The Nation Newspaper

Tag: goodness

  • The goodness of change

    The Video Assistant Referees (VAR) system being used at the ongoing Confederations Cup in Russia is the biggest player being whipped by analogue apologists, who are impervious to change. What these critics have not been able to acknowledge is that most of the decisions taken by the VAR system have been perfect. The burden is with the speed in arriving at decisions. But that will come with the users learning. Practice, they say, makes perfect.

    Things happen so quickly in football for the referees’ eyes to capture, making it imperative for some of these new developments to reduce controversies and make games more exciting to watch.

    Nigerian administrators and their ilk are crying because VAR’s introduction will stop a major fraud bedeviling  the domestic game. Our administrators must learn from the experts. And here is one of them.

    Arsène Wenger does not know why it has taken so long for football to embrace technology but can point to some key calls that could have been changed, if VAR had been introduced earlier.

    ”I would choose Barcelona’s equaliser in the 2006 Champions League final because it was offside, and we were 1-0 up with 30 minutes to go,” the manager told Arsenal Player.

    “That’s the trophy I miss here, you know, so that is for me the most important one. The second one I would choose is the second yellow card for Robin van Persie at Barcelona in 2011 because this was the moment we were qualified against a very strong team, and it was a very difficult decision to accept – it basically killed our chances.

    “After that maybe I go to a more recent decision – against Bayern Munich when Laurent Koscielny was sent off for a penalty when Lewandowski was offside. That just comes to my mind now but maybe I forget many, many, many, many more.” Thank you, Monsieur Wenger.

    What makes sports exciting at the global level is the dynamism in the way affiliates are given rules to govern them.  There are thoroughly researched indices which help to give games the desired fillip for growth.

    It must be stressed that not all the changes are embraced. But it is important to make them and see how the enthusiasts react to salient aspects of the game. Indeed, some of the upheavals from such changes elicit further modernisation of what is being tested. The only thing that is constant is change. I embrace the VAR rules introduced by FIFA – to reduce the seeming autocratic powers given to referees.

    Until the VAR experiment at the ongoing Confederations Cup competition holding in Russia by chieftains of the Federation of International Associations (FIFA), the centre referees’ decisions were final. They are also the sole custodians of time. They were the judges and they also had the powers to overrule their assistants, even if they were not in the best position to decide on the prevailing offences or incidents.

    Need I restate some of the controversial decisions taken by referees that poured odium on the game the great Brazilian, Pele, once described as beautiful? No doubt, sport most times is passionate to lovers of such games, but winners must emerge from their deal on a free transfer; the move was completed July 1, at the start of the 2015–16 season.

    Such players seeking vengeance, like Higuain and Khedira, must be reminded that there are players in their former teams who know their strengths and weaknesses, which they will exploit on match day. I will be very surprised if Real Madrid players give Higuain room to operate. Higuain will be marked, having scored five goals so far in the competition.

    So, who are the gladiators at Juventus? Need I restate Buffon’s contributions? I would rather look at the Italians’ defenders, comprising Giorgio Chiellini, Medhi Benatia, Alex Sandro and Dani Alves, who have the daunting task of stopping Cristiano Ronaldo, the talisman of the Spanish side.  Ronaldo will be difficult to pocket over 90 minutes because he has many records he wants to either achieve or possibly surpass. It must be said that victory for Real Madrid offers Ronaldo the best chance of being voted the World Footballer of the Year for the fifth time. If it happens, he equals the feat already achieved by Messi. You can see why it will be too close to call if anyone tries to pick the eventual winners based on facts on paper.

    The Italians are rugged at the rear, but what do they have in the midfield where most of the battles will be fought?  In this area, the Italians will rely on Miralem Pjanic and Sami Khedira to seize the midfield from the Spaniards. If Juve hopes to lift the trophy tonight, their midfielders must dominate the midfield and supply good passes to their strikers – Gonzalo Higuaín, Paulo Dybala, Juan Cuadrado and Mario Mandzukic – to score goals.

    However, Zidane has identified Dybala as the most dangerous striker for Juve. Dybala will be marked.  “Dybala is definitely Juventus’ number one threat. Juve has many good players and Dybala is one of the best. This will be a special final for me as I played for both clubs. I have amazing memories of Juventus.

    “Bale has nothing to tell me; he’s ready, he has suffered a pretty serious injury but I know each one of my players is motivated and that’s the only important thing for me. We still have some days left to prepare for the game, we’ll do some simple things during today’s training and we’ll go into further details tomorrow (Thursday),” Zidane said.

    Marking out star players is what will make tonight’s game very interesting, with each striving to render the opponents’ dangerous men otiose. Indeed, most pundits are expecting a tight and tactical game, which invariably will reduce the number of goals to decide it. Should this be the setting expected from two teams with immensely talented players? Certainly not, except it becomes necessary. Yes it is. So which of the two coaches will blink first?

    Former Brazil captain Cafu starts the rating of key players tonight, beginning with two defenders – Dani Alves (Juventus) and Marcelo (Real Madrid). Cafu said: “It will be a clash of titans. We are talking about the two best full backs in the world at the moment. Dani Alves attacks a lot, but Marcelo does the same. Tactically, it will be very interesting and it will be fantastic for Brazilian football.”

    Already, Higuain is looking forward to the battle against his former mate at Real Madrid, Sergio Ramos. “Let’s hope Ramos doesn’t score in the 90th minute. I have a lot of affection for him and his family and we still send each other messages.

    “Football sometime places you in situations like this one where I will face Real Madrid in the final. It will be an evenly matched game,” Higuian said.

    Will there be personal honour for exemplary players? Yes. Former Real Madrid legend and goalkeeper Iker Casillas raised the likelihood of tonight’s clash by deciding who the best footballer of the year would be when he said: “If the opponent wasn’t Madrid, I’d want him to win the Champions League with all my heart. He deserves it. It’s obvious that I’m a Madrid fan, but Gigi’s journey shouldn’t end without the Champions League.

    “He’s won almost everything, but this is a trophy he’s missing and it weighs heavily on him He’s had a great season, he’s back in the final and for we ‘old people’ – I’m thinking of myself, Petr Cech… – it’s a good thing. It shows that at 39 you can still feel good and be competitive,” the Blancos legend told Gazzetta dello Sport.

    “He started at 17 when I was 14. It was amazing for me to think that a boy just older than me was already at that level with Parma. It was a pattern, I admired him, I followed in his footsteps and I envied him. That was for a little bit, because when I started playing regularly for Madrid in 2001, he moved to Juve. Then we continued on together. The Ballon d’Or? Maybe a goalkeeper could win it, but I think it’s very complicated.”

    So, how deadly is Ronaldo in front of the goal keeper? Zidane captures Ronaldo’s influence in tonight’s game thus: “As you well know, there are no words that can do Cristiano Ronaldo justice. He has now got more than 400 goals for Real Madrid in all competitions. These are unbelievable statistics, but with him, anything is possible.”

    Zidane looks forward to Ramos conjuring last minute goals for Real Madrid, noting: “Ramos represents the values of Real Madrid, the spirit of doing anything to win. For me, those values are commitment, battling and fighting until the last minute. This club has taught me that and our captain, Sergio, represents this. He is a noble player.”

    Can Ronaldo be trusted to win this title with his goals for Real Madrid? “On the day of the game there is going to be a lot of nerves and I prefer not to think much about the final,” Ronaldo told Real Madrid TV.

    “They are an excellent team but so are we. I have the feeling that we are going to play a great game and we are going to win. I feel very good, very good, a bit cold, but it is better than having an injury. I’m better on a physical level compared to the last five seasons. I also played less, although I’m the one who played the most matches in the team,” Ronaldo concluded.

  • The Strong Belt of Truth (5)

    “…have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather expose them.” A sin exposed is a sin defeated; do not hide sin. The unfruitful works of darkness are adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outburst of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, etc.- these works belong to the kingdom of darkness, with Satan as the head of this kingdom.

     

    There is another kingdom, which is the kingdom of God; it’s also of Light. Being evident by these lifestyles: Love (for God and neighbour), joy, peace, long suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Those who live thus belong to this kingdom and are the children of God.

     

    Where one belongs is known by the kind of life one lives. Someone’s lifestyle tells it all. Hmm, the Good News remain that God has made a way of escape for all of us; in that He sent His dear Son Jesus Christ to die, in order to deliver you and me from the kingdom of darkness and its unfruitful works and be converted; be born into the kingdom of God.

    God says, “And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with ALL your heart”. If you will sincerely call on Jesus to set you free from the kingdom of darkness and its unfruitful works, He will. The kingdom of darkness is doomed forever, it’s a place of everlasting torment in hell fire, God does not want anyone to be there- please escape for your life. Know that only those who believe and accept Jesus as their Lord and saviour will inherit the kingdom of God; a place of everlasting life in heaven.

     

    Jesus said, “…you shall know the TRUTH and the TRUTH will set you free, he who the SON sets free is free indeed! This is so reassuring, satisfying, and complete. Knowing it was God Himself who planned it all, that those who believe and accept the salvation/deliverance His son JESUS offered will be FREE from the bondage of sin. They will remain free as they follow Him.

     

    The people of Old had to offer animal sacrifices again and again for their sins to be forgiven, yet they continued to struggle in their sins and continued sinning. That never stopped them from living in sin. God sent Jesus to lay down His life once and for all to end the animal sacrifices and set you free, giving you and me complete victory over sin. He gave us the Holy Spirit to help us, to give us the power and divine assistance we need to live righteous, obeying Him always. Do not keep enjoying sin; do not hide your sin- CRY OUT TO JESUS WITH ALL YOUR HEART TO SET YOU FREE FROM YOUR SIN.

     

    I was once in the kingdom of darkness. I did not fully understand the significance of the death of Jesus; I only had head knowledge of the story and believed it my own way. The full knowledge of my sin, its guilt, and consequences changed all of that, for I continually cried out to Jesus in my sin to set me free, I trusted Him completely for my deliverance, and He delivered me. I had an encounter with Him that forever changed my life. Now I can boldly say ‘there is power in the blood of Jesus’ because…He touched me and made me whole. Now I am in the kingdom of God, I belong to the family of God. I was blind but now I see, I was dead but now I live!

     

                   SONG:        AT CALVARY

    1.       Years I spent in vanity and pride,
    Caring not my Lord was crucified,
    Knowing not it was for me He died
    On Calvary.
    Chorus:     Mercy there was great, and grace was free;
    Pardon there was multiplied to me;
    There my burdened soul found liberty,
    At Calvary.

     

    2.       By God’s Word at last my sin I learned;
    Then I trembled at the law I’d spurned,
    Till my guilty soul imploring turned
    To Calvary.

     

    3.       Now I’ve giv’n to Jesus everything,
    Now I gladly own Him as my King,
    Now my raptured soul can only sing
    Of Calvary.

     

    4.       Oh, the love that drew salvation’s plan!
    Oh, the grace that brought it down to man!
    Oh, the mighty gulf that God did span
    At Calvary!

     

    TEXT: Ephesians 6:10-18, Ephesians 5:11, John 8:32, Jeremiah 29:13.

    FROM: FAITH NWACHUKWU

  • Sultan Abubakar @10: Leadership as goodness

    Any deep reflection on Amirul Mumineen Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, the 20th Sultan of Sokoto who this week marks 10 years anniversary as the Sultan (and who on August 24 also  turned 60!) must necessarily reopen a leadership discourse in Nigeria. The spectre of leadership, we all know, permanently  haunts Nigeria since Africa’s master story teller, late Professor Chinua Achebe and the author of the classic novel, Things Fall Apart observed in his 1983 reflection that “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership”. Witness him: “There is nothing basically wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or air or anything else”. Certainly leadership still remains a knotty issue in Nigeria as rightly observed by Achebe.Very few countries parade a remarkable number and mix of leaders in Africa and indeed in the world; spiritual, traditional and modern, and temporal, active and retired alike. However even at that, we should not forget that both in the past and in the present, Nigeria and indeed Africa still harbour traditional and modern political leaders who in their respective rights personify the historic needs and aspirations of their peoples. It’s time we recognized and celebrated leaders who stand to live up to expectations of their communities and serve as worthy ambassadors of their people. Paris Hilton enjoins us to “ live everyday like its a birthday”. A visitor to the palace of His Eminence, Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar, would bear witness to his daily value-adding activities sustaining the great legacies of over 200 years old Sokoto Caliphate founded in 1804 by a great Islamic scholar, Usman dan Fodio. Ten years anniversary of Sultan Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar LLD, CFR, mni, offers another important opportunity to acknowledge the unifying leadership role of the head of Jama’atu Nasril Islam (Society for the Support of Islam – JNI), and president-general of the Nigerian National Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA).

    At 60, President Muhammadu Buhari in his tribute rightly singled out “…the uncommon leadership style, patriotism and wisdom” in Sultan’s “consistent advocacy for security, peace and unity of Nigeria”. Sultan of Sokoto, Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, as President Buhari observed stands out as bridge builder at a time many “leaders” kept mute as critical national assets including the remaining few bridges are under attack. The Sultan’s voice has been commendably loud on burning national issues; good governance, girl-child education, infant and child mortality, and agriculture. Recently the United States’ Secretary of State, John Kerry, visited Nigeria. It was not surprising that his destination for an historic lecture on diversity and tolerance was Sokoto under the “Leadership as Goodness” by Sultan Saad Abubakar.

    At the palace of the Sultan,  John Kerry first Secretary of State to visit the seat of the caliphate, lauded the efforts of the Sultan in promoting religious tolerance and understanding among Nigerians. He said that the Sultanate Council was building a community of tolerance for peace, progress and political stability in Nigeria adding that, the United States would continue to identify itself with the Sultanate in strengthening religious tolerance and understanding among Nigerians. The visit offered another opportunity for the

    Sultan to reaffirm the sultanate’s commitment to the promotion of  peaceful coexistence among Nigerians for the overall political growth of the country maintaining that “religious tolerance and understanding among Nigerians remained the principal objective of the Sultanate in mobilising Nigerians to tolerate one another for peace, progress and political stability of the country”. It is worthy of recall that both Sultan Saad and John Cardinal Onaiyekan, then Roman Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, were jointly nominated for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize (“for their efforts at campaigning against the misuse of religion”) alongside former US President Bill Clinton and the European Union.

    As part of the activities marking the coronation of the new Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare 11, the Sultan organized a special durbar brought to Benin in honour of the new Oba. Will our political leaders ever torn in wars of attrition learn from from this lesson of the Sultan’s leadership as goodness and cooperation?

    Recently under his chairmanship of the Heritage Council of Alumni Association of the National institute, AANI, there was a policy dialogue that involved the participation of seven ministers of the federal republic. The sultan’s speech remains a timely food for thought for change for good governance. Some of his observations are worth being reproduced here:  ”….the burden is on the part of those in authority to appreciate that they hold power in trust for the common people of the country. Those in government must be open minded, flexible  and receptive to new ideas as government is all about the people. If the mass of people are groaning and saying they are suffering economic deprivations, those in authority must listen and prepare to initiate policy changes for the betterment of all. In managing change government must be open to suggestions and even prepare to do a policy review for the security and welfare of all. Even change is constant in a change process! The country we all know is never short of robust policy measures including the ones contained in 2016 federal budget. The challenging and overreaching issue is policy implementation. No better institution is better positioned to assist the government in policy implementation than NIPSS and AANI. NIPSS was set up in 1979 by the Federal Government to serve as a high level centre for reflection, research, and policy dialogue. Today, the National Institute has graduated over 1500 participants. No topic of national importance that has not been researched upon whether in public finance, mining and minerals development, industrial development, power sector reforms, housing and road construction among others. Its time government gets committed to effectively utilize the huge enormous knowledge resources available at NIPSS. We are confident that this policy dialogue can share from the wealth of experience of AANI members with respect to implementation strategies for 2016 budget. We suggest that all the resolutions at the end of this historic Town Hall meeting should be forwarded to the office of the Vice President to assist in the realization of the laudable objectives of the 2016 budget. Lastly we will like to emphasis that the effectiveness of this Town  Hall meeting rests on its impact on the welfare of the citizens. According to the 1999 constitution, the primary objective of governance in the current democratic dispensation is welfare and security of the citizens. Shaykh Abdullahi Ibn Foduye, 1807, defined “Leadership as Service to the People.” According to him “Seeing to the welfare of people is more effective than the use of force.  It has been said that the crown of a leader is his integrity, his stronghold is his impartiality and his wealth is the welfare of his people”. Therefore all hands must be on deck to ensure that government delivers on its mandate for better life for the citizens”.

    Wishing his eminence many more years of worthy leadership for humanity.

     

    • Aremu is Secretary General, Alumni Association of the National institute, AANI.

  • Buhari’s exchange rate policy: Fragility of goodness

    President Buhari has refused to give an inch in his rock-solid determination not to devalue the naira. Unsurprisingly, this has earned him critical opprobrium among professional neo-classical economists and others knowledgeable in the links between exchange policy and economic growth and corruption. This much was revealed in his recent Al Jazeera interview and discussions among many Nigerians. To many, the president’s foreign exchange policy does not make economic sense. But is that really true? Let me offer a perspective that will shed some light on the sense and sensibility of the president’s “stubbornness” with regard to devaluation.

    Before I do that, I would like to state upfront that if I were the president or his minister of finance, I would take the easy and tested neo-classical economic approach to the management of the Nigerian economy. It could deliver quick results and boost the confidence of investors, within and without. Having said all this, I would like to add by saying there is a path to robust national economic development through the president’s intransigent exchange rate policy. Alas, it is an arduous path. I am not sure if the president (one-term or two) or Nigerians have the time and patience for the road he has chosen to bear sufficient dividends.

    This is not his only problem. The main challenge in my thinking is that the kind of exchange rate policy Buhari’s government has decided to pursue requires a more comprehensive policy framework to uplift our national economy than has been presented so far. I have not heard the president’s men and women articulate such a multi-edged policy regime, which will be largely market-driven, integrally endogenous, and patently patriotic. The economic minds in Buhari government may think they are on a good path to economic Eldorado, but the path will prove to be very fragile if they do not immediately forge and implement a robust set of policies and programmes undergirded by a well thought-through social philosophy. It is within such a cohort of policies and programmes that his current exchange rate policy makes eminent sense.

    Buhari’s exchange rate policy makes good sense in this four-pronged national financial management framework. It is one that pursues value integrity, value solidarity, and value subsidiarity as my late friend economist Ashikiwe Adione-Egom would put it. By this he meant that the currency, financial, commodity, and industrial markets must be consciously linked and administered to yield endogenous growth.

    First, it is not enough to reject the devaluation of the naira while it is depreciating in the currency market. There must be economic policies that are in place to give value integrity and constancy to the national currency. Second, the government needs to find a way to mobilize savings through its monetary and financial policies and distribute such via the market to industries to aid long-term investment.

    If the Buhari government and CBN want to continue with their current exchange rate policy, then they need to have monetary and financial policy regimes that will be in financial solidarity with Nigeria’s development. Solidarity implies that the monetary system is channelling medium to long-term savings instruments at low interest rates to the industrial markets to grow local content in manufacturing and spur endogenous development.

    If the government and its CBN governor cannot show us how the financial system is (or will be) solidly connected and committed to the industrial and productive sectors of our nation, then, I am afraid, all the current talk about endogenous development will amount to underperformance. Frankly, this is why I maintain that the path the president has chosen is a fragile one—nonetheless, workable. Not that his nationalistic approach cannot lead the economy to prosperity; the problem is that the amount of work required to get us there is daunting. Besides, the president would need experts who are not only trained in orthodox neo-classical economics, but also in heterodox economic theories.

    The third major policy focus will be the development of a network of regional commodity exchanges that will channel commodities to the industrial and consumer markets even as they provide better decision-making information for farmers and merchants and enable them to efficiently buy and sell their goods. Of course, for these regional commodity exchanges to work, we have to also develop a system of commodity banking.

    Now, we have come to the final arm of the four-pronged approach to the kind of patriotic national economic management that Buhari is gesturing to but have not yet fully articulated. The president needs to put in place policies that will enable and empower people to use the resources available to them in their regions, states, and rural areas to create jobs for themselves. Nigeria’s ability to generate this kind of endogenous economic development that will accent value subsidiarity depends on sound (and patriotic) currency and financial markets.

    Egom would put it this way: A goodly operating currency and financial market reticulates jobs to all economic regions, spreads industries around, and encourages productive activities from bottom-up. Such currency and financial markets do not encourage economic activities to be concentrated at cities and urban centres when they could be best carried out in rural areas. Besides, economic activities are not to be allocated in the cities or urban areas to the detriment of rural regions.

    Buhari has high patriotic hopes for our country but his policy of rejecting the devaluation of the naira at this time in order to spur endogenous development may not enable him to quickly realize his lofty dreams within the current parameters of our national monetary-financial systems, which are oriented towards the outside world. The monetary-financial systems of our economy are not resource-conserving and are hostile to endogenous economic development. They cannot usher in a robust environment that can create and sustain symmetry and evenness in the distributing growth, jobs, goods, and services across the sectors and regions of country. The monetary systems have not wedded the financial circulation of money (savings in the banks and stock exchanges) to industrial circulation (money-capital financing production, industries, commodity exchanges, and long-term development projects). All these will need to change if the president is to succeed in his chosen challenging course.

    President Buhari has made a clear choice about the kind of national currency management style he wants to use. His choice is not atavistic or unthinkable as many of our so-called experts have argued. His problem lies elsewhere and it is threefold. First, he is gesturing to a drastic change of economic direction and orientation that the nation may not be ready for at this time. At least, the government and APC have not sufficiently prepared the citizens for it. Second, his economic savants and strategic communication experts have not been able to clearly articulate the robust policy framework within which the “stubborn” exchange rate policy sits. Third, the government has not articulated the kind of social philosophy and social-justice vision that will energize Nigerians towards the economic future he is frantically gesturing to. As long as this set of challenges remains, whatever goodness he intends with his exchange rate policy is at best very fragile.

    What I have done in this essay is not perfect, but it serves to nudge President Buhari’s ideas and reflexes towards a systematic economic framework in order to reduce the fragility of goodness in his exchange rate policy.

    • Wariboko is Walter G. Muelder professor of social ethics at Boston University, United States.