Month: August 2012

Liverpool’s Martin Skrtel and the gamble pass to Tevez

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

By Adeola Aderounmu

I have many friends who played/are still playing professional football around the world. Just yesterday the 25th August one of them came visiting. He left the game a few years ago but we still always talk about the days he played and his short spel as a Super Eagle player.

One of the topics we touched yesterday was how the game remains unpopular in China despite all the big players that have been going there from time to time. He too played in China. We agreed that the factors could be many and some unknown to us. He also mentioned that there is apathy because many Chinese believes that the outcomes of football games are fixed or gambled.

He said after he left China one of the people arrested was the central defender in his former team. He said looking back, the pieces fell in place. He had wondered then how a reliable defender could be making serious errors during the games. But at that time he thought well, it could happen in football. But he knows better now-that his defender was selling the games!

When you look at the commitment and the goal scored by Skrtel against Manchester City you will be convinced that he made a serious mistake when he gave a pass to Tevez instead of his own goalkeeper.

I would really like to see the replay of that error of judgment again. The times I had seen it, what I saw is a player who gave a pass to Tevez probably because that is where he wanted the pass to be. I may be totally wrong-I am just a blogger afterall!

But I did not see a pass going to the goalkeeper who was in his yard or zone.

I did not see what I could call a reliable defender who looked up and gave a pass. He was looking at his feet and the ball before he gave a pass.

I am not making any accusation here. But at the same time I am tired of football outcomes that look like “arranged” or “make believe”.

I am also tired of the Italian approach where everything looks normal and real at the surface only for cans of worms to be opened at the end of the season or few years later. Do Italian fans still believe in their football?

I don’t want to wake up 10 years from now and read about the confession of a Liverpool player who sold a match while the fans and spectators where losing their nerves and draining their adrenalin.

It looks like a real mistake to many people and to others it is so silly that would remove the adjectives “experienced” or “reliable” when describing such a defender.

Whatever it was-genuine error or silly back pass, or arranged match-fixing- football, gambling, fixing and controversies will always go together. That’s just the way several businesses are.

Lagos Facebook Murder

/ Adeola / 3 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu

It’s very sad to know and read about the story of Cynthia Udoka Osokogu.
She was lured by murderers who posed as friends on her facebook list of friends.

Ezekiel Nnechuwu Olisa Eloka,23 and Echezona Nwabufor, 33 robbed and killed Cynthia in a Lagos Hotel. Pretending to be good friends and potential business associates, these wicked men raped, robbed and took the life of a woman who taught she was making good contacts for her business opportunities.

Apparently these guys are career murderers and one begins to wonder how many career murderers are posing on facebook as friends.

A lesson has been taught in the hardest and saddest way possible- don’t be friends to absolute strangers on facebook. If you do, never meet them! If you do, let it be a public or open meeting and never in hotels or private homes. Don’t go to places with strangers. They could be murderer like Ezekiel and Echezona.

There is a slight consolation in the rapid response of the police and law enforcement agencies. It is remarkable that the Nigerian Police could track phone numbers and make use of CCTV cameras leading to the arrest of the perpetrators.

The next line of hope is the prosecution and eventual sentencing of the offenders.

One can only imagine the sadness and sorrow of the families and friends of the beautiful woman that was murdered. Cynthia was a businesswoman and a graduate student resident in Abuja. She was murdered in Lagos. She did not deserve that sort of treatment. May her soul find peace.

Again, This is War in Nigeria..!

/ Adeola / 1 Comment

Adeola Aderounmu

Many people are quick to dismiss a state of war in Nigeria. But those who have been killed and those who are related to the slained know that this is a state of war.

In a way, it is a form of war crime. Systematic elimination of a certain race or group is known as genocide. Christians have been targeted especially in Northern Nigeria. On the 6th of August 2012, armed men entered a church in Kogi State Nigeria with the aim of eliminating all the worshippers attending a bible study.

As far as I am concern, this is war crime. The worshippers have done nothing wrong in pursuance of their faith and they were unharmed.

It is now impossible to know exactly how many attacks have been carried out in Northern and Central Nigeria by Boko Haram and the imitators of Boko Haram.

It is easy and convenient to point accusing fingers at Boko Haram because of the declarations that Boko Haram has made in the past. It is convenient because the government of Goodluck Jonathan is simply put, totally useless in every way.

The attack in Kogi State is a wake-up call for Yorubas and occupiers of Western Nigeria. The war is now coming to your doorsteps. It’s seems Boko Haram has no boundary afterall.

I felt agitated this morning and I thought of how I will defend Yorubaland because it is a matter of duty to defend the land that we got from our ancestors. If this means going to war with Northern Nigeria or taking down Boko Haram, then it should be.

The events in Nigeria continue to reveal the stupidity of the nature of the Nigerian government. In a country where one man can steal 500 million dollars and walk free, what kind of moral obligations towards the citizenry do we expect from such occupiers and conquerors of Nigeria?

The present occupiers of Nigeria are either dumb or foolish not to know that the time is now to do something drastic in order to avert the coming war.

I sincerely support that the different regions making up Nigeria should be given their autonomy just the way it was before the 1966 coup and the eventual creation of non-viable states by Gowon and others.

I sincerely look forward to Western Nigerian declaring its own government and the re-instatement of integrity and accountability in our public services.

I am convinced that the people of Eastern Nigerian can lead themselves and work harder to achieve their dreams.

I also know that the Middle-belt and the South South will like to run their lives without listening to some fools or puppet in Abuja.

Independence and self-determination should be sought again by these regions and this step will sure help us to govern ourselves. Then we can start dealing with the problems of corruption, nepotism and ineptitude at that point.

For now, the political war with religious intonation been championed by Boko Haram needs to be crushed at all cost. It takes a good leader and not a useless ruler to achieve this goal.