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Category: Saturday

  • Thoughts on the Student Loans Act (2)

    Thoughts on the Student Loans Act (2)

    There is then the question of what if the student beneficiary of such a loan is more interested in beginning a startup immediately after his “passing out” from the NYSC? How will the authorities seek to ascertain what he actually earns? Will the 10 percent monthly deduction also work out in this scenario? Now, given the numerous challenges experienced by startups and in this country where startup failures are at the gloomy range of 61 percent, how then will the government ensure a seamless recovery of such loans? I hope Asiwaju’s policy advisers have really thought this through.

    Lastly, there is also the story in the air that the government intends to hike tuition fees, matter of fact, a number of state and federal universities have since the coming of the Student Loan Act have increased their fees by 100, 200 and 300% respectively with many pundits linking the ugly increases to the signing of the bill!  There is the notion also that the Tinubu administration is tilting towards granting autonomy towards the Nigerian university system, after all he had made such a promise in one of his campaign hustings. Perhaps the university system is reacting to the president’s body language since it is alleged that most governments no longer subsidize their university education system once there is the option of student loans.

    Schools like the University of Benin, my Alma Mater did announce a 100% tuition fee increment following the signing of the Student Loan Act by President Bola Tinubu. Under the administration of Professor Lilian Salami, students from the sciences will cough out

    N190,000  as against N73,000  paid last year. For the non sciences the fees will shoot up to N170,000 against N69,000.

    If these fee increments from the University of Benin are heartbreaking then that of the Ambrose Alli University,AAU in Ekpoma, Edo State, a state government institution is enough to stir up a series of revolts until some of these University administrators are disgraced out of office. How in God’s name is such an administrator who on a daily basis experiences the hardships faced on a per minute basis  expect a student who once paid 185,000 to now pay the sum of N741,500 as while medical students would be paying N638,000 as against N216,000 because of the increment? This is ludicrous and it seems that those in charge of these universities, persons who benefited from subsidized, if not free education no longer want the children of the poor and even the middle class to attain a university education in Nigeria.

    Read Also: Thoughts on the Student Loans Act (1)

    I am then forced to suggest that if the Student Loan Act is  a precursor to the sordid conspiracy to keep millions of Nigerians out of school then it has only succeeded in worsening the nation’s present predicament  and here’s why! While there is no cap on the amount a student can access , does it now make any sense for a student to access a loan to see him or herself through school while those who are not entitled to such loans now have to pay more! It’s like robbing both Audu and Daudu and defeats the purpose of the Act which is access to tertiary education. Remember, those who can access the loan are those who can prove that their family income per annum is less than 500,000 , now how can a family who’s annual income is say about 1,000,000 meet up with payments into a school like Ambrose Alli, where a law student is expected to pay over half a million for a session, this is like the situation where one is between the devil and the deep blue sea. Now, I know that serial optimists and Sugar  Candy Mountain advocates will attack such a thinking and suggest that there are other universities for which the candidate can apply to, definitely but have these optimists noted   the fact that there would be a marked increase in the number of candidates vying for university spaces?

    Again, given the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the Naira both policies in the short term will bring  to bear heightened inflationary pressures, thus reducing the spending power of even families with over 500,000. Couple this with the increases in tertiary education fees and we will be courting more problems than we are presently attempting to fixing.

    In concluding, the Student Loan Act on its own remains a viable policy and  should help resolve the challenges of those who are indeed presently incapable of attaining such on their own. However, it must fix the many challenges set out in these twofold series as well as do away with the issue of university autonomy for the time being and the sharp increases in tuition fees, since both would be akin to scoring a goal and an own goal at the same time .

  • Professor Peter Ekeh, historical insights and political development in Nigeria (1)

    Professor Peter Ekeh, historical insights and political development in Nigeria (1)

    When he went the way of mortal flesh on November 19, 2020, Professor Peter Palmer Ekeh, the Urhobo-born eminent Nigerian political sociologist, had inscribed his indelible imprints on the shores of time as one of Africa’s most profound and insightful thinkers. Virtually all the innumerable tributes to him from his intellectual contemporaries and mentees across the globe made specific reference to his 1975 seminal article, “Colonialism and the Two Publics in Africa: A Theoretical Statement” described by Wikipedia as “one of the most cited works in the field of African political and sociological studies in several universities all over the world”.

    Ekeh, who taught in leading universities in Africa, Europe, Asia and the United States, was the pre-eminent figure in the Department of Political Science at the University of Ibadan between the late 70s and 1988 after the death of the towering Professor Billy Dudley in 1980. His insights into the hazardous moral consequences of what he perceived as the bifurcation of the public sphere in Africa into the primordial and civic realms, each animated by conflicting value systems, as a result of the colonial intrusion are still relevant to discourses on state legitimation, corruption, citizenship and alienation on the continent.

    Professor Ekeh’s most enduring contributions to the understanding of state and society in Africa derive essentially from his focus on colonialism and its pervasive implications for the continent. He analyzed colonialism’s impact on Africa in epochal rather than merely episodic terms as assumed by certain schools of historical scholarship. Those who argue that we cannot continue to blame colonialism for the continuing dysfunction and underdevelopment of Africa over six decades after political independence forget that the colonial fingermarks are so deeply ingrained in our mental and psychological structures and processes sustaining an intellectual dependency that is at the root of our protracted backwardness.

    The dismantling of the manifest political structures of colonialism is not enough avers the radical Kenyan writer, Ngugi Wa Thiongo. He advocates for what he describes as a fundamental decolonization of the African mind. The more insidious and subtle corrosive effects of the persistence of a neo-colonial intellectual mindset and framework behind the veil of farcical, nominal political independence has been rigorously interrogated by such progressive scholars as Walter Rodney, Frantz Fanon, Claude Ake and Okwudiba Nnoli among others.

    Last week, I came across to my great delight, a paper published by Professor Ekeh at the State University of New York, Buffalo, where he was Chairman of the Department of African American Studies until 2014. Titled “Nigerian Political History and the Foundations of Nigerian Federalism”, obviously published in the early years of this political dispensation which commenced in 1999, the paper vividly illustrates why it is difficult to make sense of the challenges of politics and governance in contemporary Nigeria without a deep appreciation of the governance traditions, processes and structures of our precolonial, indigenous past and the consequent corrosive effects on them of the colonial encounter.

    As Ekeh asserts in the paper, “One of the most unappreciated aspects of colonialism was its intellectual and ideological barrier between us and our past traditions. For instance, there was in the colonial firmament an obstruction between us and our past traditions of governance. Colonialism magnified its own presence and rendered insignificant the epochs, including traditions of governance, that were abroad in the West African before the Arab and European slave trades devastated our lands from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century especially, and before the onset of slave trade’s historic successor, European imperialism”.

    Read Also: Cleric rains curses on killers of UI Professor, Ajewole

    In his analysis of governance traditions in West Africa with specific emphasis on the territory today demarcated as Nigeria, Ekeh focuses on the Songhai Empire which thrived between the 15th and 16th centuries. Wikipedia writes that “At its peak, Songhai was one of the largest African empires in history. The state is known by its historiographical name, derived from its largest ethnic group and ruling elite, the Songhai people. Sonni Ali established Gao as the empire’s capital although a Songhai state had existed in and around Gao since the 11th century “.

    Ekeh stresses that the Songhai empire is not as historically and spatially distant to the pre-colonial communities that constitute post-colonial Nigeria as ‘imperial manners of scholarship’ suggest. Beginning from 1513, he notes, Songhai invaded and ruled several Hausa states which she perceived as having become unstable and posing a threat to the peace and viability of the region. Given its strength, Songhai was able to manage the affairs of these territories effectively while protecting the region from undesired foreign influences. There was, however, considerable Arab displeasure with Songhai influence in the Hausa states even though the Arabs had not felt threatened by the less extensive earlier Ghana and Mali empires. Ekeh cites the writings of an Arab scholar and traveller, Leo African us, as evidence of the prevalent Arab resentment against Songhai.

    After visiting Kano and other Hausa territories in the 1520s, Leo African us wrote, “King Askia of Songhai sent governors hither who mightily oppressed and impoverished the Hausa people that were before rich; and the inhabitants were carried captive and kept as slaves by him”. For Ekeh, such unjustifiably harsh condemnation of Songhai rule only reflected Arab antagonistic intentions towards the powerful black Songhai state. Thus, he writes, “Less than seventy years later, Morocco, the most aggressive of the Arab states in the Maghreb, invaded Songhai in 1591, sacking its political system and leaving behind chaos and mayhem. That was the beginning of the fall of the great traditions of politics in our region. The year 1591 is a crucial demarcation date in our political history”.

    But why does Ekeh come to this conclusion? He cites his reasons. First, the states that emerged in the region after Songhai’s fall lacked the latter’s territorial expansiveness, economic viability and relative coercive might. Second, these post-Songhai states and empires were rendered dependent on the benevolence and patronage of foreign powers. In the understandably desperate bid of these successor entities to retain their sovereignty and autonomy no matter how circumscribed by the new realities, they subordinated their governance practices and principles to Arab,and later, European overlords.

    According to Ekeh, “Those, like the Hausa states and Benin, that stayed close to their indigenous traditions of governance lost out. But many states and empires began their existence in the period after Songhai’s fall. These newer emergent political entities were mostly bereft of the great traditions that informed governance in the West African region before the collapse of Songhai. Most of these owed their allegiances to alien Arab and European powers and to foreign values of governance”. Professor Ekeh’s analysis lays bare the foundations of the disconnect between governance and leadership systems in pre-colonial Africa and the contemporary post colonial nation states described by the late historian, Basil Davidson, as a curse and burden because they are anchored on alien, imported modes of governance that, decades after formal colonialism, do not appear adaptable to the African environment.

  • Walking into trouble

    Walking into trouble

    I’ve no relationship with the NFF which would require my advice, especially if my help isn’t sought. In fact, I’m not a busybody. The reason I talk or write about the beautiful game or talk about it is because it is the King of sports. I also earn a living talking and/or writing sports. Nigerians across the board follow the trends passionately such that I enjoy travelling which gives me the privilege to be educated by soccer fans who identify me in the course of such trips. You will be shocked by the depth of knowledge these concerned Nigerians have about the domestic league.  Forget such backward thoughts that Nigerians are Eurocentric because they have been exposed to watching a lot of European games. Who won’t considering the level of excitement you experience in the course of matches?  Who won’t sit back to listen to experts’ perceptions about the controversial decisions emanating from debates over referees’ decisions? After all, they are human.

    Most times, the fury from most critics arises from watching replays of such worrisome scenes of decisions are the fallouts of replays in slow motion. I pity the match officials. This doesn’t mean that there are some mistakes committed by referees. Some of them are avoidable, others are human errors which can be excused while some of such decisions expose the gross incompetence of the referees in question. Of course, those in the last group should be punished adequately as provided for in the rules book. An outright ban from handling games serves as a deterrent to others who may want to emulate them.

    Referees don’t have such a luxury as they require a split second to make decisions which could make or mar any game. But the punishment meted on the erring referees has improved the quality of refereeing across the five continents for the good of the game, which incidentally is FIFA’s mantra. It is equally good to mention the introduction and usage of the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) machine which has helped to reduce the errors in officiating, though there have also been question marks associated with some of VAR’s judgment. These mistakes are exactly the fault of the machine. After all, VAR is operated by a human being. It is was is fed to the machine it interprets to arrive at all its decisions.

    FIFA has used most of its competitions across ages and genders to correct flaws noticed to improve all the rudiments of the game. These changes make the matches very exciting to watch. FIFA has also taken the pain to train all the accompanying officials of the teams expected to participate in the Women’s World Cup slated to hold in Australia and New Zealand from July 20 to August 20. Not so for the board members of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). With these people, it is one day, one trouble. The Women’s World Cup begins in 19 days, and Nigeria’s representatives, the Super Falcons, have barely 16 days to prepare for their first game against Australia.

    Serious soccer bodies who would be at the competition began their preparations at the last edition four years ago. They only heightened their plans after grabbing the individual qualification tickets, including knowing who their group opponents are. In between these preparation periods, real title contenders have played highly competitive friendly games and have used several training sessions to correct flaws noticed in their teams before another friendly game. Clearly, the Super Falcons are at the Women’s World Cup unprepared with the NFF chieftains waiting for manna to fall from Heaven. Never! The Super Falcons would reap what they have sewn when the matches begin on July 20.

    This is how the NFF walk themselves into trouble. Interestingly, the NFF President has been sincere in his handling of Nigeria’s football hiccups by admitting that the federation is broke. NFF is enmeshed in huge debts, the federation’s chief has said. Happily, the teams have sympathised with his predicaments and have gone ahead to give their best performance in the interest of the nation. Though such efforts haven’t been in sync with the country’s previous outings in these competitions, we know why we failed. The World Cup hasn’t begun, Super Falcons have begun walking into trouble.

    We, therefore, know where the faults are when the goals begin to pour into our nets in torrents. This isn’t this writer’s wish for the Falcons. The truth is that the team is ill-prepared. The fact is that Nigeria participates in too many competitions whose funding is in foreign currencies. Indeed, Nigeria has close to 15 national teams encompassing age grades and the two genders whose expenditures are in foreign currencies, not limited to the dollar.

    The reasons these players put behind them their sorrows to play for Nigeria are that they see these international platforms as their biggest chances to get better and bigger clubs where they can improve on their styles of play culminating in improved earnings. Some of the figures around their salaries and other allowances are mind-boggling and in hard currencies. But, how do you explain this situation where the NFF board members sat in one of the federation’s executive meetings and decided to employ Portuguese tactician Jose Peseiro and reviewed his wages upwards from the initial $50,000 monthly to $70,000? Yet, in seeking to terminate Peseiro’s contract, the President has said that Nigerians would decide whether the federation should sack its employee. Isn’t it a veritable way of walking into trouble?

    Isn’t the federation’s President aware that Peseiro has a duly signed contract with Nigeria which NFF represents in a contractual agreement to coach Nigeria’s Super Eagles for an agreed period of time? Isn’t the NFF President aware that Peseiro’s contract was reviewed upward? Where are those who sat in the two meetings when these changes were done? Can Nigerians partake in this decision-making task of sacking Peseiro when their views weren’t sought before he was employed, in the first instance? Is there not a portion in the contract stating clearly how Peseiro’s services can be dispensed with?

    Now that Peseiro’s contract has lapsed, shouldn’t NFF President invite him to Abuja, pay his outstanding wages and allowances and walk away from the office happy to terminate a contract whose averages from matches were awful? The ceremonies around Peseiro’s stay on the Nigeria job suggest that there may be no formal contract. I don’t want to believe it because NFF’s legal department men are very cerebral and can’t be brow-beaten to compromise their high standards. Barrister Obi is top-class.

    NFF should stop playing politics with the Peseiro drama. These are difficult times. Paying a coach $70,000 monthly is wasteful, especially for a man who barely lives with us to do his job. Asking Peseiro to quit the job is the best option. It leaves NFF with the option of sourcing for money to pay him off than to continue raising the debt profile every day he remains Nigeria’s coach.

    Super Eagles should be able to beat Sao Tome anywhere in the country with our domestic league coaches. Besides, the Sao Tome tie should flag off the Super Eagles’ quest for a qualification ticket to the next World Cup in 2026.

  • Thoughts on the Student Loans Act (1)

    Thoughts on the Student Loans Act (1)

    I have always argued for free education for the average Nigerian citizen or something close to it. I am of the opinion that the Nation can afford such, from primary to tertiary. Thankfully in what somewhat looked like a Democracy Day gift from the new President, The Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2023 A bill for an Act to repeal the Nigerian Education Bank Act Cap. N104, Laws of the Federation of Nigeria, 2004 and enact the Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act, 2023 to provide easy access to higher education for indigent Nigerians through interest free loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund established in this Act with a view to providing education for all Nigerians was assented to.

    The Access to Higher Education Act , 2023 is indeed the nation’s answer to the poor number of Nigerians seeking tertiary education. For years, millions of Nigerians have been denied access to such education owing to the huge cost in fees for tuition and other sundry payments. Not even the Work Study Programmes or the introduction of scholarships or bursaries have helped much as numbers have reportedly dropped out from their studies, others have adopted survival methods to see themselves through school with its attendant consequences.

    In this situation and subject to the provisions of any other enactment, all students seeking higher education in any public institution of higher learning in Nigeria shall have equal right to access the loans under this Act without any discrimination arising from gender, religion, tribe, position or disability of any kind.

    Funds will be garnered from

    1% of revenue by Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS), Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), and 1% of profits on all oil and mineral accruals to the state and then onwards to the  Nigerian Education Loan Fund, which will be managed by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    According to the Act, the loan will be available to indigent students who can prove that their family income is less than N500,000 per year with two guarantors: a civil servant with 12 or more years in the service and a lawyer who is at least 10 years post-call. The loan will be interest free and payable two years after completing their mandatory National Youth Service Corps, NYSC.

    The Act says employers shall deduct 10% of the loan beneficiaries salary, which means it ought to have received full payment in a space two years for a gainfully employed beneficiary .

    Again,let me commend President Tinubu for signing such into law, however I have a few grouses with the Act itself and they run as follows.

    First, why should the Act cover tuition only which is but a part of university education today? Whereas the are other aspects such as accommodation and textbooks which are also critical if one must boast of acquiring qualitative tertiary education. Or what benefit is it to have access to tuition without access to the required text books? Or what is tertiary education without access to decent accommodation which is indeed scarce in our present day universities, forcing a number of students to look to the Town for decent spaces at cut throat prices! Except the Tinubu administration is seeking to graduate guerrillas instead of graduates, then there is need to include accommodation in such a gesture to ensure that these students are not encumbered with such challenges in their periods of study.

    Again, one wonders how the government intends to determine which family earns less than N500,000 in order to benefit from such a loan? This is given the fact that the nation lacks effective poverty mapping or its database from which one can determine that Children of ‘Aluu Meluu Okoye ‘are entitled to such loans and not the children of the rich or the middle class. We witnessed this in the distribution of President Buhari’s N5,000 and other poverty targeted programmes where many who had no business in such a programme were termed beneficiaries! Again, what will happen should the student beneficiary drop out say after his first year and is much unable to complete his degree programme and thus proceed for the NYSC from which the loan ought to be deducted back from? This could mean that such loans may become bad debts and could run also into billions of Naira in a very short time. How does the Federal Government intend to mitigate against such situations?

    Lastly, Section 14 of such an Act restricts access to the Loan to Students who have secured admission into Nigerian universities, polytechnics, college of education or any vocational school established by the federal government or the government of any state of the federation. What this means is that students of private universities are originally excluded from obtaining such loans! One then asks are there no indigent students in private universities? Why should they be discriminated against because of their preference for a private university?

  • Behind Dapo Abiodun, Gbenga Daniel’s quiet war

    Behind Dapo Abiodun, Gbenga Daniel’s quiet war

    The quiet but bruising war between Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, and the Senator representing Ogun East, Gbenga Daniel, has finally blown open with accusations and counter-accusations from the camps of the two politicians, each claiming that the other worked against Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s interest at one point of his presidential aspiration or the other.

    The first salvo had been fired by Daniel who accused Abiodun of working against Tinubu in the latter’s battle for the keenly contested ticket of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the build-up to the February 25 election eventually won by Tinubu. The governor, for his part, accused Daniel of working against Tinubu in the election, pitching his tent with the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.

    There was indeed an unsubstantiated allegation by Abiodun’s camp that Daniel collected a sum ranging between N500 million and N1 billion from the candidate of PDP in Ogun State in the last governorship election, Ladi Adebutu, to support the latter’s governorship aspiration as well as the aspiration of Atiku.  Adebutu defeated Abiodun in Ogun East Senatorial District during the March 18 governorship election because Daniel allegedly switched camp.

    Somebody in the senator’s camp rubbished the claim, saying that the former governor was too principled to betray his associates. He also said he was not a politician that can be bought with money.

    Yesterday, Adebutu joined the fray. In an advert in a national newspaper, he lambasted Abiodun, accusing him of poor performance, especially in Ogun East Senatorial District, where the trio (himself, Daniel and Abiodun) hail from. He said the poor performance, rather than the alleged betrayal of Daniel, was responsible for the rejection of the governor in the district at the governorship election.

    While the veracity of the accusations and counter-accusations between the two camps remains a matter of conjecture, there is an audio recording in Sentry’s possession that tends to portray one of the parties as lying.

    Sentry gathered that at the bottom of the rivalry between Abiodun and Daniel is the Ogun East senatorial ticket of the APC in 2027. Both men are believed to be eyeing the prize and are not willing to leave anything to chance in this regard.

    Daniel is said to have seen Abiodun as a veritable threat to his chance of a second term in the Senate when his current tenure runs out in 2027, while the governor is also said to have his eyes firmly fixed on the ticket with his second term also due to lapse in that year.

    But while Daniel is working to nip Abiodun’s aspiration in the bud, knowing that the governor had previously contested the seat in 2015 and failed, Abiodun is also said not to be ready to give up his plan for a stint in the Senate after completing his second term as Ogun State governor.

    There lies the crux of the quiet but bitter feud that has been raging between the two political rivals.

  • Magic bullets

    Magic bullets

    THE name-dropping carnival has begun following the disclosure that Portuguese manager Jose Peseiro’s contract with Nigeria as Super Eagles Head Coach would run its full course at the end of June this year. Some of the names being bandied have been sacked severally due to poor results. Others include those who have coached Nigerian teams in the past when they were much younger. Why some pundits, opinion moulders and soccer faithful have chosen to trouble grandfathers to return to the pitch and be owed several months’ wages remain a puzzle.

    How on earth do you engage the vehicle in reverse gear and expect it to move forward? This scenario captures the folly within the country’s soccer administration which has been oscillating among lackeys of the government. What would be apparent by June 30 would be that Nigeria won’t have a coach in the team till two weeks before the game in September. Of course, our soccer chieftains can afford to rest on their oars knowing that Nigeria’s next game against Sao Tome is a dead-pan encounter. The unholy suggestion by NFF board members for Peseiro to take a pay cut on his $70,000 monthly wages would have been unnecessary had they taken the pain to study the Portuguese coaching records with the previous countries into the reckoning. If the NFF eggheads had studied Peseiro’s feats with Saudi Arabia and later Venezuela, where he won one game, drew three and lost six matches in ten matches played, Nigeria wouldn’t have had the misfortune of wasting such considerable sums in hard currency on the Portuguese. Indeed, in 10 games as Super Eagles Head Coach, he won five, drew none but lost five matches. Is there any difference in the trend Peseiro has against his name during his tenure as Venezuela’s coach?

    Already, Peseiro has told those who care to listen that he won’t invite any new player into the squad which struggled to beat Sierra Leone 3-2 at the SKD Stadium in Monrovia last Sunday. He also stated categorically in one of the post-match interviews that NFF must improve their welfare packages to the players. Hmmm! Peseiro has become like Nigerian politicians who hold on to straw to entrench themselves in power even when the roof has caved into their heads. Isn’t something wrong with students choosing their teachers to set and mark their examination papers? I wouldn’t be shocked if Peseiro take a huge pay cut knowing the windows available to him should Nigeria lift the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations as it is called by its organisers CAF.

    But the Portuguese coach is only playing a mind game with the NFF by agitating for improved players’ welfare. It is a veiled game plan by Peseiro to cover for his lacklustre or rather, below-par performance on the Super Eagles’ job. Even a local coach in our league would not have done badly on the job like Peseiro given the array of players available to the country. We have seen local coaches perform better during the period of handling the Super Eagles. This was even at a time their conditions of service were very appalling compared to what the NFF paid foreign coaches.

    Without disrespecting foreign coaches, I make bold to say that no European country will “export” its top-rated coaches to Africa to handle any national team. Need I emphasise that this is why Nigeria has not been able to attract any top-rated European coach for her national team? I leave this to the NFF and to you, dear readers, to interpret.

    Even on match days, Peseiro’s outfit doesn’t inspire confidence. Honestly, his scruffy attire mirrors how the Super Eagles play against opponents. Perhaps, the reason why the team struggles against minnows such as Sierra Leone. Despite handling the Eagles through ten matches, people have been left pondering over the team’s style of play. It was apparent when the Eagles would be playing with Victor Osimhen as the arrowhead of the team’s attacking onslaughts. Of course, Osimhen’s first goal underlined his exceptional brilliance in knowing whether goalkeepers are well-positioned or not.

    Osimhen sighted the Leone stars’ goalkeeper off his line and craftily lifted the ball over his head into a gaping net. Osimhen’s second goal was equally good making his every touch one to be matched by a gritty tackle from his Sierra Leonean marker. Once during the game, Osimhen lay on the turf to get medical treatment. It dawned on Osimhen after the medical attention that he had to wear his face mask. With Sierra Leoneans unsparing with Osimhen, other players were bereft of the tactical style to adopt to at least keep the score line at 2-0 at halftime.

    Read Also: Osihmen’s brace earns Super Eagles AFCON ticket against Sierra Leone

    Against the run of play, a Sierra Leonean striker outran ageing Kenneth  Omeruo to beat an already slow-to-react goalkeeper Adebayo, a debutant for Nigeria. If Omeruo needed any reminder that his best years with the Super Eagles were over, Sunday’s experience at the SKD Stadium in Monrovia with the Leone stars attacker was the best incident for him to reflect and take the most honourable path by retiring from the national team assignments. This defender was so poor that he was shown a yellow card for his late tackle and would have been shown the red. Perhaps, Omeruo’s captaincy may have convinced the referee to look the other way. Omeruo’s performance raised the debate over the criteria for picking players for Nigeria’s international matches. For instance, players such as Joe Aribo were not too active in the Premier League playing for Southampton this last season. Wilfred Ndidi ‘s game was awful no thanks to his repeated injuries throughout the 2023 European soccer season. One wonders why he was given a starting lineup shirt in such a key role as the midfield. Nigeria’s midfield against Sierra Leone was lacking in character with those assigned to man the area on the field not knowing what to do. Did I hear you, dear reader ask where was Peseiro?

    Peseiro was clueless as he watched in awe while the Sierra Leoneans rallied back from a two-goal to tie the game at 2-2 in the second half much to the consternation of Nigerians at home who kept switching from one television channel or the other looking for clear signals to watch an uninterrupted transmission of the game. An evaluation of the Eagles which played in Monrovia would be incomplete without asking Peseiro why he wasted ten days watching the domestic league matches without picking one player. Even if such a player was selected as the team’s mascot.

    NFF men shouldn’t be under any delusion o think that keeping Peseiro would improve the game at the domestic level. The Portuguese always wants to err on the side of caution hence his seeming reliance on Europe-based even if they opted to play with a walking stick – that is FIFA would permit such. I’ve read NFF’s communiqué from the board meeting held in Asaba on Tuesday with no comments on Peseiro or the termination of his contract. If one is to hazard a guess what this stoic silence translates to, it simply means that Peseiro would coach Nigeria at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations slated to hold in Ivory Coast.

    Is this the best solution to our problems? Certainly not.  NFF chieftains are waiting for the magic bullets. Our football administrators are merchants of quick fixes.  Why these men have failed to change their style of running of who they are – buck-passing experts who blame everyone else but themselves?

  • Democracy, women leaders and political tokenism

    Democracy, women leaders and political tokenism

    The inauguration of  legislative assemblies in the states and at the federal level has been completed.  The data is in and it shows that less Nigerian women were elected into the legislature at all levels. Of the 1,019 women that contested for seats during the 2023 elections, only 48 won the elections, a ratio of 4.7%. Even though the number increased from 45 in 2019 to 48 in 2023, the increase is almost insignificant.

    It is very disappointing to note that as many as 14 states in Nigeria has no female elected into the legislature. Ekiti and Rivers states lead the pack with 6 out of 26 and 32 legislative seats respectively won by women, Kwara has 5 out of 24, Akwa Ibom has 4 out of 26, Ondo has 3 out of 26, Lagos has 4 out of 40, Bayelsa, Cross River, Ebonyi, Edo, Enugu, Kogi, Ogun, Plateau, Taraba, Delta, Benue and Oyo each has 2 out of an average of 2 dozen seats. Adamawa, Nasarawa, Anambra and Kaduna states each has just one female elected to the legislature.

    As if that is not bad enough, Abia, Bornu, Gombe, Imo, Jigawa, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Niger, Osun, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara states have no single woman at both the state and federal legislature. At the apex legislative body, the National Assembly, it is equally a sad not for the Nigerian women. In fact, the number of women reduced by 19% from what it was in 2019. Nigeria has moved back from 7 female senators at the 9th assembly to a mere 3% at the 10th assembly  and just 4% in the House of Representatives.

    The Roundtable Conversation saw this aberration in Nigeria’s politics as a disaster foretold. In a 21st century Nigeria, everyone should be worried that there is serious exclusion in the political space.  But sadly, the problem was not manufactured on election day. There is a systemic dysfunction in the political processes and sadly, many people prefer to analyze the outcomes of wrong-headed electoral processes that surreptitiously exclude women like poverty and underdevelopment rather than holistically addressing the core issues. Many global institutions and financial experts have continually warned developing countries on the consequences of political exclusion of women that constitute almost half of the population in most cases.

    Nigeria is beset by a plethora of developmental problems and with 133million citizens in multi-dimensional poverty and counting, it is obvious that the political elite are not considering the value of inclusion in an era that has produced more educated, brilliant and well-informed women.  In 63 years, no woman has been elected President, Vice-President, Governor, Senate President or Deputy Senate President. The number of women elected to the legislature continues to dwindle with almost every election.

    The legislature across the country has just elected its principal officers. The leadership of both the Senate and House of Representatives are all men.  At the political party caucuses,  we are yet to see the outcome for the house leaderships at the individual chamber levels but not much might come in favour of the few women there. It might just be the usual tokenism.

    The implication of the almost muted voices of the women across the legislative houses is that the voice of women would not be heard loud and clear. For the states that do not have even a single woman in the house of assembly, the implications are dire. The women in those states virtually have no impute in the law making in what ought to be a representative democracy.  The question then is, how can issues that affect women be discussed favorably without most that wear the shoe being represented on the table?

    Sadly, we might be forced to clink the cymbals to celebrate Ekiti, and Rivers with 6 women elected or a Kwara with 5 women but they still are all below 25% of available seats. Democracy is about numbers and as such, the women when it comes to voice votes are already on the losing statistics. Can this be democracy of the finest hue?

    Women are the hands that rock the cradle, they are the engine room of the non-formal sector that contribute hugely to the GDP. Their absence on the political table continues to manifest in the development indices but who cares?

    Read Also: Editors restate commitment to defence of democracy, press freedom

    But the road to gender exclusion on the political field is paved by many people.  The political parties are complicit and it is not just in the abstract. Men have a monopoly of party leadership, they have the exclusive access to the finances as the operations of parties are often very opaque and even though there seem to exist some laws guarding party finances, it is often obeyed in the breach.

    Beyond the socio-religious inhibitions that impact women, the political party structures often do not give women any chance. There are still seen and unseen and undocumented financial issues that influence party leaderships and when women are shoved aside, the men have a field day determining who amongst them emerge as candidates and no one wins election without first being a candidate.

    While we can blame the men, most of the female party members have not worked very hard to see the equity needed in Nigerian politics.

    There is the innocuous ‘Women Leaders’ position in all political parties. The office seems to be the greatest disservice to women in the country. There has been little impact by the so-called women wings to change the narrative. The Roundtable Conversation had consistently urged the women party members to fight for equity at the political leadership level but it does seem they feel very satisfied with a very passive position that only gets activated when they want to fight for men to win elections. The question is, why should the women politicians accept some ‘Women Wings’ when there is no ‘Men’s Wing’? That is an automatic acceptance of a second class position in the parties.

    Since the return of democracy in 1999, the Women Leaders seem to have progressively accepted being mere appendages unable to truly fight for their positions in Nigeria’s democracy.  Granted that there are circumstantial obstructions to the achievement of equity in the political field including but not limited to finance and violence, the Roundtable  Conversation believes that given how women have excelled in fields where merit is the criteria like in the corporate world, entertainment, the academia and sports, the women in politics ought to push further for more women to have seats at the table.

    It is not enough that these women coerce women voters who are often in the majority to vote for their men but for them to vie for more influential party leadership positions so as to read the riot acts to their political parties if need be. It is a bit disappointing that the ‘Women Leaders’ often fail to rein in their parties when it comes to policies and passing laws that would make Nigerian politics more inclusive. The recent rejection of five gender equity bills at the national assembly ought to have been an issue the Women Leaders ought to have taken more seriously.

    No change can happen without changes to the existing laws through constitutional ammendments. The women leaders ought to look beyond sewing uniforms, organizing hapless rural women for campaigns and dancing to holding their parties to uphold certain fundamental truths that can lead to equity in the political space.

    The Women Leaders seem to lend their support to the recalcitrant attitude of their party members who go to the legislative houses and turn a blind eye to laws that can engender equity. We can all blame the men in politics but as things stand the women leaders and the successive Women Affairs ministers keep behaving like some lame ducks.  Only action produces results. The women need to make more demands and reject tokenism.

    It will be delusional for the women who accept mainly the lowly roles of  ‘Women Leaders’ at party conventions to assume that women would one day win the lottery without buying a ticket. The first thing is to start to reject that position. If there are no Men wings, why should there be Women Wings of political parties. Women must stand up to be counted or continue to be locked out of the political space.

    The poverty index shows that women are more impacted by poverty.

    Across the world, politics have changed. The field is getting more inclusive and it is a known fact that countries with the fewer empowered women often rank low in development. The women in Nigerian politics must demand equity and stop being beggarly over their rights. One begins to wonder what could have been achieved without the advocacies of the media, multilateral agencies, donor agencies and the numerous Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs).

    The narrative is often that the women in politics are too few but the Roundtable Conversation believes that we do not necessarily need a million women before success can be achieved. We just need women who have a passion for development and who can be fired enough to work for a change. It is even funny that most of the men often elected especially in the legislature are often not as qualified as the women who contested with them but lost due to certain irregularities unchecked by the laws. Development is work in progress and the Nigerian nation must be made functional through inclusive democracy and the women in the field must stand up to be counted.

    ●The dialogue continues…

  • What is Ribadu bringing to the table?

    What is Ribadu bringing to the table?

    Three factors may have been responsible for the appointment of Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as National Security Adviser (NSA) by President Bola Tinubu.

     The President believes that the Adamawa State-born lawyer and a retired police officer has the experience, competence and ability to do the job. It is never a matter of trial-and-error or job for the boys. It is another clarion call to national duty.

    Also, President Tinubu, a strategist in his own right, may have taken cognisance of the compelling need for a paradigm shift in the anti-terror war and pursuit of general security in the national interest.

    Experts say that the clean break from the past, as underscored by the choice of a security adviser from a non-military background, has closed a gap in history. Nigeria, it can now be said, has gone far in its post-1999 democratisation process as reflected in the legitimate subjection of the military to civilian authorities.

     Africa’s most populous country now mirrors the mature democracies, particularly the United States of America, which leads in the global practice of picking experienced intelligence officers, not necessarily Generals, to coordinate its security infrastructure and efforts.

    As Nigeria continues to wax stronger in democratic maturity, and in an atmosphere of political stability, there is bound to be an increasing appreciation of security role-demarcation among security agencies as well as inter-agency synergy and collaboration, and the displacement of inter-agency discord and feelings of superiority and inferiority among security agencies.

     The NSA is the eye and ear of the President and  Commander-in-Chief in that critical and crucial frontier. Times are changing and challenges are mounting. The country thirst for security and peace. Therefore, much is expected of Ribadu and those people and agencies he will coordinate.

     The appointment of a police officer as NSA is not new. The position has not been the exclusive preserve of the military. For example, Gambo Jimeta, a former Police Inspector- General, was saddled with the responsibility by former Military President Ibrahim Babangida. 

    Also, Ismaila Gwarzo, former Director-General of the  Department of State Services (DSS), also played the role under the Interim National Government headed by the late Chief Ernest Shonekan, and later, under  Head of State, Gen.Sani Abacha.

     Other predecessors, but mainly military officers, are Gen. Aliyu Gusau, Col. Kayode Are, Gen.  Abdullahi Mohammed, Gen.  Sarki Mukhtar, Gen. l Andrew Azazi, Col. Sambo Dasuki, and Gen. Babagana Monguno.

     Ribadu’s job is not merely about coordinating a fighting force on behalf of the Federal Government. The scope includes intelligence gathering, processing and dissemination of security information,  and more importantly, the coordination of the various intelligence agencies working for the attainment of national security objectives.

     These agencies are the Army, Navy, Airforce, police, Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and the DSS. Even para-military apparatus-Customs, Immigration and Civil Defence Corps-have important roles to play. Inter-agency cooperation, collaboration and synergy are critical to success.

     Like his predecessors, Ribadu is expected to properly advise the President on intelligence activities of these agencies. Automatically, he occupies a strategic position in the National Security Council and the Federal Executive Council (FEC).

    Read Also: ‘Ribadu’s appointment as NSA reflects Tinubu’s commitment to security’

    The major challenge now is combating terror. According to the Terrorism Prevention Act 2011, as amended in 2013, “the Office of the National Security Adviser (ONSA) shall be the coordinating body for all security and law enforcement agencies and under this act shall provide support to all relevant security, intelligence, law enforcement agencies and military services to prevent and combat acts of terrorism in Nigeria”.

    Under the law, Ribadu is expected to “ensure the formulation and implementation of a comprehensive Counter-Terrorism Strategy and build capacity for the effective discharge of the functions of relevant security, intelligence, law enforcement and military services.”

     There has been an emphasis on a military-led Counter-Terrorism Strategy, with the allocation of tasks to intelligence, security and law enforcement agencies. This should always be complemented by the non-military strategy of counter-insurgency. The goal is not to replace the efforts of troops in fighting terrorism but to also pay attention to the aetiology of insurgency and terrorism, particularly the sociological and psychological factors-the dimensions of poverty, social injustice, isolation and sectarianism.

     If these are considered in the general security plan, the scope of solutions to the challenges will have to include poverty alleviation,  redress of inequality and injustice, economic development, peace talks and public enlightenment.

     Intelligence gathering, which is part of the security framework, entails increased responsibility for the police, which, according to the constitution, is charged with the maintenance of internal security in the country.

     The antecedent of Ribadu shows that he is a man of action; diligent, focused, and goal-oriented. The attribute of ‘team spirit’ He had displayed at his previous duty posts, including the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), is required as he now coordinates the security apparatus.

    He is prepared by sound training, as a police officer, crime fighter and lawyer. He joined the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) immediately after his national youth service in 1984. In 2008, he was also at the Harvard Business School where he did a programme on the strategic management of law enforcement agencies.

     He had become a household name as the pioneer chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), where he exhibited patriotism and courage. Before then, he was sighted as a star prosecutor at the Oputa Panel set up by the Obasanjo government. He was also the chairman of the Petroleum Special Revenue Task Force (PRSTF).

     The anti-graft agency successfully investigated allegations of corruption against important persons, who ended up in jail. Under his leadership, the fear of EFCC by the symbols of graft, sleaze and fraudulent practice became the beginning of wisdom. In three years, it secured over 200 convictions. It also built the Crimes Training and Research Institute. Unfortunately, there were allegations of using the anti-graft body to witch-hunt perceived opposition elements of the government that set it up. Ribadu did not leave when the ovation was loudest.

     In 2007, Ribadu, in recognition of his achievements,  was promoted to Assistant Inspector General of Police (AIG).  The African Union (AU) later made him a member of its advisory board on anti-corruption matters. He also became a board member of the Friends of the World Bank/UNODC initiative on Stolen Asset Recovery.

    Ribadu’s scorecard also led to the delisting of Nigeria from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) List of Non-Cooperative Countries and Territories, its admission into the Egmont Group, and the withdrawal of the US Treasury’s Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FINCEN) Advisory.

     Ribadu was a fellow at the Center for Global Development, a TED Fellow, and a Senior Fellow at St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, United Kingdom.

     Under the Yar’Adua administration, the anti-graft czar ran into turbulence. The hunter became the hunted. He went into exile.

     On his return in 2010, he joined the political fray. In 2011, he contested for president as the candidate of the defunct Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN), led by Asiwaju Tinubu.

     Ribadu has inherited an unfinished business of tackling insurgency and warding off threats to national peace and sovereignty. Many innocent Nigerians are still in captivity. There is a threat to freedom of movement and transportation. Villages are still being set ablaze and people are killed at home by invaders and terrorists. Kidnap for ransom has not abated. Nigerians seek an end to violence.

      Ribadu’s tenure will be assessed based on the anticipated success his team will record as Nigeria intensifies the anti-terror war.

  • ElRufai, Ganduje, Olympus has indeed fallen (2)

    ElRufai, Ganduje, Olympus has indeed fallen (2)

    Even the late Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 elections refused the option of a popular Northern running mate in Paschal Bafyau for a Babagana Kingigbe, a Muslim from Borno State, thus blaming Asiwaju for doing same holds no water! No politician runs an election to lose at the ballot box, winning is not an option, it is the only option!

    Now, even with such an explanation, there are several persons who sought to give their own coloration of such a ticket, the “Yes Daddy” “Thank You Daddy” audio tape as well as the calls on the “Church to take back their country “as if Nigeria was ever a non Secular State is ample evidence that many were willing to cash in on such a fault-line in order to whip up frenzied votes from the buyers of their bogeyman tales of an Islamic Conquest of Nigeria, but then while patriotic Nigerians rejected such cleverly spawn canards, are the likes of El Rufai helping our cause? No is the Music sir!

    Like that Christian hymn goes “At a time like this “ while Nigerians are seeking to defray the costs of religion and ethnic politics on the state of our nation’s building project, which has much blindsided the nation from the greatness  she was called to offer to the Blackman and thus the world, the likes of El Rufai, people we much saw as the future of this nation continue to X and O this nation in a religious game of tic tac toe!

    I do not give a damn and surely Nigerians would not give a damn if the people of Kaduna are ok with a Muslim Governor and Deputy Governor, it’s democracy and it is the will of the people of Kaduna but to hanker on such as the fodder for Islamic Superiority over the Bible thumping Christian or even the Ogun worshiper is indeed a let down.

    El Rufai as a statesman ought to understand the weight of his words and the sum total of actions that occurred under his watch in Kaduna is enough to set the fuse of a series of struggles between the two main religions not only in Kaduna but also across the country at what cost we cannot put a peg too but Haba with all the killings in Southern Kaduna, the NorthEast, NorthWest and even the SouthEast where I hail from, pray have we not had enough!

    El Rufai’s descent from Olympus is thus worrisome, for it lashes at the enthusiasm for a greater Nigeria in which religion is personal and ethnicity is but a loose colorful  expression of our people, call it a “fools dream”, the likes of Zik and others dreamed such dreams of a Pan Nigerian nation at full adulthood which would not be supine to the violations of the dignity of the Blackman all over the world.

    It again puts to question our faith in the Nigerian leadership class that El Rufai much belongs to, I mean if El Rufai could fall so much low then who is to say that a Kashim Shettima wouldn’t follow such route or a Sanwoo-Oluu? Isn’t this a situation where beggars ride and princes are on foot?

    Lastly it weaponises the religious and ethnic champions who have sought to carve out their own empire amongst gullible Nigerians , pray what is different between Adeyinka Grandson and El Rufai’s concept of Islamic superiority?

    Read Also: We spent over N20b on foreign PG scheme, says Ganduje

     In El Rufai’s book, the ‘Accidental Public Servant’ he did talk about coming to terms with the duality of leadership  while engaged in a course in the US or thereabout. Where a leader could have huge components of good attributes but still engage in a Frankesitein set of activities which made many to question such positive attributes and that leader’s outlook. I am not tempted to give him such an easy ride here! Yes the Bismarck’s , De Gaulle, Kennedy and Obasanjo who he quoted in that book and their sense of duality ,are all reputed international statesmen and not religious mongers as he now wants to appear to millions of Nigerians. Yes , in that book he attributed to such duality as a skill “That must be possessed to be able to ascend to a certain leadership level. I am hoping that this skill can be acquired as I very much intend to master it someday”

    If this is the path El Rufai may have chosen to take, it is indeed one with a dead end, the aforementioned leaders did not sink as low as El Rufai is doing now. Even if he is attempting to master such a skill in such error, he forgets that the main theme in Louis Stevenson’s book ‘Jekyll and Hyde’ from which the concept of the duality of man was farmed out from  is that there is a good and an evil side to everyone’s personality, but what is important is the decisions one makes! How on earth El Rufai thinks he can ride on the religious fault lines of Nigeria and still earn the trust of those he much sneers at, not with the killings in Southern Kaduna and other progressive Nigerians who are tired of the state Nigeria as a nation has found itself is but small wonder!

    El Rufai may be coming to terms with who he really is but then there is still yet time to make amends and return to that spot on the Nigerian Olympus, in the alternative he may also choose to remain in the tumble downward spiral he has embarked upon , I trust there will be plenty of space for him there too. Sad!

  • Armada of Stars against who?

    Armada of Stars against who?

    I’m beginning to sound like a cracked Long Play (LP) record here on Saturdays. I won’t relent if this is the price one has to pay to kick our soccer administrators from slumber. Indeed, I shudder to ask if our football chieftains live in this world considering how they ‘waste’ foreign currencies under the guise of prosecuting Nigeria’s matches on the international platform. If Nigeria parades her armada of stars who ply their trades in Europe for a game against Sierra Leone, no disrespect to the country, I wonder about the squad list we would present against Senegal, Egypt, etc.

    How do we now gauge our domestic league if we can’t invite at least two-thirds of the home-based players leaving one-third for the key foreign-based players? That is what is called development not what we have taken to Monrovia for Sunday’s game. I don’t think we have any reason to play the game here if we can’t beat Sierra Leone on a neutral ground like in Liberia with a strictly home-based squad. The talk of not taking chances with or chances of qualification are cheap.

    Granted that FIFA provides for virtually all the cash that countries would have spent in the event of qualifying for such major competitions as the World Cup, it behoves our football federation to cut costs of qualification drastically where it is apparent to do so. Of course, here is a country where it is easier for the proverbial Carmel to pass through the eye of a needle than for the Nigerian government to release cash to prosecute sporting competitions.  Why would Nigeria parade her armada of stars against Sierra Leone on neutral ground in Monrovia, Liberia? No wonder the NFF is perpetually broke. How do you justify spending over N300 million on one game where a charter jet also is kept waiting till the next day to take the contingent back to Lagos from Monrovia?

    Figure out how much it would cost to keep an aircraft on the ground for two days including the aircraft’s landing and parking costs, Overflyer charges (fees paid for flying over another country’s airspace), navigational charges, etc. Add this figure to paying 23 players, over seven technical assistants (Nigerian and Portuguese), three coaches and their boss between $5,000 and $20,000 for over 33 people, if the team wins the game in question as we expect the Super Eagles to do against  Sierra Leone inside the SKD Stadium in Monrovia. This figure is aside the daily allowances of between $100 and $200 each member of the contingent get. Also, consider also how much would have been spent on keeping this large contingent in a five-star hotel for close to eight days.

    For crying out loud, we ought to have played Sunday’s game strictly with home-based considering the quality of the opposition and ask any foreign star to join if he is interested now that the season is over. My thought process won’t be the same if the opposition is Senegal, Cameroon, Ghana, Egypt, Cote d’Ivoire, etc.

    My heart always misses a beat whenever people try to justify such humongous expenditures towards grabbing a qualification ticket such as the Sunday game between Nigeria and Sierra Leone in Monrovia. If the NFF men knew their onions, Sunday’s game would have been a stroll in the park because we would have qualified already. Not so now as we have to beat Sierra Leone to avoid any form of permutations to qualify. Our situation in spending heavily to qualify for major competitions is further worsened by the substandard coaches we employ. Super Eagles can no longer boast of winning five straight matches in a group that has Sao Tome, Guinea Bissau, Siera Leone and Nigeria. Shame.

    Sadly, this awful trend with the Eagles isn’t about to end given the pedigree of Jose Peseiro in the game. Peseiro’s poor tactics have destroyed the free-flowing football which the Super Eagles of yore were identified with. This style was anchored on swift play on the flanks where our wingers of yore dribbled their markers groggy while also leaving others holding on to their jerseys as they were being dragged on the turf. Fans roared and sprang to their feet with every dribbling run that results in a goal. Goose pimples all over my skin as I recapture in my mind’s eyes some of the fantastic wing displays by Segun Odegbami and Adokie Amiesiamaka.

    What we see with Peseiro in charge is an eyesore. If Nigeria wants to make any significant impact at the next Africa Cup of Nations slated to hold in Cote d’Ivoire, then Peseiro should be allowed to move on. Peseiro’s stoic silence over his huge unpaid wages is because he doesn’t want his employers to sack him. The longer Peseiro remains as Super Eagles, the more he destroys the inherent talent in our players. It hurts to know that Pesiro went to Europe to drag some forgotten goalkeepers instead of relying on the home-based goalies who have been very active in the season which ended last week Sunday.

    With the previous Super Eagles manager, we discovered some new players who made their marks with the team from their debut appearances. Not so under Peseiro. In fact, with every invitation he does, pundits wonder if he truly leaves his house to watch Nigerians ply their trade in Europe. If he does he ought to have invited Middleborough’s striker Chuba Akpom. Aside from Victor Osimhen who hit the back of the net with relative ease and was very consistent, Akpom was next Nigerian goal scorer who  scored goals with aplomb to the delight of the fans everywhere Middleborough played during the 2022/2023 football season.

    It was pleasing to watch Peseiro follow the matches of the NPL’s Super 6 at the main bowl of the Mobolaji Johnson Arena in Lagos as he busied himself with details which should inform his choice of players into the Super Eagles in subsequent matches. The domestic game would remain stunted except the home lads play regularly for the domestic league clubs in the country. What drew fans to the stadium in the past was the prospect of seeing Green Eagles players live in action and not on television. The other attraction had to do with the fact that the fans, the smart ones among could stand with the big Green Eagles stars for photographs. Not forgetting those who presented books where they could sign autographs.  These were attractions and they helped in filling up the seats in the stadia where they played. All of these are gone no thanks to the penchant of past NFF men for Europe-based players. Thank goodness rules are changing globally in football with the prospects looking good for 18-year-old talented players in Nigeria.

    According to the document I read online, it stated thus: ” Under the updated guidelines from the Football Association (FA), Premier League clubs can now sign 18-year, old players directly from Africa, Asia, or North America. This signifies a significant change in the transfer landscape, as the June window will employ the new Governing Body Endorsement Criteria for foreign players’ visas.

    ‘’The exemption from work permit requirements for EPL clubs aims to level the playing field, and foster fair competition with their European counterparts. Previously, strict regulations placed English clubs at a disadvantage, leading to inflated prices when acquiring young talents who were required to fulfil national team obligations before making a move.”