what we truly want to achieve from participating in the competition.

    I will be excited today, if Stephen Keshi hands the task of manning the goalpost to Golden Eaglets star Alampasu. He earned his selection. Therefore, it won’t be out of place if he is fielded ahead of Chigozie Agbim, who, with due respect, has passed his prime, although it often said that goalkeepers get better with age. If Agbim is who we are preparing to replace Vincent Eneyama, then we are expecting to find a virgin in a maternity ward.

    Agbim is an old hand with domestic clubs. If he was good, he would have gone to Europe. His stagnated growth in the domestic league explains why Alampasu in goal for the Eagles against the Malian counterparts would be deserved breath of fresh air for the game here. The talk of Alampasu being too young and not having the required experience is cheap. How will he gain experience, if we don’t play him? We must shed this archival thought because Neymar was in the Brazil U-17 team that played at the Teslim Balogun Stadiun in 2009. He came in as a substitute.

    The Brazilian jersey looked like an agbada on him. But you could see from his deft touches that he had a future in the game. Need I say that he virtually gave Brazil the 2013 Confederation Cup diadem four years ago? Of course, we all saw how he dribbled Efe Ambrose during the UEFA Champions League matches between Barcleona FC of Spain and Celtic FC of Scotland. It has taken Neymar four years from 2009 to show the stuff his worth. Where are Neymar’s mates in the Golden Eaglets? Oguenyi Onazi. Please remind me of others. The Eaglets lost in the final and Brazil exited early from the competition hosted in Nigeria.

    No surprise, Eagles’ defence has been the most reliable in its campaign. One would however, want to see how well the right and left backs would play in CHAN. One hopes that the coaches know that these two positions manned by Ambrose and Elderson Echiejile need boys who can relieve them when they are injured or serving out card offences. As for the central defence, Godfrey Oboabona and Kenneth Omeruo have shown that they can stand against any opposition. CHAN gives Egwekwue the best chance to alter that defence pairing, now that Omeruo appears to be prone to injuries. I expect four new players to emerge for the World Cup squad being assembled.

    Mba’s move to France is good. It throws the door open for other midfielders to strive to convince the coach that they can make his World Cup squad. I expect Keshi to expose the creative ones among the home lads, believing that Onazi, John Mikel Obi, Victor Moses and Nnamdi Oduamadi have proven their mettle with the qualifiers.

    Super Eagles’ coaches must embrace the spirit of penitence in picking the players for the Brazil 2014 World Cup. Coach Stephen Keshi was not the fittest player when the team was picked for Nigeria’s USA’94 World Cup debut but Clemens Westerhof looked at his aggregate contributions to the team’s qualification and picked him, despite his inadequacies off the pitch. Assistant coach Daniel Amokachi made the Eagles’ squad to the France’98 World Cup not in his best form, yet Bora picked him, largely because of the same reasons stated for Keshi. Simply put, Keshi and Amokachi made the squad on compassionate grounds, even though they were awesome players. Let us see if the coaches will pick Joseph Yobo on grounds that they have benefitted from. Yobo will make the 100 caps as a Nigerian international, if that is what the coaches want to stop. They should know that the players keep referring to Yobo as their captain which mean if there is a change of guards, Yobo returns to the Eagles. Did Yakubu Aiyegbeni not play for the Eagles after many thought he was out of the squad following the awful miss at the South Africa 2010 World Cup? In Nigeria, everything is possible.

    I know that the coaches have chosen to drop Ikechukwu Uche for reasons they were guilty of as players. Uche has been accused of expressing his disappointment to the coaches on the team’s style of play and tactics. Can Keshi or/and Amokachi tell Nigerians that they didn’t disagree with their coaches as players?

    Uche is very hot in Spain’s La Liga. On Tuesday, he scored a hat-trick for Villarreal. He has been scoring goals for his team. It is about time Eagles coaches invited him. Our coaches must learn how to cope with players’ idiosyncrasies. Uche doesn’t have any record of idiocy in the Eagles; does he? It cannot start now.

    Until the emergence of Emmanuel Emenike, it was unthinkable for the Eagles to play a game without Uche. He secured Nigeria’s ticket to for the South Africa 2010 World Cup. That such a boy has been sidelined because he confronted the coaches is laughable, especially as these coaches have a large history of not just confronting coaches but NFF chiefs. The Eagles witnessed the greatest number of revolts when today’s Eagles coaches were players. Need I say here too that revolts returned to the Eagles when they became coaches?

    This writer is excited at the return of Joel Obi for Parma in the Serie A and it should be to the advantage of the Eagles, who have been in dire need of creative midfielders. The coaches can also reconsider Chinedu Obasi, who plays in the German Bundesliga. Obasi would give the coaches another window in the team’s attacking options especially on the left side. He shoots well, dribbles the ball intelligently and is a speedster.

  • Senator Ibikunle Amosun (GCIR)

    Senator Ibikunle Amosun (GCIR)

    Some years ago whenever I travelled to Abeokuta, the Ogun State capital, I often wondered what the bold inscription‘SIA’ on huge billboards on the city’s major roads of a politician with a unique native cap on his head stood for. Was SIA some strange word in ‘Ijegba’ dialect? (apologies to our own W.S.) I later learnt that SIA is the acronym for Senator Ibikunle Amosun, the man who has charted an interesting trajectory to the governorship of the Gateway State.

    I have over the years found the politics of Senator Ibikunle Amosun quite intriguing. His dexterous politics appears wrapped in a riddle, encapsulated in a puzzle and encased in an enigma. His impossible to ignore trademark cap is fashioned after that of the late Chief MKO Abiola. His personal philosophy is said to reflect the late business mogul’s philanthropic outlook. Senator Amosun’s political philosophy can be a study in a baffling eclecticism.

    Between 2003 and 2007, he was a Senator of the Federal Republic on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In 2007, he tried unsuccessfully to become Governor of Ogun State on the platform of the All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP). The failure of his ambition in 2007 turned to a phenomenal success for SIA in 2011 on the platform of the ACN. It was a story of resilience. It was a tale of tenacity. But to what purpose, the political analyst would ask?

    Was it just a case of seeking power for its own sake? Did the political platform and its ideology matter to Senator Amosun? Did he have the ideological clarity of a Dr. Kayode Fayemi or the passionate doctrinal fervour of an Engineer Rauf Aregbesola? Listening to him speak at a book launch in Lagos last year, Senator Amosun came across as a detached technocrat with a dispassionately clinical mind. Ever since his election, I have thus watched his politics and governance style carefully.

    For instance, Dr Fayemi, the highly intellectual and administratively astute governor of Ekiti State makes a strikingly insightful distinction between what he describes as the trickle down economic policies of the PDP based on the doctrinal neo-liberal mind-set of the international financial institutions that have disempowered the majority of Nigerians and the emphasis on a grassroots model of development that prioritises among others job creation, provision of social services and rapid infrastructure characteristic of progressive parties.

    In his own personal political credo, Senator Amosun though stresses his social welfarist credentials but places premium on the pivotal role of the private sector in driving development while government has “the responsibility to provide the enabling environment to achieve sustainable economic growth and social development”.

    Two and a half years after his assumption of office, anyone who visits Ogun State can readily see that Amosun’s progressive credentials and compassionate social conscience are beyond dispute. You must see to believe. Something stupendous in terms of developmental strides is happening across Ogun State under Amosun. Yes, there is an on-going developmental renaissance throughout the South West including Edo State. But Amosun’s frenetic transformation in Ogun is phenomenal. The man means business!

    Amosun has so much to show in every area of his 5-point Agenda – Mission to Rebuild Ogun State. These are Affordable and Qualitative Education, Efficient Health Care Delivery, Agricultural Production and Industrialisation, Affordable Housing and Urban Renewal as well as Rural and Infrastructural Development/Employment Generation. But it is in the sphere of infrastructure renewal and expansion, particularly what I call the roads revolution that Amosun has scored an amazing distinction thus far.

    When some months ago I visited Abeokuta, I was initially irritated at the serious traffic snarls on many roads. It was later I discovered that this was due largely to the sheer magnitude of road construction going on throughout the city. In Amosun’s first year, he had delivered the magnificent Ita-Eko-Sokori-Totoro road and flyover at Ibara Roundabout in Abeokuta, the first of its kind in the state.

    To usher in this year, the Amosun administration organised an all- night event under the newly constructed Ijebu-Ode flyover. On the occasion, the Governor assured the people of Ijebu-Ode that all the over-head bridges under construction in the area will be completed before the third anniversary of his administration.

    Some of the massive road construction works being under taken by the Amosun administration include Sagamu-Benin Express Junction – Sabo Road (8km); IloAwela – Ota township roads (10km); OGTV –Brewery Junction road in Abeokuta (9km); Moshood Abiola Way, Abeokuta (6km); Ilara-Ijoun-Eggua-Ilasse road (107km); Mowe-Ofada-Ibafo road (29km); Lafenwa-Ayetoro road (50 km); Ejinrin-Oluwalogbon junction, Ijebu Ode (9km); Magboro Estate-Magboro Underpass, Isheri (12km); Moriamo Olorombo road, Abeokuta (9km); Ojere-Asero road, Abeokuta (9km); Abiola Way Junction-Muda Lawal Stadium road (2.5km); Sango-Ijoko-Akute-OjoduAbiodun road (32km) and the Isheri-Channels road (2.2km).

    Is it any wonder then that speaking on December 24, 2013, during the Ogun State Christmas Carol at the June 12 Cultural Centre in Abeokuta former President Olusegun Obasanjo had lavish words of commendation for the Amosun administration? According to the no-nonsense former President “Things are getting better everyday, getting better every time in Ogun. When I was talking of roads in Abeokuta, they said I haven’t been to Ijebu Ode and Sagamu. On getting to Ijebu Ode, I even saw if not better bridges than that of Abeokuta being constructed. What about the ones in Ilara and Ayetoro?…When I passed through Sango-Abeokuta road, I asked who is building this factory, but it is a school being built by the government”.

    Well, that is the testimony of none other than OBJ. of course, there are serious challenges attendant on the kind of massive development being undertaken by Amosun. First is the possibility of resource over-stretch, which may lead to cash-strapped projects being abandoned midway. But then Amosun is himself a Chartered Accountant and astute financial engineer. He also has a highly competent team that should be able to get its planning right. Again, this level of roads construction and expansion will necessarily entail large scale demolition of obstructive structures with unsavoury political consequences. The Amosun administration must have the political acumen to manage this challenge with dexterity and subtlety.

     Furthermore, when an administration expends so much resources on developmental projects, it will necessarily have less to expend on the wants and needs of the political class. Yet, these are the political foot soldiers so critical to winning elections. This is perhaps why Amosun has shown personal example by reducing the salaries of political office holders. Yet, he must have the political wisdom to maintain a delicate balance between a passion for technocratic change and the sensitivities of the political class that worked for his election and are critical to his electoral future.

    On the basis of the foregoing, this column takes the liberty of conferring on SIA the honour: Grand Commander of Infrastructure Renewal (GCIR). But a word of caution is not out of place. It is not how well you start that matters, but how well you finish. Amosun’s immediate predecessor, Otunba Gbenga Daniel, started brilliantly but ended with a legacy in ruins. Amosun may listen but must stubbornly refuse to dance to the seductive but destructive music of sycophants. For SIA, the GCIR, it is surely morning yet on creation day.