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| Pinnick |
From Pat Omorodion
I don't want to reply Pinnick, a
spoon-fed boy of yesterday who has risen to where he never expected, courtesy
of his sister being wife to the Governor of Delta State. I wanted to do a few
lines on my SportsGuard column on
Sunday so that all Nigerians who read his rejoinder twice in the Vanguard,
Thursday and today, Tuesday could understand the kind of administrator he is
but I felt I'll be making him a hero because more Nigerians will get to know that
one Amaju Pinnick exists in Delta State.
Pinnick in reacting to my column
insinuated that with people like me, sports journalists will earn an
"odious reputation, which is reminiscent of the infamous era of
tokenism." I'll like to ask Pinnick how writing the truth will earn
someone an odious reputation while someone who uses his advantage of being an
in-law to a serving governor would not earn a greedy reputation of grabbing
every position available in sports in a state.
Open festival: The issue of Open National Sports Festival was thrown out by the
National Council on Sports which met in Lagos a few months to the last festival
which Lagos hosted. I was there and witnessed how other states shouted down
Pinnick over the issue of inviting foreign-based athletes.
If every other state wanted the
festival closed, why was Pinnick and Delta desperate to have it open? Again, I
hope Pinnick remembers that after that meeting held at the Durbar Hotel in
Amuwo Odofin, he wanted journalists to hear him out and help his campaign for
an open festival.
He wanted to buy them over to his
side but he knows I was not part of his plot because I can never be bought. It
is very clear to even the blind, the trading that goes behind the scene at
every festival especially the 2004 hosted in the FCT. The result was not made
public until the sports ministry called a meeting of governors of both states,
Edo and Delta, Ibori and Igbinedion, I don't know where Pinnick was then.
He was too junior to be in the
picture then. Of course, Uduaghan was not governor then and his sister was not
First Lady. Igbinedion and Ibori walked into the Abuja stadium smiling, of
course, they deceived Nigerians but some of us who knew were not amused.
Sports promotion and sports development: I maintain that while I
appreciate what Uduaghan is doing, the state promotes sports more than
developing it. Yes, I commend Delta for hosting the African Youth Athletics
Championship like they have hosted other events in the past. But can Pinnick
beat his chest and say what the state and Nigeria benefited from hosting such
events other than some people just smiling to the banks each time?
Some of us know why Nigeria keeps
hosting events so let us not waste our time discussing it. I put it to Pinnick
that some of the so-called junior athletes they presented at the AYAC in Warri
recently would not reign for more that five years because we are being deceived
that they are actually young.
How many Delta athletes discovered
by Pinnick have won medals for Nigeria as he claims apart from Okagbare who
they have overused and has reached her peak and is already declining? They keep
mentioning Ogho-Oghene Egwero, what has he really won for Nigeria?
Sunday Mba: They say
sports has taken the youths off the streets and minimised crime yet the incident
of kidnapping is on the rise. On the Sunday Mba issue, I dare Pinnick to say
that it is not criminal for Warri Wolves where he is chairman to pay money for
a player's transfer into the private account of another chairman who doesn't
own that club.
Even if the receiving chairman is
the owner, does he run the club from his personal account? Doesn't the club own
an account of its own? He tried to drag the name of our respected octogenarian
football administrator, Pa Ojidoh into this to score cheap point but he didn't
know that Pa Ojidoh had called me to discuss the issue and I explained to him
my position.
I still maintain that had Mba not
made an impact at the Nations Cup, Pinnick and Warri Wolves wouldn't have
bothered about him. When last did they pay Mba's salary? All the struggle is
because Mba's profile has risen and they know more money will come their way.
The scramble for Mba is purely on
selfish grounds. Pinnick wrote that I cut the figure of someone on a failed
mission and I ask which mission? Is it the fight against Dr Amos Adamu's
maladministration which he once spoke to me about on phone for 45 minutes,
praising me for being bold to tell Dr Adamu the truth?
Again he said I look like someone
deserted by a pay-master, who is that pay-master? Pinnick pays some people for
supporting him, right or wrong and he knows I don't belong to that group. I
have never gone to Warri or Asaba to see Pinnick who is very junior to me for
any favours.
He knows that I don't belong to the
group who write against administrators in the day and go to their house at
night to collect money. If he believes he is an administrator of repute in
Nigeria, why pay people to write about him? He should allow his work speak for
him if he thinks he is doing a good job.
To let you all know the kind of
person Pinnick is, my first encounter with him was via the analog Nitel
telephone of old. GSM was not available then. I just joined Vanguard
newspapers then and as usual, as I was made to understand, Pinnick called and I
was the one that picked the phone.
He wanted a story planted about him
and Delta in Vanguard the following day and I politely told him the paper had
gone to bed and the pages could not be recalled. To my surprise, the next thing
that came out of his mouth without any courtesy was, "publish the story,
I'm ready to pay any amount."
Of course, I told him that our pages
were not for sale. He contacted Tony Ubani for the say thing and Ubani told him
that what I said was final. He went ahead to report to our superiors but nothing
came out of it. So it sounds ridiculous that almost 13 years after when I did
not succumb to Pinnick's filthy lucre as a younger and poorer journalist, I
could do so now when I'm older and wiser and enjoying the grace of God.
I remember when Pinnick was still
struggling, moving from the Fanny Amuns to the Patrick Okpomos for survival.
Now because he is closer to the seat of power, he now arrogates to himself, the
wisdom of Solomon and the riches of Abraham. While Abraham's riches are not
tainted, Pinnick cannot say same for his own. What I will tell him is to
continue to enjoy the privilege of government power now but should remember it
does not last forever.
Someone told me recently that when
God increases you, you have to decrease yourself, otherwise, His grace will
depart from you and the consequences will be too great to bear. Remember the
story of Lazarus and the poor man.
I rest my case. Thank you all
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