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!