Adeola Aderounmu.

Football was at its best in Kumasi Ghana as the defending African champion Egypt sent Cameroun to the drycleaners. Cameroun played a fantastic game and they showed great determination but give it to the Egyptian strikers who knew when and how to strike.

4 goals to 2 was a deserved scoreline for the Egyptians who showed how good football should be played-purpose and tactics.

Surely, Ghana 2008 will bring more moments of exciting football.

May the best team win the tournament! 

Adeola Aderounmu.

The Eagles have refused to fly!!!

Ivory Coast beat Nigeria by one wonderful goal to nothing. Kalou was given a glorious moment as he scored a classic goal against Nigeria.

The Nigerian team though made up of stars upon stars refused to show any serious approach to the game. It’s as if nothing was at stake.

I thought there was honour/glory attached to winning a game of this nature.

The tactical deficiency of the Nigerian coach was too obvious to ignore. While his counterpart brought in Keita who more or less won the game for Cote d’ivore, the substitutions on the Nigerian part left more holes in the pattern of the Nigerian style of play. 

Football is not an easy game and we cannot expect Nigeria to win always but the display put up by the Nigerian team was below expectation.

They have an uphill task ahead of them if they want to go beyond the group stage(s) of this tournament.

A more tactical and more purposeful pattern of play is compulsory for any team that wants to go far in major tournaments. One hopes that the Nigerian technical team will go back to the drawing board before their next “make or mar” game. 

I wish the super eagles and Nigerians success.

All the best.

Adeola

Adeola Aderounmu.

Africa is not alone in the menace of violence and barbarism but as Africans, some of us are obliged to focus on Africa. That is where our shoe pinches. The ongoing military brutality in Kenya in the hands of a senseless civilian is simply a case of spreading sorrow, tears and blood (an expression made popular by Fela). Kenya may have been a stable country until the notorious Iwu-like election that was conducted by the shameless Obasanjo-like Kibaki, but like Nigeria, Kenya has always been and remains a very corrupt country. Also, in a similar manner to Nigeria, Kenya is also the proud home to some of the poorest people on earth.   

It is hard to reckon that Africa is the acclaimed cradle of civilization. Leadership in most parts of Africa since the departure of the forced colonialism is a very big scandal. Some authors and commentators are always quick to retrace the woes of Africa back to the doorsteps of France, Britain, the US and other powers that have besieged Africa in the past and the present. It will not be surprising in the days ahead as the clouds gets thicker or clearer in Kenya that we will be told how some external powers have been involved in the bloodletting going on in Kenya. On whose permission would that have been if it turned out so?   

Beyond the placement of blame and unnecessary distractions of expectations of foreign involvement in the resolving of the mass murder playing out in Kenya is the general situation of things in Africa. Africa remains the most corrupt continent on the surface of the earth. Poverty is like an eternal plague foisted on Africa soil. There is a possibility that the poorest people on earth are living in Africa. It is so unbelievable that some of these people who survive on less than 1 dollar per day are found in Nigeria and Kenya.  

It is also disheartening to see how the instrument of governance in Africa has been misused over and over again. African leaders are selfish and merciless. They not only steal and loot, they are also reputable for their willingness to use military might to crush the voices and actions of the innocent. Images emerging from Kenya are very very unpalatable. A lot of theories are emerging on the nature of the violence and the possible expansive dimension of things to come. Yet, it remains unjustifiable how a civilian government can unleash military terror in the name of self-preservation/ perpetuation in power. Some African countries are doomed! Infact, they are cursed!  

Reprieve is not near at all in many countries in Africa. Where the leadership is unrepentantly blinded by greed, senselessness, inhumanity, evil, worthless self-preservation and uncontrollable ethnic consciousness, disaster is the end result. This is what has confined Nigeria to an everlasting destination of zero progress and this is what seemed to have caught up with Kenya. Regardless of the nature or origin of the problems, the consequences of mis-governance in Africa have common denominators. There is widespread corruption. Poverty is escalating. On top of these two popular disasters are several physically-felt dehumanizing agonies. There is serious sorrow in Africa. The people are crying as a result of lack of food and social comfort. The crime against humanity in Africa is so bad that blood is spilled at anytime and anywhere like water. Sadly, millions do not even have access to clean water. Many land and water are polluted to make sure that the dream of clean water will remain a mirage for several rural and urban dwellers alike.  

In the midst of all these however, it must be pointed out that some people are still lucky. Somehow, through hard work and through some strokes of luck, a handful of people have escaped poverty and are carrying on with decent lives. But these few people cannot cast our minds away from the greater majority whose daily plights continue to symbolize the ugly image of Africa. In Africa, the leadership has failed the common followership. In many places there is absolute ignorance that has made it easy for dictatorships to hold sway permanently. In some places the followership is simply tamed. Still some are feebly resilient. And when the followerships decide someday to show some resistance and demand for their rights, they are brutally crushed! Africa as a continent is a dilemma on its own.  

This is where I have refused to wholly subscribe to the attribution of Africa’s present woes to western influence. The bulk of Africa’s problems are traceable to madness of the leaders. The leaders have refused to see beyond their noses and some of them continue to sow the seeds of ethnic discord among several other discordant tunes to take undue advantage of political situations. In the process, they have brought ridicule and shame to Africa in addition to the spread of poverty, penury and impoverishment.  

The sorrow, tears and bloodletting on the African continent will continue for some time but the outcomes from the Kenya crises will serve as a benchmark for the future regarding the limits of madness at the helm of political affairs. Indeed the outcome unlike the resiliency that characterized Nigeria will serve as an eye opener for possible eventual emancipation of the African continent and the future application of the understanding of the principles of justice and fairness.  

 By Adeola Aderounmu.    

I am finding it difficult to comprehend the nature of things to come in Kenya. My fears are that things could get out of hand, out of control. In that worst scenario, thousands or millions of people could be killed.

I am also forced to deviate to Nigeria at a point like this. If Nigeria had been the good model of Africa as everyone expected, it would have been very easy to mediate in Kenya at a time like this. One could have been quick to say, didn’t you see how Nigeria is…bla blab bla. Unfortunately, Nigeria as the sleeping giant of Africa is headed by an illegal government since May 2007.  Imagine the ridicule if Yar Adua goes to Kenya to mediate in the crisis.  Or imagine Nigeria’s Maurice Iwu going to Kenya to lecture the electoral commission! What a shame!

Kenya’s Kibaki definitely has a strong point to hold on to in leading the people of Kenya even if it is against the popular wish. It’s like this: Illegality works in Nigeria (and perhaps many other countries in Africa), why should it not work in Kenya?

The problem though is still the relative differences in the levels of resiliency and the tolerance of evil. It seems that Kenyans are ready to lay down their lives for the enthronement of sanity, accountability and proper governance. In the end, if the people win, it will be the turning point that would shape the future of Kenya forever.  

It is unfortunate that hundreds of people have died and that the madness prevails. It appears to be a part of the sacrifice needed to build a formidable country devoid of injustice. However with the level of global advancement and awareness, the sacrifice involving the loss of human lives is quite unnecessary.  

Greed and corruption are the backbones to this type of a senseless scenario. It is very disheartening to see the waste of human lives and valuable time, two key parameters that can never be regained once they are lost.  

I look forward to Kenyans being able to resolve the issues at stake. Power, resource control, tribal conflicts, or whatever the rest of the injustice/egocentrism are all about. Africans deserve more than what the pitiable leadership have provided to date and the search for true statesmanship and genuine leadership irrefutably remain parts of the essential ingredient needed to take Africa out of the doldrums! 

Adeola Aderounmu.  

Has anyone been following the case of a Ghanaian woman who was sent home from the UK? This woman is terminally ill and requires kidney dialysis as treatment. I don’t know if a transplant is in the offing.

Yes, her UK visa expired! Indeed, she was at the wrong place!

But what does compassionate ground means when we deviate or conform to conventional norms and expectations?  What if she had died on the flight back to Ghana?

How sorrowful can it be to save a life or treat a patient against the laws surrounding immigration orders or disorders and in view of exceptional human needs?

Isn’t it from this same environment that hundreds of SOS appeals emanate daily asking us to save people in the so called 3rd world?

 It means the people who need help in the 3rd world should only get help in the 3rd world. How functional or effective is the help of SOS/humanitarian funds in that regard when all the executives in the 1st world behind the SOS slogans live in mansions and earn mega pay? Who is fooling who?

Surely, the world will be a safer and a better place if people appeal to their personal conscience first.

What a terrible world!

UPDATED 22 March 2008…

The woman in question, Ama Sumani died on the 19th of March. May her soul NOW find peace that The Ghanaian Authority and the British Government denied her.

It’s still a crazy world.