Month: February 2010

Nigerian Govt Sends Another Useless Delegation To Saudi Arabia

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Adeola Aderounmu

For the umpteenth time the Nigerian government is sending another useless delegation to Saudi Arabia. This is with a view to see to the state of health of Mr. Yar Adua who left Nigeria since November 2009.

No one has seen Mr. Yar Adua since Nov 2009. Only his wife and the paid tight-lip Saudi Doctors know about the condition of Mr. Yar Adua. Every time other Nigerians or government officials try to find out about Umaru Yar Adua they met impermeable brick walls.

At one time one American TV presenter joked that Nigerian president may be secretly dead. Then we heard a voice on BBC that no one has verified to this moment. Images are very important but we haven’t seen that since November 2009.

If the Nigerian government is composed of sensible people, what is the reason for sending another useless delegation to Saudi Arabia? They have done that before and the results were negative. No one can see Yar Adua. I don’t know why but surely his wife knows.

Just imagine this simple scenario: rather than send another useless delegation to Saudi Arabia, why not give that money (believe me, this single trip costs millions of naira) to one or two poor people in Nigeria to start a new business that will transform their lives forever.

Like I have always argued, I will never understand the madness in our government. Why do we need a delegation to travel to Saudi Arabia in this world dominated by media and communication power? Even a web cam of 10 dollars can solve the problem.

Yes a webcam that cost 10 dollars or less can solve the problem that the Nigerian government is now spending millions of naira on. No amount of argument on the side of the government now headed by Mr Jonathan can justify the extension of the madness into his administration.

Is this what Mr Goodluck Jonathan has in stock for Nigerians? Merry go-rounding? Dancing and beating about the bush? Is this the level of intellectualism in the Nigerian house of assembly-to continue to loot and waste millions of naira daily when ordinary Nigerian are looking for hope and daily bread?

I am compelled to repeat that a webcam connection between Aso rock and Saudi Arabia would have saved this millions of naira that is about to be wasted. If Aso rock cannot make the connection by cam or video conference, then it simply means that Umaru is not worth seeing and his government should be totally terminated. This should have even been done the moment he left without following the due process.

Is Goodluck going to sit down and do something or is he going to spend the whole time he has begging and pacifying sycophants in Nigeria. He has to make a choice either to serve Nigerians or trying to appease evil minded people. If he chose the later, that makes him one of them and our fears are duly confirmed.

AS GOODLUCK JONATHAN BECOMES NIGERIA’S NEW PRESIDENT

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Adeola Aderounmu

Nigerian lawmakers finally gave their backing to the ascension of Mr Jonathan to the position of acting president. There are already arguments that the procedures are illegal and unconstitutional.

What I consider positive under the present circumstances is that at least there is a chance to move the nation forward. It is a different story entirely to dissect the person and nature of Mr. Jonathan.

I am more interested on what will become of our politics and the effect on the Nigerian people in the coming days. How are we going to tackle poverty, crime, unemployment and many other vices plaguing us?

We have just seen elections in Anambra State. Obviously several commentators have drawn positive conclusions from the process. However, the flaws are too numerous to ignore. It carried the usual elements of scandal with it. I can’t stop asking: when are we going to start doing things right? And I am tired of the excuses, how much time do we need?

The process of selection that brought in Yar Adua and Jonathan in 2007 is something that we have overflogged. We should never even talk about them again. We must however learn from those kinds of processes by ensuring that we improve on our electoral processes.

We must learn to count in Nigeria. We must learn to write voters’ names on the registration list and in digital form as well. We must learn to write names of people and not ghosts. Nigerian politicians must learn how to play fair and without bitterness.

We still know the reasons why our politics is a matter of life and death. It is for the simple reason that almost every politician is a potential thief. It is very pertinent that we get it right with the fight against corruption. This is one of the ways to reduce the tension on the political scene. If we bundle say like 500 politicians into prison tomorrow, those who are contenders in the forth coming election will reduce drastically because many of them have the intention to steal and loot.

Anyway back to Jonathan. I guess the anticipation is that he will serve-out the remaining term of his master-Yar Adua. If anybody thinks Yar Adua is coming back, please let them wake up. A vibrant mind can be weakened by the smallest of leadership position. A mind as dull and weak as Yar Adua should rest and seek personal peace. I hope he finds that if he ever gets discharged.

In 2004 I spent 1 month in a hospital. So believe me, I know what that man is looking forward to IF he gets discharged. You want to be with your family, you want to see the people you love and those who care about you. The last thing you longed for are obligations that will take your soul apart.

What will Nigeria become under Mr. Goodluck Jonathan? I will never place my hopes or any form of high expectations on him. He is a lucky man, no doubts! I wonder what he is thinking about at this moment. His job is a little bit similar to that of Obama. He is inheriting burdens and loads of problems. The difference is that Obama got his legitimately while he is probably blooming in illegality since 2007.

I wonder what he can do about corruption in Nigeria when he has been a part of the whole mess for a long time. Even his wife was caught with millions of foreign currency and we never had of the case any more. What will he do about NEPA? We almost have no electricity in Nigeria. Who are we going to turn to, to solve our unemployment problems? Water, housing, roads, education and so on.

Will Goodluck stick to the useless and pointless evil 7 points agenda? OR will he pick just one item, make it good and achieve at least one positive thing in the limited time he has. Considering that he has followed a master who has no plan since 2007, has he made any plan since November that will show that he is ready for this new post? Will he give Nigeria a New Year package by just sacking that useless Attorney General for a start? The attorney General of Nigeria is a scandal to the black race.

What is going on in Jonathan’s mind? Will he be timid because of the shadows and skeletons in his cupboard? We don’t need any more rulers in Nigeria. We have waited for 50 years to get a leader. How does this man wants to be remembered when he’s done under his short dispensation? History is always waiting to be written.

Long live Nigeria..!

A Nation In Custody and the Prophecy of Naiwu Osahon

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Adeola Aderounmu

I’d written elsewhere on the blogosphere about how my father bought me a book titled A NATION IN CUSTODY. It was way back (late 80s or sometime in the 90s). The author is Naiwu Osahon.

I still don’t know why my father bought me that book when I was just a little boy.

Now a grown man with my own family I see clearly now. Nigeria is still in custody.

Some people write comments on my blog challenging my thoughts and opinions about Nigeria. I don’t care what they think or how they feel. I believe that I am entitled to my opinion about Nigeria.

Nigeria is the most ridiculous country on earth. I won’t give it to the Somalis. In close to 2 decades the Somalis have no government. So we know where they stand-failed in totality.

Nigeria continues to pride herself as the African giant. Absolute fallacy. We claim to have democracy-complete bull shit!

Nigeria is not a democratic country and we are not close. In my opinion Nigeria is a geograpical area captured by some opportunists to their own gains. As far as I am concerned Nigeria is a region where a few people have enslaved several million others. I don’t care what other people think, this is how I think.

I cannot comprehend that since May 2007 Nigeria has no legitimate president. And since dec 2009 Nigeria does not even have an illegitimate president. And they say it’s democracy. Nonsense.

Those who own and run Nigeria don’t care about the millions living in poverty and desperation. If they do and if there was democracy, the House of Assembly would by now have done their obligations-which is to move the country forward in the absence of the fake president whose status remains secretive and unknown since DEC 2009.

But since we don’t have democracy in Nigeria and since those who run Nigeria do not give account to anyone, the rest of us can remain in coma with the runaway fake president. Welcome to Nigeria, a country ruled by mad politicians and gangters called godfathers.

They are sharing money, bribing themselves back and forth and everything is so uncertain.

We the ordinary people bark, write and complain but since we have deemed ourselves powerless, the nonentities at the helm of affairs continue to do what they like.

They fluorish in illegalities and randomness.

This nation as far as I am concern is in custody. It was in custody when Osahon wrote several years ago. It remains in custody as I write.

The House of Rep and the Senate members because they were all bundled in illegally in 2007, do not have the morality to act on our behalf. Therefore they continue to accept millions of dollars in bribe from the presidency. The VP is so impotent and insignificant he is almost unheard. There is nothing to fight for when everyone has a skeleton in his/ her cupboard.

SERIOUSLY I will never never never understand why we are always in this ridiculous situation. It makes nonsense of our collective intelligence. It’s so amazing and according to one of my friends: HOW DO WE THINK OR HOW ARE WE THINKING?

I mean, we know what to do but we continue to allow this reign of terror, lies, deceits, tyranny and illegitimacy.

I’ve tried to change my discussions in the past few weeks but this madness in Nigeria keeps irritating me. I tried to write about sports, I even wrote about family values but NO the madness of those keeping the rest of us as slaves keeps catching up with me.

I’m short of words. Nigeria is a completely FAILED COUNTRY!

Before the sacking of Amodu…(again)

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Adeola Aderounmu

Is Amodu the problem with Nigerian Football? I don’t think so. Does he have roles to play in the development of our game? I think so. Has he done everything right? No.

There are thousands of question one could ask and there will be thousands of opinions for each questions. In Nigeria everyone of us is a potential coach and analyst.

If Amodu is sacked, history will probably repeat itself. In France 1998 and Japan/ Korea 2002 Nigeria suffered humiliation in the world cup championship. Coaches that didn’t qualify Nigeria for the championship were drafted in as the so called “world cup coaches” and Nigeria was humiliated in both tournaments.

In 2010 we are about to repeat the same mistake. Sometime I wonder if Nigeria learns! For some people it is business as usual. Let’s bring in a new coach and collect our share of the deal and contract!

Amodu is not the problem with Nigerian football. The administration of football in Nigeria is a joke! You find men in agbada running around with big stomachs and calling themselves sports administrators. These men are pure contractors and they have been blinded by what they stand to gain from the sport rather than what they can give to the game. In some instances, you will find people who cannot even spell football correctly. Some of these people have no real knowledge of the game.

And they blame the coach and players.

Indeed when you watch Nigerian games sometimes you can take a swipe at the players and coaches. Often it appears that they don’t know what is at stake. But believe me, they know. We should never forget that Nigerian footballers are big time pros. Who doesn’t want to win games or who does not want to play at the world cup? It is the dream of every footballer.

So what is wrong?

The thing is in Nigeria; almost everything is done wrongly at the national level. The system is bad. So it is not even a football affair. For all I care, let them change the coach, then they will discover that the problems might even get worse. Foreign coaches don’t understand the Nigerian mentality or factors and they have failed woefully. It took Westerhof quite some time to get used to the system, then he achieved some good results. His saving grace was continuity. After him, Nigerian football has lacked continuity. We want instant achievements; we are always in a hurry.

The administration of football in Nigeria just like every thing about our public life needs a new face and a new life. When those who know about football and those who are good administrators take over the running of Nigerian football, we will return to our glorious past and start to achieve better results again. This is the same thing with our political dilemma. When we learn to do things the right way, we will get back on track and save ourselves from the poverty that now dominates.

For the Super Eagles, they don’t need a new coach. While I am not professing to know it all or to have the magic formula, I will offer my own suggestions.

Since the world cup is around the corner, it will be foolishness to sack Amodu. Amodu should be allowed to go to the world cup. It is under him that we got the ticket. Ha has done so before and was rudely sacked. It should not happen again.

I think we should work on three areas for the world cup:

1. We should work on the technical aspect of the game, and this does not mean a new coach. There are ways to go about this. Amodu can learn a lot in 3-4 months. How this can be achieved is known to those who know about football. This is what the NFF should be thinking about. How can we, in the short time we have to the world cup, give Amodu the best Technical knowledge that he needs? Can we do this by bringing Siasia or Keshi to the national team? Nigeria must find a Nigerian answer to the technical problems in the team. A foreign coach will destroy what is left of Amodu’s Super Eagles. The outcome of finding a new coach may be negative as we saw in France 98 and Japan Korea 2002.

2. The second aspect is divided into two and it concerns the players. Their collective mentality and physical strengths should be worked on. The team has a psychologist as I will like to believe. He or she must work on the mental strengths of the players. How that is done is left to the professionals in that field. There is something wrong with the way Nigerian players perform on the field of play that is now right. That must be addressed. Sometimes it appears that they are concentrating on something else instead of the game. This is just my opinion. AND I sincerely believe the team needs a physical trainer to work on their perseverance, endurance and strength.

3. The team does not have a maestro or libero. In the 80s we had late Muda Lawal in the midfield. In the 90s we had Keshi and then Oliseh followed by Okocha. These men controlled the game and dictated the pace of play for the Nigerian teams. What these men do or don’t do really mattered for the Nigerian team. After Okocha, we have had no new commander for the team. There is no one in the Nigerian team who can hold the ball as needed and distribute “sharp” passes with precision.

Yobo is the captain but playing in the defence does not really give you the possibility to dictate the pace of play. Kanu is definitely not the one as age has caught up with him. Uche and Mikel Obi have not been able to play that role. I am convinced that there must be a Nigerian player either in the local league or abroad who can do this job. We must find him!!!

This is where I have my criticism for the coach. As a coach you must find a libero or commander for the team. It doesn’t have to be the captain. You need someone who the game revolves around. It is an essential element of football. I watched Nigerian games and I see a sailing boat without a steering captain. I see an auto-pilot plane. It doesn’t work when your opponent is well equipped.

I know that my views are not perfect but I am very uncomfortable to read or hear about Nigeria looking for a new coach. That is definitely fattening of some people’s pockets and the beginning of new problems.

The issue of the ages of our footballers and how this affects the quality of their outputs is another matter entirely-beyond the scope of this discussion.

Good luck Nigeria..!