Sports

IAAF versus CASTER SEMENYA: It is pure Racism!

/ Adeola / 7 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu

IAAF can go ahead to test Semenya Caster just because she is an African woman. This is pure racism and absolute discrimination even if they come up with one or two indications of elements of masculinity.

Caster Semenya (from www.bbc.co.uk)

Caster Semenya (from http://www.bbc.co.uk)

Does the IAAF have the courage to test all the muscular Jamaican, American, German, British and even Russian girls? No! We have not heard that they are doing all these elaborate, sensitive and intensive tests on any other woman/ girl from other countries or continent.

So, it is only an African that can serve as the laboratory “rat” of the IAAF? This is absolutely ridiculous. It is an insult to African women all over the world. IAAF is now going to set a standard of what a woman should look like, run like, dress like, react like and develop like.

Female athlete should now be IAAF factors-compliant.

I was so pissed off by the other competitors who complained about Caster Semenya. They can only make this useless complains because she is African I supposed.

Hopefully Semenya will come out clean and I hope by then she can give IAAF back their medals because this one has been made worthless.

Racism at the Olympics

/ Adeola / 2 Comments

My son lost Olympics gold to racism, says Chukwumerije
From Alifa Daniel, Asst. Political Editor, Abuja

 (CULLED FROM THE NIGERIAN GUARDIAN NEWSPAPER 26/08/2008)

THE Beijing Olympics may have ended, but in Nigeria, a senator, who spent his funds to send his son on a six-month training across the world, Uche Chukwumerije, has fired a protest to the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) over the manner the boy was allegedly short-changed out of contention for a gold or silver medal in the sports. Chika, Senator Uche Chukwumerije’s son, won a bronze medal.

The senator in a letter to the President which he read to journalists in his office at the National Assembly, explained that beyond protesting the injustice done to his son, his action would alert the administrators of taekwondo and the Olympics of the imminent danger posed to the sport by poor officiating.

Alluding to a racial tendency on the part of the administrators, the senator said that his protest was intended to ensure that the presence of African athletes in future competitions will be treated with more respect. “Sports should be blind,” he added.

He prayed the WTF president to replay the tape of this fight in any international sports channel and give the large international jury of Masters of Taekwondo an opportunity to appraise the fight and make their judgment, adding that such a jury with its experience and professionalism is more likely to deliver a merit and rule-driven verdict.

“I am compelled by the insensitivity which the dead ends of WTF official channels have offered to plead for justice and my fears about the deleterious effect of such deadness on the future of our Taekwondo sport to make this protest to you.

“The object of this petition is the poor officiating in the (Men’s Over 80kg) quarter-final tournament between Nigeria (Chika Chukwumerije) and Greece (Alexandro Nicholaidias) on August 23 in 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing (Beijing Science and Technology University Gymnasium). The officiating was so flawed that the victor was robbed of victory, and the defeated awarded an unmerited victory.

“My locus standi: What, you may ask, is my rightful interest in this matter? I am a member of the Taekwondo family – a senior black belt, a promoter of taekwondo in Nigeria and the father of the short-changed player in this disputed contest, Chika Chukwumerije.

On the grounds for his protest, Chukwumerije noted the overlook of a punishable violation of contest rules by Alexandro of Greece. His words: “In the second round of the contest, Alexandro held Chika by his chest protector and attempted an ass kick on the head, apparently in a desperate bid to wipe off Chika’s two-point lead. Holding an opponent while kicking is a punishable offence by Taekwondo rules. The referees overlooked the infraction. No point was deducted from Alexandro.”

He urged the WTF president to watch the tape of the fight and judge for himself.

Other grounds he gave were: “The attempted ass kick by Alexandro totally missed Chika who successfully ducked. But the referees inexplicably awarded two marks to Alexandro and he levelled up with Chika’s two-point lead.

  • Denial of Chika’s score – Almost immediately after this 2-2 score, Chika made a clear kick to Alexandro’s chest. Inexplicably, the referees denied him the score.

“

  • Second unmerited award to Alexandro – Three seconds to the end of the round, the referees inexplicably gave one point to Alexandro, bringing the score to 3-2 in his favour. No kick, no punch to justify this score.

“

  • Deaf ears to our Constitutional Right to Hearing of our Appeal for a Review – In accordance with the rules, Chika’s coach and the Nigerian Taekwondo leadership filed a protest to the Taekwondo supervisory board against the poor officiating. To underline the seriousness of Nigeria’s concern for the stultifying effect of this level of refereeing on the future of Taekwondo, the top management of Nigeria’s Olympic Sports Organisation (comprising Habu Gumel, Chairman of Nigeria Olympics Committee; Banji Oladapo, Secretary-General of the Committee, Alhaji Bappa, the Assistant Secretary-General, Patrick Ekeji, the Director-General of Sports Development in Nigeria, Nathaniel Nnaji, Chairman, Nigeria Taekwondo Association and my humble self) met the Chairman of Africa Taekwondo Union, General Fouli of Egypt, and re-emphasised our protest.

“We were told that the protest would be considered and a review was under way. The next shock, which hit us was a display on the television screen announcing a tournament for a third position and listing Chika Chukwumerije as a contestant. This meant that our protest received merely a nominal nod, but was never treated, unlike the protest by Britain in an earlier bout.”

He further urged the WTF president to review the tapes and come to his own conclusion.

Chukwumerije went on: “From this account, the following observations are noteworthy: First, by fair officiating, this tournament should have ended 3-0 in favour of Chika Chukwumerije. The calculation is thus:- the three points given to Alexandro were unmerited gifts and therefore a nullity. On the other hand, Chika’s three (3) points — that is, the two (2) points acknowledged by the referees and the one (1) point denied by referees — were clearly earned.

Secondly, the capricious behaviour of the judges was reflected in an unprecedented number of stoppages of the fight for consultations among the referees in the bout. As can be seen in the tape, “on three occasions, the referees stopped the fight and consulted among themselves, thereby giving a strong impression that they were unsure of their readings of the contest. Please compare the stoppages in this fight with referee interventions in all the other taekwondo fights in this Olympic Games.”

Chukwumerije noted that Nigeria was bound to be demoralised, stressing that her only protection and assurance in the sport was the hope that taekwondo convention offers a level playing ground in competitions.

“This hope has now been severely undermined,” the senator lamented, adding that “the international image of taekwondo may be soiled and its standing in the comity of world sports lowered by a growing impression of subjective and unpredictable commitment of our referees to the rules of the game.

He also averred that “the insensitivity of the Taekwondo Supervisory Board to genuine protests against provable acts of poor officiating in accordance with the rules encourages anti-compliance behaviour among practitioners. Compare the responses of the Supervisory Board to two protests — Britain’s and Nigeria’s.

In an earlier bout (Women’s Under 57kg Quarter Finals), the British coach angrily shot up from his seat like thunder bolt and protested in a loud voice against a case of poor officiating. He aggressively followed up after the contest with a strong protest to the board. The supervisory board reviewed the case, played back the tape in full view of the audience, and reversed the verdict of the judges.

In Nigeria’s case, the Nigerian coach quietly waited like a law-abiding practitioner till the end of the bout to make his protest. Nigeria avoided violence of fist or body language. The supervisory board ignored our appeal and the review of the disputed contest did not take place. We gathered from the grapevine that the supervisory council was afraid that a second reversal of an unjustified verdict would be one too many and could deal embarrassing damage to the image of World Taekwondo Federation.”

 

Swedish wrestler Ara Abrahamian has been disqualified and stripped of his Olympic bronze medal.

(From the  BBC)

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) said the Swede was punished for violating the spirit of fair play during the medal ceremony.

Abrahamian, who came third in the 84kg Greco-Roman category, dumped his medal on the floor after receiving it and strode off in protest.

He was furious at a controversial penalty call in his semi-final.

The call decided the match against Italy’s Andrea Minguzzi, who went on to win the gold medal.

Following the semi-final loss to Minguzzi, Abrahamian, who won silver in the Athens Olympics four years ago, had to be restrained by his team-mates.

The IOC executive board ruled that the wrestler’s action amounted to a political demonstration and a mark of disrespect to his fellow athletes.

They added that no athlete will receive Abrahamian’s medal.

Emmanuel Adebayor; From Rags to Riches and Fame

/ Adeola / 4 Comments

Culled from BBC SPORTS

Togo and Arsenal star Emmanuel Adebayor has just been on a “tour of hope” across West Africa to his homeland, where he was presented with the BBC African Footballer of the Year award for 2007. The BBC’s Farayi Mungazi travelled with him

Emmanuel Adebayor

Emmanuel Adebayor’s self-styled “tour of hope” that took him to Ghana and Togo left me with a different view of today’s professional footballer.

The Arsenal and Togo striker is not particularly showy.

For a man with little education, he projects himself with consummate ease and is unfailingly polite.

He reminded the cynic in me that not all professional footballers are arrogant millionaires with egos that match the size of their pay packets.

Due to his status as an African football icon, playing for one of the biggest clubs in the world, Adebayor is mobbed wherever he goes.

“I enjoy the attention because it shows that people love me for what I do,” the 2007 BBC African Footballer of the Year said, when asked about the non-stop adulation.

But, he says: “I’m a normal person; in the morning I clean my teeth like everyone else.”

Everywhere we went, Adebayor kept his childhood friends close, reminding him of the time he had nothing.

Household name

Adebayor may not yet be at his peak as a footballer, but the Togo captain is fast becoming one of the finest Africa has to offer.

The 24-year-old is now a household name; his meteoric rise aided by a string of scintillating displays for English Premier League side Arsenal.

I told myself that I only had one chance to survive and that was to be a footballer

In Ghana, where Adebayor went to school, some people wait years to see Otumfuo Osei Tutu II – a revered man and king of the most powerful and richest part of the country.

But Adebayor got an appointment within months, and was able to sweet-talk the palace into a second one after a no-show the previous day.

The audience with the football-loving king brought him to the heart of the Ashanti kingdom, about which his late father once told him stories.

Like most African stars in Europe, Adebayor was born and raised up in a desperately poor family, and his is a classic rags-to-riches tale to rival any other.

He grew up in a dilapidated house in a poor suburb of the Togolese capital, Lome.

His mother sold dried fish at the border with Ghana, earning barely enough to feed the family and buy the young Emmanuel his first pair of football boots.

The family was so poor that once he was left in hospital for seven days because his parents could not afford to pay for the treatment.

‘Hard work’

“I think a lot of people know me just on the pitch,” Adebayor says.

“They don’t know where I come from and they don’t know how I began.”

“I put in a lot of hard work to be where I am today, but I’ll never forget what it was like when I was young.

“Life was very difficult, and I told myself that I only had one chance to survive and that was to be a footballer.”

Adebayor did not have to wait long for an appointment with the king

Adebayor did not enjoy school, skipping classes to play football – though now, on his “tour of hope”, he encourages children to stick to their studies.

He sees it as his chance to give something back to Africa’s youth.

When he left Togo for France to embark on a professional career in 1999, not many would have foreseen that a football superstar had been unleashed.

“When I was going to Europe, I remember what my mother told me at the airport; she said: ‘Manu, you see where we’re living, you must go to France and do something good because we need your help.'”

He has now built her a huge, double-storey mansion in Lome, which is surrounded by shacks and run-down buildings.

But his mother has refused to move in, preferring to live with the friends who once knew her as the “Haton patchwork woman” – someone so poor that she could not afford a matching dress and headgear.

Nine years after launching his professional career, Adebayor speaks passionately about the need for him to inspire youngsters with a similar background to his.

“When I was growing up I had someone to help me, to give me something, and today I’m in a position to help others, so helping people is always a pleasure for me.”

FESTAC TOWN and its 419 Reputation

/ Adeola / 47 Comments

By Adeola Aderounmu.

I lived in Festac Town from 1977 to 2002. I attended Central Primary School, 5th Avenue and later Festac Grammar School, 41 Road. From 1978 to 1989, I had my primary and secondary education in this once beautiful village called Festac Town. Festac Town is now a rotten place. Like everyother thing in Nigeria, it was not maintained!

There is a lot of history behind festac and there is a lot that can be highlighted regarding the rise and fall of Festac Town. One thing that struck me recently is the local and international reputation of Festac Town as a 419 town.

In 2006, I was driving in my 1986 Honda Civic along the streets of Festac with some friends and they were quick to point out that I didn’t get stopped by the police because of the number plate of my car. How is that, I queried? They told me that if my car plate number was FST and if the car looked very new, the police would have stopped me on the suspicion that I was a 419 perpetrator. FST as I came to know was the preference for the “yahoo boys” to show that they live in Festac Town.

Actually, I had seen images of Festac Town and yahoo boys on the internet in connection to a TV programme that ran on ABC television in the US. So, in a way, getting on ground in Festac myself and having life confirmation from my friends was not absolutely shocking.

I realized before I travelled to Europe in 2002 that while I’d spent many years studying at the University of Lagos and labouring afterwards as a humble teacher to lead a normal life, many young people around me were taking the fast lane. Many young boys and girls did unthinkable things to acquire wealth.   419 was the non-violent part of these unthinkable things.

I will not dwell so much on 419 because it is a dubious process that involves 2 or more parties. The greediest member of this party is the man or woman (not in Nigeria) who wants to reap where he/she had not sown. 419 is a fraud made famous not by Nigerians but by their greedy preys abroad.

In a recent radio programme that I stumbled on in Sweden, they are running a series on Lagos. The next programme will be on 30th June 2007 and they will talk more about Lagos. They have described Lagos as the most dangerous city in the world and Festac Town as the headquarters for 419 activities. Lagos is an issue on its own and the okada and the crazy transport system in Lagos really needs to be treated. I don’t know if Lagos is the most dangerous city in the world. I told my wife that maybe it is New York or Johannesburg-places I haven’t been to! 

419 is not a good thing but it has solved the problems of many unemployed graduates!!! It may have disrupted the future of many youth as well. I know a boy who dropped out of University to concentrate on 419 activities but I heard he is really broke now.  

The underlying issue really is that the government in Nigeria has neglected the issue of state welfarism and many Nigerians just devised whatever desperate means of survival that they can pull together.  In a society where corruption is tolerated and the public servants enriched themselves to the detriment of the society at large, what do you expect? People have resolved to self help and then, anything goes. 

Imagine the ongoing case of the former police boss. Wherever the case terminates will not be the issue, the crux of the matter is that the entire system called Nigeria needs a cleansing. What about the out-gone thieves called senators and legislators who bought houses that belong to the government of Nigeria? How did they have so much money in 4 years? Did they save all of their salaries? Didn’t they spend that on something to keep life going? Where will the new and in coming thieves live?

Festac is my base and I feel so defenseless on this 419 issue because I know it is true. But what has the local, state or federal government done in the last 20 years for example to prepare for the future of this generation of internet rats? What have they done or what are they still doing other than stealing, looting and gallivanting like nonentities? 

May the Glory of Nigeria come, soon!

This short story was published in the Guardian June 20, 2007.