The Nation Newspaper

Tag: deserves

  • Nigeria deserves Cup — Renard

    Nigeria deserves Cup — Renard

    ZAMBIA coach, Herve Renard, has said Nigeria deserved to be crowned Orange 2013 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) champions because they played well throughout the tournament, better than losing finalists Burkina Faso.

    Renard said in an interview on Sunday night that Nigeria played attacking soccer in contrast to Burkina Faso, a team he described as relying more on counterattacks.

    He said the Paul Put-coached Burkina Faso, who lost 1-0 to Nigeria courtesy of a Sunday Mba’s 40th minute strike in the final played at National Stadium in Johannesburg last Sunday, lacked skill and inspiration.

    “Nigeria won because they deserved it,” said Renard, who now has a daunting task of guiding Zambia to the FIFA 2014 World Cup in Brazil after Chipolopolo’s embarrassing exit from Orange 2013 Africa Cup

    When reminded shortly before kick-off that Burkina Faso outplayed one of the pre-tournament favourites Ghana in the semi-finals, therefore, deserved the title, the Frenchman said the Stallions were only helped by an uneven Mbombela Stadium pitch.

    “Sorry! Are you joking or what? They played five games of beach soccer. You will see on a good field. All the players stay behind and wait for counterattacks,” he said.

    “It’s normal, when you are under the other team, you are better on a bad pitch. Ghana were so bad on that field because they are not used to it. Ghana was not good for beach soccer that is all,” he added.

    Renard said Burkina Faso were also lucky to have escaped with a 0-0 draw against Zambia in a Group C match that saw their leading striker Alain Traore’s tournament coming to an end after a thigh injury.

    “Just one goal versus Burkina Faso was changing the whole story. They were so lucky versus us. We had 71 per cent of ball possession versus Burkina Faso, they are not a good team,” he said.

    “Burkina Faso won three games to be in the final and three games in their Africa Cup history. With Zambia in the Africa Cup, I have won six games, drawn five and lost two,”he added.

    He said it would have been a disaster had Burkina Faso won the tournament and subsequently advanced to the FIFA 2014 World Cup dress rehearsal, the FIFA 2013 Confederations Cup slated for June in Brazil.

    “They have been poor throughout the competition. They can’t represent Africa. You are a Zambian you are supposed to love the skill. There is no skill in this Burkina Faso team except Jonathan Pitroipa and Alain Traore,” he said.

    Chipolopolo players have this time around failed to make it into the AFCON 11 squad owing to the team’s early elimination from the competition.

  • Why Zuma deserves to lose ANC leadership election

    Why Zuma deserves to lose ANC leadership election

    The African National Congress (ANC), South Africa’s ruling party for the past 18 years, began its five-day elective conference yesterday. The conference, attended this year by about 4,000 delegates, holds every five years. Top on the agenda is the election of the party’s leader, with the winner expected to lead the party into the country’s general election in 2014. Whoever wins the party’s leadership contest will automatically become the next president. Vying for the coveted position are President Jacob Zuma, 70, and his vice president, Kgalema Motlanthe, 63. The contest comes at a time when South Africa (Pop. 50m) has been described as one of the most unequal societies in the world, with more than half of its people living in poverty, and its bond rating downgraded by at least two international rating agencies, including Moody’s, and Standard and Poor’s. There are also widespread allegations of corruption.

    Mr Zuma, who has no formal education, and is self-taught, is expected to garner enough support from the party’s delegates to win the leadership election at the conference taking place in Bloemfontein (Mangaung). He is still charismatic and clever, compared with his challenger who is described as ‘quiet and unassuming.’ A Zulu from KwaZulu-Natal, he is very popular among the Zulu, the country’s largest ethnic group. But even though Zuma is expected to win, he deserves to lose. The reasons are legion and compelling.

    Apart from lacking the intellectual depth to innovatively tackle the mounting social and economic problems facing Africa’s largest economy, Zuma is also embarrassingly frivolous and unable to summon the gravitas required to replicate a fraction of the nobility Nelson Mandela, and to a lesser extent, Thabo Mbeki, imbued South Africa. Even though he makes strenuous efforts to separate his public life from his private life, it is disturbingly remarkable that Zuma has been married six times, currently has four wives, and has some 21 children. The business of presiding over South Africa is too serious to be left in the hands of a serial polygamist permanently distracted by the opposite sex. In 2006, he barely escaped a rape conviction, in spite of making very ludicrous statements about sex and HIV infection.

    Even if we ignore his 2009 acquittal on corruption charges, though his financial adviser, Schabir Shaik, was jailed for soliciting bribes in a $5bn arms contract scandal, Zuma has really never shaken off the image of someone who cannot be trusted to properly manage the finances of his country. But much more importantly, Zuma deserves to lose because of his poor handling of the mineworkers’ strike which convulsed the country in August. Some 34 miners were shot dead while protesting low wages and poor working conditions at the Lonmin plant near Marikana. It was the most violent repression perpetrated by the police since the collapse of apartheid, indicating that little has changed in that country’s law enforcement operations. Other unions have since embarked on their own protests to press for better working conditions and higher wages, and Zuma has equally displayed appalling inability to tackle the growing discontent.

    If Zuma wins the top party post, he will probably lead the ANC and preside over the affairs of his country up to the 2019 elections, by which time he will be 77. It is not his advanced age that is the problem. What may constitute a tragedy for South Africa is that Zuma is unlikely to display sterling leadership qualities or exhibit more restraint than he has shown so far. He will not be more innovative, he will not be more intellectual, he will not be less frivolous, and he will not be less distracted. The leadership position his country hopes to secure in Africa will of course be threatened the more, as will its chances of social and economic turnaround. With South Africa undermined by leadership insufficiency, and Zimbabwe racing downhill on account of President Robert Mugabe’s insensitivity and poor judgement, and Nigeria wracked by egregious leadership incompetence, the outlook for Africa grows dimmer by the day, if not by the hour.

  • Osun deserves more from N17.6 billion flood package

    Osun deserves more from N17.6 billion flood package

    SIR: In the past few weeks, millions of Nigerians in about 25 states in this country have suffered from the deluge that destroyed their property and washed away their means of livelihood like farms. While there is still nothing serious to cheer in our response ability to emergency situation of such magnitude, the Federal Government has slightly roused itself from its accustomed lethargy and characteristic hesitation and has availed the affected states some succour in monetary terms.

    But even at that, this latest gesture has some question marks clearly hanging over it. I make bold to say that the FG is quite unfair to my state, Osun, in the paltry amount it gives to it. Considering the huge amount the administration of Governor Rauf Aregbesola committed to fighting flood in the state between 2011 and this year, I am of the opinion that Osun deserves special consideration.

    In his nationwide broadcast sometime ago, President Goodluck Jonathan announced the release of N17.6 billion as direct financial assistance to the affected states and some Federal Government agencies responsible for disaster management. The states were grouped into four categories: Oyo, Kogi, Benue, Plateau, Adamawa, Delta, Bayelsa and Anambra come under category A; Jigawa, Kano, Bauchi, Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa, Taraba, Cross River, Edo, Lagos and Imo States fall under Category B; Kwara, Katsina, Gombe, Ogun, Ondo, Ebonyi, Abia and Rivers make the Category C; and Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Yobe, Enugu, Ekiti, Osun, Akwa Ibom, Borno and Federal Capital Territory are grouped into Category D. According to the President, N500 million goes to each of the states in Category A, N400 million to each of those in B; N300 million each for states in Category C, and each of those in the last group receives N250 million.

    This classification is based on the level of damage wrought in the states –Categories A and B are regarded as the worst hit, while those of the remaining two categories are considered as less affected.

    The seeming defect in the FG’s intervention has to do with the inclusion of Osun State into the last group. It is on record that prior to the assumption of office of Aregbesola, many towns in Osun were known to be terribly affected by floods. In fact, the government of Olagunsoye Oyinlola unbelievably saw the disaster as insoluble and so asked the affected people to learn to live with it. But not so with Aregbesola’s government. This government saw the plight of the people and got cracking without hanging fire. In the state capital for example, the government deployed both money and men in ensuring that the inhabitants were free from the nightmare of floods. Blocked canals, rivulets, drainages, rivers, and streams were thoroughly cleared for water to flow freely. The exercise was repeated a number of times. It was this effort that saved the state from being affected by the latest flood calamity.

    Therefore, if the FG wants to help states affected by flood, I think states like Osun that have shown seriousness in the use of resources to check disaster should have been considered for the biggest package. This is important when the facts that the state is not among the states whose allocations and internally generated revenues are on the high side. The FG would have successfully given the state a great encouragement if it had grouped it among the states with the fat package. I don’t think the government has demonstrated any serious sense of fairness to Osun. What it has done is to handsomely reward indolence and chastise industry. Encouraging states which are proactive in their response to issues bordering on the wellbeing of citizens has its way of inspiring healthy relationship between the centre and the federating units. Sincerely, I think Osun should have got more than it is given.

    • Bidemi Adegbite,

    Osogbo, Osun State