Tuesday 7 July 2015

On Terrorism, Politics and Sports in Nigeria

Terror Attacks in Yobe, Borno, Plateau, Kano and Kaduna States.

There is been a lot of terror attacks recently in Nigeria, the affected states are Plateau, Borno, Kano, Kaduna and Yobe. There seems to be a growing push for the destruction of Nigeria from all spheres. During the leadership of Dr Goodluck Jonathan, we blamed the president for ineffectiveness in the handling of the Boko Haram terrorist attacks; however, this new dispensation seems to experiencing worse than what we witnessed during the last administration.
Graphic Pictue 1

President Buhari has done nothing different from what ex-President Jonathan did; except, the withdrawal of military check points in the northern states, relocation of the military HQ to Maiduguri, Borno State. As a retired military General, we all expected Buhari to flush out and destroy the Boko Haram sect, this the main reason why the average supporter voted for Buhari. He has toured our neighbouring countries for support, he has gone to the G8 countries for support, yet the bombs are machine gun shots from Boko Haram are ever increasing.

We have a Muslim as President, Boko Haram claims to be a practicing Islam; yet most the recent attacks occurred in the Mosques or by the Mosques. At worst if the President cannot win the battle, he should be able to call on fellow Muslims for negotiation. There is more to this that meets the eye.

In the Middle-East and North Africa, the countries in this region are predominantly Muslims, yet there are terror attacks in these countries - Egypt, Yemen, Tunisia, Iraq, Syria. IS (ISIS or ISIL) are spreading in the Middle-East and North Africa and there is a potential expansion into West Africa with Nigeria as the big score.

The businesses that trade on ammunition, the clerics that pollute the minds of individuals should better rescind on their hate mission. The president Muhammad Buhari should fulfil his election promises by get back to work and ignore distractions from the political seen.

We want peace in Nigeria.

APC, A Bed of Strange Fellows

The politics in Nigeria now, is a politics of moles and backstabbers. PDP lost the last general election because of internal disputes within the party. APC then the opposition party had moles within the PDP. In this new government, APC won the presidency, they have the majority in both the Senate and House of Representatives; yet internally, the party is experiencing a great division within. First, Senator Saraki and Honourable Dogara were elected the Senate President and Speaker House of Representatives against party directives.

APC Chieftain BolaTinubu, a strong moneybag and great politician from the South-West of Nigeria has being experiencing marginalisation from the presidency and other party faithfuls. The election of Senator Saraki and Honourable Dogara as the leaders of both houses has made it impossible for the wishes of the Bola Tinubu and the APC party in-general to be obeyed. This has caused a great division in the party such that it might not be repairable on the long run. We are expecting party swaps soon.

This party politics has derailed the direction of the APC government, that is they actually had a plan on how to move Nigeria forward. It seems more likely that APC never had any plans for Nigeria, APC was formed just to wrestle power away from the ex-president Goodluck Jonathan.

FIFA U20 WC, FIFA WWC and Other Stuff

Flying Eagles

The FIFA U20 World Cup has come and gone, the victor is Serbia. However, the most significant aspect of this tournament is that the Nigeria U20 team failed to unite the way they did back in 2013 for the FIFA U17 World Cup. There seemed to be a lack of cohesion in the midfield, especially between Yahaya and Iheanacho - upcoming stars not supporting one another.. Also, the coach Mr Manu Garba did not play Chidera Eze and Chidi Nwakali, both players were instrumental in the U17 World Cup success two years ago. 

Are we to say that the confusion bedeviling the APC government is spreading into the our football teams? Maybe, maybe not.

We already have a team for the All African Games and Olympics - the U23 Dream Team; I believe that these boys should merge both the U20 and U23 so as to prepare for FIFA WC 2018 in Russia. We need to win a silverware before the expiration of Buhari's adminstration in 2019. 

Super Falcons

Also, our Women's team the Super Falcons were eliminated in the first round of the FIFA WWC. Our usual excuse is that they were in the Group of Death; however, this has always been our excuse in all the past world cups that we failed to progress beyond the first round. We can not champions of Africa and always fail to progress. I suggest: 1) We employ a foreign coach and strategist, 2) Expose our ladies to grade A friendly matches against non-African teams. We have the Olympics 2016 in Rio de Janerio and the FIFA WWC in 2019 to prove that we are not local champions.

On another note, I would suggest we protest to FIFA to automatically seed continental champions. This system is implemented by UEFA in the Champions league; all the champions of the seven strongest leagues under UEFA and the current UEFA Champions League Champion are all seeded during the group states of the competition.

Super Eagles

Stephen Keshi has been sacked; reason he was not committed to the job. Having applied for the coaching position of the Elephants of Cote d' Ivoire, the NFF deemed the Super Eagles coach lacked commitment to his job. Sunday Oliseh a former Super Eagles midfielder is tipped to mount the saddle.

In another story, the Super Eagles captain, Vincent Enyeama will be striped of his captaincy and might end up not playing for the Super Eagles in the future. This was due to his statement on the security of the Kaduna football stadium. I think players in Nigeria should refrain from making sensitive comments.

COPA America

The COPA America has been won by Chile, leaving Argentina to be second best in another major competition for two consecutive years. The Chileans dominated Argentinians in final match such that Lionel Messi could not find space to operate.

Why did I bring COPA America into this post? Well, I want to state that any attempt by FIFA to award the FIFA Ballon d'Or to Messi should be probed. I am glad that Sebb Blatter will be out of office by the time of this award. If you are a Messi fan, buy cane and flog the hell out of your brain.....lol!

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