Ban of journalists: FCT SWAN, where is thy balls?

Kayode Adeniyi, FCT SWAN Chairman

I consider the purported ban of the duo of Ezeocha Nze of TheGuardian newspaper and Romanus Ugwu of The Sun newspaper, by the illegal and non-juristic Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) as arrant nonsense, a comedy of sorts and the mania of a bedlam living in a beldam.

SWAN, particularly, Abuja Chapter, should reject and condemn the act in its entirety immediately. SWAN should also order that the activities, personnel and other related agencies of the NFF as presently constituted must be blacked out until this reversal step is taken.

Three, the SWAN should demand for a public apology from the illegal body which we are still tolerating. These are people who ordinarly should be in jail rotting away who unfortunately found themselves governing issues of football claiming they are banning journalists from covering football

Has anyone told them that the GlassHouse is a commonwealth managed by tax payers’ fund? Are they aware that the place is not their father’s home? It is a public place.

The NFF has no single right to bar any journalist from having access to a public office such as the nation's football administrative secretariat. They also do not have any right of discipline over any journalist.

The best the NFF could have done is to seek redress in the law court should any journalist libel it. Ironically, since two courts in the land have declared them non-juristic, they cannot sue neither can they be sued.

One will expect all journalists, particularly, the Sports beat, to rise in defense of our colleagues. I can assure myself that they will not. Many of our colleagues have swined at their table and cannot tell them the truth in its clear crystal colours. Was I not the first journalist to be banned for life by the charlattans?

Like I presaged, it was my turn then, they will do it again. Fools. They did it again. Soon, they will regulate what journalists can write. Soon, they will ask journalists to submit their reports for approval before publishing.

Will FCT SWAN rise to this occasion and show it has balls? Will the National SWAN take this opportunity to show us that members’ welfare is aparamount interest for why they got the office?

13th Sports Minister on the 13th February

Abdullahi...the 13th Sports minister

Nigeria became a democracy again in 1999. Sports has had a high level of mortality of sports ministers. Between May 1999 and now, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi is the 13^th minister! When on Tuesday, 13^th February 2012, the President hosted the Nigerian Super Eagles in the banquet hall of the Villa. I was sitting as a guest in the studio of Nigeria Television Authority for Tuesday Night Live.

A strange thought struck me. Today is 13^th and the minister is the 13^th. For 19 years Nigeria lacked victory in the Nation’s Cup and jersey number 19, Sunday Mba, scored and delivered the trophy. What has figures got to do with a man’s life?

Friday the 13^th February 1976 was a bad day for Nigeria when General Murtala Ramat Mohammed, Colonel Adetunji Taiwo and Lieutenant Colonel Akintunde Akinsehinwa (Murtala’s ADC) were killed. Ironically, no one in Nigeria remembered to celebrate or commemorate that day. It’s 37 years ago. Another odd figure.

There is much confusion regarding the number 13. However, in many places the number 13 is considered to be an unlucky number. There are many theories regarding it and one of the common one is that 13 is the number of people who were present at the Last Supper, alone with Jesus. Judas Iscariot, who betrayed Jesus, was the 13th member to arrive.

1313 Mockingbird Lane. Friday the 13th and 13 black cats. Baaaad omens? It's 2009 and there remains an air of mystery surrounding the number 13, carried from dark times that still causes most of us to avoid anything associated with the number 13. High rise buildings are built without 13th floors (if there are 14 floors or more, there is a 13th floor but it's either skipped or renumberated!), airplane flight numbers are reassigned to avoid this association.

The number 13 has a long tradition of being unlucky. However, in occult circles, the number 13 has its own significance. The definition of occult when used as an adjective is: of or pertaining to magic, astrology, or any system claiming use or knowledge of secret or supernatural powers or agencies.

The definition is quite broad and encompasses many beliefs and is not limited to popular conception that the occult equals Satanism. Perhaps, the most famous occultist of all time was believed he was the Beast 666 from the book of Revelations chapter 13.

Superstition follows the number 13 across time and throughout cultures; however, it has sacred meanings, as well. And like superstitions, the number 13's significance is found in many places throughout history. For instance:

The lunar calendar, favoured by many spiritual belief systems, is sacred and contains 13 lunar cycles with a moon that moves 13 degrees across the heavens each day. The Tarot Deck contains 13 cards of each suit in the minor arcana. The Death card is numbered 13. Like many representations of 13, it represents the end of one thing, only to lead to a new beginning.

The human body has 13 major joints. In the ancient runic alphabet, the 13^th rune symbolised the end of a cycle and the new beginning that followed. Witches covens have 13 members. The final step on the ladder before Egyptians souls reached to their eternal rest is the number 13.

While it seems this would be bad luck, they saw it as the step that led them into their immortal afterlife. The Aztec religious calendar centered on the number 13, though their regular calendar was based on a 365-day year with 18 months. The same day would fall concurrently on both calendars every 52 years - a multiple of thirteen. Paganism sees the number thirteen as a time of transition and in Celtic beliefs was considered the "coming of age" for boys. Old Celtic beliefs say that the number thirteen is sacred as it represents the one joining the Goddess, represented by the number three. Numerology puts significance on the number thirteen when the equation 1+3=4 is considered, four being representational of the circle of life.

While modern superstitions place negative meanings on the number thirteen, in older belief systems, now considered to be linked to the occult, 13 is a number of transition and change. One ending becomes a beginning, continuing the sacred cycle of life.

Chukwuemeka life ban: conspiracies, truth and the untold sides of mafioso

Vivian Chukwuemeka...victim of a bad system?

You will ever know, read and continue to hear all manners of irresponsible conducts that ordinarily abuse the rights of athletes by officials of the sports Federations who flout the laid down processes in the rules.

It is authoritative that sexual assault of female athletes is a way of life in the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN). If you say no, no matter your status in the sport, you will be dealt with badly. If you gladly open your dirty in-between, you become a favourite even when you cannot deliver on the track or and field.

Today, I can also reveal that two serving members of the Federation were accused by Vivian Chukwuemeka of demanding sex from her. Remember the case of the teenager who was so assaulted for saying no to the sexual demand from her ‘coach’ and because she could tell the ‘coach’ (a university drop-out and untrained coach) no, she was openly abused before other athletes the morning before her event in the world junior championship in France.

On return, the story slipped, it was investigated and rather than publish, I opted to seek that the matter was handled privately to nip the act in the bud. The Federation then attempted to set up a committee to undertake an internal trial of the athlete who they sent for and asked her and her coach to fund their way to Abuja with their evidences.

That was when I went public and the Federation withdrew their plan. As if that was not enough, the athlete in question intensified her training and in Calabar shortly before the qualifiers for the World junior, she returned a better time than ever, qualified for the World junior but her name disappeared from the merit list. Rather, her event was not picked. Eventually, they had problems with visa and could not travel.

Now, Chukwuemeka was alleged to have tested positive to drug, a second time, this was shortly before the London Olympics. She was, by the rules, banned for life. Ordinarily, she stands to lose nothing.

Can someone tell this reporter and the nation. When an athlete sets a national or continental record, it is trite that such athletes urine sample are tested before the records can be ratified.

Chukwuemeka in Port Novo (Benin Republic) during the African championship set a new Nigerian and African record. Her sample was taken but was not tested! Why was the sample not tested? Was the AFN deliberately working against her? Or is it that the officials who were in charge of testing the samples who were also involved in her earlier charges of demanding sex from her now paying her back?

What are the chances that the ‘stubborn’ athlete (I was borrowed in worse descriptions as an athlete. A principled athlete is always coded as stubborn) did not test positive in the said result that was used to hang her?

What are the chances that it was not a case of hanging a stubborn goat to call it a name it was suggested it has? This is an athlete that was just coming out of a drug ban, she returned, set two new records, common sense suggests she should be tested to earn the ratification of the record.

If her Port Novo sample was tested, what is the outcome? Calabar was just days away from the Port Novo championships, yet, the Calabar sample proved positive! If like Vivian Chukwuemeka, two others were sampled as positive, while Chukwuemeka was instantly dropped from the London Olympic squad, the other two were taken to London where one of the two was cleared. Why was Chukwuemeka not taken along to London? This underlines the theory of conspiracy.

Now tell me, if God were to always be just, the two cases of sexual assault proven here and how they were managed were to be the basis of prayers answered, if the two oppressed women pray against the Federation and the nation, would we ever make headways in anything? Would God not hear the prayer of the just? Millions other prayers will not and should not cancel that of the oppressed whose anguish and pain should emotional prick His heart to obliterate ours on the anvil of justice.

Sanchi panel: Letter to Mrs. Gloria Obajimi

Female athletes: were they too sexually assaulted?

My dear sister (we are not related), you had been an athlete, you are a mother and as President of the National Association of Women in Sports (NAWIS), you are a lecturer of sports and a board member of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria. From this brief alone, you owe yourself, Nigeria and humanity a duty to be protective especially female athlete.
Ekiba (not her real name), a female athlete, a middle distance runner, a teenager and a Muslim. Like many of us who worked hard from the hard surface of earth, from a poor home but well brought up by our parents. She represented Nigeria in a world championship.
Ekiba as a child returns home to report to you as a parent that her ‘coach’ told her that for her to be fluid enough to run well like those world champions, she would need to sleep with him. How would you react? The athlete, upon saying no was charged for opening her mouth too wide instead of opening her legs wide and asked to come for persecution by officials of the federation. Won’t you go borrow money and asked her to travel nine hours by road, accommodate and feed herself to prove she is right?
For any reason, they shelved the trial. She insisted not to stop training on your instructions and months later, she had improved her timing in Calabar at the national athletics trial. By merit, she qualified for the world junior athletics championship but her name disappeared from the list. Won’t you ask questions?
Weeks later, another athlete, Esther, adult, banker, a Christian alleged she was asked by the same Federation officials for bribe to enable her represent Nigeria in the Olympics. Then, suddenly, there was a ministerial committee to look at the matter. How would you feel as a parent? Won’t you ask, between the two allegations of the athletes, which is more grievous?
Question two: I think you as a board member of the AFN whose agency is an accused in the Esther Obiekwe-gate, sitting on the Sanchi panel is a misnomer. You are an accused and prosecutor in your own case. This is against modicum and decorum.
If for any reason, Esther Obiekwe is not satisfied with the Sanchi panel report, she should be able to run to NAWIS for support. Since you as NAWIS President is on the panel, the door is closed against her. Therefore, it is a lose-lose situation for her, the generation of the courageous that will want to speak out on any matter that is unjust in Nigerian sports especially if such a person is a female athlete.
Whatever is the case, what is the outcome of the Sanchi panel report? Nigerians want to see where you people are standing on that matter. However, the Mobil prize money saga unpaid to athletes till this day by the same federation alleged to be in your care (directly or otherwise) remains a dark scar which should not have warranted you to accept to sit on that panel.
How much is the quality of justice we are expecting from the panel in view of these? God bless Nigeria. Will you pray to God and expect the owner of heaven and earth (olorun, in Yoruba language) to answer you with the logs you have in your own eyes while you try to remove the speck in the eye of the next man by you?

Tomorrow: Join me here to read about the compelling reasoning Chukwuemeka life ban: conspiracies, truth and the untold sides of Mafioso. Too revealing. Don’t miss it!

Keshi dumps Nigeria for NFF’s unprofessional conducts?

Maigari, NFF boss...could not manage situation

*Assistants owed salaries, allowances

Five nations, noticing the icy relationships between the Nigerian gaffer, Stephen Okechukwu Keshi, and his employers, the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), have opened bids to have him coach their nation. Keshi has kept his suitors at bay to wait until after the finals of the African Nations Cup on Sunday.

South Africa leads the pack of the nations. Scouts representing the five nations had been piling pressures to open discussions with the former Nigerian non-playing captain that won the 1994 Nations Cup in Tunisia whose captain, Joseph Yobo, may also as non-playing captain, take the trophy in South Africa.

If the Nigerians win the Nations Cup on Sunday, Keshi will become the second player to have coached his national team to win the trophy after late Egyptian, Mahmoud el-Ghohary. He will however remain the only player alive to have won the tournament.

www.gongnews.net sources close to the coach said, “Keshi is not happy that his assistants, former Nigerian midfielder, Sylvanus “Quick silver” Okpala, and his age-long backroom staff, Valerie, are only paid half salaries on a number of occasions.

What irked him the more was, the shouting match he had with officials of the NFF on the morning of his team’s crucial match against Cote d’ivoire. He was tactically informed that he has to take a pay-cut and work under the Zambian coach, Hervé Renard or resign.

As quiet as he is, he got so miffed he had to open his mouth, spoke in anger to the Nigerian officials making them understand that he has done more Nigeria than any of them having captained the national team and coached it.

Shortly after the shouting game, while his players were filing out to play the Ivoriens, the team were given their return tickets that they would fly back to the country immediately after the game.

When the team eventually won the match, the same officials celebrated the victory more than the players to the shock and chagrin of the players and officials. Their match-winning bonus was paid about three days later meaning the budgetary provisions had been diverted before new sources were called upon to wire loan to South Africa from Nigeria.

Ambush journalism and the practitioners of shame

Journalism is a calling not for hungry half-baked perons

Methinks when people don’t have balls, they still reserve the rights to have shame. When journalists sell their conscience for the lucre, the nation will reel in massive trouble. Of all the genres of journalism in Nigeria, I want to state without mincing words that the most intellectually deficient is the sports sector. No wonder the quality of decrepit reportage and untoward sense of not directing the kind of reform required therein.

Therefore, to lay the blame of the type of servitude and intellectual backwardness of some of the sports writing practitioners, no one is surprised that when a sports administrator wants to succeed in th media even without a success in administering the sport, all he needs do is get some cheap Editors with big fat stomach, bespectacled like the popular Papa Ajasco without neck.

They have forgotten that opinions are personal to the individual. The media of expression is not the control of the pages they edit which sometimes makes one feel so ashamed that they will go online copy internet materials and paste for their reading audience who also would have read the same materials they are pasting on their sports pages.

They know all the foreign teams and players without knowing the club that exists at the tip of their noses. They can only report footbrawl, not even football, unlike any other sport. They got into journalism because there was no other job for them not because they wanted to excel in journalism so when they see someone do the job the way they do not understand, they feel bad and very uncomfortable. No wonder, one of them naively expressed his misgiving.

Please follow the thread:

Erudite and respected Patrick Omorodio wrote:

Hello friends and colleagues, I wish to inform you all that I have decided to join the race for the National SWAN election holding soon after the Nations Cup. I'm running for the post of National Deputy Chairman of our cherished association. You will all agree with me that all has not been too well with our once vibrant association for one reason or the other. The incumbent national officers have been doing their best but they still feel much could be done if new ideas are brought to bear on the association. I believe I have some ideas which could be useful in reviving the association. It is not enough to stay out and criticise hence I'm throwing in my hat to be counted as one of those who helped to resuscitate the National SWAN. My modest achievements at the State level in Lagos with the likes of Toni Ubani, Adeniyi Adesina, Okey Onwuchekwa, Simon Ekpe, John Akpodovhan, Femi Solaja and a host of others can attest to this. I am therefore appealing to you all to support me in cash and kind as I begin my campaign for the election which has been tentatively fixed for Makurdi.  God will reward you all abundantly if you support me to succeed. God bless you all. Long Live SWAN, Long Live Nigeria.

Out of respect knowing what he has done for SWAN, I replied, in my personal opinion:

I stand by my position on what SWAN has degenerated to become. If that makes you think I insult your benefactors who are the corrupt, brazen thieves who are stealing and killing our sports is your anger, please nurture it to stardom. I have no single regrets. SWAN, I insist is not what it is supposed to be as it is.

Sincerely speaking, I will again and again insult those who do not do what they have chosen to be elected to do. If some of them are your friends and that is what pains you, I will mass up sympathy for you. I have chosen my words carefully in what you are complaining about and I have taken my position. I have a right to my opinion like I will also respect your rights to your opinion. How I choose to express myself does not guarantee you a right to measure how I do it. Please do yours.

Thanks for your insulting and uncouth use of langue.

When will I be sued for being a critic and journalist?

Ekeji...did he order the release?

Candidly, I read the press statement issued by the National Sports Commission (NSC) threatening anyone who criticize her with legal suits. I laughed myself hoarse and only discountenanced the release as infantile, properly unthought of and ill-timed.

Somebody someone has cerebral malaria. The release was written in the name our avuncular friend Chief (Dr.) Patrick Ekeji, the Director General of NSC. The sweetest potato in the release read: “ …that the time had come for the NSC to use all legal instrument (sic) at its disposal to protect its image from the utterances and activities of people who he said have turned the act of disparaging the NSC into a pastime as well as a means of livelihood...insisted that the criticisms were baseless.. The decision to include elite athletes in the National Sports Festival & sack Secretary-General of Federations were met with criticism (sic).“

As a Nigerian (not even as a journalist), I criticized the Commission on these two particular issues genuinely. So, I should be sued! Like lawyers say: “don’t just get angry, sue the bastard” The truth is, somebody is tired of being a public servant and needs to retire or be retired. Two, many of the people who work in the commission would have been sacked long ago had it been they work in the private sector where performance is the basis of being retained at work.

Thirdly, I also think that the author(s) of that statement still think they are in a military era. Please somebody wake them up and remind them this is a democracy. Governance and the government are individuals who must act within laws enacted by the legislature.  

Fourthly, the NSC has been churning out policies and rules that are not in the best interest of the government they are supposed to be working for, the nation and her people. The alternative route to ventilate opposition is why the media becomes the fourth realm of the Estate where they (the people) must be heard by all reasonable, legitimate means.

What image is the NSC ascribing to?: I think somebody has melancholia. Does the NSC, like any other government agency, have an image outside that of the Federal Government of Nigeria? Let Dr. Amos Adamu in his celebrated case of libel against Olukayode Thomas and The Guardian newspaper be asked why that suit fell flat like a thief! Bourbons! They will never learn from history and never forget anything to history!

The NSC is a sub-set within the Executive arm of the Federal Government and its’ actions, thought, plans, policies, outcomes are reviewable by the legislatures and the Presidency. That is why the Office of the Attorney-General superintends over her legal issues. This is trite understanding.  

The NSC does not have an establishment law in place yet. Even if it does, she CANNOT bring action directly in a civil court. She is at the whims, caprices, convenience of the Attorney General that can bring action on behalf of the Federal Government for any alleged tarnished Federal Government (via NSC) image. I think I should quickly add, the individual in that system requires the written permission of the Head of Civil Service to even sue.

The NSC is above public scrutiny and the law. That is what their press statement is saying. This statement has shown that either the NSC does not have a legal adviser, or needs a competent legal adviser or the legal adviser was not consulted before the release as issued.

It is time to think the release was the product of a dream and not something that happened in reality. Pillow, let me lay. When I wake I will laugh in the dark and expect you to tell me you saw my teeth!