A few days ago, this writer observed one single ant parading around his pair of shoes, but did nothing and some minutes later upon looking down about twenty ants were marching in a single column towards those shoes. Out of curiosity, this writer decided to simply scare the ants away and watched them scatter but left the shoes intact. Unfortunately, about twenty minutes later upon returning to pick up the shoes, it seems that the ants have declared war on those shoes with thousand crawlers. Is there a solution to ant infestation? Of course, yes and every Nigerian will agree. This writer readers knows where this writing is heading and others can just guess, but continue to read this paper.
Noted Event (Football)
Coach Stephen Keshi signed a new two-year contract with the Nigeria’s football federation and made to apologize to Nigerians for some ill-will towards the fans. Although unusual, but the fact is that Mr. Keshi will no longer enjoy intervention by the Presidency or the National Sports Commission whenever his employer frowns at his conduct or performance and that means his tenure is not certain. The reality is, in the game of football anything can happen in terms of performance, but miracles are very rare and that suggests to this writer that unhappy exit for Mr.Keshi is highly likely. This submission is by no means a doomsday prediction, but rather a calculated expectation.
Noted Event (Athletics)
Recently, Vanguard newspaper published an article by our great friend Mr. Ben Efe concerning the predicament of Nigeria’s junior athletes stranded at the airport without tickets to travel to Mauritius for African Youth Athletics Championship http://www.vanguardngr.com/
On a lighter note and more uplifting story, a roll call of who is who in Lagos State Athletics Community past occurred on Saturday 25th April 2015 during a Championship, formerly called 7up Relays for schools but now revived somewhat to include Clubs as senior category but sponsored by others. Yes, stars of Lagos State Schools in the 1970s were there to grace the occasion from this writer to folks like Tony Osheku, Yussuf Alli, Tina, Ihaegwan, Isaac Ikhabomeh and Henry Amike. Of course, these former stars shook the sports world during their reign and weren’t paid to be there then and now but their presence is what matters. Yoruba language refers to those athletes as “Enilo lo bo” and it means the person that left is the person that returns. St. Finbarr’s College, Baptist Academy, Jibril Martins, St. Gregory’s College and others were represented as clappers, officials and mentors. This should be a blueprint for the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and as expected no decision making member of AFN showed up. At least one would have expected AFN technical committee to be around, however, unpaid foot soldiers like Deji Aliu, Solomon Aliu, Tunde Suleiman, and some others were present. These individuals who were once athletes of great achievements showed up for the interest of the sport and that is what is necessary to move athletics forward in Nigeria not those that have nothing to give Nigeria sports rather they were appointed by so-called sports Ministers that have nothing to give the athletes or the country.
And Then
Returning to the introductory passage of this writing, the infestation of athletics has solution that every Nigerian knows and that is CHANGE AFN for good and that can be done with impeachment notice immediately because at least four Board members are ready. Commodore Nesiama are you ready to make a bold statement? This writer knows Nesiama view very well and by virtue of his profession he is limited somewhat. The Secretary General of Football resigned recently and that should be viewed as courageous but the most important thing is the players’ interest not personal desire. Quite frankly, those individuals that showed enthusiasm and interests in the country’s youth sports development (as recent as April 25 2015) should run things technically not Solomon Ogba that has nothing to give or interest in athletics. AFN was turned into Delta State athletics management group where you are not considered an athlete until you competed for Delta State and the same go for the coaches. Unfortunately, the AFN Board members are silent, which is gross misconduct and all of them ought to be recalled by those that appointed them, essentially, an impeachment must commence and if not, National Sports Commission must stop funding AFN until new regime is installed or a probe is completed for all funding to AFN in the past four years.
I rest for now.
Dr. Rashid A. Balogun, CPA, LLB(Hons.), LLM(London)
