The Nation Newspaper

Tag: prediction

  • Salah’s AFCON prediction

    Africa Footballer of the Year Mohammed Salah has predicted the two countries that will meet in the final game of the Africa Cup of Nations in July. No surprise that Salah picked Egypt, his country, and the defending champions Cameroon. The Liverpool FC of England striker didn’t predict the eventual winner of the diadem. He is just being human, though pundits know that he would tip the Pharaohs over the Indomitable Lions, especially as the Egyptians are the hosts of the 2019 edition.

    Salah’s prediction serves as a marker for outside bets for the 2019 AFCON diadem, such as Nigeria, Ghana, Senegal, Tunisia, Morocco etc, to watch out. Nobody knows the criteria Salah used in arriving at his prediction; he may have looked at the calibre of players in both countries and how regularly they play in their clubs. He also could have looked at the two countries’ participation in the competition, and reckoned that they are the two most consistent teams. Will any Nigerian blame Salah for this kind of projections?

    Nigeria didn’t participate in the last two editions of the Africa Cup of Nations, despite winning the 2013 edition held in South Africa, largely due to bickering within the Glasshouse in Abuja. Matters aren’t different now, except that the hierarchy of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) used the lessons learned from the last botched appearance to prepare for this year’s edition. The new plans paid off, especially the aspect of ensuring that the players’, officials’ and coaches’ salaries and entitlements were paid promptly. Eagles’ preparation was elaborate, including playing quality friendly matches which helped the coaches to identify weak areas in the squad.

    Pundits don’t know what informed Salah’s choice of Cameroon as one of the finalists because the draws for the competition are slated to hold on April 12. What if both countries are in the same group? If that happens, they will meet again in the semi-finals, where only one country will qualify. This is the luck of the draws. What will Salah say if his prediction goes awry?

    Salah will be shocked to hear that the Comoros Football Federation (FFC)  lodged a case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) over Cameroon’s participation at the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations, according to their general manager, Ben Amir Saadi.

    Saadi claimed that CAF has failed to implement its own regulations concerning the action to be taken thus: ‘’CAF rules (Article 92.3) states that “if a nation withdraws from hosting, or has the rights taken away one year before the finals, a fine of five hundred thousand ($500,000) U.S. dollars and a suspension of it’s A national team in the next edition of AFCON without considering the concerned edition, should be implemented” .

    The Comoros believe that Cameroon should be excluded from the 2019 finals after having the hosting rights for the tournament withdrawn from them. Both countries are in the same qualifying group.  Food for thought, Salah. Good prediction, no doubt.

    Anyone counting the Eagles out at the AFCON 2019 diadem is a poor student of African soccer history. Eagles are more dangerous when the permutations rate them low. One has been excited since January, with the run of events involving our fringe players, who should bench the established stars, if manager Gernot Rohr picks his team on current form.

    Bursaspor of Turkey utility player Shehu Abdullahi is back after three months hiatus due to injuries. “I feel good and happy about it. It’s a moment I have waited for since last year and I’m happy I can now play football again. It was a good moment for me to come in for the last few minutes and I hope to now work my way back into the starting XI,” Abdullahi stated.

    Abdullahi’s return fortifies the team’s right-wing-back position, especially as Tyroone Ebuehi has started training. Rohr told the media during the week: “Our programme all the time is to improve the level of our Super Eagles and to respect what they are doing in the clubs. It is a moment to monitor our players to see if they are fit and, of course, have some news also from our injured players.

    “Like Tyroone, who is in the training again, but he can’t start playing; also Ahmed Musa who has an injury at the moment. The match against Seychelles is not easy because everybody believes it will be won easily. That is dangerous and is a trap sometimes.”

    So what is Rohr up with his return to the country last Tuesday? He is watching the games involving the country’s representatives at the CAF inter-club competition without stating the players he is searching for and their positions. Rohr saw MFM FC Lagos beat Enugu Rangers FC 1-0 inside the Agege Stadium penultimate Wednesday.

    “I am planning to invite 23 players for the two matches against Seychelles for the AFCON qualifier and the International friendly against Egypt come March 23 and 26. The list of the 23 players would be made public in the first week of March. The list will be announced by the Nigeria Football Federation, as usual.

    “I am in Nigeria to watch some players in the Nigeria Professional League, but most importantly I am here to personally watch the players in the CAF Champions League and CAF Confederation Cup. My assistants. Imama and Aloy Agu, are moving round the league venues to also monitor players too,” Rohr told NationSport in an exclusive chat in Abuja on Thursday.

    “I will invite one or two new players that I want to test their quality in a strong match like the Seychelles and Egypt match. I am going to Enugu tomorrow (today) to watch the CAF Champions League match involving Lobi Stars, and visiting Wydad Casablanca of Morocco slated for Enugu Stadium on Friday (tomorrow),” Rohr added.

    Now that Rohr wants to invite home-based players, pundits are hoping that his search includes getting a goalkeeper, who plays regularly. Francis Uzoho is match rusty. Ikechukwu Ezenwa isn’t any better. Both goalkeepers can only be trusted based on their experience. Rohr needs to get one regular goalkeeper from the local league. Rohr can find strong players who can be taught how to defend properly, now that Leon Balogun isn’t playing regularly.

    This writer isn’t comfortable when Eagles play with Kenneth Omeruo in the central defence. He loses concentration and is too casual when clearing the ball out of dangerous positions. Most times Omeruo’s slow and tentative disposition in clearing the ball out of dangerous settings causes goalmouth melees, which end up in goals against Nigeria, such as we saw in Nigeria’s game against Argentina.

    Eagles’ midfield will find its rhythm if John Mikel Obi regains fitness through Middleborough’s games. He played for 62 minutes in the English FA Cup last weekend and his movement on and off the ball showed that he could return to his best very soon.

    “I haven’t played for three months, so it was a surprise when the manager said I was starting. I still have plenty of life in my legs. It was a good run out, a good test for me. You get your fitness back by playing, not by training; so I was glad to be out there today,” said Mikel, who is at Boro on a short term deal.

    “I was just happy to get some minutes, feel the ball and smell the grass again; that was important for me. I got a very good reception from the fans and that was very important for me. They showed me a lot of love and hopefully I can repay them with good performances week in, week out and, hopefully, we can get promoted at the end of this season.

    “I’m very happy to be here in a Middlesborough shirt. The manager spoke to me and he’s a really nice guy. I had a good chat with him and he convinced me this would be the best place for me,” he said after playing the first hour at the Riverside. Welcome back Mikel.

    Eagles lack a commander on the pitch. Mikel’s return will resolve this problem but the coaches should look for someone to do Mikel’s job, since he is in the twilight of his career. My hunches tell me that this year’s AFCON could be Mikel’s last hurrah, and it would be worth it. This flaw showed in our matches since after the Mundial in Russia last year.

    With a wobbly midfield, there is little the strikers can do. Hence we have relied on Ahmed Musa’s pace to outrun the opposition, and at other times the brilliance of Alex Iwobi and Odion Ighalo for goals. Mikel’s return is the biggest fillip for the Eagles. One hopes that Rohr can accept Victor Moses back into the team once he starts playing regularly. If NFF President Amaju Pinnick feels strongly that we need Moses, Rohr should encourage him to get the midfielder into the squad.

    Ighalo is out of contract with his Chinese club. No one knows where he will play later this year. Ighalo could remain in China but it will be nice if he gets a European club; otherwise, we will have to risk Iwobi upfront to complement Ighalo, even though Isaac Success and Osimhen look like prospects for the team’s attacking onslaught. But can we rely on Isaac, Osimhen and Taiwo Awoniyi in Egypt? Yes, for their talent; no because of their experience.

    If you ask me, I will say bring back Moses. He is the Trojan we need in Egypt with Mikel. I’m further inspired by his post-match comments for Fenerbache during the week.

    “I’m glad I had the chance to play football in this atmosphere. I would like to thank everyone who came here. They gave me confidence. They motivated me and my teammates. I started training. I feel different. I’m happy. From the moment I stepped into our facilities, I felt the size of the club. I felt this power. Let’s grow up together. I want to play my football and enjoy this,” Moses concluded.

  • NEMA alerts farmers, others of irregular rainfall prediction

    NEMA alerts farmers, others of irregular rainfall prediction

    The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) has urged farmers and others to prepare for irregular rainfalls.

    NEMA gave the advice warned against the backdrop of the Nigeria Metrological Agency, NIMET’s 2016 Annual Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP) .

    NEMA Northwest Zonal Coordinator Alhaji Musa Ilallah spoke at a stakeholders meeting in Kaduna.

    He advised agric extension workers to step up enlightenment /awareness campaigns for farmers.

    Ilallah added that adoption of Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) strategies against flood, drought, and desertification and effective collaboration among stakeholders through team work and enforcement of laws/legislation would aid in curbing the anticipated menace.

  • A prediction far off the mark

    A prediction far off the mark

    Predicting what the future holds is a dying art in Nigeria. In decades past, newspapers used to scramble to engage soothsayers and prophets every December in order to have the first chance of publishing exclusive predictions of the future, many of them so vague as not to be dignified as predictions, and most of which fail to come to pass. Now, only one or two newspapers dignify the art with cursory mention.

    One of such predictions last month concerns the Kogi political conundrum in which one Yahaya Bello, participating in only the supplementary election, was declared by the electoral umpire INEC as winner of the Kogi governorship poll. The Abubakar Audu/Abiodun Faleke ticket was virtually administratively obliterated though it led the poll conclusively in the first part that took place on November 21.

    Said the prophet: “Yahaya Bello must not underestimate Mr. Faleke. He must seek the face of God, otherwise Faleke will win in court. Only the face of God will help him retain the governorship seat. When Yahaya is there, they will not give him peace of mind.” How it does not occur to the prophet that he is engaging in mere guesswork is hard to fathom. Secondly, is God unjust to give victory to the dubious? And can God be flattered to embrace a dubious petitioner simply because he turns to seek the face of God?

    The prophet’s prediction is self-serving and illogical. It is full of circumstantial reasoning and perversion of common sense. If the prophet has nothing decent and concrete to say on the Kogi conundrum he should have kept quiet. Or perhaps he is just playing safe in case Alhaji Bello gets to keep what INEC and the APC National Working Committee dropped on his lap by administrative subterfuge.

  • Elections, INEC and America’s prediction

    SIR: Socrates, the philosopher, born circa 470BC in Athens, Greece, and as wont in their custom, was presented to the “god of life” by his parents, during dedication. The trusted god did not blink in reeling out dossier of the new-born. The darkest spot of his life curricular was, however, a dent on his amphora where the god predicted larger than life achievements but on negative norms – “this newborn will become a Chief Highway Robber the type the world has never witnessed, the god submitted”.

    His parents were perturbed by the message of a god held in high esteem. Socrates’ mother refused to address him by the christened name but chose to call him “Armed Robber”. Noticing, as he grew, his mother addressing him in unconventional way, he challenged her for disparaging his person by the odious name. The mother did not hesitate to reveal the reason.

    What Socrates did when told of the story of a “god that never lied” was to prove the “god” wrong.

    This is the time to prove America and her ilk wrong by surmounting our God given innate qualities and abilities to keep this fragile nation one. The white refer to us as black people but they are wrong. We are dark-skinned and our brain is neither black nor dark.

    The Independent National Electoral Commission under the leadership of Professor Attahiru Jega has to rise to the occasion by ensuring fair contest amongst the numerous candidates.

    The stigmatized image of a body believed to be instrument of electoral frauds in the recent past should be salvaged as we are all waiting to see whether or not he who pays the piper will not call the tune.

    INEC officials are Nigerians, and official corruption has no borderline as people with hitching palms are abound in all facets of life.

    A one man, one vote permutation where justice is seen to be done in arena where votes count is the only panacea to suppress the unseemly beggary and loathsome minds who believe that nothing good could come from the Nazareth of our INEC.

    The fact that Nigerians have been condemned to abject poverty by the successive governments and majority are hibernating under the gale of inescapable fate of economic strangulation and kwashiorkor does not blur our vision from discerning lies even when coated with tissue of truth. People’s sensitivity to electoral manipulations has never been more charged than now.

    Sovereignty belongs to the people and every democratically elected leader is expected to derive power from the people through transparency and prudent accountability in affairs of the state by a way of giving hope to the local populace in a society where individuals are privileged to wangle ways in serene and secured ambient environment for economic emancipation. Yes, political office holder, if truly elected, should be accountable to the electorates.

    We should be reminded that a few Nigeria politicians in their desperation, either to cling to power or record electoral success at all cost, are obstinate in hypocrisy by laying foundation of their house of deception on an undermined sand cliff ready to crumble to pieces with the occupiers.

     

    The phobia of break-up as orchestrated by the West in form of a kite supposedly flown in our sky of sub consciousness is a charade, an intrigue of deceit intended to sow seeds of discord, hatred and disunity amongst our ruling elites for actualization of their dream, not for anything, but their economic interests.

    All eyes must open. All ears must open. All sense organs must be at alert as if this is the last lap on a common race towards destination for a new Nigeria where everybody will be his brother’s keeper

     

    Let the votes count. Let us put our detractors to shame. Let Nigeria be

     

    • Jimoh Kayode,

    Lagos

  • Olabayo’s prediction on Aregbesola

    SIR: When a new year approaches, soothsayers suddenly come alive. Given that our society is largely driven by superstition, rather than knowledge and reason, all kinds of predictions are made, usually by charlatans who know that fearful and gullible people will take them seriously. Over the years, half of these predictions have turned out to be guesswork that a dim-witted person with half sense can anticipate, while of course, the other half will turn out to be false.

    ‘Prominent politician, musician and actor or actress should pray very well to avoid sudden death’, has become a notorious line in the fraud that has become predictions over the years. Of course, given the dangerous lifestyles and occupational hazards of these professional groups, death is always at the corner and it does not require a soothsayer to tell us that. At any rate, the life expectancy in Nigeria is 47 and it takes the grace of God to surpass it and so nobody should scare us. Sooner or later, we will all die, soothsayers et al.

    One of the aims of these false predictions is to sow the seed of fear and make the victims to rush to the soothsayers for prayers and to stop the predictions from coming to pass. This is where the soothsayers make the kill. Big men have big money and can afford to spend big to avert a catastrophe.

    This brings to mind the recent prediction of Primate Olabayo on Governor Rauf Aregbesola of Osun State. Primate Olabayo was reported to have predicted that Governor Aregbesola should pray against being kidnapped in 2014. Ordinarily, this should be tossed into the dustbin. Governors are the most protected persons in the country. The best hands in the service are posted to guard them and there has been only one recorded breach in Anambra State when the then governor, Dr Chris Ngige, was abducted and a charade of his resignation played out. It turns out there was really no kidnapping, but that the script was written and directed by the highest office in the land with the security agencies being made unwilling players in what later became ‘transparent subterfuge’, to quote Wole Soyinka.

    The idea that a governor could be kidnapped could have been laughable, only that it is tragic. Could Olabayo therefore be playing another script? Is there a plan to kidnap Governor Aregbesola in his re-election year and the dastardly act made to look like the work of some local hungry bandits?

    How do we relate this with the allegation by former President Olusegun Obasanjo that President Jonathan has a 1,000 hit list and confirmed by Governor Rotimi Amaechi, who claimed that the list is real and his name is on it?

    I am asking Governor Aregbesola not to be deterred and cowed by false prophets and their prophecies. He should continue the good works he is doing in Osun.

    We have taken note of this false prediction and we know those to be held responsible, in case of any shenanigan, just in case.

    • Dr Olu Joseph,

    Surulere, Lagos

  • Meeting 2015 breakup prediction with presidential chutzpah

    Even if by his actions he manages to consistently undermine his own public optimism for a great society, President Goodluck Jonathan must still rank as one of the most sanguine leaders the world has ever known. While speaking with Muslim leaders who paid him the traditional Sallah homage last Thursday, Dr Jonathan as usual made a few memorable statements. He couldn’t imagine a Nigeria without Christians and Muslims, he said wistfully, as if the religious polarisation of the country conferred special advantages on all of us, and almost as if we should become inured to the pains they have caused us and even begin to enjoy them. If we were retrogressing, he suggested implausibly, it was because we failed to exploit the possibilities of our religious diversity. Once we found a way to harness the diversities, the country would enjoy peace and development. Never mind that in his nearly four years in office, his presidency never issued even one tested idea as to how that elixir would be brewed.

    Moving away from his strange theology, the president revealed he had observed the Ramadan like any other Muslim. His waist had trimmed down, he announced joyously, and he would perhaps in the short term need new pairs of trousers. If his visitors thought he would explain why he felt compelled to fast, or prove the relevance of his fasting to national development and policy purity, they were mistaken, for he wasn’t forthcoming at all.

    But perhaps the most memorable statement he made was in connection with the ballyhooed prediction of Nigeria’s breakup in 2015, a prediction authored by some United States military analysts many years ago. Those who made the prediction, said the president in reference not to the original authors but to Nigerians parroting it, would be disappointed. We must not assume that the president has not read the details of the prediction, or that when it was made, the intense religious, ethnic and social conflicts wracking the body politic had not even assumed dangerous dimensions. If he read the prediction, he should have seized the opportunity of speaking with his visitors to address two or three major factors raised by the analysts, and of course debunk them. Instead, the president met the prediction with his usual presidential bravado. It won’t happen, he thundered, and that was all.

    If structural problems anywhere, whether in a country or organisation, had shown a tendency to respond well to positive thinking, countries and enterprises would be easy to govern. Given the president’s logic, the more chutzpah you summon against a problem, the more likely your triumph. What is Dr Jonathan’s appreciation of the social revolt undermining the Northeast? It hardly matters; for the problem to him is one of law and order. What does he think of the great heist stymying oil exports in the Niger Delta? Just pay thieves to watch over the oil. What does he think about the collapse of education? Why, agreements, to him, are neither worth keeping, nor the huge education bill worth the trouble of addressing. What of unemployment? He has passed on that nuisance to the Minister of Finance and to the centenary committee.

    And what about the most important question of all – democracy? Its problem, he deadpans like the workaholic but yet cavalier Obasanjo, is that the opposition is too troublesome and unpatriotic. If everybody would cooperate with him, and critics practiced their sorcery softly, and the media were less sanctimonious, and on and on to getting God to be less fussy and rigid about principles and moral standards, Nigeria would be a great, united, peaceful and developed country. Perhaps, someday, we would pin the president down to telling us what he thinks of the complex problems besetting the country, and what bright ideas can be coerced from his vast kitchen midden, which he passes off as personal philosophy from a complex mind.

  • ‘Disregard Bakare’s prediction on Mimiko’

    ‘Disregard Bakare’s prediction on Mimiko’

    Rights activist Morakinyo Ogele has asked the electorate to disregard a statement credited to Lagos preacher Tunde Bakare that Ondo State Governor Olusegun Mimiko will win Saturday’s poll.

    He said the preacher has a history of wrong predictions. He cited instances where Bakare’s predictions failed to come to pass.

    Ogele, a lawyer, said: “His prediction that Mimiko will win the election is negative to what is going on in Ondo State. His colleagues should warn him to desist from playing God.

    “Tracing the history of his predictions, none has come to pass.

    In 1999, during the presidential election, he predicted that Chief Olusegun Obasanjo would lose, but at the end of the election, Obasanjo won.

    “Again, before the inauguration of Obasanjo as the president, he predicted that he would die, but Obasanjo is still living.

    “When we were protesting the removal of fuel subsidy in January, he predicted that the Jonathan administration would collapse within two weeks, but to date the administration is still in power.

    “We appeal to the police to caution him and probably charge him with giving a false information.

    “Bakare should not heat up the polity. He should be cautioned by Nigerians. Enough of his false predictions.”