CAF-The Confederation of African Football is TOTALLY CRAZY!

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By Adeola Aderounmu

Africa never stops to surprise me. Sometime I wish I could just wake up from the nightmares of African governments and organisations.

“Togo have been banned from the next two Africa Cup of Nations following their withdrawal from this year’s tournament. The Confederation of African football (Caf) also fined the Hawks $50,000 for quitting the competition in the wake of a gun attack on the team bus in Angola“-BBC

CAF has gone crazy.

It is Togo who should be seeking legal action against CAF and the Angolan government for not providing adequate information about security in Angola.

Seriously I am short of words to express my disappointment in CAF. Whoever made the decisions is completely insane and out of his or her mind.

What are we going to do about the people who lost their lives? Some families will never be the same again as a result of the avoidable tragedies in Angola which was completely the fault of the Angolan government and the recklessness of CAF.

Togo should ignore the fine and even withdraw (by itself) from CAF competetition for life until CAF becomes “human” in nature and reasonable in thinking. This is nonsense and completely idiotic on the part of CAF.

Egypt vs Ghana in Cup Final 2010

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Adeola Aderounmu

I will give the match to the Egyptians. That will be good for football and reward for performance. But then 90m must be played, at least.

Ghana survived the Nigerian scare after going one goal up and sitting back for the rest of the game. That was the same negative football they played against Angola. In football teams must learn to score more goals and secure their victory. One goal lead can be erased even in the last 5 seconds of the game. The Ivory Coast team can witness to that. But then,vitory is victory no matter how it is acheived.

So congratulations to Ghanaians who will appear in their first final since Senegal-1992.

Algerians cracked up and they paid dearly. The Egyptians became ruthless and merciless. That is a good revenge and consolation for missing out of the world cup coming up in SA this summer. The best consolation lies ahead if they beat Ghana on sunday.

I really want the Egyptians to win because more than any other team in Angola 2010, they are outstanding and very effective. They play positive football and they score goals. They don’t sit on a goal, they get more goals.

In this tournament the Egyptians make the best team. This is so sad for Africa as the best team on the continent will not be at the world cup. Very very sad. This team would have done Africa proud.

Still One hopes that the other teams going to the world cup especially Nigeria can learn from their errors and ineptitudes and give us a good outing in SA come June 2010.

The world is waiting for us on our continent..!

African Cup of Nation: Old Rivalries Rekindled

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Adeola Aderounmu

Ghana vs. Nigeria and Algeria vs. Egypt. These are classical games. On paper, Egypt and Ghana should be heading to the finals. This is because Egypt has won all the matches played so far. They are also out to prove a point that losing to Algeria in Sudan was an unfair result for them. The Algerians have emerged from being humbled by the Malawians to a great force after seeing to the exit of highly rated Ivory Coast.

Ghana has not been spectacular but they have shown more enthusiasm than their Nigeria counterparts. Nigeria struggled to beat Zambia and only after the penalty shoot out did Nigeria manage to scale through to the semi-final.

I hope that security are in place to prevent the ugly scenes from Sudan, Egypt and Algeria that we had 2 months ago during the world cup qualifiers that Algeria finally won by a lone goal in Khartoum. It will be shameful it the North Africans come to Angola to show their violent tendencies. We have had enough of that and please let us see some beautiful football and live in peace.

One also hopes to find a good centre referee. Officiating has been disastrous in this tournament. Ivory Coast got an equaliser against Algeria but it was wrongly ruled as offside by a careless linesman. The demoralising of Cameroun was completed by another catastrophic officiating that ruled for a goal when the ball didn’t even touch the line.

If FIFA has been reasonable to introduce TECHNOLOGY into this game, it would have taken less than 1 minute to verify these “2 disasters” among several others. Until then, cheating and useless decisions will continue to take the beauty of the game away.

May the better team win on Thursday and may we get a beautiful final.

Murder in Ogun State: The Killing of Dipo Dina

/ Adeola / 4 Comments

Adeola Aderounmu

A prominent son of Ogun State has been assasinated. Mr. Dipo Dina was a vibrant opposition figure and the Ogun State gubernatorial candidate of the Action Congress in the April 2007 election. He was assassinated near Covenant University in Otta, Ogun State on Jan 26 2010.

My parents are from Ogun State. I have been there maybe 4 or 5 times my whole life. Ogun State is home to Obasanjo, MKO Abiola, Awolowo and several prominent Nigerians including Ernest Shonekan.

Ogun State will continue to occupy a central place in the Nigerian Political Sphere. But that we have killed one of our brightest minds is a big shame to us. We have allowed politics to ruin our sense of value and belonging.

The killers of Dipo Dina should bend their heads in shame. They are no better than wild animals in their show of stupidity, madness and extreme barbarism.

This is one murder too many.

There are people who are already concluding that the Ogun State Government headed by the governor Mr. Daniels should be held responsible for this killing. Such allegations may be careless or reckless.

But what are we going to get in a country where assassinations and murders of ordinary and prominent people have never been solved before? With the wicked and evil minds in control of governance, we may be asking for too much if we ask for the perpetrators to be apprehended and prosecuted. Still it is a necessary call!

The police may be out already calling this an armed robbery attack! This is what they always say. This is shameful and scandalous. We want better results from the police and security agencies.

Anambra Elections is coming soon in February, I hope that the people will allow peace to reign and that the electoral committee will count only the votes casted at polling booths.

In 2011, and before, we hope that the nest of killers would have been dismantled and brough to Justice.

The killing of Dipo is despicable, highly unacceptable and should never have happened. It is sad and the scar will remain with Ogun State and Nigeria forver.

May his sould rest in perfect peace and May the family find the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss.

Wasting Nigeria’s Money, Wasting Our Time and Lives

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Adeola Aderounmu

In the last 60 days The Presidency in Nigeria may have spent nothing less than N30 Billion in lobbies only. This is to prevent the debate on Yar Adua’s health in the National Assembly. I continue to insist that Nigeria is governed by mad people!! It can only be madness to do this type of thing. Whoever is approving the money and whoever is accepting are also part of the madness in Nigeria’s government.

Last year one man spent over N2 billion naira oscillating the universe because they call him the Minister for Foreign Affairs. Add these sums to the billions of naira that are stolen daily across Nigeria and you may arrive at the reasons why Nigeria is populated by poor people living on less than a dollar a day. You will arrive at the point where you will understand why the quality of lives in Nigeria is depictive of a failed state despite the oil wealth of the nation and the vast unutilised agricultural and natural resources.

I will consider as a HUGE JOKE the idea that Mr. Yar Adua will be brought back to Nigeria on a stretcher and made to rule from a life support machine. It will be the BIGGEST joke in the history of man to have an invalid at the helm of affairs of a nation of 150m strong, capable, determined and indefatigable people. Nigeria will not only continue to be a laughing stock, we will by that time be erased from world map if that ever happens!

How much more money and how much more time do we have to spend on this wasteful family holding 150m of us to ransom? So they want to build a life support machine in Aso rock? Let them also go ahead and build a life-prolonging machine as well. Life support will not be enough!

I salute Nigerians who have began to take to the streets to make their voices and frustrations known. I salute the Wole Soyinkas, the Chinua Achebes and the Femi Falanas of this world. I salute the Nigerian worker, I salute the Nigerian woman and children. I salute all the brave people who are now talking and acting for the rest of us.

The revolution is starting slowly and that is exactly how it should be. I salute all the Nigerians abroad especially those who have defiled the cold weathers to join the long march to freedom. All of these actions will converge in the days ahead to get the evil and wicked people out of our government. They will be gone soon.

We must ensure that we keep up the tempo, the pressure and never to neglect ourselves in these trying times. I salute Nigerians for what they have done so far and I know that with such actions, will and determination, the journey on the long road to our liberation, to our freedom and to our real independence have just started.

Together we will get there and freedom and peace will come to our children and children’s children. I still believe in Nigeria..!