New York [RR] Abuja—Aggressive presidency today Wenesday, 30, 2010, said it is withdrawing Super-Eagles from “Sports-Events for 2-yrs, Because of Incompetence & Poor Sportsmanship” at the ongoing World-Cup in South-Africa. Nigeria unceremoniously crashed-out of the tournament without securing a win. Sports observers say, “it is antithetical and un-sportsmanly, for Sani Kaita to kick the Greece player when the ball had already gone off the sports-field”.  Sani Kaita poor judgment attracted a RED-CARD from the officiating crew, reducing Super-Eagles to a Ten-Man-Team to Greece eleven-Man Team, losing 2-1.

According to sources, “The statement is coming after a meeting between President Jonathan and members of the Presidential Task Force (PTF) on the 2010 World Cup”. Niboro said, “the president has also approved the auditing of all monies spent by the football federation during the ongoing World Cup in South Africa’.

Rotimi Amaechi governor of Rivers state who is the chairman of the PTF said, “Our recommendation is based on what is on the ground. We went to the World Cup and found all sorts of problems and we felt we should sit back and look inward”. RR lerned, “The governor who was joined by other members of the PTF remarked, “we will formally write FIFA to say that Nigeria won’t engage on international football competition”.

Tally at the tournament: Nigeria Super-Eagles lose to Argentina 1-0, to Ancient Greece 2-1, and disgracefully tied South-Korea Nation, 2-2 apiece.

Insiders knowledgeable with the thinking of the presidency said, “Mr. President was pissed-off at Super-Eagles poor performance and un-sportsmanship” “Remember Sani Kaita kicking the Greece?”

Sources told RR that, “President Jonathan had high hopes that “his presence should have been a motivation at the tournament”. “He expected the Super-Eagles to mathematically show-case excellent performance”. A presidential aide said, “It is unfortunately they humiliated President Jonathan before international community”. The aide spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media on a sensitive issue, report added.  

Markedly, Sports-Events are the only major attraction/asset that brings Nigeria people together, unfortunately.  

Sources told RR that, “The presidency believes super-performance at international stage would have boosted and improved Nigeria image.

In addition, “Is part of “rebranding project” that would have possibly attracted multinational foreign-investors into the country, thereby increasing and enhancing employmentability-hiring statistics—facilitate and create enabling environment for dependable and strong labor-industry.

Also, it would have improved and increase peoples’ confidence, self-esteem and self-sustenance. Sole “depends on sole OIL-single-economy” is not “A Forward Looking Strategy”—its counter-productive reports concluded.   

Fall-outs—the implication is, Nigeria supposedly major industries such as, Agriculture, Mining, indigenous Technological productions, Trade & Commerce etc, exist on paper only, practically languishing at the moment, not meeting full productive potentials at all level.

RR gathered, “Government officials and corrupt politicians lurk around, “dreading and daring a chance to take turn to loot national treasuries without conscience”. In the meantime, the pauperization of the population is now the societal norm & ethics.  

Read Additional Reports below:

It has been reported that President Goodluck Jonathan in his infinite wisdom has decided to withdraw Nigeria from all football competitions for the next two years. His reason for doing so is the shameful performance of the Super Eagles during the ongoing FIFA 2010 World cup in South African. The members of the Super Eagles deserve all the whipping they are getting for their woeful performance in South African but all those who had eyes saw the disaster coming. They saw it because they knew that you cannot ask 35 years old strikers or defenders claiming to be 27 years to put up any credible performance in a tournament like the World Cup where fitness and youth are imperatives. True there are some players like Sabastian Veron who are 35 years old and performing at the World Cup. But there are 22 other younger players in the team.

As shameful and irresponsible as the performance of the Super Eagles in South Africa is, the president’s decision is knee-jerk and shocking to say to say the least.  The reaction it is knee –jerk is because the performance of the Super Eagles team is a symptom and reflection of the administrative problems bedevilling Nigeria as a whole. Their performance reflects the performance of the entire country. Their performance is not the problem. The problem is the same group of irresponsible and corrupt-beyond-redemption officials that have presided over the decay in the country’s football for years without being held accountable. Despite failure after failure of the national team, these officials continue to be untouchables. When will the president summon the courage to arrest and prosecute members of the NFF for corruption? Amos Adamu had the guts to criticize the performance of the team when he became a billionaire by looting the coffers of the soccer body. Taiwo Ogunjobi and others have been around forever, yet the president does not see anything wrong with that.  True, FIFA does not allow political interference in football administration but FIFA does not prevent the prosecution of corrupt football officials.

The shocking part of the decision is that the person making this decision is the president.  This is the same president who brought 140 people to Canada for a needless jamboree only a few days ago; a president who is presiding over an oil producing country that is wallowing in darkness. A president who does not have the courage to arrest and prosecute his friends and political godfathers who have been indicted for accepting bribes from Halliburton and Siemens. A president who is presiding over a country where armed robbers and kidnappers have taking over Aba and Umuahia.  A president who does not have the guts to confront the monumental corruption in NFF, which has led to the dismal performance of the national soccer team.  A president who is presiding over a country in which the National Assembly dominated by members of his party are basically looting the treasury through dubious constituency allowances. In light of his failures, will the president withdraw himself from office for two years as he has done to the Super Eagles? If there is a World Cup for good governance, would Goodluck Jonathan make the tenth eleven? Your guess is as good as mine.

All Nigerians, including the president know where our soccer problems are coming from but 150 million people are involved in what I call the greatest conspiracy on earth – the conspiracy to conceal the true age of our players.  Our country is suffering because the country is not producing young talents period. We do not have soccer fields anymore because they have been converted by the rich. Secondary school competitions where young talents were previously discovered do not exist anymore. Where do we then expect young talents to come from? When Adokie Amasiemeka reported with proof that the captain of the 2009 Under-17 team played for Sharks of Port-Harcourt in 2002 as an 18 year old, what did the then vice-president say?  Macauley Chrisantus , the boy-man who emerged the highest goal scorer in the 2007 Under-17 tournament in Japan a few years ago  and ended up signing for  Hamburg FC in Germany has been traded or loaned several times that nobody knows where he is now. Some of his “age mates” in that competition have blossomed and are playing in the ongoing World-cup. Why did Chrisantus not blossom after Japan 2007?

Why did Opabunmi not blossom after Trinidad and Tobago 2001? Why did Phillip Osondu not blossom after Canada 1987? Dimeji Lawal, a member of Nigeria’s Under-17 team that participated in Canada 1987, wrote his West African Examination Council exam in 1982 at prospect High School, Aba-Nla and did his “A” levels at Ibadan Grammar School and graduating in 1984. Yet, he played for the Under-16 team in 1987. Victor Ikpeba was a student of Yaba College of Technology when he played for the under-17 team in 1989. Yakubu Aiyegbeni, our main striker to the ongoing world Cup in South Africa had completed his West African School Certificate and was working with Okomu Oil in Edo State as a painter when he was discovered by Coach Izilien in 1996 (http://allafrica.com/stories/200401050704.html) and this Yakubu is now 27 years old in 2010. Maybe he was 13 years old in 1996 but the law in Nigeria does not allow the employment of minors.

I do not know who gave the president the advice to withdraw the super Eagles from international competitions for two years. Wherever the decision came from, he must rescind that decision immediately before FIFA slams a heavier suspension on the country for political interference.  Nigeria is a very funny country. Every time something goes wrong, the knee-jerk thing to do is to “ban it” as long as the rich are not affected.  When Okada is used for robberies the easiest solution is to ban Okada, a mode of transportation that millions of poor Nigerians rely on to get from one place to another. Before the advent of Okada as a means of commercial transportation, vehicles were used for robberies. Yet, nobody deemed it fit to ban vehicles because rich people need vehicles to get around but not Okada. Now something has gone wrong with the Super Eagles and the president decides to ban it. What about the administrators? What about all the big shots who made the series of decisions that resulted in this national embarrassment? When the then NFA decided to play the final game of the 2006 World cup qualification in Kano, a city as hot as Angola and forgetting that all the Nigerian players lived in cold Europe while the Angolans were used to hot weather, what did the political leaders do to the then water engineer who was leading the NFA? The NFA changed its name to NFF as if a change of name is a cure for incompetence. Somebody once said that Tylenol cannot cure wickedness. The cure for wickedness is redemption. The cure for Nigerian football is competent administration devoid of corruption. Period.

Written by Majek Adega

Jonathan lambasts NSC leadership

Written by Saliu Gbadamosi

PRESIDENT Goodluck Jonathan on Thursday last week took a swipe at the leadership of the National Sports Commission (NSC) on its stand on the early exit of the Super Eagles from the South Africa 2010 World Cup and ordered that every report on the championship should be made available to him immediately.

According to a source who was privy to the meeting, the Chairman of the Commission and Minister of Sports, Alhaji Ibrahim Bio, had led the Director-General of the Commission, Chief Patrick Ekeji, members of the Presidential Task Force for the 2010 World Cup, Chief Segun Odegbami, former Super Eagles captain, Austin Jay-Jay Okocha to brief the President on Nigeria’s performance at the mundial and apologised to him that the team could not live up to the president’s expectations and those of Nigerians at the first World Cup to be held on African soil.

The Eagles crashed out in the first round of the ongoing mundial, losing to Argentina and Greece and struggled to draw with North Korea in their group matches.

According to the source, “the minister apologised to the president for the poor performance of Super Eagles, saying that it was due to the frustrations they suffered from the improper planning of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

He said that the football body did not get a befitting hotel for the players in time and that the players did not get all that was due to them in time, which really affected their morale.

“The president thanked the delegation for their efforts, but expressed his disappointment with the leadership of the NSC which is supposed to serve as a supervisory body to the NFF, as they have been portraying the image of the country in bad light before the football world. The president refused to accept the reasons given for the poor performance of the Eagles.”

It was gathered that President Jonathan said that those factors might not be the reasons behind the lacklustre performance of the Eagles in South Africa.

The president was quoted to have said that, “I was with the team in their camp, I saw how the place was. None of the players complained of their welfare not being taken care of. Instead, they showered praises on the NFF, so I think the NSC should just accept that they have failed, and nothing more.”

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