The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Finally

  • Finally, the services of Father Time brought to the fray

    Since last week, reader, you and I have been made unwilling witnesses to a lot of political drama. Remember that I once mentioned that our election stunts normally include a war of words, a crossing of swords and the services of father time. May I solemnly remind you that I mentioned before that we have already seen the war and the crossing. Finally, the services of father time were brought into the fray last week. I think someone should pay me for predicting that. Thank you; that clapping is payment enough.

    Well, you know the story. Last Saturday, just when we were about set and rearing to go and choose … err… ‘our leaders’, news came that the elections had been postponed! The rumour mills were agog. There were not enough materials on ground. The transfer of materials had not been completed. Some early-bird illegal voters had been caught. There was a great deal of disconnect in the election preparation machinery itself. I tell you, when correct information is scarce, incorrect ones play the field with reckless abandon.

    Of course, the reverberations caused by the news were not only political, psychological or sociological but grammatical as well. The political reverberations were quite plain for all to see. Our cards remained in their sheaths and we could not exercise our franchise. In short our suffrages became weakened. Psychologically, some of us became a little discouraged. I heard someone say ‘let them be voting their thing themselves’. Now, please don’t ask me what that means because I don’t know.

    Sociologically, the cancellation gave ‘us the society’ that sense of déjà vu all over again, as they say. Now, that can’t be good. I heard one exclaim, ‘ah, ah, when will this country grow up sef and stop postponing elections anyhow?’ Another one said, ‘umph, they want to do their mago-mago again.’ To some, cancelling or postponing elections has become a Nigerian thing, part of the organic structure of the country. Me, I kept my peace because I thought, supposing INEC knows a thing or two that we don’t? Or three or four?

    The country was given a grammar treat. I tell you, anyone who has had any dealings with grammar will understand that it is not easy. Most people would sooner go through a bout of piles I think than be asked to determine the grammatical correctness of a phrase or sentence. That was the plight of the citizens as they were asked to accept ‘I regret’ for ‘I apologise’ from the INEC chief. I saw many of my citizens going around muttering to themselves and rolling their eyes in agony: ‘Has the INEC chief apologized or not when he says ‘I regret’?’ Did he regret or apologise for that day’s revenue loss? As I speak to you now, many have not come up with a definitive difference. Grammar, grrr!.

    During the week also, the media reported that President Buhari stated that he wanted a free and fair election. Very good! Anyone therefore, said he, who ‘snatches’ an election box should be shot immediately. Ha! The presidency then gave further clarifications that if anyone had any problem with that directive, it meant he had something to hide. Ah, ah!!

    Naturally, many people have been reacting both positively and negatively. It is a little like one of the Hans Anderson stories about the emperor’s new clothes. You don’t know it? Then let me oblige you with a summary just to illustrate how the town can be so divided over a matter such as this.

    Once, there was an emperor who was very rich and powerful and loved new clothes, just like me, without the rich and powerful though. So, he had his tailors constantly staying up all night sewing up stitches to keep him happy in new clothes. Well, one straying fellow turned up in the town one day claiming to have the act of sewing pat down to a T and could make the emperor the best clothes in the world. He was given his own apartment and the whole apparatuses of the job. Knowing nothing about sewing, he proceeded to having himself a jolly time. Whenever the emperor sent to know the level of completion of this prize attire, the tailor replied, ‘almost’. If anyone doubted him, he called them a ‘sinner’ for failing to ‘see’ it. Eventually, the day came when he declared ‘it’ finished and the emperor wore ‘it’ through the streets. Some of the adults admired ‘its’ beauty. Some did not see anything but kept mum, but it took a little child to be able to say all he could see was the emperor’s nakedness.

    I quite understand the president’s frustrations and where he is coming from. He is coming from the history of a country where corruption appears to have been woven into the very fabric of the society. It is where criminals appear to be stronger than the law. It is also where election riggers are alleged to regularly send their thugs to ‘snatch’ ballot boxes containing the people’s votes and cause the elections to be declared either incomplete or won by the undeserving.

    Snatching ballot boxes is a hideous crime. It amounts to robbing the electorate of their sovereignty. It robs them of their minds, intelligence, thoughts, humanness, freedom, choice and above all, their personhood. It is one thing to steal the people’s money and get away with it. It is another thing to steal their votes. This is as good as stealing the people’s intelligence, and this is where the president is coming from. He is coming from that anger. So, his directive is very understandable. I just have a little trouble understanding it, even though I have nothing to hide. I am going round and round, aren’t I?

    In a democracy, a sovereign nation works within the law. The greatest representative of the sovereignty and the law is the chief executive, the president. The instrument that binds and holds the state together, being the law, must be seen to work for the benefit of all. The person who ensures respect for that law is the chief executive. When he loses respect for the law, then its goodbye to that sovereignty. In this instance, in giving the shoot-at-sight order, the president was hitting at the law, not so much the criminal.

    Many have shown that they do not understand that order, and, to be honest, neither do I, like I said. Now, I am coming from a history of a country where the constitutive forces that are armed have regularly shot at civilians, with or without provocation. It is where such shootings have not been fully, sufficiently and satisfactorily investigated or even brought under the law. It is also where the families of such victims have had to bear their own burdens of pain alone with little or no redress from the law or compensation from the authorities. To thus give that kind of summary directive to people carrying arms in that country seems to many among us really asking for it.

    Election criminals must be brought before the superior law. It is true that criminals don’t always fight fair, but we cannot throw the law away because of that. That will be inviting chaos and confusion to reign supreme, to misquote Milton. It is also certain that criminals cannot be fought on their own turf. That will be suicidal for the society; it will result in naked force versus brute force. That’s right, only the turf will be standing at the end of it.

    The president wants good elections. It is only by respecting the law that this can be ensured. He must beat the way to that path for all of us.

  • Finally, the Buhari effect

    There are variations in the tale of plots that eventuated in his dethronement some thirty-four years ago.

    But one account has never been in dispute – the introverted king had fore-knowledge of the dark conspiracy against him by his estranged military comrades.

    Others would have reacted savagely.

    On the summer night of August 1985 they finally came for him, the commander-in-chief chose to keep the posture of imperturbability till the very end, only offering to play martyr for something else – fidelity to service etiquette. According to multiple autobiographical accounts, not until the mutineering junior officers offered him full military salute as their superior did General Muhammadu Buhari eventually agree to surrender at Dodan Barracks.

    More than three decades later, faced with another stiff challenge to his power, it is an indifferent Buhari we see all over again.

    In the realm of psychology, there is surely a stark difference between being carefree and careless. The former describes a nobility of spirit that stultifies desperation; the latter hints of the negative instinct likely to result in self-destruction.

    Given the circumstances of his rise and fall in his first incarnation as military law-giver, it is safe to categorize Buhari’s affliction then as being “carefree” in power, other than the possibility of a fatalism fueled by faith.

    For a man often bad-mouthed by political opponents as too wooden and lacking spontaneity, how remarkable then that PMB finally managed to improvise a battle sign in a difficult moment and in an unlikely territory recently.

    While the opposition forces booed and heckled him at the National Assembly during the presentation of the draft budget, the old infantry general, exuding self-confidence even under fire, flashed his now famous eight-finger salute with a flourish that could only be meant to taunt traducers present.

    It was left for the political palmists to interpret that to the rest of us as a short-hand for eight years (term terms of office). And regardless of spirited attempts by opponent to draw a parallel between that sign and the symbol of a discredited extremist Islamic sect in Egypt, the Buhari people are not ashamed to show this off as their new mobilization tool. Overall, if truly Buhari is desperate about retaining power this time, we are yet to see the symptoms, even less than five weeks to the presidential election. One of the ready means of gauging the desperation of an incumbent seeking tenure-renewal is the willingness to throw cash around, even long before the race is declared open.

    While it is true that the hangover from the economic recession will ordinarily predispose politicians to keep an eye on the wallet, even more compelling is what is now generally acknowledged as Buhari’s proclivity for austere taste. This has obviously redounded not only in the character of his government and the options opened to his party but also the larger inter-party contest.

    When they say a lot depends on the presiding administration in an election season, it is partly because the power of incumbency enables it determine the shape of the battle and dictate the rules.

    In a recent article, Femi Ojudu, one of Nigerian journalism’s best currently making a difference in national politics, declared the forthcoming general elections as potentially the cheapest in the nation’s history. I cannot agree more.

    By deliberately keeping the campaign budget low, Buhari has, perhaps unwittingly, helped reduce the financial pressure on his opponents, thereby availing them a fighting chance.

    On a jovial note, the side talk in town today is, therefore, the epidemic of a “strange thirst” or “dry campaign” – euphemism for electioneering with very little or no provision of the customary freebies. No one has seen free dollars yet. But the freeloaders are unwilling to give up yet. Those who had anticipated such “rain” early, salivating lustfully, are now forced to scale down their expectation to, maybe, the last days of the campaign.

    Indeed, what Nigerians were used to on election eve is the culture of bazaar and feasting. Incumbency simply meant the license to open the public treasury to oil the electioneering wheels of the ruling party.

    Perhaps, the APC people have learnt from what befell PDP.  Same hour four years ago, the then ruling party took the nation on an infernal path in what would later be known as Dasukigate. Defence budgets set aside to fight Boko Haram rampaging at the door were instead heaped on the buffet table at the PDP caucus and the party barons casually took turn to make a kill.

    Well, maybe the trouble was semantics. One, the books expressly indicated the money was for arms. Perhaps, the PDP leaders’ only undoing was applying some creativity by simply settling for liquid arms instead to prosecute what they considered more nagging – the pending elections.

    But with the hostile takeover of Aso Rock on May 29, 2015, it was inevitable the prodigals would be made to vomit what they had gobbled. Many are still answering charges today. Everything considered, this development is surely good for our democracy. It is a good step to begin the demonetization of electoral contest in Nigeria.

  • 2019: Finally, the race begins

    I have in the past week seen not a few partisans frame the 2019 presidential elections in strictly binary times: good versus the bad; saint versus sinners etc. Not a few, I must confess, have somewhat framed it as one battlebetween anti-corruption crusaders and that formless, internet tribe that calleditself the Bring Back our Corruptionmovement –drum majors for the freeloading ancien regime that Nigerians sent packing in 2015.

    Today, withAtiku Abubakaron the ballot for the Peoples Democratic Party, a man who supposedly wears corruption on his shoulder like an epaulet, it seems to me that that issues underlying the contest would certainly not be framed so narrowly. Of course, in a race, which only few months ago, seemed one-sided if not entirely closed, the nation should consider itself indebted to the TurakinAdamawafor finally injecting the long expected verve.

    And so here we are: Atiku Abubakar versus Muhammadu Buhari. As The Nation’s highly esteemed columnist Idowu Akinlotan argued with his usual candour in his column on Sunday, had the APC a choice in the matter, Atiku, the Turakin Adamawa would certainly be one opponent they would rather not have on the ballot. That Atiku is a formidable opponent is certainly undeniable. In fact, had the ruling APC ever nursed the illusion the 2019 presidential contest would be something of a cakewalk, the choice ofAtiku has since changed that; today, the challenge that he representsis certainly one that the APC can afford to ignore to its peril.

    Yet, there is something intriguing about the latest quest by Atiku. This was an individual who flunked the APC primaries in 2014. Never mind that he has been a perennial sojourner in virtually all the leading parties in the quest to realise his presidential dream.  Add to that the baggage – corruption – that most Nigerians revile, the question of his electability immediately pops up.

    Well, that is the individual that PDP has thrust forward for the highest office. My colleague Segun Ayobolu had raised the poser in his back page column in this newspaper on Saturday: Is this the Atiku moment?  That Atiku’s quest has since moved from a wild proposition to a distinct possibility seems to me not just a measure of how easily the tides can change in the affairs of a complex country like Nigeria, but how easily too success can be mismanaged, this time by the APC.

    Proof of course is the near alarm in the camp of the ruling APC since his emergence as the PDP flag bearer! Just imagine the number of tanks already rolled out even when the real battle is not even joined – yet!

    We must of course understand what makes the Atiku challenge a viable proposition . If I may make the preliminary point: nothing makes the Atiku candidacy any less sellable than of Mai Gaskiya, the ramrod, Daura-born infantry General who in 2014 was painted by the PDP as unelectable: put it simply to the issue of messaging!

    I have heard many dismiss the Atiku surge as merely underlying the craving by corrupt elements for the return of the ancien regime under which slush funds are freely shared among the elites. They are right to the extent that there are no free funds anymore for anyone to share – thanks to the Treasury Single Account (TSA), which ensures that entities which hitherto operated outside the strictures of the appropriation process are now brought into the orbit.

    However, it would certainly be the height of conceit for the administration to frame issues so narrowly. To be sure, the economy is certainly not in great shape despite the vast improvements in oil earnings. In any event, there is a sense in which the economic environment, despite the ambitious reforms being undertaken, is still light years of what is needed. A part of the administration’s unflattering scorecard is the ‘emergence’ as global capital of poverty; it certainly says a lot about the efficaciousness of current therapies that the population of out-of-school children has since jumped from 10 to 13 million. Despite oil prices being above $80 a barrels, the economy continues to wobble. For a country whose economy in the last three years has been in reverse gear, the kind of appetite for development  that one would expect is to put it mildly – missing. Where new thinking is indicated in our public finances and project implementation, what is more apparent are old wines being put in old wineskins and then labelled as new!

    The result, which is the ‘stasis’ across the board would ordinarily suffice to feed the current angst.

    Agreed, the seeds of the rot were sown by previous governments including the PDP. But then, the Buhari administration has had the whole of three years to fix some of them. Had the administration shown greater verve and dexterity, there is some chance that the current regression could have been mitigated. Again, the charge has always been – and this is not entirely without some merit – that the Buhari administration has tended to operate like the famous Red Sea – neither open nor welcoming to ideas different from its own. For a country so gifted with diversity, it is unfortunate that the administration has neither tapped into this nor reflected this in its policies and programmes.

    Indeed, had the administration been less insular, it would probably have availed itself of different perspectives other than its own – in dealing with some of the challenges facing the country.

    Is Atiku therefore the answer?

    Here, my simple answer would be that there is simply no evidence to support this. So much for the hype about being  business savvy, Atiku is neither in the mould of a Dangote nor in the class of Mike Adenuga or Oba Otudeko – individuals that have either built or are building world-class institutions. In any case, while a fair knowledge of the economy will be a clear advantage, these are hardly requirements to run a country like Nigeria where talents could easily be assembled and pressed to work.

    Although it has been said – and this would be a strong point if true – that Atiku has a way with talents, at this time, that is merely conjectural – yet to be proven.

    In any case nothing says that the Buhari administration cannot spring surprises. And this, it must!

  • Re: Finally, Udom cuts too close to bone

    ON May 1, 2018, a day dedicated to celebrating Nigerian workers for their huge contributions to the socio-political development of our nation, a certain John Ekperikpe (an obvious pseudo-name and a ribald opposition media apparatchik in Akwa Ibom State ) decided to regurgitate a long discredited line of narrative which the purveyors have over time, tried to  oil for traction  but which had thankfully  failed miserably: the attempt to create  a wedge between Mr. Udom Emmanuel, Governor, Akwa Ibom State and President Muhammadu Buhari (GCFR), President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of  the Federal Republic of Nigeria, and in the process endanger the warm and cordial relationship the two Nigerian patriots have enjoyed since 2015.

    Writing under a bewildering caption “Finally, Udom cuts too close to the bone”, in The Nation newspaper (page 20)  Mr. Ekperikpe went on a logically confounding and absolutely obtuse  layer of analysis on what he and his sponsors had wanted the world to believe  has been Governor Emmanuel’s  ” ill-will, contempt and unvarnished hatred for the President”.

    Having read through the logically vacuous write-up, my initial reaction was to ignore the piece as I had done several others in the past, but for the undisguised intent of the writer, which, as I had earlier mentioned, was a clever by half attempt to throw a monkey wrench in the relationship Governor Emmanuel enjoys with President Buhari, I had no other recourse but to do this Right of Reply.

    What had obviously riled Mr. Ekperikpe and his sponsors was a letter that was issued by the Chairman of the Uyo Capital City Development Authority, (UCCDA), Mr. Enobong Uwah, notifying a nascent group called National Committee of Buhari’s Support Group that given the fact their Uyo office is located just a few metres away from Government House, which by itself constitutes a security breach, the group should consider another office location. I will not go into the details of this matter since the facts are all there for everyone to read and draw their own conclusions.

    In a twisted logic Mr. Ekperikpe wants the world to believe that the letter was authorised by Governor Emmanuel and this, again in his opinion represents another anti-Buhari stance by the governor, hence his laborious conclusion that the governor harbours “ill-will, contempt and unvarnished hatred for the president”.

    It is a known fact that the political season is upon us, and most media handlers, hacks and paid hirelings will outdo themselves to show fidelity to whoever is sponsoring their campaign of misinformation and blackmail. They will manufacture and concoct all manner of lies and propaganda all in the hope of negatively defining their targets. Nothing to them will be morally objectionable to waddle into since they live in the mud and will try to drag otherwise decent people into their despicable world of lies, half-truths and obfuscation.

    But there is something these people have inherently failed to understand: the capacity of Nigerians to discern facts from fiction and to dismiss such lies as the handiwork of an intellectually lazy bunch. Ekperikpe’s write-up falls under this range.

    The truth of the matter is that Governor Emmanuel holds President Buhari in the highest esteem and believes as practised elsewhere, that even though one may belong to another political party or share different governance ideology, the President of the Republic remains the symbol of the nation and thus the office and the occupier must be accorded all the respect due him. Governor Emmanuel has in his almost three years in office lived by this conviction, hence the mutual respect and cordial relationship that exists between him and the President.

    The opposition elements in the state have harangued The Presidency since 2015 and have caused to be published paid advertorials where they lectured The Presidency on their own version of civility. They forgot to hearken to the immutable advice of Mike Pence, the Vice President of the United States who had admonished that “we cannot do democracy without a heavy dose of civility”.

    Early this year, when the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) honoured Governor Emmanuel with the Integrity and National Service Award, which was presented to the governor who was ably represented by the Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Charles Udoh, right inside Aso Rock by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mr. Boss Mustapha, members of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in the state were aghast. They wrote insulting advertorials to Mr. Mustapha, the Minister of Information and Tourism, Lai Mohammed, and the Director-General of NTA, lambasting them for giving an award to Governor Emmanuel who in their opinion should be destroyed and blackmailed even when it is a known fact that he has performed exceedingly well and deserves commendations which the NTA, rightfully did. Most discerning Nigerians were disappointed with the state’s APC and were roundly pilloried on the social media space, but obviously they didn’t draw useful lessons from that public relations fiasco.

    The way the APC sees governance in Akwa Ibom State seems to be based purely on zero-sum game or kitchen sink approach: you treat your political foes as mortal enemies, you slap lies on them, blackmail them and slam-shut any door of civil engagement. This is very sad for our democracy.

    It is very unfortunate when Ekperikpe wrote thus: “I believe that Udom Emmanuel’s latest perfidy should earn appropriate response from both the APC and Buharis Presidency. In politics no one turns the other cheek”. May God save us from this brand of politics that John Ekperikpe has prescribed for our state in particular and the nation at large, and may we be filled with the inspiring message of a former American Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, who told the world in the heat of the Republican and Democratic presidential electioneering campaign that “I don’t believe in confrontation. That seems to be outside civil discourse and we all have to be civil to one another”.

    Governor Emmanuel has no apologies for being civil to President Buhari and no amount of cheap lies from some misguided hirelings like John Ekperikpe will change the bond of friendship the two patriots enjoy. There is a little word in the political lexicon that has helped deepen the political culture and governance mechanics of most mature and maturing democracies of which Nigeria is currently enjoying, and that is bipartisanship. Mr. Ekperikpe is advised to look up the full meaning of that word and internalise the meaning. It will help condition his impulses and neuter his ribald passion.

  • Finally, state police

    •State chief executives make what may be a first restructuring move

    Governors across geopolitical and party lines have accepted establishment of state police. Speaking at the end of a National Security Summit organised by the Senate, chairman of the Nigerian Governors Forum (NGF) and Zamfara State governor, Abdulaziz Yari, announced on behalf of his colleagues, the forum’s acceptance of the recommendation of the APC Committee on True Federalism that there is need for establishment of state police in the country.

    The decision is remarkable, particularly that it is based on consensus among a group that was hitherto divided into friends and foes of subnational policing in the federation. According to Governor of Zamfara State, Abdul’aziz Yari, the consensus must have been influenced by the spate of threats to security across the federation: “The first primary responsibility of government anywhere in the world is to ensure that the lives and property of citizens are protected; and there has been so many challenges in Nigeria for the past 10 years ranging from Boko Haram, cattle rustling, armed banditry, militancy in the Niger Delta dwindling the economy and even threatening the unity of the nation.”

    It is reassuring that the governors are upbeat on this matter:”We in governance agree that we can find a way through which we can fine-tune the issue of state police . . .It is not all the states that are supposed to have the state police, those that could, should be able to have it. It is something we cannot take off at the same time. We were created differently.”  While it makes sense for the NGF to worry about a new line of recurrent expenditure on law enforcement, it is crucial for governors to realise that buying into the concept of state police involves more than the worries acknowledged by the NGF chairman: which states are sufficiently endowed to start ahead of others; how well-endowed states should pass their own share of federal police to less endowed states, etc.

    Just as the NGF had observed, the organisation needs to consult extensively with the National Assembly on a subject that has been dear to the hearts of citizens, including governors who had to establish a special security group Hisbah to complement efforts of the federal police to maintain order. This is an opportune time for the governors to think ahead and strategically too. NGF should work out a thorough diagnosis of the existing police system, work out a clear vision on how security can be assured and strengthened in a federal system; generate action plans that can realise such vision; and reflect on what type of relationship should exist between federal and subnational police systems, particularly how to avoid infection of the state police by impediments faced by the federal police force.

    High on the list of governors’ priorities should be how to create a state police that can repel any abuse from both the executive and legislature. The philosophy, structure, and culture of the new police system should avoid the problems that have prevented the current federal police from providing effective and efficient protection of life and property. For example, professionalisation of the police through rigorous training, deployment of technology to assist crime prevention and detection; and limiting state police to crime prevention, detention, and maintenance of public order, rather than overburdening or distracting it with prosecution of criminals requires holistic thinking.

    Governors ought not to leave citizens out of the groups to be consulted on this important matter. Both police and citizens need to be taught the culture of mutual respect and support as sine qua non of law enforcement. Admittedly, there will be challenges, but what is reassuring is that Nigeria has the benefit of learning from models that work in other federal democracies: the United States of America, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Germany, Republic of South Africa, Switzerland, and United Arab Emirates.

    Certainly, this is not the time for governors to entertain doubts, as is evident in the statement of the NGF chairman:”That is why we are saying that it is not all the states that are supposed to have state police.” More appropriately, this is the time for comprehensive consultation with other arms and layers of government and citizens on new calibration of policing—federal and subnational. For example, governors need to generate ideas about the proper role for federal police: should it continue in its omnibus status or just serve as a federal bureau of investigation, thus leaving day-to-day law enforcement and maintenance of order in the hands of state police, and thus free up funds for states to police communities efficiently and effectively?

     

  • Dolphins finally off to Tunis

    Dolphins finally off to Tunis

    After several hours of uncertainty, the delegation of Dolphins FC of Port Harcourt finally departed for Tunis from the Murtala Muhammed International Airport(MMIA), Lagos on Friday afternoon. Players and officials slept at the MMIA but were happy to  board an Emirates Airline flight to Dubai on Friday, to connect a six-hour flight from Dubai to Tunis on Saturday morning.

    It means they will arrive in the Tunisian capital with only a few hours to spare before their CAF Confederation Cup first round, first leg tie against Club Africain.

     

  • Amuneke finally opens Facebook account

    Amuneke finally opens Facebook account

    In a bid to further interact with his teeming fans, Golden Eaglets’ Head coach, Emmanuel Amuneke, has finally opened an account on the famous social platform, Facebook.

    The former Barcelona star recently disassociated himself from a spurious account on the social platform but reckons it is about time he joins the networking train in order to mingle more with the fans.

    “I think it is about time I make a presence on Facebook because of the huge demand from the fans that want my opinions on football issues,” said the former Nigerian international who occasionally appears on Al Jazzier Sport as a soccer pundit.

    He added: “It has always been my dream to share my knowledge of the game with people and I think Facebook is an opportunity to reach out to so many.”

    On the last check, over 50 persons have made friend’s request to the account within just few days of opening but Amuneke has warned against any untoward conduct on the altar of social networking.

    “I have only opened this account on Facebook strictly because of football and there is nothing more to this other than that,” Amuneke noted.

    “There is the need to interact with the fans, especially those who want my opinion about my former club, Barcelona.”

    He, however, pleaded for patience from those he has not confirmed their friendship request because of his present tight schedule:” I’m not going to be on Facebook all the time but I will attend to every request as soon as possible.”

  • Biyi Samuel releases new album, Finally

    Biyi Samuel releases new album, Finally

    Gospel singer, Biyi Samuel, is set to release a 10-track album titled Finally under Adedotun Ajala’s Moyinnet Entertainment Company.

    The artiste, who described it as a long-awaited album since he gained fame with Igi Aruwe over a decade ago, said:  ”It may take a while for God to bless a man or bring breakthrough his way. But that doesn’t imply that God can’t turn around a man’s captivity. This is the story of Biyi Samuel because God has turned around my captivity, after many years. After many years of challenges and doubts, I am now releasing an album that carries a God’s seal.”

    He said the title was a child of necessity, adding that “God has finally smiled on me and lifted me beyond doubts. By his grace, I want to take my music to the international stage. My dream is that if God permits me, I want to do a duet with R. Kelly someday. Lucky Dube is another great artiste I would have loved to collaborate with, if he was alive.”

    Recalling his journey into music, Samuel, who started out as a chorister in his church, said: “I was inspired by my mum who was also in the adult choir. Music is a calling for me. Even if I had studied medicine, my dream profession, I would have still returned to music.”

    Biyi Samuel is a graduate of International Relations from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Osun State.

  • U-20 World Cup: Falconets finally depart in batches tonight

    U-20 World Cup: Falconets finally depart in batches tonight

    Nigeria U-20 women’s team, the Falconets, will finally depart for Moncton, Canada through Frankfurt in two batches aboard Lufthansa Airlines flight on Thursday and Friday from Abuja.

    A training tour of Canada was called off following the recent crisis that rocked the country’s football.

    Meanwhile, coach Peter Dedevbo has released his final list of 21 players for this year’s FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup finals, including full international Asisat Oshoala and former U-17 stars Patience Okaeme, Halimatu Ayinde, Jiroro Idike, Uchenna Kanu and Yetunde Adeboyejo.

    There are three goalkeepers, seven defenders, five midfielders and six strikers in the squad that Dedevbo said will stun the world in Canada.

    Dedevbo, who steered the U-17 girls to the quarter finals at the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup finals in Trinidad and Tobago in 2010 and in Azerbaijan in 2012, has also included US–based college star Courtney Dike, younger sister of Nigeria forward Bright Dike. The tall and spritely forward from Oklahoma State University is the only overseas –based player in the squad.

    Nigeria has featured in every edition of the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, since the inaugural edition, also in Canada, in 2002. They reached the Final in Germany four years ago and also made the semi-finals in Japan in 2012.

    This year, Dedevbo’s maidens will clash with Mexico, Korea Republic and England in Group C, with the first two games coming up in Moncton, before they travel to Edmonton to slug it out with England.

     

    THE FULL LIST

    Goalkeepers:

    Sandra Chiihii (Ibom Angels); Ibijoke Sangonuga (Inneh Queens); Chiudo Ehiudo (Delta Queens).

     Defenders:

    Ebere Okoye (Nasarawa Amazons); Jiroro Idike (Delta Queens); Maryam Ibrahim (Nasarawa Amazons); Sarah Nnodim (Delta Queens); Ugo Njoku (Rivers Angels); Victoria Aidelomon (Pelican Stars); Gladys Abasi (Ibom Angels).

    Midfielders:

    Asisat Oshoala (Rivers Angels); Patience Okaeme (Delta Queens); Halimatu Ayinde (Delta Queens); Yetunde Adeboyejo (Bayelsa Queens); Osarenoma Igbinovia (Inneh Queens).

    Forwards:

    Loveth Ayila (Makwada Babes); Courtney Dike (Oklahoma State University, USA); Uchenna Kanu (Pelican Stars); Yetunde Aluko (Sunshine Queens); Chinwendu Ihezuo (Pelican Stars); Uchechi Sunday (Rivers Angels).

  • Finally, Igiebor returns to Spain

    The soap opera involving Nigeria international Nosa Igiebor has reached its conclusion.

    Nosa took a direct flight on Thursday evening from Lagos and arrived in the Spanish capital Madrid at about 6:30 am yesterday morning, writes alfinaldelapalmera.com.

    Now that the issue has come to an end, the Real Betis midfielder has broken his silence on the whole affair.

    ”I’m fine, tired. I think these have been the craziest three weeks of my life. After the African Cup, I decided to return to my club, Betis. From Nigeria, came to Germany; there I was told that my documentation could not be used because it had expired.

    ”I know Betis fans are not happy, me neither. I went seven times to the embassy. I have not rested in Nigeria. Tomorrow, I hope to get there (Sevilla, ed.),” Nosa told Canal Sur Radio.

    Nosa was not invited by coach Stephen Keshi for the World Cup qualifying match against Kenya on March 23rd.