I was a student in the school of satire. Those were the days when Olatunji Dare, now a professor, and himself a columnist would write his rich satires which then was a bible for growing boys in my Sabo-Oke in the early 1980s. We would argue as to what is the real intention of the writer. Then, we also had Adebayo Williams who writes from Ife. Those were the days when scholarship is the grain of growth.
Please join me to condemn to death the new era columnist in The Punch, Adokiye Amasiemaka, a lawyer. This former left wing international had written in The Punch of last Saturday stating the truth in unmistakable terms and langue simple enough for even Alice, my grand mother, who did not see the walls of school.
The hornet’s nest has been justifiably stirred with facts. What a lot of the people who condemn Adokiye have in defence is his timing. Why do it in front of the world? No one is saying the columnist did not write the truth. Now, my grouse. When is a fact a farce? At all times, sometimes or at no time. A fact will always remain a fact irrespective of the timing.
I am not surprised at the psychotically infected response of the men in the Glass House. Men who if President Musa Yar’adua was keen on flushing corruption in this country should have been hounded and thrown into jail. They lied to the nation. That the missing money in their vaults is $200,000 (official NFF account). The supervising ministry came up to say it was $236,000 and the real men on ground said it was actually $400,000.
That is one. The second. The men that Dr Amos Adamu implanted like he did the NFF in the LOC of the U-17 World Cup had intention of stealing the nation dry. They fixed N37billion as the budget. That budget is about N1billion per state! The President cut it to N9billion. Rather than resign, they had no shame and stayed on. Government rather than sack them retained them. They messed up the nation and the government by refusing to deliver quality hosting. Today, we are rated as the worst ever host of the championship!
That apart, they went on to fleece a youn lady, Florence Oluchi (can’t remember her surname now) of her intellectual property. She entered for the advertised theme song. She led in the shortlist from 15 entrants. In the final where the top three were to be chosen from the report of the Ohi Alegbe committee, she and the other two were not good enough. They were substituted by an alleged Minister Sani Ndanusa’s candidate that did not enter for the process.
Days later, the lady got calls from her friends that the work she entered had been remixed is being played on Kapital FM. She heard her song and complained and pronto, they changed the theme song again to a more watered down version that does not resemble her work again.
Why must these quality of men be trusted? Was one of the players in the Nigerian team not a graduate of a secondary school in 2004? How did he go through the process of school and is still 17 this year? Is one of them not a player in SEC FC Abuja ten seasons ago and is still 17 years this year? Is one of them not alleged to be a father of two? Is one not a team mate of Isreal Kogi in Stationary Stores? Must we count all?
Left alone, we can prove so many wrongs in the team constitution. MRI? Why are they making MRI look like a new technology? Was it not used in the National Sports Festival in 1981? Handball under General Ishola Williams has always used it. I recall in 1983, my immediate younger brother ho plays the same handball like me failed the MRI and I who was three years older than him passed the same MRI. What are we saying?
Do they want us to bring out the MRI of the members of the current NFF? Was there no Federal Government white paper on one of the key actors of the present board who was banned from holding any position of authority again in Nigerian football yet today, he sits rotund on the matters involving clean people. Sleeping dogs should not sleep in wrong places so that we can let sleeping dogs lie.
Olajide Ayodeji Fashikun,
Director, Sports Development & Marketing,
Nigeria Sports Development Fund Inc.,
NICON Luxury, Suite 59, Area 11, Abuja-Nigeria.
P.O. Box 8863, Wuse 2,
Abuja-Nigeria.
Telephone: +234-805-362-2797.
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