ubamobile

29
Wed, Jul

A view of an old saying essentially suggested that no one can satisfy the whole world at the same time but smart people will say that all depends on the definition of ‘satisfy’ and whether or not the review of such criteria is subjective. No, I’m not arguing with myself but the point will be made later. The time has come now that readers of current sports affairs know the inner happenings of the NSC whether through this writer’s articles or similar alternative outlets devoid of so-called ‘decorum’ by mainstream media writers. Well, just a few of those writers are really not honest with themselves that no one believed anything written by them.

The key point is that Nigerians now can distinguish between paid advertorials in disguise as sports news that were funded by the NSC N30Million budget for promotions without proof of real value to Nigerians from the real truth. In fact, recently the Auditor General of Nigeria and the National Assembly queried several fraudulent expenditures by NSC. It should be noted that auditors do not review all expenses rather a sample of them so there are likely more revelations to come in the future.

 Those expenses included advertising expenditure in a newspaper of about N2Million that was never really advertised in any media platform or format in the country. Well, this writer awaits query for the N4Million borehole and illegal payments to Athletics Federation (AFN) in a truly transparent unbiased manner just as done with the illegal Football Federation. Failure of which pundits’ belief that Sports Minister is out to create more problems for himself and the new Director General in order  to retain their cronies to fix the created problems at significant costs to the nation will become a reality.

This modus operandi ‘MO’ has been the NSC tool in awarding contracts including cleaning contracts at various stadiums as noted by the Auditor General whereas NSC has cleaners and groundkeepers on staff. What this writer is amazed about is the value National Assembly Sports Committees (Senate & House of Representative) brought to the nation’s sports when not until the Auditor General raised eyebrow likely based on real truth articles will they now recognizes NSC existence has been a giant N15Billion waste of money. Until NSC is restructured with clear terms of engagement focused squarely on the development of sports governed by at least six commissioners with accounting, financial, administrative and technical management skills the Federal Government simply ought to shut it down.

Realistically, Nigerians would have expected those similar skills in the sports committees of both arms of the National Assembly as well, if the country truly wants a sports reform as declared by the President even if Mr. President remains silent on modalities as it is now. Well, some people will say the buck stops at the Presidency and this writer says that the buck stops at all Nigerians’ laps because they chose who controls the government and must hold them accountable.

Way Forward

NSC must be restructured and every individual at NSC must be reassigned including all directors and the Sports Minister.

We know where the country has been and where the sports administrator led us, so the next challenge is how we remove all these sports administrators because to retrain each of them will be counterproductive due to delay in sports development (that needs to begin now) and the costs involved in retraining them. Definitely, the current picture will lead the country to doom. Nevertheless, production of an athlete with real world repute takes an average of six years which means the stars of tomorrow should have been discovered about the age of 12, therefore, the country best hope if the Olympics Games is the measuring stick, is 2020 Games. In hindsight the 2016 Olympics will likely bring the country two athletes’ surprise (this writer knows who they are) and those that attended the London Olympics will no longer be of reckoning.

NSC N30Million budget for propaganda or is it promotions must be STOPPED as it was not intended for any legitimate purpose.

As to funding concern, NSC, though with the Director General (DG) with accounting skills (according to the government) on paper has fired two blanks that ordinarily mean nothing unless the reader knows few things about accounting. Mr. Elegbeleye the DG resumed office with hiring a former drug cheat as his technical adviser or is it special assistant and also refused an invitation extended to him by the National Assembly, his former employer. And I ask, is this guy for real? As noted, his skills in accounting are based on the government media release as such this writer cannot vouch for such accuracy, at this time.

Full blown audit of the NSC must be performed on all expenditure reported by NSC.

I rest

Dr. Rashid A. Balogu, CPA, LLB(Hons.), LLM(London)

 

 

Honourable Minister of Sports and Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi has constituted a panel to probe the crisis over match allowance involving Super Eagles of Nigeria players in Namibia.

 The footballers had rejected the allowance approved for them by the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) after two away games with the national teams of Kenya and Namibia, towards qualifications for the World Cup. As a result of the protest, the footballers initially refused to board the plane to Brazil to participate in the FIFA Confederations Cup.

The NFF had offered to pay $5000 for a win and $2500 for a draw, but the players insisted on getting $10,000 for a win and $5000 for a draw. The disagreement was resolved by the intervention of the honourable minister who got additional funds to make up for the shortfall proposed by the NFF.

The panel will be chaired Mr. Segun Adeniyi, Chairman of Thisday Editorial Board and former Special Adviser to late President Umar Yar’Adua. He was also a member of the Presidential Task Force set up to ensure Nigeria’s qualification for the 2010 World Cup.

Other members of the panel are Onoche Anibeze, Group Sports Editor, Vanguard Newspaper; Aisha Falode, sports administrator; Shehu Dikko, member of the League Management Company; Akin Oshuntokun, former MD of News Agency of Nigeria; and Garba Lawal, former Super Eagles player.

The terms of reference of the panel are to determine the immediate and remote causes of the crisis over the match bonus, develop a code of conduct for players on national assignments, and any other recommendations that may be deemed necessary.

The panel, which would be inaugurated on Thursday 11th July 2013, has two weeks to submit its report.

One-cap Nigerian striker, Shola Ameobi has scrapped the clause in his contract that reportedly prevented his participation at the at the 2013 African Cup of Nations in South Africa, which Nigeria won.

After the recently held FIFA Confederations Cup during which the Nigerian team proved bereft of competent striking options, National Coach Stepehen keshi reiterated his love for the Newcastle striker but said he may never again don the Green-White-Green jersey due to the clause. However, an official of the Super Eagles has now disclosed that the power-playing strike could still feature for the team.

“He said the clause has been removed and he will be ready to play for the Super Eagles anytime he is called upon,” Super Eagles official, Dayo Enebi said on Friday.

“Ameobi said he would love to play for Nigeria under Stephen Keshi because he is a good coach, and above all Ameobi is very proud to be a Nigerian and will always grab the opportunity to don the green-white colours of his fatherland.”

Excited, Keshi is already planning talks with the former England junior international, saying he has qualities and vast experience that the national team can always rely on.

 

Former captain and coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria, Christian Chukwu has urged the Federal Government to fulfil its promise to late Thompson Oliha, who died at the weekend.

According to him, it is saddening that Oliha and all other players who won the Tunisia ‘94 Africa Cup of Nations have yet to receive government’s pledge of a house.

“To be honest, this is not too good,” he said. “He has not received the house he was promised for helping Nigeria win the Nations Cup in 1994. Now he has died, I don’t know if it is not too late for him to be given that house.”

The former assistant coach to Clemens Westerhof also spoke about the commitment of the late Oliha to the national team.

“Oliha was a perfect example in training and matches, as he was always hard working but found the time to exchange banter with players and coaches alike,” Chukwu said, adding that his death is sad and he will be sorely missed.

“He only left for Europe after the 1994 Africa Cup of Nations but even when he was based in Nigeria, he was still first-choice as the European-based players found it almost impossible to outwit him in training and matches.”

 

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has finally confirmed that national coach, Stephen Keshi has not received salary for five months, dating back to when he won the African Cup of Nations in February.

Speaking with BBC Sport, NFF General Secretary, Musa Amadu said the situation is still under control, as the coach hasn’t yet made an official complaint.

“Between the federation and the coaching crew, we don’t have a problem. Obligations to the coaching crew are always settled, and we have the understanding of the coaching crew in this regard,” Ahmadu said.

“We’ve been working together with Stephen Keshi since November 2011 and he knows the peculiar situation of how things are with the federation. We try as much as possible to pay our obligations, likewise the coach, and we’ve had a very good working relationship. I know the coach will not bring to the fore any such matters.”

Similarly, Assistant Coach Daniel Amokachi and Goalkeeper Trainer Ike Shorunmu have not being paid.  And Ahmadu believes people should refrain from making a mountain out of the mole hill 

“Perhaps there are people out there that want to capitalise on such matters to create problems between the federation and the coach,” he said. 

“But I know that obligations to the coaching crew are always settled, and we do have the understanding of the coaching crew in this regard. We appreciate that understanding and right now the focus is not about what is being written in the media but it is on the CHAN qualifiers.” 

Meanwhile, the home-based Super Eagles led by Keshi trumped Cote d’Ivoire 4-1 on Saturday in a 2014 CHAN qualifier with goals from Gambo Mohammed and Ifeanyi Edeh sandwiched between a Sunday Mba brace. The second leg holds in Abidjan in another three weeks.

I wrote a few days ago about the shock from NSC rising to query the illegal Football Federation demands for N250Million funding on expenditures fully paid by FIFA because there is nothing else to explain such feeling since the Athletics Federation (AFN) perpetrated this fraud for many years and as the article that caused this response being penned a demand few days ago was made through Vanguard newspaper articles written by Ben Efe. However, but a pundit demands proof. Well, here you go.The electronic link is at: http://www.iaaf.org/mm/document/imported/9572.pdf (p118) and the text follows:

1 The IAAF and Area Associations

The IAAF's largest and most important system of grants to Member Federations is its support for training, travel, and accommodation costs related to the World Championships in Athletics and other World Athletic Series events. The IAAF also makes smaller grants to assist Member Federations with the costs of basic administrative facilities and equipment as well as for special projects (see Chapter 2). Eligibility and procedure policies vary according to the event and specific information is available from the General Secretary.

2 The International Athletic Foundation 

The International Athletic Foundation supports projects which promote the development of athletics. IAAF Member Federations may present project proposals for consideration by the Foundation's Council. Further information may be obtained directly from the International Athletic Foundation.”

A simple arithmetic by seven years old will say something is wrong when Solomon Ogba borrowed money to attend World Championships, turn over some copy of receipts (bogus or not) to the IAAF for reimbursements as noted above and got paid. Upon return to Nigeria, the same Solomon Ogba made demands to NSC with another copy of the same receipts (bogus or not) and got paid. The question is whether NSC knew or should have known that this is going on, either way, the news cannot be good for Bolaji Abdullahi, the Sports Minister because he was informed of such activities long before Football Federation make their request and he did nothing.

The key to all of this is the hypocrisy syndrome within NSC that ordinarily that some Nigerians consider as way of things but how do we effect change with such idiocy and expect to reach greater heights? The President talks about transformation but people at NSC clearly have different things in mind by using the media budget of about N30Million to propagate against the President Goal and Aspirations for sports. Oh, well I may not know so but I doubt if I am wrong because no one in Nigeria remain happy in the downward direction sports in Nigeria is heading.

 Way Forward

Briefly, I reiterate, funding to all sports federations must stop with immediate effect because NSC must be restructured due to good for nothing people pulling down the country rather than advancing the country in the area of sport. NSC is a supposedly a commission but it does not have any commissioner and even the Sports Minister said its workers are incompetent. Again I ask, for what purpose do we need NSC full of incompetent people being defrauded left, right and center. NSC actions had been reduced to just correct problems its staff created at greater costs to the nation along with being the paymaster to foreign organizations in the name of sports federations. Frankly, this is share nonsense based on Sports Minister account of own Ministry.

I do hope I have shed some light on why not just illegal Football Federation should be probed but also AFN and others. The hypocrisy is too great and fraud or criminal acts have no expiration date, therefore, the Federal Government must seek recovery of all funds paid to AFN, Football Federation and others. This is a matter of urgency and on another note I was informed that NSC hired former drug suspended athletes as special adviser, so no one should expect that our athletes will stop using drugs to enhance their performance as the NSC is celebrating drug violators.

 I rest

Dr. Rashid A. Balogun, CPA, LLB(Hons.), LLM(London)

Thompson Oliha, a member of the victorious Super Eagles squad to the 1994 African Nations Cup, has died.

Oliha, who was one of the coaches at the Kwara State Football Academy in Ilorin, died this morning. He was even on the bench on Saturday when Kwara Football Academy (KFA) boys played against a Malian team. He reportedly complained of malaria and was hospitalised in the state capital before he gave up the ghost.

Kwara State Chairman of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Bunmi Adedoyin as well as Lagos State Chairman of SWAN, Fred Edoreh confirmed the tragedy. 

Honourable Minister of Sports and Chairman of the National Sports Commission, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi commiserated with the family of Thompson Oliha, describing him as a very influential member of the Nigerian national team in the 90s.

“He contributed greatly to the success of that team,” the minister said in a release signed by his special adviser, Julius Ogunro.

“He was a dedicated and thoroughbred professional who always put the nation first and who was member of the golden generation of Nigerian football history.

A true patriot, he was motivated by the desire to don the Nigerian jersey than by pecuniary interests. He would be deeply be missed by the sporting community in Nigeria and the world at large. I pray that his soul rests in peace.”

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