Guest Column

NigerianNews

Uyi Edogamhe
Lives in
Bologna, Italy
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How can Nigeria, with more than Two Hundred and Fifty companies, listed in her stock market - even though it is “under-listed” - with thousands more registered businesses, not have sponsorship for her sporting leagues and events? Nigerian firms are spending millions of dollars to advertise themselves in international  media outlets, like the CNN and BBC and yet, we cannot find sponsors for our sporting leagues or events? This goes to prove that the dead brain technocrats and their associates, cannot rise beyond government subsidies and subventions and this is a death nail for Nigeria’s sports development.

THE DAMNING VERDICT.
by Uyi Edogamhe

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Nigeria’s big time fiasco and the very early ouster from the just concluded world cup, is one big damning verdict, that demands serious, passionate analysis. The aftermath of this big  mess is still playing out, in the soul searching, and blame game that is now going on: and don’t forget of course, the presidential flip flop on the banning.

The faux pas , the charade, the sham and the fraud the whole preparations for the Mundial, was revealed - to the consternation of many - to be a well concealed money grabbing ruse.  The National Sports Commission (NSC) and  the Nigeria Football Association (NFA), are both fiefdoms of corrupt practices. The very corrupt and counter productive mentality of “what’s in for me”, is embarrassingly the sole singular motivation for service, in about all the cases in these bodies. These bodies, like many others in the polity, feast on official malfeasance and pilfering. This is the basic idea of public service, in the Nigeria context.

Is it any surprising  to know that Nigeria was the only participant in the world cup, with none of it’s twenty three players competing in her local league? What does that say of the Nigeria Football league and the competence of our football administrators? Sports in Nigeria in the last couple of years have been progressively run aground by technocrats or outsiders with like minded mentality, whose only idea of running anything is by government’s handouts.

The least we expected of our football administrators after the South Africa fiasco, was for the board of the Nigeria Football Association, to resign en masse; and not the sham buck passing impeachments by the despicable technocrats with hopelessly corrupt mind set. The continuous engagement of  any member of this discredited board, is a hindrance to the value system we would want to create.

The corruption in the Nigeria Football Association is monumental. The NFA is a roulette of corrupt engagements and practices. The affairs of the NFA has always been a coin toss  to see who will win between an outgoing chairman and an assuming incumbent, as to who is more corrupt and unapologetically  incompetent. What we have had is far from serious football and sports  administration. It is more a career at estacode accumulation, and all sooths of  reprehensible sundry pilfering.

One can safely say without any equivocation, that we are all accomplice in the beguiling fraud that has conveniently become a smokescreen for perpetuating  some of the scams and sham in sports administration in Nigeria. We have over the years continuously fielded some over-aged players in age limit competitions, and this have become an acceptable “patriotic” norm. The NSC and NFA are not alone in this. There have been a general condescending “code of omertà” by the yearning public, to conceal these fraud and the Nigerian press, sadly, is a culprit and willing participant, in these grand shenanigans.

Amos Adamu and Sani Lulu, have severally and variously been described by the Nigerian sport press as one of the most powerful public figures and untouchables in recent times, and they have both lived up that reputation, with a sickening acrid arrogance.  Sani Lulu like Amos Adamu before him, ran the NFA like he was alpha and omega. He was law to himself and his impositions were hardly contested.

Can anybody reasonably explain the rationale behind flying twenty states F.A chairmen to South Africa and the setting up of fourteen committees for Nigeria’s participation in South Africa, when we are not the world cup host?

How was the presence of these FA chairmen supposed to contribute to the performances of the Super Eagles in the Mundial, or, how is it supposed to help enhance sport administration in the country?  Who took the tab for ferrying these gentlemen to South Africa and their accommodation? Were these gentlemen paid “ESTACODES” and on what basis?  How much estacode was paid to Sani Lulu and the other retinue of hangers-on in this jamboree of cash spree? Sport administration in Nigeria, like many things in the polity, is a cash cow that is milked for personal aggrandisement and South Africa 2010, was just another valid excuse to expropriate.

It is very evident that we have left our sports, to be administered by visionless, clueless money grubbing hustlers.  Amos Adamu’s manning of the National Sports Commission, did not and has not brought any tangible improvement or changes to sports in any way. It has only made Adamu tangibly rich,

The Indian Premier League, is the richest sport league outside of the USA. In fact,  Lalit Modi, the league commissioner a few months ago, sold two franchises (a licence for two additional teams in the league), for a whopping  US$708 Million. The IPL (India Premier League) does not depend on the Indian government for subventions and handouts.  The world best cricket players as of today, ply their trade in the Indian Premier League. This feat was achieved within a few years, with purposeful leadership and vision.

How can Nigeria, with more than Two Hundred and Fifty companies, listed in her stock market - even though it is “under-listed” - with thousands more registered businesses, not have sponsorship for her sporting leagues and events? Nigerian firms are spending millions of dollars to advertise themselves in international  media outlets, like the CNN and BBC and yet, we cannot find sponsors for our sporting leagues or events? This goes to prove that the dead brain technocrats and their associates, cannot rise beyond government subsidies and subventions and this is a death nail for Nigeria’s sports development.

The government faltered, in it’s hurried rush to replace Sani Lulu with more of the same old hands.  The government should as a point of duty, dissolve the entire boards of the National Sports Commission. Administrators should be appointed to man the various sport Associations for at least two years. People with the right acumen who can successfully run businesses should be brought in to revamp our sports. Sport is a very huge sector of the general economy that can be self sustaining and job creating. People who understands these basic philosophy should be brought in to administer our sports for now, and we are luckily blessed with many of these people.

Someone like Jim Ovia, who will be leaving Zenith Bank soon, because of the new central bank rules, can be drafted to help run and turn around the NSC. He can be paid what Lagerback got for five months in a year. This is someone that has created a global brand in less than two decades or about that, with a solid capital base. These guys knows, running a successful sport league or brand is all about running a business. They understand the workings of the corporate world and can get them on the sponsorship bandwagon with ease. These guys are from the corporate world  and as such, understands that sponsorship and commercial advertisement are tax deductible. They are in sync with the fundamentals of creating and running a successful business.

The lacklustre performance and Nigeria’s first stage exit from the world cup is inexcusable, and an indictment and a damning verdict on the inconsistent policies, maladministration and lack of innovative ideas to reform and improve Nigerian sports. We will have to take the bull by the horns, with the rebirth that has just started, God bless the federal Republic of Nigeria.