The Nation Newspaper

Category: Hardball

  • Cry, my Chibok country

    IT is no news that there are plaintive cries from Chibok.

    Besides losing not fewer than 200 young school girls to Boko Haram, Chibok has also been the butt of other terrorist violence: mass slaughter in churches, kidnap of wives when husbands had gone in search of daily bread, and general and regular arson and plunder, at the whims and caprices of Boko Haram — as if that community is in some pre-historic territory and not in 21st century Nigeria.

    Hear one of the latest laments and its sheer symbolism: “My daughter,” cried an anguished father, “is languishing in Sambisa forest in the hands of her captors.  I have not seen her for weeks now.  I have lost my peace.”

    And who does the hurting father address his lament to?  “Nigerians must know that we are in trouble and suffering here.”

    Nigerians? Why not the government that, at least, going by the good old Social Contract, is depository of all power and so has the legal responsibility to protect all?

    Tell that to the Chibok folk and you probably are talking gas.  Such, it appears, is their complete alienation from the present order that they would rather pitch their tents with equally powerless fellow Nigerians.

    Hear the parent resume his lament: “Last Sunday, the attackers came and killed over 58 people in churches across three communities.  Before then, we got the hint about the impending attack, but we were helpless.  The soldiers around could not come out to our rescue.  They came to say to us that they were sorry; that they had been over-powered.  So they left us to our fate”!

    So, this is what a part of Nigeria has become, some failed state where the strongest, no matter how crazed or irrational, is simply king?  Is this what Nigeria has become, some pre-historic state of nature, in which Thomas Hobbes described life as nasty, brutish and short?

    Indeed, continuing on the Chibok lament lane, one has an eerie experience of what Hobbes must have meant in describing his state of nature.

    The Chibok father again: “What the gunmen now do is that they would enter our houses, pack our food and burn them.  We are now in complete nakedness, suffering hunger, fear and helplessness, only waiting for death to come.”

    And now the clincher, from a people, to which the government for all its supposed monopoly of coercion, has become history — and this testimony from a woman, even too scared to mention her name.

    “What we are begging Nigerians, especially concerned influential mothers for, now, is for them to find any way possible to evacuate our children at least, because if we are killed the next minute, they will remain our legacy.  Nigerians must not wait for a minute more; it is dangerous.”

    Is there anything called government here?  Well, there is.  The problem is, it is perhaps too busy strategising how to win elections, by hook or by crook, or how to impeach a sitting governor, or how to …  Anything will do but Chibok and its endless troubles!

    May God save us all from fatally-distracted governments!

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

  • Reversing the (rice) ruse

    What do you say to a man who heedlessly embarks on a fruitless journey? A man once was about setting off on an adventure to the evil forest; he was consumed by his dreams of boundless treasure in the uncharted terrain and would not be persuaded by superior arguments and logic. His lust was already far ahead of him into the forest; far ahead of his reason. Soon he took on the forest and soon enough he was back; indeed, lucky to be back for he was bruised, battered and left haemorrhageing critically. Now that Mr. … (let’s call him) Heedless, has learnt his lessons the hard way and has returned to earth, what do we tell him? We told you so? Sorry, but no tears for you and we hope you have learnt your lessons?

    This little fable is actually about the recent misadventure of the federal government in Nigeria’s rice sector. That odyssey into the forbidden forest, so to speak, was led by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwunmi Adesina. Apparently struck by a brain wave (or any other wave we dare not mention) one January morning in 2013, government jacked up the levy on imported rice to 100 per cent from 40 per cent and with the tariff at 10 per cent, rice, Nigeria’s main staple food was being imported into the country at 110 per cent duty.

    This was without consultation with the stakeholders in the rice sector and obviously without any thought of the adverse effects of this rash action on the economy. How could anyone hike duty on rice in Nigeria when neighbouring countries are on zero tariffs? You need not be an economist to fathom that it is a recipe for ruinous smuggling. That was what happened and pronto! Our ports dried up immediately as genuine importers were crushed under a heavy weight of duty while our borders became a bazaar for rice smugglers. So for about 18 months since early last year, our treasury bled profusely.

    Stakeholders in rice business who had invested in local production of rice also suffered as cheap smuggled rice damaged their businesses. All entreaties to the government fell on deaf ears and the huge sums pooled in the Rice Fund through the levy on imported rice which is supposed to be deployed for local rice development remain a mystery. There is no account for it, there is no panel and there is no word about this fund since it was set up in 1999. Yet the idea as touted by Dr. Adesina was to stop the importation of rice by 2015. But how would that be if the federal government is being economical with the truth about this policy; if Dr. Adesina continues to hallucinate about a fictitious rice revolution?

    In spite of ourselves, we acknowledge that it is salutary that the federal government has finally back-tracked; it has seen the light seemingly and announced a reversal of that ruse of a rice policy. According to a report last week, President Goodluck Jonathan has approved the slashing of that dubious rice levy to about 20 per cent. It has also directed a new fiscal policy on rice for 2014 to 2017. While we say welcome back (from the forest) we also ask: @whereisthericefund?

  • Unknowing soldiers

    Although Nigeria seems to be currently under the dagger of insecurity, more perceptive eyes may have noticed that we may actually be suffering more from an ailment Hardball would want to term soldier trouble than insurgency. It is a condition in which your armed guard paid to protect you grows big in the head and begins to morph into an albatross. He starts to act up; he wears a frown all the time, he stares you down, he carries his arm in a manner that seems to threaten you his boss and all such unsettling attitude. It is only natural to rethink your relationship with your armed protector when you begin to see those signs.

    These, sadly, are the signs we seem to be getting from our military apparatchik lately. They are getting so brazen in a manner that suggests they cannot tolerate us anymore. They resent us it seems and they show it at every turn. The recent soldiers’ rampage in Lagos last week is one more pointer. As the story goes, a soldier was reportedly killed in an accident on Ikorodu Road, Lagos. Like impulsive thugs, soldiers were said to have mobilised from the nearby Abalti Barracks and promptly unleashed mayhem on the scene of the accident. They burnt a couple of buses, beat up commuters. They also held up traffic on one of the busiest highways in Lagos for hours on end.

    In this brief moment of anomie, they did not only hold Lagos captive and spellbound, they committed a psychological crime against their compatriots, the majority of who clothe them, feed them and arm them for the collective preservation of our sovereignty. The soldiers abased themselves by assaulting the psyche of the people in an act of damaging role reversal.

    This is not the first time undisciplined soldiers would go on the rampage against their unarmed compatriots in Lagos and certainly not the first from this particular army barrack, but it is particularly galling that at a period when the military is supposed to be busy in the troubled northeast part of the land, and when they need the support of the people, they take delight in squaring up against defenceless civilians. It is also troubling that soldiers could still go on the rampage in this age on the least provocation in a manner that seems to portray them as an occupation army marching through a foreign land.

    These are Nigerian soldiers; the buses they burnt, are they not for the benefit of fellow country men? The innocent commuters they pounced upon, are they not fellow brothers and sisters? Are soldiers not supposed to be under the same laws that govern the entire citizens of Nigeria? Now that they have taken the law into their hands, how can they seek redress under the law for their fallen colleagues?

    Finally, why does it seem so easy for soldiers to raise arms from the armouries of barracks and move men in large numbers as happened in this case? Are there no controls? More worrisome, official army pronouncement came many days after as if such unruly and undisciplined behaviours are condoned. While nothing excuses the recklessness of commercial bus drivers in Lagos, we do not want to replace the infamous unknown soldier with the unknowing soldier, do we?

  • Omisore’s mask

    It is appropriate to ponder the import of the news picture of a masked man with a gun standing protectively behind Senator Iyiola Omisore, candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the Osun State governorship election on August 9, reportedly during electioneering. It was an unusual and a thought-provoking image, and it is no surprise that the rival All Progressives Congress (APC), the party of the incumbent governor, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, who is seeking a second term, was alarmed.

    In reaction, the party’s Director of Research, Publicity and Strategy, Mr. Kunle Oyatomi, issued a statement, saying: “Omisore was spotted during his campaign guarded by a masked, suspected armed terrorist, the first of its kind in the political history of electioneering in Yorubaland.”  He accused Omisore of “hiding behind security cover to intimidate the electorate with masked men and armed suspected terrorists,” adding: “Political terrorism has arrived in Nigeria’s democratic space by the evil construct of the PDP.”

    Interestingly, but certainly not convincingly,  Omisore’s spokesman, Mr. Diran Odeyemi, tried to shed light on his security arrangement and the identities of his guards. The defender said: “In the campaign train are men from SSS (State Security Service), the Police, Civil Defence. PDP will never preach violence; neither do we rely on thugs to win election.”  But, significantly, the counter-statement failed to explain the use of a mask. Perhaps even more importantly, there was no denial of the use of a mask.

    By creative interpretation, it is possible that the presence of the masked protector was nothing more than a publicity stunt by a candidate who is under pressure to be noticed. If that was the case, then the trick worked, given the attention he has received on account of the oddity. However, it looks like a desperately shortsighted promotional approach because it is overloaded with negativity and may be predictably counter-productive in the long run.  Beyond an imaginative rationalisation of the spectacular development, it must be recognised that the appearance of the masked one indeed had psychologically terrorising value that cannot be trivialised. If the security guards were truly from the claimed sources, why was it necessary to create mystification by introducing a mask, with all the rattling implications?

    Whoever was behind the mask, or even more specifically, behind the idea of the mask, must be considered an enemy of decency. Surely, it is not a civilised conduct to wear or project a face of terror in the society, particularly in the context of a democratic contest for power.

    Against this background, it may be important to look beyond the guard’s actual mask and contemplate the metaphoric mask, which probably covers Omisore’s face.  A power-seeking individual who is not personally repulsed by the very thought of a mask-wearing protector ought to be viewed with suspicion, if not trepidation. It represents a dangerous signal not only about his personality, but also about his values. Such a person deserves to be unmasked; and it is a welcome irony that he has started the process himself by employing a masked robot.

     

     

     

     

     

  • Minister? Thug? Or something between?

    Since newspapers reported that Jelili Adesiyan, Police Affairs Minister, said he regretted not “flogging, like a baby”, Isiaka Adeleke, a former governor of Osun State, Hardball had hoped Mr. Adesiyan would deny the statement.  But sadly, he has not.

    So, did Minister Adesiyan really say that?  If he did not, whose voice was that?

    That of a minister in charge of a vital security portfolio as Police Affairs?

    That of a blabbing political thug who knows no one takes him seriously, since he has not taken his ranting seriously?

    Or that of a fearsome hybrid: thuggish minister or ministerial thug, who combines the high callings of his high office with the gutter temper of his low breeding?  And to think such grotesque hybrid might well be part of Nigeria’s federal cabinet?

    Did he really say that?

    Listen again, to Mr. Adesiyan, as quoted by the media: “My regret was that I did not beat him as he claimed I did.  If I had not been a minister, I would have flogged him like a baby.  You know that he could not withstand one blow.  You know Adeleke is sick; maybe he would have died that day.”

    And the sinister bragging: “Talonje ode aperin niwaju ode apayan” — who is that hunter of elephants, matched with the ace hunter of humans?  That, to be sure, is a literary hyperbole to underscore the intrepidity of someone, whose courage, compared with his peers, beggars belief.  If Mr. Adesiyan meant that Yoruba expression in this sense, there would have been no cause for alarm.

    But in the context of his discourse, his regret at not having mugged a fellow citizen, even relishing, from the way he spoke, that that attack could have led to his death, Mr. Adesiyan’s elephant hunter-human hunter comparison is well and truly blood-chilling.

    Is this really the voice of a minister of the Federal Republic?  These are hard times indeed!

    Order, they say, is the first law in heaven.  Even here on earth, especially in a democracy, it is the law that rules — not whims, not arbitrary power, not caprices.  Now, a minister in Nigeria’s federal cabinet, ought to have the decorum to conduct himself, according to the letters and temper of the rule of law.

    Now, when a minister of Police Affairs starts expressing public regret that he did not assault and batter a fellow citizen, the president, his principal, must be thoroughly embarrassed.  So, should his cabinet peers.  Show me your friends: is the Jonathan cabinet really comfy with one of such murderous and uncouth thoughts?  These are hard times, indeed!

    Still, President Goodluck Jonathan and his cabinet are free to pick their own friends.  But as people who hold high offices, which come with high decorum, Hardball insists that their rights to choose their friends, no matter how wayward, stop where citizens’ rights to hold them to account on decorum begin.

    It is on this fundamental basis that Hardball condemns Mr. Adesiyan’s outburst and declare him totally unfit for public office.  As for Mr. Adeleke, he should feel free to sue Mr. Adesiyan for wilful assault.  That is the least he could do to claim his right and reassure our collective sanity as lawful people.

     

  • Wetin DPR dey do sef?

    For the uninitiated, DPR stands for the Department of Petroleum Resources. It is one of the numerous units, departments and subsidiaries of Nigeria’s shambolic petroleum sector that has become a shadow of itself.

    To make a bad case worse and in the awkward and cunning manner of Nigeria’s oil bureaucrats, DPR is deliberately a misnomer. Why is the chief monitoring arm of Nigeria’s oil sector tagged Department of Petroleum Resources instead of Department of Petroleum Monitoring?

    Well DPR may be ambiguous but its name is not really its bane; this most important department in Nigeria’s oil mix has simply gone south, the way of most government businesses in Nigeria. In its heyday and in our saner era, DPR was an institution dreaded and revered at once in the industry. It was always headed by Nigerian of steel and professional integrity and when they spoke, Nigerians listened. Today, Hardball confesses that he does not know the head of DPR and whoever he might be must be happier being Mr. Anonymous.

    Those days we were comforted knowing that there was a DPR watching over our oil assets. Today, you can’t vouch there is DPR and you never know what it does. In fact, Nigeria’s oil and gas industry could be said to have stumbled fatally upon the demise of DPR. Today, Nigerians hear about DPR when they announce that they have shut one hapless fuel station or the other. Today, DPR can safely be called the Department of Dispensing Stations. Sadly, in spite of its inane exertions pursuing poor petrol attendants, to find a ‘true’ petrol dispenser in Nigeria is akin to finding a virgin in a maternity ward.

    The most telling indictment of the DPR today is the refrain across the country that Nigeria does not know the quantity of crude oil she produces. Everyone says that the DPR does not have modern or adequate meters to carry out that basic but albeit, crucial task. Nigeria’s oil industry is in such state that we are in the age of brazen oil theft. Nigeria is today like a banana republic that cannot guard and monitor her strategic asset; brigands from all over the world simply converge on the Niger Delta to ‘take’ oil. That is the impression out there. This indictment has gone on for many years but DPR never deemed it fit to respond; prove or disprove this ‘street talk’. Apparently, it could not be bothered and in the manner of most government agencies, it does not owe Nigerians any explanation about its operations; in fact, the less Nigerians know about our oil(y) business, the better it seems for DPR.

    Hardball was, however, jolted last week when it came out that DPR is actually worried about misconceptions of its functions by the public. In media reports, we learnt that DPR held a stakeholders’ parley in Lagos where it was revealed that it faced challenges bordering on under-staffing, under-funding, lack of working tools and public misconception of its functions, to name a few. In spite of this, DPR insists, it remains committed to its key functions of monitoring all petroleum industry operations or activities being carried out under licences and leases in the country… well now that Hardball is wiser, it is safe to reverse oneself and ask: wetin DPR no dey do sef, abi?

  • Ekiti: Blues from a prodigal

    Erom Wole Soyinka, our own WS and bard, it was Blues for a Prodigal.  But from one of WS’s kindred spirits on the literary plane, Niyi Osundare, it is blues from a prodigal, in the aftermath of the Ekiti governorship election of June 21.

    Prof. Osundare, ace poet and literary teacher, may have been “rural-born and peasant-bred”, from his native Ikere-Ekiti.

    But by his take on the Ekiti election, at least from the winners’ perspective, he has become an instant prodigal — not if the old Peter Ayodele Fayose is alive and well, though the Ekiti governor-elect claims that Fayose the Terrible is dead; and a new Fayose the Reasonable is risen from those terrible ashes.

    However it stands, for Osundare, there might be no triumphant Return of the Native soon, to pun Thomas Hardy’s sixth published novel — and the reason is simple: his devastating poetic take on the Ekiti governorship election, in four stanzas, which he titled: “The People Voted Their Stomach — Blues For An Arrested Renaissance,” now trending on the social media, after release on Sahara reporters.

    The explosive opener:

    A-RICE, oh compatriots

    Your stomach’s call obey …

    Hold out your bowls for the golden grains

    Pawn your pride without delay

    Is there a more biting record of satirical poetry, of the Ekiti folk, by one of their own?

    “A-RICE, oh compatriots”, reminds you, doesn’t it, of Nigeria’s national anthem, “Arise, o  compatriots”?  And if “Nigeria’s call obey” becomes “Your stomach’s call obey”, what does that pun suggest?

    That Ekiti, the hardy land of honour, has at last fallen for the electoral corruption of Nigeria, a country of anything goes?  If so, what happens to its old ethos, under Obafemi Awolowo’s developmental politics, of honour or nothing?

    O, for more poetic lamentation!

    The Riceman is here, your lord and saviour

    Pawn your vote for his golden gift …

    The people voted their stomach

    And the dunghill usurped their future …

    Cunning Riceman with bags

    Full of tricks and daggers …

    His first coming left us all

    In ashes and fluttering rags …

    Brazen murders, strange disappearances:

    His hands drip with un-expiated crimes

    But he has an arsenal of cash and rice

    Both so vital in these degenerate times …

    And now the final lamentation, of a choice to proudly head back into the past?

    Too good for us, far too advanced

    The reigning King is too high above our rot …

    Too much bound to Excellence and Honour

    And a public garment without a blot …

    He expends state funds on the road to the Future

    He never paves the way to our bottomless stomach …

    Whoever doesn’t know in the eating world

    That the gut is a grand, demanding monarch …

    We asked for rice, he gave us Reason

    We asked for booty, he gave us the Book

    So we trooped all out to cast our lot

    For the side of the dark and loaded crook …

    Is this the lament of a fanciful, out-of-tune poet? Or the true anguish of an Ekiti patriot, struggling to retain his sanity when others have merrily and proudly lost theirs?

    Time will tell.

  • Charly Boy Show goes to church

    Of course, there are times when life imitates art, contrary to the thinking that it is only art that imitates life; and it was perhaps fitting that an entertainer provided entertainment by behaviour closer to art than life. Whatever Mr. Charles Oputa, aka Charly Boy, intended to achieve by dramatically snatching the microphone from Imo State Governor Rochas Okorocha at the funeral service for his father, Justice Chukwudifu Oputa, all he succeeded in doing was to score cheap publicity points. The setting was the Sacred Heart Church, Oguta, Imo State.

    Funnily enough, Charly Boy reportedly accused the governor of wanting to score “cheap political points” at the event. It is not clear what he meant by his allegation, particularly given the remarks by the governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Mr. Sam Onwuemeodo, which provided illumination. Onwuemeodo said: “The Imo State governor had worked together with Charly Boy both when the late Justice was ill, until the time he died and the preparation for the burial which also encouraged the governor to make substantial financial input and also organised a special day of tribute at the expense of the state government with Charly Boy also present with other members of the family.”

    He continued: “This is why the sudden change of character of Charly Boy at the church service, in which case, he insisted that the governor would not talk as protocol demanded could not be understood, except that he was acting the script handed over to him by some of the governorship aspirants from the state who might have been rattled by the thunderous ovation that greeted the governor by the crowd when he was first introduced.”

    It was no surprise that following Charly Boy’s breach of reasonable and responsible conduct, a rattled Okorocha had to leave the venue and several other guests reportedly left the church in anticipation of further trouble, which thankfully did not happen.  Providing background to the ugly development, reports said a day earlier, Charly Boy walked out of the venue of a tribute session for his late father organised in Owerri by the state government, based on the same allegation of politicisation.

    For the avoidance of doubt, it ought to be said and stressed that the late Justice Oputa, alias Socrates, a retired Justice of the Supreme Court, recognised for his role as the chairman of the Federal Government’s Human Rights Investigations Commission set up by the Obasanjo presidency, popularly called the Oputa panel, was a respected public figure deserving of state attention in death, regardless of the colouration of the government in power.

    This important consideration should have guided Charly Boy, whatever his misgivings about Okorocha’s administration. The ceremonies were intended to honour his father, which was the ultimate; and it was insignificant whether the governor allegedly chose to bask in his father’s reflected glory and gain political mileage from his burial. Furthermore, he should have been civil enough to give the office of the governor the right and proper respect.

    By his misconduct, he ironically succeeded in turning his father’s funeral into nothing less than a silly show, despite his reported initial remark that burying the man should not be seen as a Charly Boy Show, referring to his hot TV show where anything could happen.

  • World Cup: Way of the (3rd) world?

    Okay, Hardball is quite aware that the term 3rd World has long been banished, especially as it concerns Africa. But a village wag used to say that you can only rename your goat, you cannot help the fact of its goatness. You may take umbrage about African countries being labelled in derogatory terms what is to be done if we cannot help acting in self-deprecating and even disgraceful ways?

    We simply refer here to the attitude and behaviours of teams and football officials at the ongoing world football fiesta in Brazil. Information oozing out of the camps of most of the five African nations at the tournament has been less than savoury, to say the least. Apart from Team Algeria, the others, including Cote D’Ivoire, Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria are all encumbered with one money row or the other. This of course has hampered the performance of African teams in the competition apart from the odium it brings upon the continent.

    Most notable is the Ghana cash haul affair. The world had four years to prepare for this great football show. Even the host nation built numerous new, state-of-the-art stadia among other massive infrastructure provisions in the build up to hosting the world. But for Ghana, it seems the mundial caught up with her by surprise  though it had qualified for the competition several months ago. Why do we assert thus, you might ask? It’s because the whole world is still laughing over the ribald trans-Atlantic cash haul ordered by the Ghanaian president last Monday to unlock a most embarrassing deadlock between the country’s players and her football officials.

    According to a BBC report, the World Cup qualifying bonuses, which ought to have been paid to the team months ago, were not paid. Now, the players boycotted training early last week, threatening not to file out for their last group match against Portugal last Thursday. The looming crisis and attendant shame pushed Ghana’s president to charter a plane, load it with over $3 million in cash and had it flown direct to Brazil. Presidential officials noted that the cash was borrowed in lieu of FIFA’s prize money pay-out after the tournament. Whoever hauls cash like this anymore in this age? The president’s cash did not save the Ghanaian team; it crashed out.

    Players’ fee crisis also brewed in Nigeria’s Super Eagles’ camp through last weekend even though officials denied it. Nigeria’s team that qualified for the round of 16 is said to have refused to turn out for training late last week because of appearance fees palaver. Nigeria’s president too had to fly emergency cash to Brazil. Will this save the team against an organised and psychologically-stable France?

    So would we be unreasonable if we insist that this can only happen in a 3rd World country? Would the American, English or even Iranian teams get into this kind of mess? These vexatious players’ fee brouhaha that continuously plague African countries, are they not simple administrative routines that ought to have been carefully documented before any tournament and strictly adhered to like other nations?

     

  • World Cup: Way of the (3rd) world?

    Okay, Hardball is quite aware that the term 3rd World has long been banished, especially as it concerns Africa. But a village wag used to say that you can only rename your goat, you cannot help the fact of its goatness. You may take umbrage about African countries being labelled in derogatory terms what is to be done if we cannot help acting in self-deprecating and even disgraceful ways?

    We simply refer here to the attitude and behaviours of teams and football officials at the ongoing world football fiesta in Brazil. Information oozing out of the camps of most of the five African nations at the tournament has been less than savoury, to say the least. Apart from Team Algeria, the others, including Cote D’Ivoire, Cameroon, Ghana and Nigeria are all encumbered with one money row or the other. This, of course, has hampered the performance, of African teams in the competition apart from the odium it brings upon the continent.

    Most notable is the Ghana cash haul affair. The world had four years to prepare for this great football show. Even the host nation built numerous new, state-of-the-art stadia among other massive infrastructure provisions in the build-up to hosting the world. But for Ghana, it seems the mundial caught up with her by surprise,  though it had qualified for the competition several months ago. Why do we assert thus, you might ask? It’s because the whole world is still laughing over the ribald trans-Atlantic cash haul ordered by the Ghanaian president last Monday to unlock a most embarrassing deadlock between the country’s players and her football officials.

    According to a BBC report, the World Cup qualifying bonuses, which ought to have been paid to the team months ago, were not paid. Now, the players boycotted training early last week, threatening not to file out for their last group match against Portugal last Thursday. The looming crisis and attendant shame pushed Ghana’s president to charter a plane, load it with over $3 million in cash and had it flown direct to Brazil. Presidential officials noted that the cash was borrowed in lieu of FIFA’s prize money pay-out after the tournament. Whoever hauls cash like this anymore in this age? The president’s cash did not save the Ghanaian team; it crashed out.

    Players’ fee crisis also brewed in Nigeria’s Super Eagles’ camp through last weekend, even though officials denied it. Nigeria’s team that qualified for the round of 16 is said to have refused to turn out for training late last week because of appearance fees palaver. Nigeria’s president too had to fly emergency cash to Brazil. Will this save the team against an organised and psychologically stable France?

    So would we be unreasonable if we insist that this can only happen in a 3rd World country? Would the American, English or even Iranian teams get into this kind of mess? These vexatious players’ fee brouhaha that continuously plague African countries, are they not simple administrative routines that ought to have been carefully documented before any tournament and strictly adhered to like other nations?