INTERGRITY VERSES PROFESSIONAL STOMACH INFRASTRUCTURE.

Oni Afolabi writes:

I was arguing with a senior colleague about the never ending attacks on the Minister of Sports by the sports desk of Vanguard Newspaper and he castigated me for supporting the minister against "my colleagues". According to him, "a dog will never eat a dog." In the first place, I am not a dog, so the adage does not apply here.

In my bid to set the records straight once and for all, I need to explain some things and why I do some things.

While growing up, I wanted to be a lawyer, but when I was in SS2, I had a change of mind and decided to be a journalist in my quest to fight oppression and make a change just like Dele Giwa. I never thought I was going to see myself in sports, but as I was growing up, I had to forge a path for myself and I had to choose sports due to the influence of my late brother, who was then at Brila FM.

I am here on a mission, hence I don't have time to be distracted. I know what I want out of life and I am only going for it. On the issue of joining other journalists in the war against the Minister of Sports just because the Minister replied Vanguard in his quest to put the records straight, I wish to tell anybody that is recruiting pen-pushing army against the minister that I am not available.

I never spent 4 years at the University of Lagos or embarked on professional courses at the Lagos Business School or the Nigeria Institute of Journalism to become a mob member or a cartel lord. If I wanted to become a gang leader or member, I would have joined a fraternity while in school to actualize my dreams.

My friends on this job and outside the profession know me very well and won't even attempt to enlist me as a gang member in a battle I don't believe in. Because millions of people are in support of an agenda doesn't make it right or wrong and for me to have a divergent view does not make me abnormal or right. In a situation where stomach infrastructure has led to the degradation of journalism ethics, then there is a need to stand out.

I am always sad when reporters "copy and paste" from website and even be foolish enough to copy the links and submit to their editors. Embarrassing enough, these errors will still make its way into the newspapers despite an editor who is paid to check these mistakes is much around.

If some individuals or group of young/old journalists are standing up to fight this menace that is killing the profession, there is nothing wrong in it. Why will I want to join the band wagons of fighters who do not know their right hand from their left despite many years of active practice.

Why do I want to join the gang whose main objective is to use their medium for financial and selfish gains at the detriment of national growth and the profession? For me to join in a battle, there is a need for me to believe in the course or else, I won't even attempt to take up arms.

As a General, there is a need to learn out to choose your fights or else, you will record more losses than victories.

Oni Guarantor Afolabi

Journalist.

afolabi_lewis@yahoo.com

THE DAY OF JUDGMENT:

The Most Beneficent and Merciful, we are indebted to your kindness till the day of Judgment. For it is appointed for man to die once there after comes judgement. On that day it will be day of great revelations . Before the throne of Judgment shall assembled mankind. The short, tall, black, whites, rich, poor, sane and the insane, even powerful men will not be left out. Leaders of the world present and past will be there to give account of their stewardships.

Nigerian leaders will be there with their different political associations. Looters of national treasury will give final accounts after the probe of President Mohamadu Buhari. Armed rubbers will stand before the throne of Judgment certainly not with arms but with blood of all the people they killed. Kidnappers shall face trial with blood money in their records. The beauty of this day is records of wrong doings will be presented by everybody to Almighty God.

Definitely, millitiants will face judgment with atrocities written in their own hands. Shekau shall lead boko haram members shouting Allahuakar but this time with correct statistics of women kidnapped facing Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) including Chibok girls. On that day, all the people killed by insurgents shall cry for justice. On that day, it shall be known whether the killings, maiming, raping, stealing, kidnapping perpetuated by boko haram was part of the revelations given to the Messenger of God.

Pastors and Imams shall definitely give stewardship of management of trust of guiding people to righteousness. Those who collected the disputed #7 billion and #11 billion election bribery given to Christian and Muslim clerics. Those who killed people, loot their properties leaving their children starving as ophans will face the throne with inventory of misdeeds. Election riggers will come with legitimate results of elections rigged before the Almighty, Chief Returning Officer .

Bribe givers and takers will be led by Mr. 419 with comprehensive accounts of fraudulent deeds including names of victims. Blood suckers will not be left out, Because account books will be clothed by blood of all people their blood was sucked. It is a day of joy and torment. Anguish shall cover faces of those whose records betrayed them. While faces of those who guided right will be full of undesirable amazement. A day of both joy, pains and anger.

Lawyers and judges who scuttled the course of justice for money will come with accounts, while victims of injustice will be demanding for final justice. Religious bigots, advocates of hatred which caused human carnage will give account facing Jesus Christ, Prince of Peace with the blood of people in their hands. The blood of missing people killed on the highway by militias on the Plateau will be accounted for by them. On that day the unknown gunmen who wrecked havoc on innocent villagers will be known because they will face the judgement throne with their records. There will be no hidden place under the face of the earth. The devil shall be seen on that day but disappointedly all those who attributed their evil acts to him will see the devil with his own account but certainly not covering their claims.

Fire shall give account of all the people it consumed, water will not be left out. On that day, gay, homosexuals, lesbians will confront the rule of creation with their records. "He who created them man and woman" This day is real and there will be no adjoument. All the Prophets sent by God to mankind will be there to prosecute their adherents, they will be armed with all the messages revealed to them. Those who have no faith will be prosecuted by their consciences.

Solomon Dalung will be there to give account of his stewardship. His accusers account for the allegation of not been a christian. They also account for accusations of betraying Plateau state. His antagonists must account for the allegations of collection of money from Sokoto Caliphate to betray Christianity. On that day his tribe will be known, but now Solomon is referred to as agent of Hausa/fulani. There will be no appeal or preliminary objections because everyone shall face his records. All that will stand in defence will be good deeds. 

At the end of presentation of accounts, then the Book of life will be open and any person whose name is not found in this book shall be thrown into eternal comdemnation. 

I fear this day greatly, I sincere pray that we make amends now, so that we shall find favour on the day of judgement.

Solomon Selcap Dalung 

OLYMPICS: BETWEEN MINISTER DALUNG AND THE FIFTH COLUMNISTS - Maiwada Dammallam

At the rate the ongoing Olympic debate is going off the road, very soon somebody will accuse Minister Dalung of "incompetence" for the non appearance of the celebrated Brazilian footballer, Pele, at the Olympics opening ceremony in Rio due to poor health. The funniest part of it all, people with the least background about sports architecture and administration are suddenly "FIFA approved" sports analyst (if there's anything like that)

While to some the uncoordinated, disjointed, fabricated cocktail of half-truths and "Olympic size" lies being propagated may be seen as distracting, the truth is, it's only a sign the cleaning process started by the Minister to reposition sports is touching the deepest part of the rot and disturbing the air for the "Kings and queens" of the sports kingdom that held the nation aground, refusing to let it rise and achieve its potentials.

Minister Dalung is hardly a year in office yet, he's being blamed for Nigeria's inability to add a grain of success and consolidate on the efforts of successful sportsmen and women who, over 3 decades ago placed Nigeria on global sports map with podium performance in Atlanta, USA. Just like any aspect of the Nigerian system undergoing holistic review for necessary adjustment to enhance functionality, sports is no different and it would be foolhardy to assume public response would be any different. It takes courage and crocodile skin to upset an established order especially when the alternative spells economic doom to its beneficiaries.

Despite his enormous success in restoring peace to Nigeria and re-inventing the army to fit into agenda of perfection and professionalism, Chief of Army Staff, Gen. Buratai is among the most vilified Nigerians in print, electronic and social media. I don't expect anything less for Minister Dalung. Honesty and patriotism will forever remain a burden in a society consumed by greed, deceit and absolute disregard for approved social and moral norms and traditions.

Anybody with promising determination to shut the leaking valves of the Nigerian system to trap what's accruable for the benefits of the larger majority is a fair game in the hands of a few army of hangers-on whose source of livelihood is permanently determined by the porosity and loose ends of our extant laws; laws designed to help the system work but tranquillised and made ineffectual by succession of demons who survive exclusively on corruption.

I take solace in the fact that efforts are yielding results. Of course, nobody will be accusing Minister Dalung of incompetence if the Olympics harvest is bumper; if the usual coterie of "sports analysts" are in Rio on a full paid Government sponsored package. Yes, no one will be around to blow the horn of defeat being blown by our "erudite" sports commentators and analysts. Most of them by now would be in Rio mailing second hand stories to their institutions from the romantic comfort of Brazilian beaches. Most of them may likely return to Nigeria without knowing the venue of a single major event. To most of them, success is in the pocket not in the fields.

For how long we intend to remain on a mentally controlling yoke of media servitude is something to be determined by our resistance to false pressure and our insistence to keep our brains domiciled in our heads and maintain our default settings complete with ability to sift right from wrong. We don't have the binary option of being orally upright and practically corrupt. You are either chicken or fowl. In this race one is either a hound or a hare. The deceptive art of hunting with hounds and running with the hare was what brought us to this sad state of stagnation.

That we have mavericks with ability to subdue primitive instincts of wealth accumulation and revolt against a culture of corruption to correct the system and make Nigeria operate on the same terms and conditions that made even lesser endowed nations great, is something to be appreciated by the focussed and the foresighted while keeping eyes open to detect the wayward and deny them a chance to destroy our ambition for a better nation.

Rather than chasing shadows, shouldn't stakeholders concentrate on identifying reasons the Sports Ministry is tagged a bastion of corruption? By doing this we may unearth causes of Nigeria's predicaments as far as sports development is the issue. We shouldn't restrict assessment of sports administration to the man at the helm of affairs in the country or the Ministry. A situation where a "critic" will expend enough energy to rival what incinerated Hiroshima/Nagasaki trying to prove a Minister's "incompetence" using nothing but daily humanly slip of tongue, at best it's unfortunate and at worse, repugnant aside being a threat to intellectualism.

A lot is at stake for us to risk reducing sports administration and development to this comical, pitiable and personal level. While the debate rages, I expect intelligent questions like:

Why should joint efforts of the Vice President, Prof. Osinbajo, Minister Dalung and his colleagues, Ministers of Information and Finance, Lai Mohammed and Kemi Adeosun respectively failed to see Team Nigeria in the air even after a hefty sum of N80.000,000 was paid by the Ministry of Youth & Sports to an NFF appointed agent who NFF entered into an agreement with to camp the Team in Atlanta, USA on what they told Minister Dalung was a "full sponsored" arrangement which details he was neither privy nor part of?

Why should NFF insist on arranging for the transportation of Team Nigeria when all of the sports federations complied with the directives of the Ministry and allowed Angie Taylor, Director High Performance of the Ministry to arrange for the bookings of their sportsmen and women which Taylor did excellently without a hitch? Perhaps, we may get to know why NFF refused to give the Ministry the name of the airline to be paid the requested $174,000 (N80,000,000) in line with the Minister's pledge to ensure probity but rather chose to give theMinistry the name of the supposed "agent" in charge of transporting Team Nigeria to Brazil.

Despite the seeming premium value attached to sports by the fire breathing Sportswriters, no one seem concerned why a 30 sitter chatter plane wasn't large enough to convey the Team. Only then people will begin to see the contributory role of those in charge like Coach Siasia who made their family members part of Team Nigeria. Why should there be wives and children of officials on a chatter plane intended to convey the Team to beat time. By the way, is it the responsibility of the Ministry to convey family members of players and officials failure of which resulted in blackmail? The President was emphatically clear that anybody who have nothing to do with sports will not be sponsored to Rio by the government without exception. Are NFF officials and players above a presidential directives?

Considering the sustained baseless attacks on Minister Dalung, I couldn't help but agree with the opinion of a seasoned sports analyst and stakeholder, Gara Gombe who opined that an army of "e-dogs" have been released in the cyber-jungle to attack anything "Dalung" just to cover misdeeds inimical to the success of sports administration which the Minister left no one in doubt about his ambition to uncover and, which expectedly is giving some people sleepless nights. One doesn't need to be the  brightest of the sportswriters to ask relevant questions that could nail the culprits behind the travails of Team Nigeria in Atlanta and save Nigeria from such embarrassments in the future.

The pledge by the Minister to go to the bottom of this problem and ensure Nigeria get a fair deal should not be taken as empty. Dalung is determined to go out clean as he came in. Assuredly he will get to the bottom of this and Nigerians would get to know the sad details of the "Olympic size" mischief at play. Please stay tuned!

Maiwada Danmallam 

Special Assistant 

Honorable Minister, Youth & Sports

U–23 OLYMPIC FOOTBALL TEAM DREAM TEAM VI UNAUTHORIZED FOREIGN TRAINING TOUR TO ATLANTA, USA AND SUBSEQUENT DIFFICULTIES IN GETTING TO MANAUS, BRAZIL

Following the widespread and often misleading comments on the Foreign Training Tour of the National U-23 Olympic Football Team to Atlanta, Georgia in the United States of America and the subsequent difficulties the team encountered I respectfully write to put the issue into correct perspective. 

 

2.​When the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) approached the Ministry of Youth and Sports for a foreign training tour in preparation for the Rio, Olympics, I explicitly told them the Ministry had no funds because the budget was yet to be approved and implemented. The NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, assured me that they had secured sponsorship through an agent and that all their expenses would be taken care of by the sponsor. But I insisted that the team should not leave the country without NFF extracting commitment to forestall embarrassment. 

 

3.​It therefore came as a surprise to me when I heard that the team was having difficulties in paying their bills in Atlanta. When the Secretary of Athletic Federation of Nigeria send an email to athletes to sponsor their tickets to Rio without clearance from me, I directed the Director of High Performance, Angie Taylor to procure tickets for foreign based athletes. However NFF rejected the arrangement and opted to buy tickets for the Under 23 team through their agent one Mr Jairo Panshion. It was only on 1st August, 2016 that the NFF came back to the Ministry requesting for money to charter an aircraft to fly the team to Brazil, because their agent could not secure seats for the team.

 

4.​ Seeing that the Dream Team’s first match against Japan was only three days away I immediately approved the release of the sum of $174,000 (One Hundred and Seventy Four Thousand US Dollars) equivalent to N80, 000, 000 (Eighty Million Naira) to NOC and the money was promptly paid by Secretary of NOC into the account of the agent presented by the NFF.

 

 5. After the payment I was again informed that the agent was now demanding that all hotel bills and sundry be settled before the plane would be allowed to take off. I personally prevailed upon the NFF upon to fly the players to Brazil on the assurance that Ministry Officials already in Brazil would settle whatever hotel bills incurred by the players, but he still refused.

 

 6. After the arrangements by the NFF had failed the Ministry secured a second 30 Seater chartered plane through a sports philanthropist Yemi Idowu, who paid $300, 000 with the understanding that when the Ministry revert the earlier payment made to NFF agent he could be settled. Landing and airspace  clearances were obtained from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), but the team rejected the aircraft as too small to convey them. 

At this stage, the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osibanjo, was contacted by NFF and he secured another aircraft to fly the team to Brazil. However, when I contacted and briefed him on the situation, he decided that it will be wasteful hence there was an aircraft already paid for on ground at the Airport in Atlanta. He then cancelled the arrangement.

At this point, the NFF agent resurfaced again secured an aircraft which conveyed the Team with the understanding that the Ministry will settle him in Rio. The Team barely made it into Manaus in time to face Japan in their first match at the Rio Olympics, which the Dream Team won by 5 – 4.

 

8. Against the foregoing it is clear that;

 

i) the foreign tour by the Dream Team was never authorized by the Ministry, due to paucity of funds, but an arrangement by the NFF on the assurance that they had secured a sponsor to foot all their bills.

 

ii) when the Ministry waded in to avoid further embarrassment to the country by paying for a chartered plane for the Team to be flown to Brazil the effort was frustrated because of unreasonable and unverified claims for hotel bills and sundry.

iii) Even the intervention of the Vice President was desperate attempt by NFF to exploit the pressure from the public to extract unjustified funds from the country.

 

9. Consequently steps are been taken identified those officials who brought the name of the country to ridicule are appropriately sanctioned.

Thank you.

Solomon Selcap Dalung

Honourable Minister 

5th August 2016

Rio,Brazil

DALUNG’S SCORECARD: Vanguard Sports misleading Nigerians

The Sports desk of the Vanguard Newspapers last Saturday continued its agenda to bring down the Honourable Minister for Youths and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung with misleading distortions thus dragging the noble profession of journalism to an all time low.

‘DALUNG EARNS BUHARI LOW MARKS IN SPORTS’ was the headline of a back page sports story of Vanguard Newspapers of Saturday, May 28, 2016.

For a medium that has vowed to fabricate all manner of falsehood to discredit the Honourable Minister of Youths and Sports Development Barrister Solomon Dalung in public space and subsequently sacked by President Muhammadu Buhari, one would not have expected anything less!

Even  if the writer, a bricklayer masquerading as a journalist, one would have expected the gatekeepers in Vanguard, especially the Saturday Editor/Group Sports to have trashed the story to the dustbin as its publication did more harm to the image of Vanguard Newspapers, its owner, their editorial board and management as well as journalism profession than meeting the ulterior motive intended of pull him down.

When agents of image destruction pretending to be conscience of society or advocates of good governance do their dirty biding, they often show some level of intelligence. Though we can read through their mischief, John Egbokhan and his co travelers displayed ignorance or very shallow knowledge of elementary journalism and the basic rules of media practice. 

In their inordinate ambition to smear the image of Barrister Dalung, Egbokhan wrote an article of about 1742 words claiming that the Honourable Minister had earned President Buhari low marks. They had no single quote from President Buhari, the All Progressives Congress (APC), the Secretary to the Federal Government or any top official of government scoring Honourable Dalung low or any other Honourable Minister to buttress their claim.

So where did Egbokhan and his editor pick up their evidence which they used as the headline of the story?  Was anybody 'copiously' quoted? Apart from the phantom quote, the article is filled with inconsistencies, illogical arguments, bad grammar, manipulations, falsehood and bereft of creativity which keeps the human mind pondering over the level of education of author and his boss, the clarity of their thoughts, their knowledge of ethics of journalism, media practice, their sense of fairness and justice.

Let facts speak. Egbokhan is assessing sports in the last 12 months, yet he expects Honourable Dalung appointed six months ago to account for 12 months of stewardship. Only a half-baked assessor, saturated with hate, possibly an undertaker of pecuniary consideration with commissioned motives will demand for stewardship of a period Dalung was not in office.

Armed with bias, Egbokhan twisted facts about NFF crisis by portray the Minister in bad light, knowing fully well that the crisis predated his appointment. 

Even a google search would reveal to Egbokhan that the Minister and the key officials of the Ministry of Youths and Sports since assumption of office identified with the Pinnick Amaju-led board of the NFF and also providing them both material and financial support required for success. 

If Egbokhan and his editor had done the basics of journalism which is fact-checking, they would have stumbled on articles, publications and statements of the Honourable Minister in the last few months warning individuals and groups against any act culpable of causing breach of the peace in Nigeria football. Dalung also made it clear that whoever test the will of law will definitely face the full wrath.

However, Egbokhan opted to ignore these notorious facts that in the public domain all in the zeal of his pay masters to distort the narratives. Only neophytes in sports or agents of falsifications like Egbokhan will blame the Honourable Minister for Nigeria's non-qualification for 2017 Africa Nations Cup. Before the Honourable Minister’s appointment, the Amaju led board of NFF which led the Super Eagles not to qualify for the 2015 Nations Cup had equally subjected the 2017 qualifications in serious jeopardy of due to improper management of the team, a situation the board admitted and apologized to Nigerians.

The management of the Super Eagles for the Nations Cup qualifiers was poorly handled by Glass House leading to prosecuting the qualifiers with three coaches and three captains. Angered by this development, many Nigerians did not only called for the sacking of Football leadership blamed for the non-qualification, but also wanted the National team disbanded. Egbokhan ignored all these facts within public domain and but blamed the Honourable Minister all in a bid to fulfill Vanguard’s commitments of not seeing any thing good from him.

Egbokhan infuriated by hate failed to accord the Minister the credit for the U-23 team qualification for the Rio 2016 Olympics Games Football event. While U-23 team was facing qualification campaigns in Senegal, NFF leaders were in Europe watching European football league matches, it was the Honourable Minister that responded promptly to distress call from Coach Samson Siasia and members of the U-23 team for intervention which enabled the team to participate in the championships, win the trophy and qualify for the Olympics. Our U-17 team also won the World Cup in Chile.

It difficult to comprehend Egbokhan’s grouse with Minister’s directive that the former Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC) Mallam Alhassan Yakmut account for the N2.9 Billion released by the Federal Government for the Nation’s participation at the 2015 All Africa Games and the preparations for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. Paucity of funds bedeviling preparation for Rio 2016 Olympics is attributed to misapplication of the funds released to defunct NSC for that purpose.

The war against corruption and misuse of public funds is cardinal to the President Buhari’s administration, the Honourable Minister deserves commendation rather than condemnation for asking for those entrusted with public funds to account for how it was spent.

Apart from making accountability and good governance his watchword since assumption of office six months ago, the Honourable Minister, despite the mismanagement of funds for preparation for the Rio Olympics, has been able to ensure the qualification of athletes from more than eight sports for the games, the highest being athletics where over 30 athletes have qualified.

Barrister Dalung on assumption of office identified lack of facilities and equipment as the bane of sports development in Nigeria. He has not only set up a committee to do a thorough audit of sports facilities and equipment in the country, he has started the resuscitation of moribund facilities. One example is the Swimming Pool at the National Stadium, Surulere, Lagos. The swimming pool was abandoned for 20 years but is now ready for use. The minister also organized a professional evaluation of the decadence at the National stadium since 1999, redrawing the design of the stadium and concluding plans to start renovation.

The Honourable Minister has also set up a sports restructuring committee with the responsibility of fashioning out a model that will move our sports from the service oriented model he inherited to development oriented model. The Ministry has also supported athletes in various capacities despite paucity of funds. In Table Tennis, Aruna Quadri won the men's single event at the Africa Top 16 championship in Sudan while in Weightlifting, Nigeria won 11 gold, 7 Silver and two bronze medals at the African qualifying tournament held in Yaounde May, 2016.

In March 2016, our wrestlers won 4 gold, 3 silver and 3 bronze medals in Cairo Senior Wrestling Championships. Also in Wrestling, our athletes won 4 gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals at the Africa/Oceania 2016 qualifier held in Tunis. Wrestling qualified 7 athletes for Rio Olympics in April 2016 while in Powerlifting, Nigeria won 1 silver and 3 bronze medal in IPC 2015 European Open held in Hungary November 24th to 30th 2015. In Scrabble, Wellington Jighere in November 2015 won the World English language Scrabble Players Championships in Perth, Australia.

 

The Honourable Minister has been able to attract investors and has been undertaking projects without a budget. In the youth arm of the ministry, the Honourable Minister has initiated The National Accelerated Youth Development Programme (NAYDEP) aimed at reaching and maintaining a database of at least 18 Million youths nationwide; one million in each of the 18 thematic issues of the National Youth Policy by December 2016. The Ministry of Youth and Sports Development will also mobilize and deploy one million youths (from the 18 million) as Change Agents, Change Champions and Transformation Entrepreneurs before the end of 2018.

Barrister Dalung has created a youth development financing trademark BBSF (Brands and Business that will shape our youths' future  and facilitate the creation of 100,000 jobs through Transformation Enterprises in two years. It will also facilitate the establishment of 109 Youth Business Clusters, 1 in each Senatorial District and FCT by 2019. The Honourable Minister has also launched a portal called Young Nigerian Investors and innovators to help link young Nigerians with the global market. 

He is on the verge of signing an MOU with Peugeot Auptomobile Nigeria to launch a Youth Taxi Scheme.  200 Youths per state will be given cars through various cooperatives to pay back on hire purchase basis.

He is working with UNIDO to train Youth Development officers nationwide in entrepreneurial skills. In just six months, the Honourable Minister, working with his colleagues, has set up an inter-ministerial committee on job creation for youths and has developed a content note for presentation to the African Development Bank.

The Honourable Minister has also developed a strategic framework for youth empowerment which will be presented to the Federal Executive Council for approval; 

others include reformation of the National Youth Council of Nigeria, Youth Empowerment Programme with Innoson Motor Vehicle Manufacturing Company and others.

The above are just a few of the Honourable Minister’s achievements in six months which led him getting accolades from Nigerians. He who come to equity they say, must come with clean hands; we challenge John Egbokhan to show his scorecard in journalism since he became one, he and his co-conspirators of pull Honourable Dalung down in Vanguard will try, but just as they have failed previously, they will continue to fail. No amount of intimidation, wailing by wailers and blackmail could dissuade or deter the change agenda in sports.

Maiwada Danmallam

Special Assistant

Honorable Minister, Youth & Sports 

   

OF UGLY FACE OF CITIZEN MEDIA: THE TRAVAILS OF DALUNG, OBASANJO AND INNOCENT OTHERS

There is no doubt that liberalization of the written word and broadcast pictures is one of the most revolutionary phenomena of the 21st century which has indeed constripted the universe to a global village. The social media has thus grown to a Goliath almost reducing its predecessor formal broadcast media to a dwarf so to speak. With purchasing power of a GSM set and recharge card any citizen can initiate, contribute and expand a discourse without necessarily been a trained Journalist. With just the click of a button, the door is open for information dissemination instantly, simultaneously with the widest possible reach attainable. This is why the social media is called the Citizen Media. 

Now that the Citizen media has forced journalism and communication to an all-commer-affair, it is unfortunate that truth, accuracy, objectivity and fairness which are virtues ingrained in the formal media have now in many instances become causalities. Unfortunately victims of this ugly face of social media cannot successfully sue for libel or defamation as they helplessly watch their good names and integrity built over the years put into jeopardy by a fictitious citizen who in the comfort of his home may concert a story out of mischief, quest to settle scores,dress it up with photographs taken out of context and splash it on a social media platform. 

Other unsuspecting players in the name of trending are trusted to help expand this unverified information believing it is true, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. The way things stand and the remote hope of change in the immediate future, it may be safe for players in the media to start the day's prayer with "father forgive me in many instances that I do what I don't know."

Take the trending news in the social media on the Minister of Youth & Sports-Barr Solomon Dalung and Former President Olusegun Obasanjo for instance. The author of the story maliciously showed what the Minister said in the middle of a press conference exchange only; without letting the public know what question was asked before the narration and deliberately fail to show in full what the Minister said just to malign and badly portray him as insensitive and unconcerned about the success of Dream Team VI. Nothing could be further from the truth as I personally witnessed the event. 

A reporter had asked the Minister why the Ministry should allow a situation whereby the Under 23 Team should be neglected in far away United States to the extent that friends of the Team Coach were being begged to provide for players' essential needs and now under threat of ejection from their hotel rooms in the US; to which the Minister explained that the Ministry was not put in the picture or briefed before their traveling to the US as should be the case and that he was hearing that from the reporter for the first time. It was then he asked that the reporter should have found out how and who took them there. He equally cited instances when the name of the country had been dragged into the mud when teams without official notification and lack of adequate arrangement travelled out of the country only to rush to troubled water; saying such behaviour would no longer be tolerated and he has made this position known to the sporting Federations.

 Anybody familiar with Dalung will know that he is unpretentious in his committment to masses welfare and this self-chosen route of struggle for masses emancipation predates his debut as Public Servant. In the same way, his committment to sports and  athletes is without  pretence; he is therefore not the type of leader that fits to the bullying and insensitive image that detractors are trying to script for him. Indeed, his consummate passion for sports and committment to the welfare of the lumpen proletariat  make him to adopt a martial uniform as a signature tune and constant reminder that the masses course is a life-long struggle.

Just a few days ago, an innocent Chief Obasanjo who was at the Shehu Yar adua Plaza as participant in a public discussion on agriculture was portrayed with a trending picture to match, as gatecrashing to the convention ground of the PDP thus portraying him as an unprincipled Stateman plotting a comeback to the main opposition party in Nigeria. The former President had to issue out a rebuttal press release urging only those who can believe that their mothers can be turned to a woman to believe the story.

This piece is therefore to all men and women of goodwill and fair-mindedness to be wary of shewing and swallowing all menu emanating from the social media as balanced diet. As for OBJ, Dalung and other public figures, they should resign themselves to fate that this citizens media empowerment without responsibility is a phenomenon they have to put up with. It is the sign of the time.

Tolu Makinde

Director of Press & Public Relations

FMY&S

VANGUARD’S CURIOUS CASE MISCHIEF, DELUSION AND PROFESSIONAL INCOMPETENCE

I used to respect Vanguard Newspaper a lot, but not anymore. And this is because they have sacrificed professionalism for personal non-professional vendetta. 

I don’t know whether the newspaper has something personal against the Minister of Youth and Sports, Barrister Solomon Dalung or not, but I have watched the unfolding drama of their vendetta with consternation, shame and embarrassment.

This has gravitated to a new height when the newspaper pictured the Minister on the back page of its Thursday (11th August 2016) edition standing with a tray on the queue waiting for food and criticized him for it, labeling the action a national embarrassment. 

The Nigerian Media has always been critical of our leaders, public officials, including Ministers, but for reasons like violating or being disrespectful of traffic lights; or for assuming the statutes of demi-gods and living false lifestyles, or even being unrealistic. We are the people crucifying our leaders for adopting lifestyles that are not consistent with their peers in the civilized world, yet Vanguard labels a simple action like waiting on the queue for food by a Minister a national embarrassment. I find this is ridiculous and worrisome.

First, it is ridiculous because journalists pride themselves as the fourth realm of the state; meaning they have joint responsibility for nation building with government because they do not only influence public opinion, they shape it. So I expected Vanguard to see something noble and honourable in the Minister’s action and encourage Nigerians to emulate, but no, they would not. 

I wonder whether this is a mere case of mischief or absolute delusion or professional incompetence but I expected more depth from Vanguard. It is shameful that a newspaper of Vanguard’s repute will commit so much energy and resources, not in supporting worthy developmental causes through its corporate social responsibility, but in trying to discredit an individual to the point of monitoring a basic everyday-life activity like waiting for food. 

Secondly, it is worrisome because of the realized that Vanguard’s position and perception of the Minister’s action reveals an inner deficiency of knowledge, maturity, professionalism and even patriotism. And with this kind of attitude, I weep for Nigeria and ask, ‘then what change are we crying for? 

The simple fact that Vanguard has concluded that it is no longer normal for government officials to be normal and live a normal simple life portends a clear and present danger for the country. Its continued existence or the elements within it with this viewpoint, may hinder the attainment of change we so desire, because they will continue to churn out poisonous publications that will shape ananti-establishment among the people mindset. 

I believe the people in other climes who would read Vanguard’s critique of the Minister will similarly find it absurd and wonder where the newspaper’s sense of values have gone. To these people, what the Minister has done is perfectly normal and we need to encourage our leaders to behave in similar manner in Nigeria.

We have seen the media publishing pictures of Tony Blair in public trains, the Mayor of London at a bus stop waiting for bus, and other top public figures carrying their bags at airports. If Vanguard Newspaper has not allowed its pessimistic personal issues with the Minister to becloud its better judgment for corporate objectivity and sense of responsibility, why then is Dalung’s action a national embarrassment?

Perhaps, it is just a curious case of deliberate mischief and professional delusion by Vanguard Newspaper. 

Maiwada Danmallam 

Special Assistant,

Honorable Minister, Youth & Sports

OUR ROTTEN AND STINKING SPORTS SECTOR: Is Rio 2016 the Tipping Point?

Yours Sincerely was an Nigeria Olympic Committee VIP attaché to Mauritius at the 8th All Africa Games (COJA 2003-Abuja). I had the privilege of working directly with Dr. Babayo Shehu (May his gentle and patriotic soul rest in peace) who happened to be the longest Permanent Secretary of the Federal Ministry of Sports in Nigeria's History with whom I struck a sort of father and son relationship that lasted for years after COJA-2003. 

We had our evening dinner meetings and private discussions as routine for the about two weeks we spent at the Transcorp-Hilton Abuja, while the games lasted and I must say that this gentleman opened my eyes to the level of mind boggling corruption that bedeviled Sports development in Nigeria. He revealed to me how a Mafia of Civil Servants, their cronies who they kept imposing heads of various Nigerian Sporting Federations and Sports Journalists who have been pocketed via fat brown envelops have been holding Nigerian Sports down craftily rejecting full scale private sector funding or participation in sports because they never wanted any form of transparency nor accountability in the administration of sports in Nigeria. 

This Mafia held the government on the jugular and caged athletes and sports professionals in a See no evil,hear no evil and say no evil stranglehold. The helpless athletes and sports professionals understood this clearly that their fragile careers would be axed if they dare challenge the evil and greedy Mafia. With this evil and comfortable corrupt hold on the system, there was no way Nigerian sports was ever going to develop as it should. Each time any Nigerian government attempted to scrutinize the operations of these Federations regarding funds allocated to them by government, they criminally pitch their International parent Federations against Nigerian government to the point of suspension threats and actual suspensions which their handy media hatchet jobbers always blow out of proportion against the government. The disgraceful suspension of Dr.Amos Adamu who incidentally headed the COJA-2003 Local Organizing Committee from FIFA on very strong allegations of corruption came as a sort of validation of most of the things Dr. Babayo Shehu revealed to me in our private talks in 2003 and beyond.

While so many people online and offline were rushing to blame the current Sports Minister for the woeful preparations towards the Rio 2016 Olympics, I kept cautioning and pointing at the Nigerian Olympic Committee and the Sporting Federations and their roles in getting our athletes ready for the Olympics, but I guessed in our usual character as Nigerians we were so much in a hurry to lynch without enough reasons and proof. How many Nigerians know about the MILLIONS of United States Dollars that flow into Nigerian Sporting Federations from International Federations annually? How many Nigerians have bothered how Nigerian Federations spend these funds meant for developing athletes and sporting facilities locally? Now that the chicken has come home to roast in the era of CHANGE, we are about to get the clear view of what has been wrong with our sports sector over the years and decades of stagnated growth.

I was filled with pity and empathy for Mr Genshak Golak, the innocent Personal Assistant to current Minister of Youth and Sports as he struggled to present clear position of issues at the Sports Ministry to a deaf crowd who had already made up their minds to lynch his Principal based on the KILLER HATCHET job publications from a media on revenge against a government that for the first time in decades technically denied them their usual and traditional largesse they feed fat on during global sports jamborees like the Olympics and others. Gullible and grossly misinformed people almost turned Genshak Golak into fried meat for trying to state his facts at the wrong time!  

In conclusion, we had bare faced Thieves running our Ministry of Sports, administering our sporting federations, managing our National Teams and stage-managing our sports journalism and reportage for decades before now and time has come for sweeping changes that will clean out our stinking sports room for good. Change is gaining ground in Sports!!!

By Chibueze Iheukwumere Ihejirika