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A hunting lion cannot be said to lack high mathematical intelligence in predicting movements of its prey just as humans, more so, we learnt in the modern age that quantum physics can explain key aspects of any ‘matter’ in our universe, regardless of how minute it is in size or weight to us. However, an occasional anomaly will occur but such occurrence can also be predicted by some unknown variance missed by the observer. However, the necessary key to mitigate such anomaly is the obligation we placed on ourselves in implementing relevant practical agenda with all human efforts directed towards it just as the hunting lions.

It was argued that the National Sports Commission (NSC) is doing its best in turning around the country’s sports fortune and this writer doubt whether spending monies on toothless panels constitute an effort. The nation sports’ buffs queried the quality of individuals appointed by Bolaji Abdullahi (sports Minister) to such unnecessary panels but  there’s no suggestion about lack of credentials, however,  the question that was  asked was simple; to what extent can they (panel members) reverse the negative trends’ character of the country’s sports? The answer is quite clear, They can’t do ‘nada’. It is also clear that the NSC agenda must focus on purging every anomaly of the system because they have grown to become the custom practiced by NSC.

The Past

For whatever reason, the British and old Military regime immediately after the country’s independence established (what was then known as) community centre in certain areas of the country at that time. One of such areas is Abule Ijesha borders by Army Military Sports Camp, Yaba College of Tech, UNA (near Shomolu), University of Lagos and St Finbarr’s College.

The products of that area includes; Rashid Balogun (this writer also a former athlete), Tony Osheku (former athlete & foremost athletics Coach), Raymond King (former Super Eagles Goalie), Mike Dominick (former junior eagles star), Hakeem King Joe (former world boxing champion), Bremna (former junior Eagles and Super Eagles star), Muda Lawal (former Super Eagles star) and from those that schooled in the vicinity as a youth; Sunday Uti (Olympic bronze medalist) and Super Eagles stars Stephen Keshi, Henry Nwosu, Godwin Odiye and others.

In those days, street by street relays were common to the chagrin of some parents (personally, this writer's father leads the way in maintaining discipline of all children in the area directing them to go to community centres but I ain’t my daddy but very proud of him then and now). At the community centre in Abule Ijesha; there were table tennis competitions and practice among youths, daily football games (also what was called set where boys choose whom they want on their team while the unselected wait until a certain time to eliminate a player on the losing team) along with inter-club championships, Volleyball and basketball were also played there. Swimmers uses a free flowing pond called ‘Odo ogbe’ in Onike and Rowe Park. Boxers used Military sports center on Morocco Road.

The area boast of Archie Moore (former World Boxing Champ. At both Olympics and professional level for USA) as a coach, Coach Mommoh of the army who refused promotion and demoted to private for remaining loyal to his youth team comprising Bremna, Mike Dominick, Hakeem Balogun (younger brother of this writer), Raymond King and others. Football clubs in the area included Mommoh Boys FC, Seven Planners (Muda Lawal team), etc. YES, Glory days indeed and this writer challenges anyone to match the record of this area in the entire country.

One word that can describe these activities is ‘Community’.

Now

As this writer wrote severally on the current affairs of the country’s sports fortune, it is quite unnecessary to repeat them here as the story continues to build on a daily basis. But the challenges of the media are going behind the result of a game and explain how those performances were achieved with qualitative reasoning rather than propaganda spin by the NSC and sports federations. Selling sports’ results may sell very well but to what benefit can the country derive from the new swimming record for men when females from Egypt have better records? Again for what benefit can a report that a Nigerian male ran a “2hrs. 20mins” new national record for the marathon when Kenyan girls are running faster? This writer is very sure that Nigerians got the point because to expose the rot that the country woeful result means globally could better position the country in the future.

Recently, Bolaji Abdullahi noted that the country will henceforth concentrate on six sports, this is clearly ill-advised considering for years now the country relied only on football with its own budget line item exceeding over N3Billions annually with no tangible (World Cup) result. What the Minister should be discussing is how to fund the youth directly in all sports rather than wasting scarce resources on illegal six sports federations.

Advocacy for the status quo is nothing other than a mere selfish foolish act of deception that few media pundits are using Facebook to chide the youth of today that seeks better welfare and training packages. Although, this writer may not agree or disagree with certain views but the youth and others are constitutionally protected to speak or write without fear of retribution but they must not be offended with opposing views.

Way Forward

The Sports Minister keeps shouting about British system and in fact wasting monies for that purpose just as his predecessors did the same thing with Germany, Cuba and when Australia hosted the Olympics and did very well. Such models presuppose adequate facilities and manpower and they are based on restructuring past weaknesses in certain areas of their country’s sports fortune. Even at that, what was being restructured clearly outpaced Nigeria total medal counts for all Olympics games the country participated in.

In fact many swimmers in one Olympics delivered to their respective countries more medal each than Nigeria in all its Olympics outing and this writer simply ask, is it not better to zoom-in this sport and get just two swimmers from the age of 8 and train them abroad than waste N8Billion on good for nothing sports federations? Colloquially, more bangs for our buck because an athlete (swimmer) can potentially flood the country with about 10 medals.

The NSC must recruit athletes for direct electronic funding schemes through the finance Ministry. Federations can no longer receive any fund from NSC due to lack of NSC control as a result of their independence from national government interference, accountability, transparency, in addition to accusations that those federations short change athletes on issues of government transfer payments.

The Ministry of Education must take over National Institute for Sports (NIS) as the NSC simply lacked the skills to handle any form of education because churned attendees of such institute has yet to deliver any athlete of prominence in NIS history.

Patronage of the Director General of NSC and Bolaji Abdullahi must end and detail list of visitors to NSC ought to be published and archived as the official record. This is necessary either as a security necessity or paper trail for auditors in terms of asset protection.

Finally, it should be obvious that Bolaji Abdullahi simply cannot handle this Ministry and all he has been doing is based on ‘trial and error’ that is becoming too costly for any country to progress because correcting a faux pas raises eyebrow on how the error was made in the first place. That is the trend that NSC continues to follow regardless of costs, therefore, NSC must be restructured with new set of qualified (academically, professionally and athletically) people along with at least six commissioners as opposed to none as it is now. Yes, Nigerians can guide a horse to water but they can’t force it to drink BUT THEY CAN MAKE IT HOMELESS AND NO WHERE TO GO FOR NEXT MEAL.

I rest

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

Honourable Minister of Sports and Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi has congratulated the home-based Super Eagles for qualifying for the CAF African Nations Championship (CHAN) taking place in January 2014 South Africa.

The team qualified for the championship for the first time ever after a 4-3 aggregate win over the home-based Elephants of Cote’d’Ivoire. Although the Eagles lost the return leg 0-2 against the Ivoirians, their superior 4-1 victory in the first leg, which took place in Kaduna earlier, was good enough to ensure qualification for the team.

 The Confederation of African Football (CAF) introduced the CHAN in 2009 and it is strictly for home-based footballers in the national teams. The Honourable Minister commended the players and technical team for a job well done and assured the team of support as they proceed to the championship.  

 “I congratulate the coaching crew and all the players for the hard work, discipline and brilliance which ensured that Nigeria has qualified for the CHAN for the first time,” he said. “I am particularly pleased with the performance of the footballers who gave their best in and out of the field. This goes to show the depth and quality of the Glo Premier League.”

He also noted that the success of the team has demonstrated that the Eagles’ AFCON win was not a fluke and an indication that Nigeria is about to dominate African football for a long time to come.

 

Super Eagles coach, Stephen Keshi has described Enugu Rangers forward Alhaji Gero as a quality player deserving of his maiden invitation to the senior national team to engage Cote d’Ivoire in the second leg of the CHAN qualifier.

“I saw a lot of qualities in him; that was why I invited him,” Keshi said. “I expect him to bring in competition to those who are already in the team.”

Gero featured at the recently held FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Turkey, where the Flying Eagles gallantly lost out to Uruguay in the quarter-final, after suffering a first-half red card to a defender.

 

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)

 

 

Club president Sandro Rosell confirmed on Friday that the 44-year-old will undergo further cancer treatment, making it "impossible for him to continue as coach"

Tito Vilanova has resigned as coach of Barcelona, the club has confirmed.

 Rumors emerged on Friday that the 44-year-old, who took over from Pep Guardiola prior to the 2012-13 season, was set to step down from his role after suffering another setback in his battle against ill-health.

 Club president Sandro Rosell and director of football Andoni Zubizarreta called a press conference at Camp Nou on Friday evening, where they confirmed Vilanova must undergo further cancer treatment which would make it "impossible" for him to continue in his role.

 "After looking at routine tests, there is [now] an option to continue treating his disease which means it will be impossible for him to continue as first-team coach of FC Barcelona," Rosell told reporters. "I want to ask for the maximum respect for him and his family.

 "We have got together with all of the players and the coaching staff and we have decided not to play tomorrow in Poland [in a friendly against Lechia Gdansk]. It is a very big blow, a huge blow. But Barcelona has overcome many obstacles in in its history and this will be no exception."

 The Barcelona squad, including Lionel Messi, was present in the front two rows of seats of the press conference as Rosell delivered the news.

A menacing choice of action knows of no limit to the very end just as a fighting nursing lion will defend her cub till the end. NSC officials are fighting for mediocrity to the very end which this writer believes is near and that’s a prediction. A restructured NSC will likely be born with a brand new regime and real qualified people devoid of ghosts, spirits, ‘paper people’, paupers and the rest of unknown vagabonds perambulating as special assistants to many of those ghosts, spirits and officials. Tough choices of words but the message is clear and athletes of today and their supporters are no longer going to be muzzled or censored in a democratic society like Nigeria. Yes, their words are more expletives than what’s identified above.

Okay, let us assume the Sports Minister has good intentions for the development of sports in Nigeria and all things remain constant. Let us also assume that the grass root level is the target of such programs as the country has heard from the media in all platforms. Then, is it proper to make enquiry on how such programs will be carried out and if so, can it also be asked whether the current sports administrators can be entrusted to implement such programs with their current level of skills? Though these assumptions does not take into consideration the Sports Minister chasing children born abroad that the NSC or Nigeria never has anything  to do with their development as athletes or their welfare.

Sports Committee (House of Representatives) Can Do Better

If these queries are valid, then who should have been (or be) asking these questions directed at the Sports Minister? It is clear that only the right questions be asked and by that Nigerian people as represented in the National Assembly ought to lead the way. Ideally, the enquirer must be knowledgeable in this subject area (sports). What we’ve got in Nigeria is a hydrologist (Geofrey Gaiya) who never competed in any sport and never qualified to be as an accountant, financial or marketing expert suggesting all kinds of ill-advised hypothesis that materials before him contradicted his lines of reasoning. Imagine, he said that NSC has only one line budget where expenses are lumped whereas the budget, I suppose he had something to do with before been approved was something the National Assembly sports committee review on a daily or monthly basis when that committee seats. The question is, if the Chairman for sports committee at the National Assembly is clueless on data before him, then how do we measure the performance value for money spent on sports through NSC? Loving football or being Rangers fan can never equate skills of administration in any endeavor and sport (or sports) is a very unique endeavor at that.

Let us be clear here, this writer is a Certified Public Accountant with over 30years auditing background along with legal skills (Master of Laws) to complement it and finds it very painful when novices challenges what appears to be wrong to everyone by posing as if they are an authority on the such subject due to their status or acclaimed status. The subject of sports has two directions in all countries and they the administrative and the technical (one can imagine this is the case in various industries). The technical side of things generally can be acquired through participation or directed practical training in that particular (or more) sports area while the administrative skills can be learned academically complemented by practical training. The point is a nurse is not a doctor and an engineer is not an accountant unless he/she gained such skills later.

This writer experienced this knowledge deficit nonsense on a visit to a particular large Bank branch in Lagos where the Manager was in fact a local language graduate who argued about what a ledger is or should be with his staff while this writer waited for assistance. Well, to cut the story short, this writer made sure that Manager obtained a position elsewhere and that staff heads that Branch within six months.

Status of Sports

The Sports Minister returned the same people that for over 20years never acknowledged problems bedeviling sports in the country and simply lacked the skills either administratively or technically. His view was based on the fact he thinks things are changing for the better due to lies by various federations and some reporters hyping Nigeria’s chances even as the truth confronts them.

Case in point, the President was deceived recently due to African Youth Championship results shrouded with age falsification allegations surrounding Nigeria’s team while truth writers suggested the dearth in Nigeria’s team based on the team performance. Fast forward, on the on-going World Youth Games, Nigeria’s boys and girls simply are not in the same league as the rest of the World. So, how do we see 2020 Olympics Games when our youth simply don’t measure up now? Waste of time and money unless changes are made right now.

Again, this writer will advise the President through this medium to immediately address all concerns because the NSC really serves no purpose rather causing more future problems. Imagine, Sports Minister sets up various panels to look into problems he created when he assumed office at huge costs to country. There were scandals from the London Olympics on athletics team selection and coaches, for example, a female marathon entrant accused NSC of bribery to be on the country’s team where the Minister set up a panel made up NSC staff and a jurist along with a police officer. There were scandals in the Football (bonus row, etc.), Volleyball, Swimming and Handball (currently in court) federations since Bolaji Abdullahi assumed office and his efforts has being to restore status quo which never delivered world ranked teams to begin with. Again, where is the country heading in sports?

Way Forward

Again, NSC serves no purpose at this time and must be shut down or significantly restructured.

National Assembly Sports Committees are simply clueless and why does it take Public Accounts Committee to lead in responding to Auditor General’s report and not Sports Committee.

I rest

Dr. Rashid A. Balogun, 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.

More Articles ...

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  3. NSC: Matter of Incompetence or Fraud
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