Nigeria is indeed an interesting place to live in and to observe. The expression “never a dull moment,” is hardly more aptly descriptive of the antecedents of any other country. Even amidst the current global economic meltdown and a concomitant urgency by governments and other corporate institutions to keep their countries or institutions going in the right direction, all we seem to, in our characteristic comical manner, demonstrate is that we cannot be bothered to change the status quo, however unbeneficial it may be to us. What with the likes of grand old Rilwanu Lukman back in power as petroleum minister more than 20 years after he first held the same position while Minister of Information, Dora Akunyili positions the horse right behind the cart as we run into a blind alley chanting “Nigeria: Good People, Great Nation.” I have picked bellow, three current/recent issues, to encapsulate my meaning.
Iwu, INEC and the rest of us
Thirty-six state election results, 12 nullifications on first instance or appellate proceedings, five partial or full re-run; and so far, two unseating without re-run. By all accounts this represents the outcome of a shambolic process. And these are figures from the election conducted by the Maurice Iwu-led Independent(?) National Electoral Commission, INEC, in 2007.
Statistically put; 12 out of 36 is exactly 33.3% of the total number of governorship elections that took place in 2007; five re-run means that approximately 40% of the 12 nullification so far has led to the preventable sacrificing of voters’ precious time and scarce government resources. In saner climes whoever oversees such a shoddy process would throw in the towel or be shown the exit as soon as tongues start wagging about inconsistencies in the process. But Nigeria is an appalling exception on such issues - here, such people are even canonized. Any wonder then that rather than throw in the towel, the man who oversaw the elections has remained as steadfast in his resolve to remain in office as he and his cohorts had been about holding those mock elections? Little wonder also that those who should show him the way out have decided that, as tainted and culpable as Iwu’s INEC is in the mortgaging of our political soul, the man is still morally and intellectually fit to continue in office as Nigeria’s principal electoral umpire.
Tragically, we have reduced a serious social, moral and economic subject matter to a mere legal issue in which few seem to be interested in the fact that precious resources of the masses are being wasted in the electoral trials and re-runs that have been and will be the game until 2011. No one is paying attention to what should happen to the likes of Olusegun Agagu and Osarheimen Osunbor or those who put them in office wrongfully for two years. As we are all engrossed with legalese, few are saying anything about what this mess could do to the attitude of the electorate during futures elections in this country.
Once again, therefore, we are inexorably setting the stage for another round of political simulation come 2011. And from there, of course, another manic rush to election petition tribunals across the land until 2015 and then we start again. What a circus!
Siasia, the Messiah of Nigerian football
Talking about circuses, that the powers that be in Nigerian football, in their wretched wisdom, have decided that Samson Siaisia is the solution to our acute lack of knowledge of modern football business surely qualifies as one.
Since the last FIFA U-17 World Championship in 2007, youngsters like Bojan Krkij (Barcelona and Spain); Dan Gosling (Everton) and Danny Welbeck (Manchester United), both of England; and Toni Kroos (Bayern Munich and Germany), to name a few, have continued to rise to football prominence. Our supposed equivalents to these players from the same tournament - the likes of Ganiyu Oseni, Chrisantus Macaulay, Rabiu Ibrahim and Lukman Haruna – have continued to move in exactly the opposite direction, football career-wise. And there are no prizes for guessing the reason this is so.
However, if you argue that the problem does not begin with our players’ ‘certificated’ age and you try to tell me that others cheat also, I will feign agreeing with you and tell you in plain George Orwell Napoleonese that: ‘all national cadet football teams have over-age players, but some teams are more over-age than others,’ fin.
Given his coaching antecedents, Siasia could go on to win the U-20 Championship for Nigeria in Egypt in September. After that we may also require him to handle the Super Falcons or any of the female national teams. In the same breath, we shall await the fortuitous discovery of the hidden talent of the next footballer anywhere in the world, with the minutest amount of Nigerian blood in his veins, to try to convince into wearing the Nigerian colours in international football.
After all, because Siasia is that good, because we have perpetually failed to plan, because we must win at all costs, because we lose our moral footing once a few wads of whatever currency are involved and because we cannot separate priorities from everything else, we may well never have any discernible sports policy. We may as well also never have proper football academies or train our coaches and respect those of them who have what it takes to do a decent job of coaching any of our national teams in any sports whatsoever. Let serendipity continue to rule in our sports.
Painting warped pictures and begging topical questions
As for priorities, where exactly do you start relating to a man who does not know but does not know that he does not know and does not even have enough independent judgment or inclination to wanting to know?
I sit here typing away furiously because I fear that the electricity that miraculously beamed into my house this morning will go off soon. The Niger Delta is still simmering, amnesty or not. There are even more graduates without jobs to hold on to today. ASUU is still on strike while the blokes in Abuja want us to believe that education cannot exhaust its budget for the year. Children and mothers are dying every second in hospitals across the country, and those who can afford the fee daily fly out to China, India, Malaysia, South Africa, Israel, and even Ghana, for ailments as common as dental surgery.
But in spite of and despite all of this, the only issue that seems to be of life-and-death value to our president and his cabinet is the existence of some so-called illegal Local Council Development Areas in Lagos State. And to tell you not to ever get your hopes up on him, the northern part of the country are up in conflagration but dear Mr. President has quietly and comfortably slipped out to Brazil to do some Salsa and Samba, I suppose.
But then this is all in keeping with the programme, isn’t it? It fits perfectly with the lack of direction and sense of priority in our economic, sports, political life, etc, that has made us buffoons before the outside world. And for these and similar shortfalls, Dora Akunyili, like others before her, is now in Sokoto in search of that which is right inside our sokoto.
I first posted part of this article to www.nigeriansinamerica.com two months ago.
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