The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Aliko, Arsenal, emotions and margins

    It may be said that the passion with which Aliko Dangote, Africa’s own Midas, chases after North London’s premium property, Arsenal Football Club, may equate Hardball’s tenacity to redirect his mind home. Apart from the fact that charity as we all know it to be said, begins at home; each time our mogul whimpers about being denied the purchase of the club or vows to snatch it regardless, Hardball’s sensor begins to run riot. In fact, it has become an obsessive, auto-motor thing that is a bit scary. But the reason for this reaction is not far-fetched as you can see shortly.

    For the third time in as many numbers of years, Africa’s cash king, Aliko Dangote, has vowed to take over the much coveted English football team, Arsenal FC. Twice he tried in the past and twice he was shunned. He told Bloomberg TV recently that it was a matter of time before he claimed his prize.

    One cannot deign to teach the master the art of money-making but suffice to say that Aliko’s interest in Arsenal is more an emotional exhilaration than it is about profit margins. We love our soccer and we love our Arsenal, but we know he knows that no football club makes a billion dollars profits, to start with. So a lot of what he may be buying in the Gunners if he eventually nicks it may be vicarious emotions, world-wide hype and marketing gimmickry.

    One could devote an entire book on this matter someday soon but note quickly that Nigeria’s football and her league would flourish with just a small fraction of the cost of acquiring Arsenal. Nigeria’s football owes so much today to the likes of Pastor D.K. Olukoya (MFM FC), Ifeanyi Ubah, Chris Giwa and others who have invested in soccer clubs; giving life to numerous budding football talents.

    Hardball will want to wager that an Ifeanyi Ubah is likely to buy Arsenal first going by his exploits in the Nigerian league in such a short period – he has a club that will be playing continental soccer; he has built a stadium in his hometown and he has already struck some kind of partnership with an English Premier League club, West Ham. He has something to show.

    Kano is a great footballing city and needs a rival to Kano Pillars. How about setting up Aliko Football Club (AFC; Arsenal through the back door!)? It will be inchoate if not unjust, (to put it mildly) to Nigeria and her footballing youths for Aliko to invest in Arsenal without considering Nigeria first.

    Now that Nigeria’s league is improving by the day, Aliko’s intervention by way of club sponsorship, facilities development and talent nurturing may well be the game-changer we need. Who says Arsenal cannot come to Kano during summer break if the facilities are right.

  • Six or half-a-dozen

    Evidently, it takes a lot of sweat to try to make a distinction between six and half-a- dozen. Even after all the sweating, it is difficult to make such a distinction because there is really no distinct difference between the two.

    Take the case of a former Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeal, Justice Mohammed Ladan Tsamiya, who was recently retired by the National Judicial Council (NJC).  A report said Tsamiya expressed self-righteous protest regarding how his retirement was allegedly reported: “He said the NJC only retired him compulsorily for meeting three times with a petitioner, Nnamdi Iro Oji. Tsamiya spoke exclusively on the phone with our correspondent in protest against how NJC’s decisions were reported by The Nation.”

    The report continued: “He said: “I did not receive N200 million bribe as reported. There is nowhere in the NJC report where I was indicted for bribery. I have a copy of the report; there is no part where I was accused of collecting bribe. Even the petitioner did not at any time say that I collected bribe from him. I need to correct this misrepresentation for posterity. The NJC only faulted me for meeting thrice with the petitioner in Sokoto, Gwarinpa, Abuja and Owerri.”

    Tsamiya’s corrective effort needs to be corrected because of an important omission.  Now, here is what the NJC said in a statement by its Acting Director of Information, Soji Oye: “During deliberations, council found as follows: that there was evidence that the petitioner met with Justice Mohammed Ladan Tsamiya thrice, in his residence in Sokoto, Gwarinpa, Abuja and Owerri where on each occasion, he demanded from him N200,000,000 to influence the Court of Appeal panel in Owerri or risk losing the case.” While it is true that demanding a bribe is not the same thing as receiving a bribe, the difference between the two does little to redeem Tsamiya.

    Another recent example that shows the pointlessness of trying to distinguish between six and half-a-dozen involves a former Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Adesola Amosu (retd), charged with laundering N21 billion.  A report said: “He and 10 others said they were negotiating a plea bargain with the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). The defendants opposed a bid by EFCC’s lawyer Rotimi Oyedepo to begin their trial. They sought for more time to conclude the plea bargain.”

    Curiously, the report continued: “Arguing his bail application before Justice Mohammed Idris after Amosu’s arraignment in June, his lawyer Chief Bolaji Ayorinde (SAN) said his client had returned “colossal sums.”  ”He (Amosu) has remitted colossal sums of money to the Federal Government, although not in admittance of guilt, but out of cooperation with security agencies,” the Senior Advocate said.”  What is a plea bargain if not an admission of guilt in order to get some concession?

    Consider these futile exertions in the service of senselessness.

  • IYC: Who is harassing who?

    The news: A crowd that called itself “Ijaw youths”, under the aegis of Ijaw Youth Congress (IYC), with IYC President, Udengs Eradiri, on hand to take charge of business, just did a demonstration in Yenagoa, capital of Bayelsa State, urging the Federal Government to stop “harassing” former President Goodluck Jonathan and family.

    The crowd made some serious allegations — that Jonathan’s allowances had been stopped; and that his security personnel were not paid by the Federal Government.

    Is that so?  Perhaps Jonathan himself should release an official communication, detailing all these charges. That would give them more weight, and perhaps reasonable members of the community can then intervene to help correct any anomaly.

    Alleged victimisation of a former President is a serious charge, that should emerge from a serious channel, not from a street rabble.  So until that happens, there is little to reasonably say.

    Still, Hardball could wager the so-called Jonathan victimisation was just a smokescreen to defend the indefensible — the Patience Jonathan rash, reckless and utterly audacious claim to money suspected to be proceeds of crime, just on account of being a “former First Lady”.

    Is that another extra-constitutional post-office immunity for leaders suspected to have abused their offices?  If so, that would be sad; for it would be tantamount to self-ruin by a people at the receiving end of official sleaze.

    Indeed, the IYC is bewildering, pushing such weird sentiments.

    Whatever Patience Jonathan’s claim, the court is yet to decide her culpability or not. Indeed, no one has even charged her to court.

    But the pervading sentiment at that rally was that even if she did, she would not be the first — or likely be the last.

    Hear their Patience sound bite: “Patience Jonathan is not the only First Lady in this country. A wife to former deputy governor, governor, vice-president and president, are you expecting her to be a poor woman?  There are other first ladies in this country.”

    Ay, there are! But which of them has recklessly claimed ownership of funds the state has strong suspicion are proceeds of crime?

    To start with, such thinking is extremely unfortunate, if not outright asinine. If you accept the principle that a President’s spouse can abuse the sacred trust of Nigerians, and use her husband’s position to fleece long-suffering Nigerians, then you cannot in another breath complain of the mass poverty sure to follow.

    Besides, that Patience would not be the first or likely the last “First Lady”, thus suspected, is not only accepting past alleged abuse of offices; you also condemn yourself to such eternal abuses!  Now, what sort of reasoning is that?

    In that same Bayelsa, teachers have not been paid for seven months, despite its oil wealth. Yet, some “youths” are blocking the streets, pressing the right to free sleaze!  Who doesn’t know that poverty in the midst of plenty is a natural result of mismanagement?

    And, in the midst of all these, a biting symbolism: the march took place on Sani Abacha Expressway — Sani Abacha, the military despot, whose humongous sleaze still resonates, globally, 18 years after his death!

    IYC should take this free advice: for vacuous sentiments, you can’t afford to portray the Ijaw as uncritically supportive of suspected crimes in high office, simply because of misguided sentiments of the moment. This is what this misadvised Patience Jonathan crusade amounts to.

    So, shouldn’t some Ijaw elders step in to correct these callow youths, giving their people a bad name?

  • Anatomy of an uppercut

    For the sake of boxing neophytes, an uppercut is probably the deadliest punch in that fistic game. If you have never been dealt one before then Hardball dares say that you need to reassess your masculinity in this brawny world. Think of the school playing field bully, the roughnecks of the bus-stop brawls or the ‘hood toughie’ who thinks you are too cool for his liking and determines to undo your cool at the street corner one of those festive seasons.

    My man you just must have gotten stung by one upper cut at one point or the other. It is often better experienced. In fact, it gives a man the stiff upper lip which is the mark of every true man.

    Depending on who is dealing it, an uppercut has the capacity to daze, unsettle, jar and if professionally executed, an uppercut is bound to lift you slightly off your feet. And whether you return to your feet or crash on the canvass in a mass also depends on the power and intensity of the puncher.

    Is Hardball about to take to boxing? What is the meaning of this treatise on pugilism? Well, in a manner of speaking or better still in a manner of his speaking there may be a punch up soon between the World Bank and the Federal Government of Nigeria. And the World Bank (WB) may have drawn the first blood with an uppercut right under the chin. According to a report emanating from that bastion of capitalism, Nigeria is considered not serious with the much touted diversification of her economy.

    Africa’s Pulse, WB’s biannual analysis on economic trends in Africa, has predicted that growth in 2016 would fall deeper than projected. But in a more direct jab (uppercut if you like) the bank picked on our dear country noting that African countries like Nigeria which depend on commodities are not serious about diversification of their economies.

    Some of the countries performing badly on the continent currently, going by the bank, are: Nigeria, Chad, Angola, Madagascar, Botswana, Sierra Leone, Cape Verde, The Gambia and – well, South Africa.

    Hardball cannot agree less with WB. Being man on the ground and about town, the street indications are pretty bad. Apart from the dollar rate that is soaring away like a vile eagle, misery pervades the land like an early harmattan haze making the environment pale. Jobs have gone, salaries are late and far between.

    But just as the bank has noted, not much has been done to find a replacement for crude oil earnings. No aggressive drive towards replacing imported food items with local substitutes or even curbing ostentation and waste among public figures and politicians. No drastic reforms being proposed or being put to effect. It remains largely business as usual.

    It is not often that WB throws hard punches; this is why we consider this an upper cut.

     

  • Crooked thinking

    Isn’t it interesting that there are people who still argue that former President Goodluck Jonathan should have been re-elected because of a promise he made?  Prominent in this pro-Jonathan circle is Chief Ayo Adebanjo, a leader of the Yoruba interest group known as Afenifere.

    In an interview published on October 2, Adebanjo declared: “I said the greatest mistake Nigerians – Yoruba must not make was voting for Buhari. Everybody heard me when I said that. Many people said I was a Peoples Democratic Party’s apologist. I made that statement back then based on what I know about Buhari and his antecedents. Former President Goodluck Jonathan didn’t realise the importance of implementing the confab report on time. He promised that if given a second term as president he would examine the recommendations and try to implement them. The other man (Buhari) said he wasn’t going to look at the report at all. I think it is reasonable to consider the person who promised to do something.”

    This argument is simplistic, to put it simply. Adebanjo was referring to the controversial 2014 National Conference organised by the Jonathan administration and the confab’s contentious recommendations.  It is unbelievable that a senior citizen of Adebanjo’s standing failed to appreciate that a promise to do something is not the same thing as doing something.

    There was no guarantee that Jonathan would have kept his promise if he had been re-elected. Furthermore, to say that “Jonathan didn’t realise the importance of implementing the confab report on time” appears to contradict the reasoning that he would have implemented the report because he had promised to do so. If the rejected ex-president considered the implementation of the confab report important, he ought to have realised the importance of a timely implementation, particularly since he tried to base his electoral appeal on a promise to implement the said report.

    If all that mattered to the electorate was the implementation of the confab report, perhaps Jonathan would have performed better than he did in the presidential election. But his performance as president was what mattered at election time; and he was poorly rated.

    It would appear that Adebanjo and his ilk choose to be blind to Jonathan’s clear failure in terms of good governance, even when the colossal corruption that characterised his administration continues to hit the headlines.

    Those who think like Adebanjo need to be told that there is always a clear difference between straight thinking and crooked thinking.

  • Enter the new Fani-Kayode?

    The Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP’s) reaction to the Edo governorship election, when compared to its bluff and bluster, before the 2015 presidential election results were announced, reminds Hardball of the William Wordsworth’s remarkable poetic quip: the child is the father of the man.

    Before the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced the result, which declared Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the All Progressives Congress’ (APC’s) candidate as winner, Femi Fani-Kayode, the Goodluck Jonathan chief electoral spokesperson, had sworn, in his own glib way, that President Jonathan had triumphed.

    He even warned, sending a chill through the spine of the unwary, that his party would not tolerate being robbed of its hard won victory!

    However, by the time the results were out, it became nothing but empty gas, only a Fani-Kayode could muster.

    Roll forward the clock to more than a year later, and the PDP would appear back to the same trick — empty bluster.

    Only that a new Fani-Kayode appears to emerge on the horizon — and he is no Olisa Metuh, now funereally quiet, who patented the PDP line of reporting local political developments to the “international community”, another line Edo losing candidate, Osagie Ize-Iyamu, appeared to ad-lib, when he claimed he was reporting the alleged INEC-APC electoral shenanigans to the American consul!

    The new Fani-Kayode, in this game of empty bluff, would appear Dayo Adeyeye, a prince of Ise-Ekiti, once-upon-a-time progressive, but latter-day neophyte of PDP’s peculiar ideology, that turns conservatism into outright reaction.

    As Fani-Kayode did in 2015, Dayo Adeyeye was hollering and growling and belching claims, alleging his party had won 55 per cent of the vote, and warning INEC not to dare change the result.

    Perhaps Adeyeye was right?  The official results didn’t seem to agree.  But still, you never know: the PDP still has the option of challenging the results in court.

    If it prevails, Adeyeye would have been justified.  The PDP case would then be that of someone who tells a lie all of the time, but cannot be believed even if, at this instant, he is telling the truth.

    But if it is empty bluff for the umpteenth time?  Well, no one would be surprised!

    Still, what has Wordsworth’s “the child is the father of the man” got to do with all these?  Ah that!

    Simple.  Adeyeye, by date of birth, is older than Fani-Kayode.  Indeed, before his new political company, he was a pillar of the progressive forces — indeed, one of their brightest, one of their proudest, one of their most credible.

    But in his new company?  Fani-Kayode is clear master, which is okay.  What, however, is not okay is following the Fani-Kayode trajectory of passionate baiting, based on colourful and emotive conjectures, but nevertheless based on near-zero facts.

    That unflattering path — with the show he put up at the Edo polls — is what Adeyeye appears to be towing.  It’s no business of Hardball though, for every citizen, nay every politician, has a right to chart his or her own distinctive course.

    But as an unfazed Awoist in the non-progressive camp, Adeyeye himself must know: the Fani way is the Biblical wide and merry road that leads nowhere but ruin and perdition — at least credibilitywise.

    Adeyeye would, therefore, do well to watch his utterances, even in the heat of politics.  Being ideologically neophytic need not result in loss of personal credibility in the public space.

    There is life, after all, beyond politics.

  • Telcos terrorism 2

    Last Monday was terrifically hectic. The day was so long it could have fitted into 48 hours. The intensive rains of the last couple of months seem to have wielded diggers on some parts of Lagos roads, leaving potholes. These holes grow by the day into vengeful craters, causing debilitating traffic snarls.

    After a back-breaking day in office and rendering at least two hours to and fro to the god of traffic, one was always late getting home. As always, an ensemble of neighbourhood generators were in session playing their late night orchestra and upsetting already raw nerves. Not even dinner, a late one at that, would cheer up a thoroughly battered body. Well crashing into bed finally, a little before midnight, must have brought some mirth upon the heart.

    About an hour later, the telephone began to ring, piercing the room, jarring all the chords of early sleep. One woke with a start, fearing the worst as the ringing phone remorselessly assaulted the tender night. One had been lax putting off the phone as one was wont each night before bed.

    I reached the little night ogre as quickly as I could and checked the caller identity – it was a wonder one did not develop an instant heart issue. The caller’s number was 55515. Of course it is the service number of one of the networks used for promotional messages. If I had picked the call, they would have tried to sell me one stuff or the other – at about 12.45 am!

    Consumed by impotent rage, I tossed the phone away almost damaging it. Now I was as awake as a night gnome and cursing like a fishwife. Sleep of course, had quietly slinked away from my eyes (in a manner of speaking) and perhaps from the bedroom too! For many hours I rolled and tossed – my pain and frustration knew no bounds.

    Recall that a few days ago, Hardball had written about this same matter of unsolicited calls. How a network using proper 11-digit numbers had called as he was driving and how he almost swerved off the road in an attempt to pick it.

    Even as one wrote this piece, 55515 rang. It rings at an average of half a dozen times daily; it doesn’t matter that one stopped picking it the network seems to derive some sort of pleasure hounding one with these calls.

    Nigerians must have taken the streaming of unsolicited short messages into their phones as part of GSM culture. As they bombard with messages, they also pick your wallet because you never know when they trick you into contracts that involve charges. Here is an example: “Entertainment Factory club has been successfully renewed at NGN50 valid until 04-10-2016. To deactivate send STOP EF2 to 55357.”

    I never activated any subscription, I do not care about entertainment neither do I receive any such news streaming.

    Why would networks do this and where on earth is the regulator, Nigeria Communication Commission, NCC?

  • Wike needs some light

    It would appear that Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike needs some light, or perhaps more appropriately, some enlightenment. He has appointed a Special Adviser on Street and Traffic Lights, Daye Graham-Douglas. According to a September 25 report, this development followed “the installation of traffic and street lights recently along major roads in the city of Port Harcourt and Obio-Akpor Local Government.”

    Why Wike considers it necessary to have an adviser especially for this purpose remains unclear, and he would need to shed some light on the special appointment for public illumination. But it is clear enough, meaning it needs no further illumination, that Wike has conveniently created a position for the purpose of filling it with one of his loyalists.

    Of course, this kind of superfluous appointment is not peculiar to Wike’s administration, and further examples can be found in abundance in many other states across the country. This is a major reason there are bloated administrations that overburden the public purse.

    There is no doubt that Wike has a lot on his plate already without the additional burden of another decorative adviser. But simply because he can make appointments, he has gone ahead to make this particular one without considering the proper use of power. In other words, it may not be far-fetched to categorise the appointment as an abuse of power. That phrase has many faces.

    To properly contextualise the superfluity, it is relevant to refer to a recent statement concerning Wike by Edo State Governor Adams Oshiomhole. Speaking through the Commissioner for Information and Orientation, Kassim Afegbua, Oshiomhole said: “In the circle of governance, where men are truly called men, someone like Governor Wike cannot muster any courage to be called a man when he has continuously held Rivers workers in scorn without paying them their due salaries and emoluments. Even though Edo State is not economically viable as Rivers State, we do not only pay our workers’ salaries, we have since increased our workers’ minimum wages from N18, 000 to N25, 000.”

    Oshiomhole continued: “That this salary increase is happening at a time when Governor Wike is lamenting over paucity of funds, should explain in greater details our uncommon creativity and prudent management of resources. The last time we visited Rivers State, we were appalled by the plights of Rivers workers, whose lamentations Governor Wike has consistently ignored.”

    There is nothing more to add to show Wike’s poor sense of priorities, is there?

  • Fani talks the talk

    The Tinubu-Odigie-Oyegun tiff, in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), has landed a most surprising sympathiser-in-chief, Olufemi Olu-Kayode (formerly Femi Fani-Kayode).

    Perhaps in no time, his namesake and tag-team partner in peculiar public commentary, Femi Aribisala, would be swooning and talking-in-tongue, in explosive anger, purportedly in Tinubu’s corner — and you could guess: political end-time is here.

    With such friends, Hardball can clearly declare, you need no more enemies.

    But back to Fani.  With an introductory apologia, he dived into the fray, splashing a happy water of confusion to announce his triumphant entry.

    Then having quite a swell time, half-sympathy, half-gloating but over all mischievous, he rushed, posthaste, to partition the dramatis personae into saints and sinners.

    In Fani’s mischievous realm of logical emotions (no contradictions here, Hardball assures you!), there is no grey.  Just black or white — and those two extremes are made even starker than they really are by Fani’s explosive hyperboles!

    For the excitable and unperceptive, Fani has firmly billeted himself in Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s camp, against his mortal intra-APC enemies.  But hey, by his explosive power of emotive logic, only perhaps a Fani can muster; he even appeared to be making eminent sense.

    But don’t be deceived: Fani is in nobody’s camp, except his own. So, don’t you be starry-eyed about anything he says. In fairness though, there was some child-like innocence at the end of that intervention — that wish that his comatose Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) were strong enough to take advantage; and romp back to power in 2019!

    For PDP, everything starts and ends with power, doesn’t it?

    So, Fani’s motive is crystal clear: as much as he ripples with rage, he is no mother hen protecting a chick in danger; but an over-excited vulture swooping down at the sight — in any case, the prospect — of carrion!

    The APC feuding partisans must therefore know: a fight-to-the-finish would benefit no one but the same reactionary forces, which Fani-Kayode unfazedly represents, that have rendered Nigeria prostrate for too long.

    Which is why APC chairman, John Odigie-Oyegun’s measured response to the Tinubu allegations is reassuring. Tempers may be high now; with the feuding camps threatening to go for the kill. But it is always good to keep a measure of calm — such calm that retains justified anger, without vaulting it into madness!

    Nevertheless, Chief Odigie-Oyegun’s measured response cannot be enough, though it has helped by not further stoking the fire. The allegations against him are weighty; and if true, concern basic fairness and justice. That should not be tolerated, if APC were to escape the PDP nemesis, of brazen intra-party injustice.

    Still, whatever the problems, APC should be mature enough to handle it: right wrongs and ensure justice and fairness.

    It should never be the likes of Fani’s call, playing sympathisers-in-chief.

    That would be unfortunate, indeed, an epochal tragedy for a nation, if allowed to happen.

    Nothing but mischief can come out of Fani’s house of politics.

  • DNA of a thief

    Three news items last Monday and Tuesday set one wondering whether thieving was in the DNA of the Nigerian or he just cannot keep his finger still. Hardball wagers that you may have jumped to conclusion and think this has anything to do with the Mama Peace saga. No; nothing at all. That, if you ask Hardball, is a matter way beyond the realm of thievery; it is something close to banditry.

    One speaks of three stories about lesser Nigerians exhibiting the same traits. First is the stupendous case of a suspected pickpocket, Deji Ayoola: pulled in by men of the Rapid Response Squad of Lagos State for stealing at the bus stop, he proceeded to do even the unimaginable.

    As the story goes, as he was being interrogated, some notes fell off the pocket of the interrogating officer as she tried to remove her telephone. Instinctively Ayoola was said to have stepped on the notes and later kept them. But for someone that sighted him from afar he would have suckered the police right in their own domain.

    Talk of the DNA of a thief – his entire mind, body and soul are apparently tainted and corrupted.

    Well if we consider Ayoola to be a common, miserable thief who is perpetually roiled by want and privation, what shall we make of this case: it is the story of a 161-year-old building known as Victor Ola-Iya House. Located at Bamgbose Street, Lagos Island, the building was designated a national monument and a heritage site in 1956.

    But during the Eid-el-Kabir holidays, some people practically stole the property. Apparently working under the cover of darkness, they demolished the building and but for the intervention of the officials of Lagos State, construction would have commenced on the prime land.

    If you have any doubt about this being robbery in the dead of night, then what do you make of this one? Members of the National Assembly (NASS) – meaning the Senators and House of Representatives members- have continued to short-change their aides, according to a recent report by the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN.

    Before 2007, the story was that salaries of legislative aides were paid through their principals. It was said that the aides were short-changed so much that the ensuing crisis was to be of cataclysmic magnitude.  The National Assembly Commission intervened quickly and decided to be paying aides directly.

    But even this has not stopped our revered legislators from finagling and making capital from their aides’ emolument.

    For instance, the Senate president, who is  entitled to only 45 aides, is said to have 115, Speaker has 168 instead of 35, while Deputy Senate President boasts of 60, exactly double his statutory number.

    It must be something in the DNA when people who do not have reason to steal do so voraciously.