A trained monkey remains a monkey and one who steals one penny remains a thief despite the fact that he may have not been trained to be a thief. There comes a time when an individual action cannot be hidden from trained eyes, of course, these are the days. Pardon my reference to the former President of Nigeria Chief Olusegun Obasanjo recent letter of his observation about Nigeria because his views though late in delivery, but it is welcomed by the entire country. Yes, Chief Obasanjo simply acts in accordance with free speech (expression) provision under the constitution of Nigeria irrespective of his political affiliation as this writer continues to do, though without a political mandate.
Propagandagate (Free media, Questionable over N10Million Promotions Budget, etc.)
There are allegations in the media recently about Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi, the Sports Minister use of unskilled propagandist under assumed names, like Abdul, Heritage, Tunde Akinlabi, Bunmi, etc. to defame, intimidate, assault and utter threats to this writer and others for speaking the truth.
In fact, the writings of those thugs were traced to the same laptop and as this material being prepared international investigative agencies are tracing the original owner of such laptop. Of course, this writer exchanged correspondences with Mr. Abdullahi in the past, therefore, his laptop or PC routing (IP) code numbers are known. Since international investigators are doing their work, the chip can fall where ever as there is no hiding place for these perambulating vagabonds referring to themselves as special aides.
The key concern for Nigerians as a whole is to worry about how NSC maintains budget for promotions in excess of N10million when such promotion is free from mainstream media. Furthermore, can the sports Minister tells Nigerians what the fund is being used for media propagandas and when the country’s National Assembly approved such spending?
Sports Status
Quietness has to yet again take over the relevance of sports despite the fact that NSC held a Youth Games in Abuja right after National School Sports festival by the Education Ministry in Ilorin. Of course, it is quite an example of foolishness and also an exhibition of ineptitude on large scale to require children to be out of the confines of their home for about three weeks in December and expects them to perform at a high level. Again, the sports Minister got no clue about the rigors of sports because he never plays one.
Now, do Nigerians expect super performances from these children? If not, why did we impose Youth festival on them right after the National Schools Sports Festival? Is it about money to be shared among the so-called organizers? Absolutely! What happened to foreign (London) born advertised to be part of it? Is the Youth games imposed because of these London born children? Let the NSC stop deceiving Nigerians about the intent of these charades. This youth game served no purpose, grass root sports development has everything to do with local area focused training and recruitments.
Spectators are not really concerned about athletes’ welfare rather performances and that is where Mr. Abdullahi will remain until he laced up his shoes and start competing in some sort of sports, photo-up for a media scrum by him is nonsense to any athlete and considered as belittling that particular sport.
Special Sports
This is also an area that this writer has advocated due to the performances of the country’s athletes in the past and their plights when one of them died at the National Stadium Surulere, Lagos Swimming pool that he called home. This writer dares the Sports Minister to identify the home address of any top Nigerian special sports Olympics medalists without his aides.
This is a critical point in that sports history because the country is clearly outpacing the rest of the world in development without any funding from NSC while some of those athletes are dying horribly due to hunger, neglect, homelessness, etc. Yes, the media can aid these athletes with their plight but the question is at whose expense. This writer raise this matter with a journalist who said his editor looks for sexy or sponsored story. Sexy story in the sense that it is sellable, that is, invites new readers and subscriptions.
In a country like Nigeria, the Paralympics are in an embryonic stage to their readers and the argument does makes sense but not to the NSC that represents the government that cannot discriminate for whatever reason between Nigerians. Physical and mental challenges cannot be reason to ignore a producing segment of the country. It’s very hypocritical to abandon such athletes but yet finds a way to claim ownership of their accomplishments as in London Paralympics.
Code of Conduct (Code of Nonsense)
Although, this writer got no clue what such codes are but it is safe to say it is toothless and nothing but a piece of cotton candy that with one bite, it will melt away. The athlete will no longer approach NSC without legal advice in the future and of course, the sports Minister will no longer retain such post in the near future and he knows that because of the political climate of his home state versus national party affiliation.
Clearly, this writer expects the issue of conflicts in ASUU repeated in sports coming next year, in fact, World Cup 2014 preparation. The writings are there for all to see and for this writer to say more than this, there are legal constraints such as incitement, complicity and others to worry about. So let’s leave it at that.
Briefly
In athletics, NSC that recently seized that federation activities was accused of condoning warehousing of athletes that showed up for militaristic so-called camping exercise aimed at preparing the athletes for the Commonwealth Games. On this particular matter, pundits missed the point when they pointed their fingers at NSC because:
1. The athletes are never obligated to be warehoused;
2. The exercise is voluntary;
3. Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) never promises any five star hotel;
4. Athletes got right under the constitution to express themselves when Mr. Abdullahi visited the place;
5. And no one forced the athletes to be there.
Clearly, some federations are trying to do what their international principals forbid them from doing and that is, to be un-neutral to some athletes rather than simply organizing competitions with the aim of team selection on behalf of the nation.
Coaching and recruitment ought to be localized while athletes’ welfare ought to be national government responsibility.
As to Commonwealth Games, the country cannot be said to be prepared considering the stiff opposition from Australia, Jamaica, GB, Kenya, etc. The areas the country is expected to excel have virtually evaporated but boxing, weightlifters and wrestlers can spring surprises but what are we doing to those sports?
I rest for now.
Dr. Rashid A. Balogun, CPA, LLB(Hons.), LLM(London)
