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AH-HAA: To debate or not to debate
AH-HAA: To debate or not to debate
If not for the NN24
presidential debate, one would never have known just how much of a
president the Kano State governor is capable of being. He spoke and
answered questions well, backed with empirical evidence; and dished out
information that showed he probably did or has been doing a bit of
homework to pass his April exams.
This debate
brouhaha just confirms one thing: damned if you do, damned if you
don’t! Suddenly, debates have come to stay and any aspirant must now
seriously consider whether elective office is truly for them,
especially if they doubt their ability to participate in a public
debate. It’s probably okay if one is mildly cerebral, not stupid and
able to put one’s opinions across succinctly. But if one is not
academically strong, a doer rather than a talker, it may be a bit of a
struggle. Hence, it is a decision one must reach after mature
deliberation: to debate or not.
The down side to
not debate is that many will think the unwilling candidate is not
capable, has nothing vibrant to say, lacks a certain charismatic appeal
a la Obama and is so lacking in all ramifications that he/she would not
want these foibles to be revealed to the world. Thank God the president
has agreed to participate in ONE debate at least, before it becomes an
albatross on his campaign.
Nigerians were not
thrilled at his absence during the NN24 presidential debates. In
addition, the excuses proffered for his absence did nothing to assuage
one’s feelings. All candidates and especially the president must be
seen to grab EVERY opportunity they have to convince Nigerians that
they have the capacity. If campaigns had been planned before the debate
was finalised, it merely calls for prioritisation by the candidate.
What do the people
consider as the most effective way for candidates to show what plans
they have for the electorate: televised debate between candidates or
campaign at a stadium? We all know what happens at these stadium
campaigns: they hold at venues which will NEVER be available to the
opposition for their own campaigns; they are crowded with people who
will NEVER have an opportunity to ask ONE simple question of the
candidate; the candidate merely spews out what he THINKS he’ll do from
a speech, probably not written by him, and with no chance to question
the rationale behind his plans. The speech will be full of meaningless
clichés, which even the maker has repeated monotonously without emotion
forever.
Yes, as a
candidate, please don’t debate if you know you’ll fail; rather, rely on
making the rounds of every stadium, park and square in Nigeria. While
your colleagues are shifting misconceptions or confirming conceptions
about themselves, and making a great impression on the electorate a la
NN24-Shekarau-style, you can hope that one-on-one interaction is
overrated and at your own peril.
With a society that
thrives on gist, you will never live down not participating, but who
cares? Jokes will be made about how you demanded ‘EXPO’, didn’t get it
and withdrew. In fact, all your achievements in life, academically and
otherwise will be certified the result of ‘EXPO’. If/when you finally
agree to debate, people will then doubt the integrity of the medium you
choose. You know how it is, this integrity-doubting process: YOU become
the debate.
People will forever
question why you chose to do one and not the other? Is government
organising the one you are taking part in? Furthermore, focus on and
scrutiny of the questions put to you will be divertive: mild, the
questioner is dead meat; tough, with great answers, you saw ‘EXPO’. If
you don’t do well in the debate, you’ll be dead meat. Everyone will
criticize your sense of judgment, asking what type of president you
would be, when, knowing your inadequacy, you went ahead to participate
in a process that would embarrass, humiliate or ridicule? Is this how,
in spite of his and our limitations, he’ll embarrass, humiliate and
ridicule country and us?
Last count: Lagos
governor has participated in at least three debates with other
contenders. Every time they’ve appeared, people get a fresh chance to
continuously decide whom they want for governor. Some changed their
minds; some have not. But they got their opportunity to decide. If you
are a candidate and decide not to debate, you are within your rights to
not be rushed into doing something that you know you can’t excel at. At
least, if you did not write the exam, no one will really be able to
tell if you would have passed or not!
In Zaki-Biam, the scars remain
In Zaki-Biam, the scars remain
The casual passerby
who sees reconstructed buildings along major roads may think that
Zaki-Biam has recovered from the 2001 military invasion.
But those directly affected still bear the scars a decade later.
Simon Awua Gesa,
the 56 year old farmer who lost his father, Emmanuel Agwaza, an aunt,
as well as Pila Tsutsu Biam, chairman of the Zaki-Biam Yam Market
Association which lost nine members still bear the brunt of the
invasion.
Apart from human
losses, these residents also lost property running into millions of
naira and are yet to recover from the double blow.
Zaki-Biam was among
several communities in the Katsina-Ala/Ukum/Logo federal constituency
invaded by the Nigerian military in 2001 as reprisal for the killing of
19 soldiers.
Reports stated that
the local militia had captured and killed soldiers in civilian vehicles
and without proper military uniforms during the Tiv and Jukun communal
violence that year, believing that they were Jukun militia from Taraba
State.
Awua Gesa, Simon’s 70 year-old father, was among scores of people rounded up by the soldiers at the yam market and killed.
His house in Zaki-Biam was also destroyed a day after he was killed.
Hembadoon Agwaza,
Emmanuel’s aunt, who lost all her property when the five-bedroom flat
of her brother, Agwaza Aluga was destroyed, developed hypertension as a
result of the loss and died within one month of the invasion.
Apart from the loss of lives at the market, its stalls and all their contents were completely razed.
“My greatest pain
is the burden of training my father’s children the way he would have
done if he were alive,” Mr. Gesa lamented.
“Most of them cannot proceed beyond secondary school, now.” The late Gesa left behind four wives and over 30 children.
“We’ve not been
able to reconstruct my father’s flat which was one of the best in town,
I can’t say all hope is lost but unless God does a miracle I don’t see
how we can do it,” Mr. Agwaza stated.
Mr. Biam maintained
that the invasion had slowed down the development of the yam market
because the traders who had lost everything have not recovered enough
to pool resources to provide needed amenities there.
“We need a fence to
secure the market, boreholes, and more toilets, all these have not been
provided as a result of the invasion,” the market chairman stated.
He said the resources at the market are being channelled towards the reconstruction of the structures.
Battle for Senate presidency begins
Battle for Senate presidency begins
Over the past four weeks, there have been consultations within and outside the National Assembly by aspiring senate presidents from the ranks of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and their sponsors – or godfathers. The lobbyists and aspirants have been contacting prospective senators and party leadership, including the busy President Goodluck Jonathan seeking for support.
There are four major contenders for the seat; three from the current sitting senators, all bandying different criteria favouring them for the job and all hoping for support from Mr. Jonathan. The contestants are not deterred by the first huddle of winning the April 2nd election, neither are they held back by the possibility of the seventh Senate not being dominated by PDP lawmakers.
The contenders
The senate president, David Mark, and his deputy, Ike Ekweremadu, who are both lobbying for the return of the full line up of Senate’s current leadership are proponents of a non-zone inspired leadership of the Senate, just like in the presidency. They are favoured by experience and acceptability.
They are pitched against two major opponents. Former president Olusegun Obasanjo, a close ally of Mr Jonathan is supposedly pushing for a South West Senate president. Mr Obasanjo, according to sources, has lobbied the incumbent to favour zoning the Senate presidency to the South West and is presenting Iyabo Obasanjo, his daughter, and Bode Olajumoke for the position.
From the outside, Danjuma Goje, the governor of Gombe State is hoping to come to the senate and is also nursing an ambition of becoming the Senate president. He has allegedly gotten a nod from President Jonathan and party officials that the Senate presidency will be dedicated to the North East zone. A party official who does not want to be named said zoning the Senate presidency to the North East is a precondition for the zone to support the presidential ambition of President Jonathan.
No zoning formula
“As it is now, there is no zoning formula,” an official of the party told NEXT in confidence. “Until the president wins, nobody can lay claims to any other position.” In September 2010, President Jonathan who is also the leader of the party denounced the party’s zoning arrangement while submitting his nomination form at the Wadata plaza headquarters of PDP.
The president explained that it is only after the president and the vice president have emerged in an election that the party can decide which zones present leaders of the National Assembly positions.
“The office of the President and other elective offices like Senate Presidency, Speaker and National Assembly Officers, PDP has reasonable control as long as we are in the majority. Those offices could be zoned. But, before you zone those offices, the President and the Vice-president would have first emerged,” the president had told reporters.
“The president is the leader of the party and nothing has changed,” our source said.
Nevertheless, the three groups are tossing around claims to the senate presidency due to the new zoning arrangement that may emerge should Mr Jonathan win the April elections.
In a free-for-all contest, the Senate president is the most influential senator at present and is most favoured to win the contest should he win his Benue south constituency, on April 2nd. The Senate president, however, faces a tough battle back home. His long-standing opponent, Lawrence Onoja is contesting on the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) which is threatening to sweep the state off PDP’s grip.
Mark’s challenge
Before now, Mr Mark was most favoured for the job following his close association with the president before the PDP primaries. The senate president was also the first to crystalise support from Mr Jonathan for the seat but due to the heightened numbness in their relationship and the president’s ever changing political promises, the Senate president’s chances have grown weaker recently.
Mr Ekweremadu is standing by his boss despite subtle calls from his south eastern colleagues for the position left for the South East. Mr Ekweremadu’s insistence on the return of Mr Mark as the Senate president and the current line up of Senate leadership is a sign of loyalty. However, it puts him in the position of next-in-line for the job should the senate president fail at home.
The agenda to return
Mr Mark as the Senate president is at present popular amongst his colleagues from the South and amongst the northern senators who feel differently about zoning the senate presidency to the North East.
Mr Olajumoke is said to have obtained the support of his state government to return to the senate despite being in the opposition because he also has the support of Mr Obasanjo. He will be serving his third term in the senate – good experience for a senate president – but will face serious opposition from Ms Obasanjo who hopes to be the first female senate president riding on her father’s support.
From all indications, based on legislative experience, Mr Goje will be least favoured for the office.
Lagos doctors suspend seven-week strike
Lagos doctors suspend seven-week strike
Doctors in the employ of the Lagos State government have suspended the industrial action which paralyzed public healthcare in the State for seven weeks.
The doctors, during a press briefing after an emergency congress in Lagos on Saturday, said they have reached an agreement with the State government and will be back to work on Monday.
Executives of the State medical guild also announced that the sacked former chairman of the guild, Ibrahim Olaifa, has been reinstated.
They also added that the suspension was based on the promise of the Lagos State government to commence the implementation of the new doctors salary scale (CONMESS) and also to consider the downward review of their taxes.
Many residents lost family members during the seven week impasse between the doctors and the State.
Zoning is alive and kicking in PDP says Obasanjo
Zoning is alive and kicking in PDP says Obasanjo
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has said the Peoples Democratic Party has not discarded its controversial zoning policy.
Mr Obasanjo, who spoke at the grand finale of the PDP presidential campaign rally at Eagles Square, Abuja, vowed that as an apostle of principle of zoning Of elective and appointive positions, he would not dump it at this point in the nation’s history.
“We are the only party that enshrined federal character in our constitution through zoning and rotation and we should be proud of that. For us and for the foreseeable future, it remains so far,” he said. “I am an apostle of federal character under Murtala/Obasanjo administration and I cannot now preach anything different.
“The accident of history of the recent past must be understood once again that it was an unexpected situation. And PDP as a party has addressed that issue.”
The former president’s position contradicts President Goodluck Jonathan’s position, which he stated last year when he appeared at the PDP national secretariat to submit his nomination form. Mr Jonathan had said that it is only after the election of president and vice president that the other key political offices will be zoned.
Mr Obasanjo, who is the chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees, disclosed that at the recent meeting of the Board, Mr Jonathan tabled the issue of zoning a day after former Head of State Ibrahim Babangida, former vice president Abubakar Atiku and former National Security Adviser, Aliyu Mohammed Gusau raised the matter.
According to him, he (Obasanjo)was subsequently mandated by the Board to meet with them with a view to discussing the matter.
He said he met with Mr Babangida last Sunday and assured him that the principle of zoning was still alive in the party.
“At the last meeting of the BoT of our party last Saturday, the issue was tabled by the President and it was raised by three distinguished members of our party a day before that BoT’s meeting with the President.
“I was mandated to discuss the constitution of our party with the distinguished members of our party. They are General Ibrahim Babangida, General Aliyu Muhammad and Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.
“The following day, that was last Sunday, I took up the matter with General Babangida who expressed to me that the issue is not the accident of history, rather it is the issue of perception in some quarters that federal character, zoning and rotation agreed by the PDP have jettisoned and permanently discarded.
“I, on behalf of the BoT, allayed the fears and I promised a public report and to brief the party members about it. What I am saying simply is that federal character, zoning and rotation in our party is alive and kicking.”
The former president said the party will continue to maintain the principle of zoning in the area of key political and governmental positions as long as it remains the ruling party in the country, adding that it will only be discarded “when unity, stability and democracy have been fully established with full confidence and trust by everybody in the system, within the polity and among participant.”
Describing Mr Jonathan’s offer to serve for only one term as a sacrifice, Mr Obasanjo argued that rather than vilify him, he should be encouraged. He said that he does not know who will succeed the president but that he could ‘reasonably’ guess where the person will come from.
“I don’t know who will be president of Nigeria after Dr Goodluck Jonathan, that is in the hand of God. But with the PDP policy, I can reasonably guess from where, in terms of the section of the constitution, the successor of President Jonathan will come. And no internal democracy or complication will be there to destroy it,” he stated.
Mr. Obasanjo said he supported former Presidents Shehu Shagari and Umaru Yar’Adua to get to power, insisting he never put ethnicity, regional or religious consideration while doing so. He said he worked for them to succeed him because they could strengthen the unity, stability and democracy of Nigeria.
Also speaking, Mr Jonathan assured that his administration, if elected, will give Nigerians a good administration, especially in the areas of infrastructural development, security and welfare.
His deputy and running mate, Namadi Sambo, FCT Minister, Bala Mohammed, PDP National Women Leader, Inna Ciroma and the director general of the campaign of Jonathan’s campaign organisation, Dalhatu Tafida also delivered good will messages.
All the serving governors of the PDP and new governorship candidates spoke at the rally and assured Mr Jonathan that they will get their people to vote for him.
Libyan rebels recapture strategic eastern town
Libyan rebels recapture strategic eastern town
Libyan rebels backed by allied air strikes recaptured the strategic
eastern town of Ajdabiyah on Saturday, pushing out Muammar Gaddafi’s
forces.
Rebel fighters danced on tanks, waved flags and fired in the air by
buildings riddled with bulletholes after an all-night battle that
suggested the tide is turning against Gaddafi’s forces in the east.
A Reuters correspondent saw half a dozen wrecked tanks near the
eastern entrance to the town and the ground strewn with empty shell
casings. There were also signs of heavy fighting at the western gate,
the last part of the town taken from government troops.
“Everything was destroyed last night by our forces,” said rebel
fighter Sarhag Agouri. Witnesses and rebel fighters said the whole town
was in rebel hands by late morning.
Capturing Ajdabiyah is a big morale boost for the rebels after two weeks spent on the back foot.
Gaddafi’s better-armed forces halted an early rebel advance near the
major oil export terminal of Ras Lanuf and pushed them back to their
stronghold of Benghazi until Western powers struck Gaddafi’s positions
from the sea and air.
Air strikes on Ajdabiyah on Friday afternoon seem to have been decisive.
The African Union said it was planning to facilitate talks to help
end the war, but NATO said its operation could last three months, and
France said the conflict would not end soon.
In Washington, a U.S. military spokeswoman said the coalition fired
16 Tomahawk cruise missiles and flew 153 air sorties in the past 24
hours attacking Gaddafi’s artillery, mechanized forces and command and
control infrastructure.
Western governments hope the raids, launched a week ago with the aim
of protecting civilians, will shift the balance of power in favor of
the Arab world’s most violent popular revolt.
In Tripoli, explosions were heard early on Saturday, signaling possible new strikes by warplanes or missiles.
GADDAFI OFFERS PROMOTIONS
Libyan state television was broadcasting occasional, brief news
reports of Western air strikes. Mostly it showed footage — some of it
grainy images years old — of cheering crowds waving green flags and
carrying portraits of Gaddafi.
Neither Gaddafi nor his sons have been shown on state television
since the Libyan leader made a speech from his Tripoli compound on
Wednesday.
State TV said the “brother leader” had promoted all members of his
armed forces and police “for their heroic and courageous fight against
the crusader, colonialist assault.”
The United States said Gaddafi’s ability to command and sustain his forces was diminishing.
Officials and rebels said aid organisations were able to deliver
some supplies to the western city of Misrata but were concerned because
of government snipers in the city center.
Gaddafi’s forces shelled an area on the outskirts of the city, killing six people including three children, a rebel said.
Misrata has experienced some of the heaviest fighting between rebels
and Gaddafi’s forces since an uprising began on February 16.
At African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa, AU commission chairman
Jean Ping said on Friday the organization was planning to facilitate
peace talks in a process that should end with democratic elections.
It was the first statement by the AU, which had opposed any form of
foreign intervention in the Libya crisis, since the U.N. Security
Council imposed a no-fly zone last week and air strikes began on Libyan
military targets.
But in Brussels, a NATO official said planning for NATO’s operation
assumed a mission lasting 90 days, although this could be extended or
shortened as required.
France said the mission could go on for weeks.</
‘UNICEF destroyed everything for me’
‘UNICEF destroyed everything for me’
Johnny as he is known by friends and fans was a big football star. As a Super Eagle beside Okocha, Oliseh and the rest, he scored goals. For years he was one of the models for the Nigerian youth and most likely also for German teenagers, as he spent most of his career, playing in the Bundesliga scoring over a hundred goals.
Akpoborie’s fortunes changed for the worse in 2001, when a ship (MV Etireno) run by his family was said to be carrying children into slavery in Gabon when it was stopped in Benin Republic. The BBC would eventually describe the former star as “Mr Unlucky” in an article after the incident.
Now, almost ten years after, Akpoborie is granting an interview for the first since the incident, which he admits literally ended his career. This interview is coming on the heels of a documentary on the incident titled ‘Das Schiff des Torjäger’ (The Goalgetter’s Ship) and directed by Swiss Heidi Speconga. It tells the story of the “MV Etireno”, its passengers and owner and is attempting to shed light on a saga that has left many questions unanswered.
NEXTSports spoke with Akpoborie about his fate, the abrupt end of his career, his grouse with UNICEF as well as indemnity claims and his overall struggle for justice.
It’s almost ten years since you were alleged to own a child slave trade ship, an allegation that changed your life dramatically. How did you feel when you first heard about it?
When I consider it now, I can only laugh at it. But at the time it was horrible for me as someone made up an untrue story and used my name for publicity but I am in contact with my lawyers to institute legal review.
UNICEF reported approximately 250 child slaves that were supposed to be carried on board of your ship and cast a slur at you as the owner. You said someone used your name to gain international publicity. How did this affect your personal and professional life?
Oh well, not to put too fine a point on it, it destroyed everything for me. Even today when walking the streets in Lagos, people would shout at me saying: “Look, that’s the child slave trader from thence, that’s him”. But if one know’s the whole story and the details of the unproven allegations from UNICEF, then one can imagine how it affected my life. If you had asked to interview me two years after this incident, I would have declined right away, but now I am glad to be able to talk about it. I just cannot abandon this, that what I had built up in twenty years got destroyed in fifteen minutes. In the documentary one can see that UNICEF had not just committed a blunder, no they had been aware of it and knew full well what they had done and eventually hazarded the consequences. If one had asked me previously to tout for UNICEF for the child slave topic I would have agreed, but now it will get very expensive for them.
From your point of view, UNICEF used your name to draw international attention to the child-slave-issue. How do you evaluate this problem against the backdrop of your story?
When talking of child slaves, one has to define what it is in order to understand it in detail.
There are so many different interpretations in Africa. For instance in Benin one might find children that grew up and worked for their uncle or aunt in order to support their parents back home financially. If one talks about children being sold on a market, it’s new to me. I have been across Africa, but haven’t found any evidence that this is true. One shall show those children to me, then I’ll believe it, but now I don’t believe anything.
As you are planning to go to court, what exactly are you accusing UNICEF of?
After this story we couldn’t use both ships any more, our commercial activity was destroyed as the ships were eventually demolished. Basically, we suddenly couldn’t do anything as people thought we were actually responsible. I couldn’t play football any more. My life had been destroyed.
Last December, the film “Das Schiff des Torjäger (The Goalgetter’s Ship) by Swiss director Heidi Speconga was released. What do you link to it and what does it mean to you personally as you featured?
At the beginning I wanted to run away from it; I didn’t want to talk to them. But later we met in Switzerland and I gave them the go ahead. The information that I gained from the research within the scope of the documentary were very siginificant to me as UNICEF didn’t give me the opportunity to talk to the children who were on board the ship at the time. It also gave me courage, because now I had something to prove the falsity of UNICEF’s statements.
A 2001 CNN report tells another story of the events that differs from that of UNICEF. One can read about contradictory assertions regarding the incident. In this context, they speak of 43 children that were found aboard the MV Etireno and according to UNICEF and Tierres des Hommes were destined for slavery. How can you explain this?
This is just a deliberate misrepresentation. Not a single child aboard destined to be sold, not even were they alone. All were accompanied by parents or other companions on their way to Gabon. That had also been confirmed by the children questioned in the documentary. We, as the company didn’t even sell tickets to them, they bought it somewhere else. I don’t really know what UNICEF talks about. It is a mistake that needs to be corrected in court.
Why exactly should anyone be interested in a misrepresentation of facts?
I honestly don’t know. We have all documents of permit from the departure and the arrival of the ship. I have done my own researches in Gabon, Lome, and Benin and talked to the people on the spot and to UNICEF officials. How can it be that UNICEF in Benin saw 43 children aboard and UNICEF in Gabon claims the opposite? If UNICEF was right, the ship wouldn’t have gotten permit to departure in Gabon at the first place.
So you call it a sort of smear campaign?
Absolutely. We got the stories, facts and also several eye-witnesses.
For some years you have been working as a FIFA licensed agent in Nigeria and Africa. What are you doing exactly and how would you assess the opportunities for Nigerian talent to become professionals?
It’s just all about football. Scouting talent is always hard. One is always on the run but it gave me the chance to think things over and it eventually gave me the opportunity to continue working in the football branch after the incident of ten years ago.
It’s fun for me to see the boys play. But like I said, it’s very hard to scout them. As Nigeria is a big country, fewer good players live in the cities but rather in rural areas. That makes it very difficult to reach them. Also corruption is a barrier.
Could you be more specific about that?
The people playing in the national team are people who have money to pay, to gain the attention of the scouts, and that’s why they are in the public. The right people live in the villages and that’s what I am working on currently, to provide young talented children who normally wouldn’t have a chance in Africa with the opportunity of a future to return later to help their families just like me.
Is corruption also a topic within the Nigerian national team?
Well, I witnessed some trifles when I was playing. But I only say thereto; that I hope it’s not true. It’s of course a problem but one has to choose the right coach for the national team otherwise it will be an ongoing issue.
Can you be more specific about the mentioned incidents?
No, for the moment I have to keep it to myself but I always believed that it is better to have a European coach. That’s very important for us.
Footballers in Nigeria and Africa often make false age-claims to carve out careers in clubs and the national team. As a former footballer please give a professional opinion on that and give an idea how to solve the problem.
I really have to admit it’s a difficult topic. Seen from the Nigerian perspective it breaks our national team as the right people cannot get the chance of playing. I was in school when I played for the U-17 team. Now years later there are still some people who played 4-5 years in the Nigerian League and returned to play for the U-17 again. It is just ridiculous. That breaks our football. I don’t have any idea how to solve the problem but to provide a future for football one has to come up with solution.
POINT BLANK: When is football coming home?
POINT BLANK: When is football coming home?
In the evening hours, at the National Stadium in Abuja, Samson Siasia, the Super Eagles manager, will lead his players out in a crucial 2012 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier against Ethiopia, his first competitive match since taking charge of the team in December.
Unsurprisingly, the Eagles’ performance in that game will be the topic of choice for football’s chattering classes, considering their parlous state since last year’s World Cup disaster and the country’s desperate desire to see the team return to the flamboyant form of yesteryear.
But besides hoping, of course, that they earn the needed win, the team’s ‘exile’ to that overpriced concrete contraption called a stadium in Abuja, a place without a football culture, ethos and soul, evokes deep and bitter feelings in me.
Any genuine connoisseur of our game knows the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos, criminally neglected by our federal government – as its decrepit, ugly form hauntingly reminds us – is our real theatre of dreams and Nigerian football’s spiritual home.
Who can forget the pleasurable and anguished moments on its hallowed but now patchy, miserable looking turf?
It staged our first Africa Cup of Nations triumph in 1980, when, to the delight of over 60,000 fans, Green Eagles captain Christian Chukwu proudly walked up to the arena’s state box to lift the Cup of Unity.
And who can forget August 12, 1989, when, amongst thousands of other fans in the terraces, I unknowingly watched midfielder Samuel Okwaraji convulse, collapse and die on its turf, in that unforgettable, tragic 1990 World Cup qualifier against Angola.
Or how Nigeria’s painful failure to win the 2000 Nations Cup final – after Victor Ikpeba’s penalty goal against Cameroun that never was – made captain Sunday Oliseh weep like a newborn baby?
“I cannot begin to recall all the important moments of my life, and in the lives of many great footballers, that took place in that stadium. That the ground is in its current state leaves me with nothing to say,” says former Nigeria captain Segun Odegbami.
And the dilapidated state of the stadium is made all the more poignant by its healthier, smaller next door neighbour – Teslim Balogun Stadium, the only decent football ground in Nigeria’s largest city.
After the Eagles’ unbelievable eight-year absence from the city, the recent friendly game against Sierra Leone, at the Balogun ground, served as a timely reminder, at least to me, of how the national team’s return to Lagos is the key to reviving its dwindling fortunes.
Given a bad rap
Rather than mollycoddle the present set of Eagles, some of whom are risk-averse and have to be pampered into doing their very minimum for the country – and hoping that they can get away with it in Abuja, where the crowd is quite temperate, putting the players feet to the searing Lagos fire will certainly improve the team’s work ethic.
Given a bad rap by previous FAs for their refusal to ‘blindly’ support the national team whilst playing at Sports City, as the National Stadium is nicknamed, Lagos fans are, unfairly, being given the proverbial bad name in order to ‘hang’ them.
The unadorned truth is that whilst a bit unruly at times, Lagos fans demand top draw performances from those wearing the colours of our country and are intolerant of sloppiness or an obvious lack of commitment. Lagos fans, at least most of them, can tell the difference between a national team that loses gallantly, after giving everything they’ve got and one that just couldn’t be bothered to deliver.
Why should their loyalty and support of the Super Eagles not come at the price of excellence and diligence?
The nauseating state of the National Stadium continues to offer an excuse for the Nigerian Football Federation, which points to the artificial turf at Teslim Balogun, admittedly not as good as a natural surface, as a reason not to stage competitive games in Lagos.
Can the Antelopes outpace the Eagles?
Can the Antelopes outpace the Eagles?
On paper, the Walya Antelopes of Ethiopia do not stand a chance tonight at the Abuja National Stadium against the Super Eagles.
According to the latest FIFA rankings, the Ethiopians are ranked a lowly 124th in the world while the Super Eagles occupy the 39th spot.
If that is the sole criteria for deciding who will end up with the three points at the end of tonight’s game in Abuja, then fans of the Super Eagles can rejoice and look forward to a one-sided encounter against the Ethiopians. The Walya Antelopes will be expected to just sit back, mass up their rank in defence, and await the flurry of attacks from Samson Siasia’s side.
But they will also be waiting for the perfect moment to spring a surprise and catch the Super Eagles unawares with quick counter attacks.
And one man who the Super Eagles have to be wary of in the Ethiopian side is Fikru-Tefera Lemessa.
He won’t be too difficult to spot as he will most likely be the sole man upfront doing his best to keep the Super Eagles defenders on their toes.
Standing six feet tall and currently on the payroll of South African club side, Supersport United, Lemessa is the only foreign-based player in the Walya Antelopes team and if the words of South African-based Nigerian goalkeeper, Greg Etafia are anything to go by, the Super Eagles will need to keep an eye on the 25-year-old throughout the game.
“I have played several times against him. He is a striker who chases lost causes, so we have to be wary of such a player,” Etafia told a football website. “For him, any match is war. He loves mixing it up with his markers and he is forever busy.”
He added: “He’s big, strong, hustles and loves to intimidate defenders. He is also comfortable on the ball, shoots with both feet and has a good turn.”
Lemessa, however, isn’t the only threat in the Ethiopian side as they also have the duo of Oumed Oukri and Shimeles Bekele who will be attacking from the flanks.
The Walyas will be placing their hopes on these players to make of making a first Cup of Nations appearance since 1982 in Libya, where coincidentally, they were on the receiving end of a 3-0 bashing by Nigeria.
Nigeria also beat them 6-0 in 1993 on the way to qualifying for the 1994 Cup of Nations in Tunisia which the Super Eagles won.
