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Tue, Oct

Sports is one sector where everyone can claim to be a stakeholder.  That’s because the passion we all have for the game. But even that does not give us the liberty to disrespect, ridicule and insult those who have responsibility to administer sports. While criticism if constructive and good intentioned can help sports and make administrators more productive, the bad-mouthing which is the usual fare in the sector is destructive and does no good except to pull down the administrators.

 

 This brings me to one Rashid Balogun.  I first came across his writing about a year ago.  It was a diatribe against someone I cannot recall. But the piece was so badly written; the language poor, filled with spelling and grammar errors that I thought no one would take him serious.  But the man seems unrelenting, posting one article after another and surprisingly some naïve people in the sports sector now reference him! This probably has boosted the man’s ego and feeling like the expert he is not, continued to feed us with his barely readable nonsense.

 

I believe it is time someone told him the truth. Mr. Balogun, you are a very poor writer and your arguments do not make sense, lacking logic and merit. You are like the family member who has a bad case of mouth odour and who no one has told the truth in order not to offend his sensibilities. But anyone who actually did would be doing a huge favour to Mr. Mouth Odour.  So here it is: Mr. Balogun, your articles stink to hell and do not make any sense.

 

 

But don’t take my word for it.  You can read Mr. Balogun’s nonsense in any of the online media that have mushroomed in the country.  He is so prolific at dishing it out that it is obvious that he does not have a day job. It is impossible for a person who is productively engaged to have the luxury of time to post the nonsense Mr. Balogun dishes out nearly every week.

 

 But if those articles make sense and somehow contribute to the development of sports, one can excuse the bad grammar and obvious lack of talents for writing. But they do not. Take the article he wrote sometime in April about “Dictator Ojo Oba takes over NSC (in palace coup).” Typical Balogun, the goal of that piece appears to be to set the Minister of Sports against Dr. Bolaji Ojo Oba, a Director in the Ministry. After several exhaustive readings, what I could glean from it is that Balogun picked issues with Dr Ojo Oba’s comment that secretaries of federations should prepare their handover notes ahead of their redeployment to the Ministry. According to him, this was in defiance of the minister’s directive that the secretaries are to be withdrawn! And so Ojo Oba was a ‘Dictator’ bent on taking over the Ministry from the Minister. What logic!

 

 

The simple truth is that both men were saying the same thing! What I gathered from my investigations was the minister thought it was essential to grant the Federations more autonomy, in which case they, and not the National Sports Commission, NSC, would be responsible for their secretariat. His argument was that the NSC couldn’t blame the Federations for poor performance if it is responsible for their administrative component, which is the job of the Secretaries. And this is a common argument amongst some stakeholders, how the Federations are not autonomous and are tied to the apron string of the NSC.  The minister thus felt it was necessary in line with best practices to free the NSC of this role and make the body play its natural function of making policies, supervising them and ensuring compliance. And the first step towards this was to recall the secretaries who are staff of the NSC. But before their eventual and inevitable recall, they were asked to prepare their handover notes. That was the case Ojo-Oba was making when he said the Secretaries had been told to prepare their handover notes. But Balogun turned this up side down and interpreted it to mean direct defiance of the minister.

 

 Well I am really not surprised, as the man seems incapable of understanding simple procedures. If he does, he would make sense in his writing and not write gibberish such as this:  “An attempt to bite the’ dust’ would not reflect a society norm but will certainly face the wrath of such normalcy. To be an athlete is not a norm but rather a symbol of eccentrics. Let me explain, less than 10% of our society considers themselves as athletes in their lifetime for whatever reason and majority of the population will ask for what purpose would a sprinter be running or who is pursuing him/her or why an individual is chasing after football.”

 

That is the introduction of a piece written by the semi illiterate Balogun who claims to be a Phd holder. Even though I read it 10 times, I could not understand the point he was trying to make. Reason why it grates me each time I read anything carrying his byline. The latest being on the Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi. I am sure the minister is capable of defending himself or has hired hands that can, but I think it necessary to expose Balogun for the fraud and charlatan that he is. In his latest piece, he attacked Abdullahi and Solomon Ogba, the President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN, for using drug tainted American Ellenwood Garfield as coach. This is a blatant lie, which an ordinary Google check could have exposed.

 

Then Balogun seems to be obsessed with vacant position of Director General in the Commission, having sleepless nights over beer parlour rumour over whose names were submitted to fill the vacancy. Ogba is the second rumoured candidate he is attacking. I think he should wait for the Minister to officially declare the position vacant and submit prospective nominees to the President. As it is Balogun is doing a very bad job of being a paid pen.

 

 

By Tunde Akinlabi

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“If ain’t broke don’t fix it” by Bert Lance (1977) (23rd Director of the US Office of Management and Budget). I begin this article with such quote to direct the Presidency attention to the happenings in sports industry after disgraceful London Olympics outing. It is the President of Nigeria that acknowledged systemic failure in the sports industry and by His Excellency order, the Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC) was required to restructure the entire industry since August 2012. Unfortunately, the restructure His Excellency dreamed of is not restructure at all but destruction through recycling of same individuals that brought shame to the country at the London Olympics.

Your Excellency, you directed that Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi supply you with among other things plans and ideas to move sports forward. In that regard, Mr. Abdullahi announced he hired MacKenzie group contrary to the provisions of Procurement Act of 2007 to aid in his approach but when questioned further the Minister said that American group merely setup the ill-conceived party for those that destroyed sports in Nigeria, tagged Presidential Sports Retreat. Monies were wasted that could provide a full year meal for over one hundred hungry athletes in Nigeria. This is not exaggeration.

Your Excellency, the Minister followed up such retreat agenda to confront Chief Executive Governor of Lagos State on stage at the opening ceremony of the National Sports Festival aimed originally for youth as repeated by the Governor while on the podium the Minister said the festival should be open to the same athletes that brought shame to the country in London. On the face of it, there is problem with the Minister agenda but in substance this view was not well thought-out for a Minister Calibre individual in charge of multi-Billion Naira budget. Specifically, the Minister failed to consider that he has annual budget of N500Billion for developing local athletes at grass root level but failed to account for such spending that it has become critical to contradict an Executive Governor that Nigeria cannot develop at grass root in Nigeria rather would rely on children of Nigerians born abroad. A novice might ask, what happened to about N2Billion received in the past four years when Nigeria does not or cannot boast of any athlete in development? Should the country continue to throw away money without any public accountability? There is in fact an individual in charge of the so-called grass root sports development and this writer would like to ask, Your Excellency, is it not your concern that N2Billion was controlled by an individual under direction of the Minister and not one single athlete was developed?

Your Excellency, with due respect again, I ask for what purpose is to restructure an industry full of novices and return such novices to continue? This is based on the rules (not law) to create sports’ federations which by international obligations were outside the mandate of NSC. Those federations were agents of international sports federations including football and for that reason must abide by those foreign rules, the key of which, is the independence of those federations from national government or control or interference. Unfortunately, NSC remained non-compliant and such violations are real time costs and disagreement that is destroying football and athletics. Those two sports received more monies from NSC than all sports combined but yet Boxing is the most productive in terms of investment for the country. Continuation to fund these federations can be seen as wasteful spending and aiding corruption because those entities at no time ever accounted for money received from NSC (I use that term to include verification of spending and paper trail) and in most cases these spending were duplication of grants received from those international sports federations in excess of N500Million (that’s the essence of removing interference of national government). The Minister new this is going on.

Your Excellency, India was recently banned from participating in Olympics in the future because the individual alleged to defraud India people during Commonwealth Games in Delhi was been returned as Chairman due to modifying rules that makes only him qualifies for the position. This is a concern for Nigeria to rethink the way sports are governed. Should the federal government prefer to maintain the current useless structure then, what the Minister did in the so-called federation election that returns the same individuals that were in London must be reversed because most of these individuals lacked skills to lead any sport in Nigeria and some them were thugs to begin with.

Your Excellency, it was further alleged that the Minister setup National Sports Council meeting on the eve of such federations elections in aid to pacify those attending with gifts so as to dance to his wishes and in the end those that agreed with him were part of those that become federation Boards members.

Your Excellency, it is further necessary to review spending activities of NSC because the Minister simply lacks accounting skill to know that his Ministry spent N4Million on Borehole and N400Million on soft drinks machine.

Your Excellency, over 600 athletes attended Benin athletics competition during the past weekend and before such held a meeting to determine their future and before reaching consensus the athletics federations banned every one of them including three banned for three years. This action was by the same federation leader, Solomon Ogba, that brought a former US drug offender Garfiled Ellenwood to be a Coach of Nigeria’s team in London until protest and just in the past weekend the same outgoing Solomon Ogba hired that individual again. Mr. Ogba has being acting without impunity and as mentioned by many athletes who are constantly in touch with this writer that he acts that way because of his political affiliation. This writer believes that other than the Minister, all in NSC staff must be hired based on merit and should NSC continue federations department, those staff must be hired on merit.

Your Excellency, is it possible to say that the Minister plan is a ‘restructure’? I think not, what the country is witnessing is act of destruction as there are litany of perennial problems including impecuniosity of NSC, Football and many federations. Is there any hope of revival? Yes and it begins with removal of the Minister because he simply endorsed all actions that resulted in embarrassment and disgrace of the country.

I rest

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

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

 

 

Nigerian Mitchell Obi has been elected President of the AIPS Africa at the elections held in Sochi, Russia.

With the involvement of 24 countries the assembly backed proposals for a consensus to pick the 13 members for the AIPS Africa Executive Committee following the withdrawal of three candidates Kabulo Muana Kabulo(DR Congo), Mamadou Koume(Seneh) and Morad Moutaouakkil (MOR) in favour of Mitchell Obi(Nigeria).

After reports of AIPS Africa meetings in Innsbruck 2012, and Dakar, coordinated by AIPS Treasurer Jorge Ribeiro the assembly-endorsed members proposed by Mitchell Obi and also co-opted others who had been nominated for various posts.

The newly elected AIPS Africa President who will also sit on the AIPS Executive Board as one of the Vice President said that he is committed to work closely with the present members and get more countries to join AIPS.

"Together we can bring back a voice of AIPS Africa that stands for the future of Sports. Together we can build a treasure that can take care, sincerely the growing needs of a blossoming field of sports journalists in the continent. Here the women journalists are close to my heart and they will provide the reassuring pillar," said Obi who has served on the AIPS board as member since 2005 when outgoing President Moroccan Boumid Belaid took the helm of the continental body.

AIPS Africa Executive Committee

President: Mitchell Obi (Nigeria)

First vice president:  Mourad Moutaouakil (Morocco)

Vice Presidents: Kabulo Kabulo Muana (DRC), Amadou Diouldé Diallo (Guinea

General Secretary: Emmanuel Gustave Samnick (Cameroon)

Deputy Secretary-General: António Gonçalves Ferreira(Angola)

General Treasurer: Felix Sohounde Peperipé (Benin)

Executive Committee Members: Ibrahim Abdallah Mustafa Hema (Libya), Ntoto Lacombe (Congo), Yonas Yeshome (Ethiopia), Mufti Mohamed (Sudan), Mohamed Slimane (Niger), Rougui Alassane Niane (Senegal).

 

The prospect of an all-German or an all-Spanish European Champions League final next month remained alive after Friday's semi-final draw. Last year's beaten finalists Bayern Munich, who have already secured the Bundesliga title, take on Spanish league leaders Barcelona.

In the other match, Borussia Dortmund will play Real Madrid, as representatives of Europe's current dominant footballing powers go head-to-head. The first leg matches will be played on April 23 and 24, with the return games on April 30 and May 1.

But with the Spanish and German teams kept apart when European football's governing body UEFA made the draw for the last four, the Wembley showpiece could just as easily feature yet another Germany-Spain clash.

Remarkably, the four semi-finalists can boast a total of 18 European titles between them. Real lead the way with nine victories, although their last success dates back to 2002. Their arch-rivals Barcelona and Bayern both have four and Borussia weigh in with their single victory in 1997 when they upset favourites Juventus 3-1 in the final.

Neutral fans were probably hoping for a Bayern v Barcelona final, promising a feast of football between arguably the continent's two top teams of the moment. The semi-final is given added piquancy in that former Barca coach Pep Guardiola is to take over the helm at Munich's Allianz Arena next year.

But Jupp Heynckes, the man he is to replace, will have reason enough of his own for wanting to reach the final -- and not simply in order to bow out on a winning note in London. He will no doubt also be hoping that Real win through to the Wembley showdown, as a fitting way to bring down the curtain on his long and distinguished coaching career against the side he led to the European crown in in 1998, bringing the Madrid giants their first title in the competition in more than 30 years.

Bayern, having comprehensively dispatched Juventus in the last round, again have home advantage first but are unlikely to find the Barca defence as porous as the Italians, who shipped four goals without reply over the two legs. However, if they are to reach their third final in four years, Bayern will have to do so without the services of leading scorer Mario Mandzukic, who is suspended for the first leg.

Barcelona, in their sixth semi-final in as many years, showed just how reliant they are on World Footballer of the Year Lionel Messi in their hard-fought quarter-final triumph over Paris Saint Germain, eventually prevailing on away goals. But they needed the less-than-fully-fit Messi to come off the bench in the second leg in Barcelona to orchestrate the equaliser on the night that saw them through.

Jose Mourinho's Real are unlikely to relish the thought of another trip to Dortmund in this season's competition.In the group stages, the Germans overran Real 2-1 and then earned a deserved 2-2 draw in Madrid to finish top of the group.

And the way Real struggled to overcome game Galatasary, losing the away leg 3-2, while Dortmund were getting the better of another Spanish side Malaga with two late goals, will doubtless set the alarm bells ringing in the Spanish capital.

There is also the little matter of the bitter memory of their last German semi-final opponents, Bayern, who beat them on penalties at the same stage of the competition last season. The first leg matches will be played on April 23 and 24, with the return games on April 30 and May 1, with the final at Wembley stadium in London on May 25.

Meanwhile, in the EUROPA League semi-finals, Chelsea was drawn against Swiss side Basel while Turkish giants Fenerbache will face one of the competition favorites, Benefica of Lisbon.

Dictatorship is a word that Nigerians of years past got a glimpse and reality of what the word meant but nowadays when it raised its ugly head or big stomach the governed rise up vigilantly. This writer wrote about National Sports Commission (NSC) leader and Solomon Ogba (disgraced and no longer a leader) of Athletics Federation (AFN) acting dictatorially and victimizing athletes and NSC maintains blind eyes and ears and in fact wants that man to be Director-General of NSC.

Whatever that is between the two of them will soon be revealed in expose but what happened over the weekend justifies a serious look why the Presidency does not see urgent need to bring in credible and acceptable people in sports.

Solomon Ogba (former NSC imposed AFN leader)

The header here is no misnomer Ogba was imposed by NSC on athletes and discriminated against any athlete who refused to compete for Delta State as slaves and those athletes were over 90% of the national team. He also victimized and intimidated virtually all of them to the point that some of them wrote this writer to aid in finding them a country to naturalise and the NSC leader was informed promptly even with the actual email.

London Olympics Games came with surprise to everyone that Solomon Ogba and his entourage hired a drug violator Ellenwood Garfield to coach Nigerian team. The Minister was informed while he was in London but unfortunately this same Minister joined the parade of drug cheats on red carpet, I refer to Nigeria’s own drug violator Mary Onyali showering her with accolades and Nigerians were amazed with this hypocrisy.

Recently, the Minister announced that not just athletes would be banned in the future but also the officials, but that time is now. Specifically, Solomon Ogba hired the same drug cheat Ellenwood Garfield (of London Olympics outrage) to coach Nigeria’s team in Penn Relays over the weekend.

Again, over the weekend to pacify athletes by intimidation Solomon Ogba illegally banned all Nigerian athletes (over 600) in other to prevent them to vote in election for Board leadership. In fact Ogba also threatened athletes who were not part of his so-called Golden league competition (which is a money stealing scheme). He sent skype threats text messages to some athletes vowing he will deal with them for not supporting him in his foolish agenda of thuggery and corruption, a typical area-boy that he is and was.

Bolaji Abdullahi, Honourable (?) Minister

Well, I hesitated on the use of the term ‘honourable’ because that office is honourable but the occupier, this writer is not so sure based on recent events.

This individual supported Solomon Ogba in all his nefarious actions injurious to the nation called Nigeria and for that reason alone, the term ‘honourable’ appendage to his name got a question mark.

Furthermore, this NSC leader pronounced a communiqué on behalf of various states that was never before the so-called National Council of Sports, essentially he was alleged to be lying because that statements was prepared at least one week before any discussion at the Ilorin parley with states sports council representatives. Again, this is not honourable action.

Going back on Ogba issue, Mr. Abdullahi was reported as forwarding Ogba name to the Presidency to become the next Director-General of NSC. Imagine, the entire Nigerian athletes protest against a person the NSC wants to be its Director-General. I will say this, Mr. Abdullahi and Ogba must leave Nigeria’s sports alone and if they don’t they should expect more protests. Next protest will not just be from the athletes but also from the country’s seats of power as this article will be on the desk of every Government agency in Nigeria, all AFN sponsor and international sporting organizations.

We say, Mr. Abdullahi it’s your call to act honourably or be dishonored and disrespected. Until you ban Solomon Ogba and his destroying supporters at AFN from ever be involve in any sport your actions will be suspicious. The country is in democracy and the athletes that should determine their own future wants freedom and justice not threats, intimidation and drug violators around them or being their leader.

AFN has continually defrauded the country and you are aware but did nothing rather you established a panel to intimidate a complainant of Olympics bribery scandal. The country also became aware of your threat to refer a matter on football management withdrawal of N10million to EFCC but not interested hundreds of millions AFN got illegally from NSC or simply demands records from AFN.

The pending federations elections are as noted many times will be a farce, scam, sham and scandalous and must be jettisoned. Failure of acting in the interest of those you governed, we ask that you resign or we will petition the President to remove you, immediately. This we guarantee you.

I rest.

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

 

　

 

　

 

Last season’s finalists, Bayern Munich FC of Germany have been drawn against perennial favourites, Barcelona FC of Spain in the semi final of the UEFA Champions League while Barca’s home rivals, Real Madrid FC will play familiar foes Borussia Dortmund in the other fixture.

Munich will host the Blaugrana in the first leg in their attempt to atone for last season’s loss against Chelsea in the final as well as claim the continent’s top prize for the sixth occasion.

However, Barcelona, playing in its sixth consecutive semifinal is seeking only its third Champions League triumph in five seasons. Pep Guardiola, set to end his coaching break at the end of this season, will be a centre point of the fixture, as the teams represent his old team and his new team, which he will begin handling when current manager Jupp Heynckes steps aside at the end of the current season.

In the second semifinal, Jurgen Klopp's men will play Los Blancos in a repeat of the group stage matches, Dortmund winning the first leg in Germany 2-1 and drawing the second leg 2-2 at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Madrid, campaigning for its 10th European Cup title, will also be looking to enthrone its coach, Jose Mourinho as the first manager to win the UEFA Champions League with three separate clubs, having previously triumphed with Porto and Inter.

Dortmund has only appeared in the final once, in 1997 when it upset Juventus in Munich.

The first legs will be played on April 23 and 24 and the return legs a week later on April 30 and May 1. The most fascinating feature about the final, which holds on May 25 at the Wembley Stadium in London, is the possibility of an all-Spanish or an all-German final.

 

Erstwhile Coach of the Super Eagles of Nigeria, Shuaibu Amodu has been appointed Technical Director of the country’s football team.

Also, James Peters was appointed National Technical Director for Youth and Women Development while Kashimawo Laloko was appointed National Technical Director for Youth Development. All three coaches have been handed their letters of appointment.

Former Ethiopia Coach, Tom Saintfiet was initially appointed technical Director last year but never assumed office following opposition from a section of the country’s footballing community, leading to a revocation of his contract.

 Amodu, meanwhile, twice qualified Nigeria for the World Cup (in 2002 and in 2010) but he was sacked on both occasions before the beginning of the mundial.

More Articles ...

  1. Dictator Ojo-Oba Takes Over NSC (in palace coup)
  2. Eagles begin training in Calabar ahead of 2014 WC Qualifier against Kenya
  3. UEFA Champions League: Ronaldo v/s Drogba as Messi Faces Beckham
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