The untold story of Hilary Clinton’s visit in Nigeria

THE role of Nigerian media in monitoring and reporting diplomatic activities took the centre stage last week in Lagos when the country’s ambassador to the United States, Prof. Ade Adefuye, carpeted the fourth estate of the realm for its negative portrayal of the recent visit of U.S. Secretary of State, Mrs. Hilary Clinton, to Abuja.
Prof. Adefuye was the guest speaker at a forum organised by Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, NIIA, Lagos, where the visit of Mrs Clinton, the future relations between Nigeria, the US and the role of the media was the topic for discussion.
The event which was chaired by Prince Julius Adeluyi Adelusi, the chairman of Julie Pharmacy Plc and one time Health minister, was a dissection of the relations between the mass media and diplomats especially Nigerian diplomats and intellectuals who had an evening robust encounter.
Negative disposition
Prof Adefuye provided the audience with detailed account of what transpired during the visit of Mrs. Clinton which was not made known to the Nigerian media, and by extension, the Nigerian public. He berated the press for its negative disposition to the visit and gave an elaborate account of Clinton’s visit which was initially reported to have been cancelled.

Mrs. Hilary clinton

The background: According to Adefuye, the date of the visit had clashed with an earlier obligation of President Goodluck Jonathan to Jamaica to mark the national day of the Caribbean Island nation of 2.5 million people.
The Caribbean visit had been fixed five months before the proposed visit of Mrs. Clinton to some African countries came up. Jamaica is a country which is not only a major influence in Caribbean Island but a country where 80 per cent of the population strongly share affinity with Nigeria.
It was, therefore, difficult to cancel the presidential visit. It was also difficult to cancel the scheduled visit of Mrs Clinton, whose tenure as secretary of state will end in November whether or not her boss, Barak Obama wins the presidential election.
Ambassador Adefuye equally traced the special relations that had existed between the Clintons and Nigeria starting from when her husband, Bill, was the president of United States.
When the itinerary of her visit was released by the state department, Nigeria was not among the countries listed and this captured the attention of the media, to the displeasure of Ambassador Adefuye who had worked tirelessly to ensure that the Clinton visit took place. Adefuye used the post mortem to tell his audience that Mrs Clinton’s visit provided Nigeria and the US the opportunity to strengthen their diplomatic and economic ties especially in setting a firm foundation for the Bi-National Commission agreement between both countries.
He said: “First the two countries agreed to meet in September in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, where the Niger Delta component of BNC will be examined. Critical to this discussion will be the issue of oil exploration and environmental degredation in that region, the three years of the post amnesty programme and the security of business operation in the region, the concerns of ethnic minorities, the rising wave of piracy, the challenges posed by the declaration of self determination by Bakassi and Ogoni people.”
The second leg of the BNC meeting is expected to be in Washinton in October where the focus will be on Good Governance, Transparency and Integrity. According to Adefuye, the Washington meeting will focus on issues of development of infrastructure namely roads, rail, air transport, power, agriculture, trade and investment among others.
The Americans are increasingly getting concerned that the Chinese have gradually entrenched themselves in Nigeria and in other African countries to the detriment of US interest.
Even with Boko Haram terrorists ravaging the North and killing Christian faithful at will, the Americans are not in a hurry to leave Nigeria. Ambassador Adefuye would want to see a more patriotic Nigerian media, which places the interest of the nation above the partisan interest of the owners and media professionals.
He said we need you as the fourth estate of the realm, we need you to join hands to project Nigeria positively. Even in America, the Republicans and Democrats are on each other’s throat than we do here but when the issue concerns their national interest, they all came together and form a common force.
The media on trial: The ambassador expected the media to show understanding to the predicament of the Foreign Affairs Ministry which has a legendary record of lethargy and tardiness in handling its diplomatic assignments. The media was completely kept in the dark as the Foreign Affairs Minister Dr. Olugbenga Ashiru has never hidden his disdain for the Nigerian media.
Caught in the web of trying to handle two intricate diplomatic events, bureaucrats in the Foreign Ministry expected the media to lavish encomiums on them, even when Madam Clinton arrived in Abuja, there was no information of who she was to visit and the subject she was to discuss. It was a typical case of using the pre-first world war concept of secret diplomacy in an era where digital diplomacy is the vogue.
The unsolicited advocate: But the media got an unsolicited advocate and defender in the person of Prof. Bola Akinerinwa, the Director-General of Nigerian Institute of International Affairs, hosts of the parley, who took time to educate the audience on the dynamics of media practice in Nigeria.

President Goodluck Jonathan with US Secretary of State, Mrs. Hilary Clinton during the Visit.

The challenges that journalists face to get information from officials of government, the warped concept of government people about national interest and the role of the media in democratic governance, the issue of national security and security of media practitioners in contemporary Nigeria.
According to Prof. Akinterinwa, the people in government have always seen national interest as the exclusive preserve of the powers that be. The issue of national interest in Nigeria is controversial at best some people have argued that what we call national interest is basically what the government in power define as national interest.
Constitutional school of thought
We have another school of thought which says that constitution has defined what should be the national interest yet there is another school that says that at the end of the day, it is neither the first nor the constitutional school of thoughts that have the correct answer, rather it is said that national interest is that of the president, the individual politician elected into public office or the minister.
His attitudinal disposition is basically what he feels is right, so at the end of the day, when we are asking the media to uphold national interest, we must be clear in our mind which we want the media uphold. According to the NIIA boss, I think government needs to articulate which national interest it has in mind because the concept of national interest is at best ambiguous.
Prof. Akinterinwa said “the media has a constitutional duty to monitor and report the people in government from the executive to the legislature and the judiciary.” In doing its monitoring and reporting duties, the media reports to the public and in the process, plays the rule of maintaining checks and balances in the polity.
The Director General told the audience that even in the age of Freedom of Information Act, (FOIA) bureaucrats dribble journalists and deny them access to information that is of public interest. He said, when you deny the media access to information, they are bound to get it one way\y or another and when that happens, the media should not be crucified for not presenting its report to favour the powers that be. It was a glorious night for the media as the NIIA boss told the audience that the traditional distrust  between government officials and the media establishment in the country is not healthy in a democratic governance.
According to him the NIIA is working on a plan to ensure that diplomatic correspondents and editors periodically and build a relationship that last beyond summoning them to cover events. Vanguard can authoritatively recall an encounter with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Abuja in November 2011 when it was doing a story on visa rip-off and the stress that Nigerians were being subjected to obtain visas to United States and European countries Vanguard reporters that went to the ministry were asked to put their request in writing which was eventually frittered away by officials of the ministry who told the reporters that they are under strict instruction from the Hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs Dr. Olugbenga Ashiru, not to respond to media inquiries.
Brainstorming session
The monthly brainstorming sessions being organised by the NIIA since the beginning of this year, has become a veritable vehicle for exchange of ideas and making intellect assessment of the country’s foreign policy. The sessions have gone into its 11th session with officials of the foreign ministry showing up to make contributions or make clarifications on certain pertinent issues that have been raised. The 10th brainstorming session was very crucial as Nigeria’s diplomatic investments in the past 50 years was thoroughly reviewed.
There was noticeable absence of officials of the ministry. Perhaps what Ambassador Adefuye needs to work at is how to get officials of the ministry to purge themselves of the pathological arrogance and disdain that they feel for media professionals especially as he acknowledged that the media industry has well qualified and intelligent personnel that have acquitted themselves creditably in their profession, including sacrificing their lives in the course of performing the duties, in the interest of the country.

Massacre Of 34 Miners In South Africa: The Nigerian Army Threatens To Kill Electricity Workers In Nigeria

Photo credit: REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko

By Femi Falana, SAN

Last Thursday was a sad day in the history of independent South Africa when black policemen opened fire on striking miners, killed 34 of them and injured 78 others. In a provocative statement issued by the Authorities of the South Africa Police Service it was claimed that the brutal attack was carried out in self-defense. But the video footage of the incident has clearly shown that the miners were running away from teargas smoke when the police engaged in the reckless shooting and killed them.
The Police Commissioner who made the callous and insensitive statement should be fired for the desperate move to cover up the heinous crime committed by the murderers in police uniform.
The cold murder of the miners is a tragic reminder of the white police firing at anti apartheid protesters and school children in the 1960s and 1970s. Now it is a police force dominated by blacks that is killing miners and other oppressed people in South Africa who are justifiably demanding for the dividend of the liberation struggle.
Instead of addressing the demands of the miners for improved wages and nationalization of the white controlled mining industry the Jacob Zuma Administration ignored the workers until the Police decided to kill 34 of them. The strike provides a golden opportunity for the African National Congress to arrest the growing inequality between a white minority of bourgeoisie joined by a tiny black elite and the majority of black people wallowing in abject poverty. President Zuma who had based his campaign on black empowerment should be blamed for the xenophobic attacks and police killing of the oppressed Africans in a free South África.
Having regard to the facts and circumstances of the killing of the miners the setting up of a commission of inquiry by President Zuma is totally uncalled for. This was the methodology of the apartheid regime to douse tension, divert attention and shield official killers from prosecution. The commission should be wound up while all the murder suspects should be arrested and charged to court for homicide. Let the Police Authorities go to the court to plead self-defense on behalf of the suspects.
In a similar situation the Federal Government of Nigeria has deployed a detachment of the Nigerian Army to the headquarters of the Power Holding Company in Abuja to deal with the unarmed workers who are demanding for payment of their legitimate entitlements from the authorities before the privatization of the company. Having collected about N300 million which was illegally diverted from the Federal Ministry of Power the Army Authorities are hell bent on flushing out the striking workers to pave way for the planned liquidation of the assets of the PHCN. As all efforts by the Nigeria Labour Congress and other interest groups to persuade the Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji to end the military occupation have failed the armed troops have threatened to "deal ruthlessly" with the workers. It means that the soldiers may open fire on the striking workers any moment from now.
In order to prevent the killing of unarmed electricity workers by the armed goons the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan should order the Chief of Army Staff to end the siege. The Authorities of the Ministry of Power and the Bureau of Public Enterprises should equally be prevailed upon by the Federal Government to enter into meaningful negotiations with the striking workers without any further delay.
Femi Falana

Pay only genuine subsidy claims, NLC tells FG

Nigeria Labour Congress on Sunday blamed the crisis in the oil sector on the delay in prosecuting subsidy thieves.

It also advised the government to verify all subsibdy claims to ensure that only genuine ones were paid.
The NLC stated these while commenting on the crisis between the Federal Government and oil marketers as well as the strike  by the Petrolum and Natural Gas Workers
Also, the President of the Petroleum of Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Mr. Babatunde Ogun, said the government should put in place strict condition on payment of susbsidy claims.
NUPENG is on strike to protest against the non-payment of subsidy claims to fuel importers.
The Acting General Secretary of the NLC, Mr. Chris Uyot, called for the prosecution of those indicted by the House of Representatives Committee and other panels set up to look into the disbursement of the subsidy fund.
According to him, the government has a responsibility to pay genuine importers and also commence the process to sanction those who got paid without rendering the services for which they received money.
He said, “This issue; those who have been indicted as a result of the probe committee of the House of Representatives and various investigations by the security agencies should be taken to court and if found guilty given appropriate punishment.
“However, it is apparent that the undue delay in bringing these people to book is causing all kinds of confusion within the oil sector.
“This protest against the fuel subsidy removal started in January and this is August. By now, all the checks and investigations on people’s claim should have been concluded, and those indicted prosecuted and punished. This is August, government does not even seem to know those indicted.”
Ogun said he was shocked by the controversy over the payment of subsidy claims of marketers.
The PENGASSAN President urged the government to put in place strict conditions for the clearance of subsidy payment not to repeat the mistakes of the past.
Ogun said, “There will be no tenable reason for any negligence. There is a need too for various association , either union or employers,  to critically analyse all issues before embarking on strike.
“The masses cannot be punished for no reasons of theirs, I know government cannot refuse to pay for verifiable claims. It is also a wake-up call on government to handle domestic refining with speed.”
Meanwhile, the fuel scarcity in Abuja on Sunday took a different dimension as most filling stations in the nation’s capital completely shut down their operations.
The development compounded the woes of motorists who had, for the past five days, been spending a lot of time in fuel queues.
Some of the filling stations shut are Total, Conoil, Oando, African Petroleum, Oando, and the mega station of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation.
The development also caused most residents to cancel their outings as a majority of them could not get fuel, resulting in low turnout at fun spots.
Our correspondent, who went round the city, observed that youths were selling Premium Motor Spirits  (petrol) in jerry cans.
Most of the black marketers sold petrol in 10 litre jerry cans for between N3, 500 and N4, 000.
They were seen in different parts of the city, including Garki, Wuse, Central Area, and in the suburbs such as Kubwa, Nyanya, Dutse, Mararaba, and Zuba.
Amid the crisis,  the Minister of Labour and Productivity, Chief Emeka Wogu,  on Friday called on the striking tanker drivers to call off the action and embrace the option of dialogue in the interest of Nigerians.
The Assistant Director in charge of Press in the Ministry of Labour, Mr. Samuel Olowokere, quoted Wogu as having made the comment in a meeting with representatives of the tanker drivers’ branch of NUPENG in Abuja, in a press statement on Saturday.
The Federal Government had last Friday allayed fears of fuel scarcity in the country saying the NNPC had enough fuel in its reserve that would last the country for 45 days.
The Minister of Petroleum Resources, Mrs. Diezani Alison-Madueke said the nation could not be thrown into another fuel scarcity.

A Traumatized Nation By Malcolm Fabiyi

Malcolm Fabiyi

Since the turn of the 4th republic in 1999, over 50,000 Nigerians have been killed in the seemingly endless cycles of ethnic, sectarian and political crises that have ravaged the nation. About 14,000 of these deaths have been due to sectarian and religious conflicts. These gory statistics imply that the fourth republic has surpassed all others in the peacetime killings of Nigerians.
Most of these deaths have come about as a result of mob action. The anatomy of sectarian mob killings is simple. A group of people motivated by their hatred for those who do not share their faith or zealotry swoop down on innocents and murder them in cold blood.
The paradox of mob action is that while each member of the mob is as responsible as any other for the murders they cooperatively perpetrate, the anonymity offered by the crowd, allows for a phenomenon that social psychologists call de-individuation to occur. The consequence is a feeling of guiltlessness, by the perpetrators of even the most heinous crimes.
If we assume that the rampaging mobs that wreak death and havoc during sectarian crises are made up of 10 to 50 persons, the 14,000 deaths caused by sectarian crises since 1999 have therefore involved about 140,000 to 0.7 million perpetrators. Because the crises have tended to occur in a limited number of cities across Nigeria – Bauchi, Kaduna, Kano, Jos - some of the perpetrators are likely to be repeat offenders.
Each of these crisis prone cities has endured at least five incidents of sectarian conflicts since 1999.
Assuming that these perpetrators have participated in at least one attack leading to the death of innocents during each of those crises, we arrive at the troubling proposition that there might be anywhere from about 30,000 to 140,000 Nigerians who might have participated in murder and mayhem, who are walking our streets and prancing around as if nothing has happened.
None of these tens of thousands of murderers have paid any price for their crimes. Their misdemeanors have gone unpunished, as if those whose lives they have taken were stray animals, and not fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons and daughters who were violently taken away from amongst us.
Every single review of conflicts that have occurred in Nigeria since 1999, has noted the involvement of prominent citizens in the instigation and the funding of sectarian and ethnic conflicts. Despite the damning evidence, there hasn’t been a single conviction of any of the perpetrators, or of their masterminds and paymasters.
And so, even as the bodies of the dead continue to pile, the sponsors of these heinous crimes have gone unpunished. The clerics whose words fuel the fires of discord, the political opportunists who stoke the embers of hate, and the ethnic irredentists who fuel the inferno of intolerance are left untouched, and unscathed. If anything, they are rewarded for their crimes. The more rabidly hateful their utterances, the more unyielding their demands, the more invested they are in the marketing of hate; the more they are rewarded with positions, influence and contracts.
There are only two ways to change behavior. Any action that is not punished is either tacitly or expressly encouraged. The Nigerian state, by electing to ignore murderers and the purveyors of violence has invariably created an environment that nurtures and provides incentives for sociopathic behavior.
For those who have ever wondered why carnage seems to swoop down upon Nigeria without warning; for those who are amazed at how cities like Kaduna, Jos, Bauchi and Kano can appear to be normal in one minute, and turn into a burning hell in the next instant, they need not wonder any longer. There are murderers amongst us, and with each massacre that is swept under the carpet, with each killing that goes unpunished, with each sponsor and instigator of violence that is allowed to taunt justice, we tighten our embrace of impunity and stand the risk of elevating sociopathic tendencies to the new social normal.
How many more must die, before justice is done?

“On Going Crisis In The PHCN”-NLC

Gentlemen of the Press: Welcome to this Press Conference, which is called to respond to some of the antics of some government officials on the impasse in negotiations between the workers of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and the Federal Government.
Since the last meeting with government on the issue on Wednesday August 15, 2012, we are surprised at the negative utterances of the Minister of Power, Professor Barth Nnaji, and his consultants.
We recall that at the meeting, anchored by the Minister of Labour, Chief Emeka  Wogu, it was agreed that the July salary owed PHCN workers should be paid, and that government will take immediate steps to remove the presence of soldiers in PHCN offices nationwide.
The Minister of Labour had also undertaken to advise his Power Ministry counterpart to desist from grandstanding that would affect the process of genuine resolution of the PHCN crisis.
We are however, taken aback, and even scandalized at the various orchestrated propaganda and misinformation peddled by the Minister of Power.  It is highly irresponsible for the Minister to incite the public against workers demanding for their legitimate right with a view to criminalizing them to justify his crude militarization of the workplace.
It will be anomalous and unacceptable for the Labour Movement to sit back and allow workers to be physically intimidated at gun point into signing off their legitimate entitlements.  We condemn the thoughtless and unhelpful utterances and underhand tactics employed by Professor Barth Nnaji.
It is also becoming apparent that the Minister of Labour, who anchored the meeting of August 15, 2012, does not have the capacity to drive a process that would require the curtailing of the excesses of the Minister of Power for resolution of the issues in contention.
We call on the Federal Government to do the needful by creating the enabling environment for meaningful dialogue to resolving the issues by calling the Minister of Power to order, withdrawing soldiers from PHCN offices nationwide, and setting up a high powered Committee to sincerely address the legitimate concerns of the PHCN workers.

Olympic Games: Why Nigeria failed

… Athletes, officials blame Sports Ministry, FG
Truly, Bolaji Abdullahi was appointed sports minister and chairman of the National Sports Commission a few months to the Olympic Games and there was nothing much he could have done to change the impending doom then that has now manifested at the 2012 London Olympic Games that ended Sunday night with a closing ceremony that was a music JAM.
But the little the minister could do was consumed in his preference to plunge into the dirty football politics at the time than double effort to prepare the Nigerian team for the Olympics. Unfortunately, the ministry dragged him into it and because of the popularity of football in Nigeria he savoured the exposure and visibility the lingering but orchestrated crisis of Nigerian football attracted to him.

CLAYFOOTED: Nigeria’s Ajoke Odumosu (R) hands the baton to Regina George as they compete in the women’s 4X400 relay final of the London 2012 Olympic Games in London. PHOTO/AFP.

That was at the expense of tackling few issues with our Olympic preparation. There were issues with funding and technical problems with the teams that Nigeria would present. But the minister was busy with football that did not qualify for the Olympics. He meant well but he was misguided.
Some officials re-echoed the minister’s early romance with football as part of what affected Nigeria’s preparation but, in the main, blamed it on the now tradition of not developing sports but just engaging in competitions. Some athletes also bared their minds. For the avoidance of victimisation they preferred not to have their names on print.
Said one Nigerian official here: “The minister came into office and rather than face our preparation for the Olympics the ministry lured him into football politics and the money that would have been spent on our preparation was spent on trips to Zurich, the FIFA headquarters.
Time and energy were spent too on a problem they all later found out to be the creation of officials of the sports ministry who simply wanted their candidate in the NFF”
Another official put his this way: “The Federal Government is to blame. They are not yet ready to take sports seriously. They don’t fund sports well and when it comes to the games like the Olympics they expect results. Until they start funding sports well, the failure that we have experienced here will continue.”
One senior official who is a member of international body accused the federal government of aiding corruption by always releasing money late for preparations during which the money is misappropriated.
“When you make a budget for preparation and include about three training tours but money is released late you cannot embark on those tours again and the preparation is affected. This has been our story for a long time. It just didn’t start now. This makes the pockets of ministry officials fat but affects our preparation. N2.3 billion was released for the London Olympics and a huge part of it was surely not spent on the athletes or our participation here. It happened before and it is happening now, so it is not only about people who are in the ministry now. It is about our faulty system.”
An athlete is thinking of changing nationality. Said she: “I am not sure I will compete for Nigeria again. They will not help you and they expect so much from you. I know how other countries who are winning gold here helped their athletes to prepare. All the things they promised us in the last Olympics have not been fulfilled. We will continue to fail until we change and since change is not possible now it is better for me to change. Haven’t you seen that the Nigerians competing for other countries are doing well?.”
Another athlete said that it is only at the time of competition that Nigeria tries to engage the athletes, adding that “it is always too late to do something meaningful.”
A sports association technical official spoke from experience: “I know the age of my athlete. But don’t be surprised that by the next Olympics they will ask him to get ready for the Olympics because they are not developing any other person to take over from him. There’s no development programme, no money, no programme to develop talents. So, how can we do well in sports? Why do we have the sports ministry?.”

Olympics end as Nigeria return with no medal

The London 2012 Olympic Games ended on Sunday with Team Nigeria returning home with no medal, raising questions over the N1.9bn budgeted for the Nigeria’s participation at the Games.
It was an unusual record compared to the nation’s achievements at the Games in the past two decades. It was one that reminded Nigerians of the woeful performance recorded when Nigerian did not win any medal at Seoul ’88.
In London, Nigeria’s hopes for medals were shouldered by the athletics team, where Blessing Okagbare was regarded as a match for Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica and Carmelita Jeter of the US in the women’s 100m. But Okagbare finished the final in the 8th position, blaming her poor performance on injury despite competing till the end.
In the long jump, she had an equally bad outing, failing to qualify for the final after finishing in the 17th position. In the women’s 4x100m relay race, Christy Udoh, Gloria Asumnu, Oludamola Osayomi and Okagbare did put up a fight but the 42.64 time recorded by them was only good as their season’s best with Nigeria ending in the 4th position.
Ajoke Odumosu also raised the nation’s hopes when she reached the 400m hurdles but she came last to end all medal expectations from the race.
The basketball team reached the Olympics for the first time with much expectation, especially after beating Greece and Lithuania, respectively ranked 4th and 5th in the world, during the qualifiers.
They even gladdened the nation’s heart with a win over African champions, Tunisia, in their first match at the Olympics, but defeats by to Lithuania, Argentina, US and France ended first basketball participation at the Games with one win.
There was disappointment after the table tennis team was ousted a day after the opening ceremony but there were last minute hopes that later produced no medals for Nigeria.
Team Nigeria’s Captain Chika Chukwumerije, who won a bronze at the last Olympic Games in Beijing, China was seen as a medal prospect in taekwondo because of the preparation he had before the Games. He did not begin his contest until a day before the closing ceremony, but in his only fight, he lost to Cuban opponent, Robelis Despaigne, in the men’s+80kg class.
A few hours after his defeat on Saturday, another hope was dashed when the women’s 4x400m relay team was disqualified in the final. It was however not the final straw as hopes of any type of medal rested on Sinivie Boltic, a male wrestler in the freestyle 96kgcategory. He drew bye into the quarterfinals where he met Republic of Moldova’s Ceban Nicolai on Sunday. But like other athletes that represented Nigeria, Boltic did not get to the medal zone, ending all hopes for Nigeria.
A few weeks before the Games commenced, there was controversy over the release of funds as sports federations bosses had to look for money to prepare athletes for the competition. Chukwumerije was the only athlete who had first class preparation for the Games. He was treated for an injury in London and sent to Korea to prepare for his taekwondo event.
Reacting to the nation’s failure in London, a member of the Association of Veteran Sports Administrators Forum, Martins Osaile, said Nigerians should hold the Federal Government responsible for the poor outing.
Osaile said, “Before 1999 when we returned to democratic rule, our sport was healthy, today it is almost dead. The present government in the hands of our people is not ready to develop sport in Nigeria. They play game with the future of our athletes. They have forgotten that there is political power in achieving excellence in global events.
“When the present head of the Nigeria Olympic Committee, Sanni Ndanusa, was the president of tennis federation, I challenged him to list his achievements in the sport. To the surprise of Nigerians, he became the sports minister and now NOC president. That shows how the Nigerian government has relegated sport in Nigeria.”
Osaile advised the athletes to challenge their leaders and free themselves from their hold.
“Usain Bolt made over $30m from endorsement last year and there are many others that were not documented for public consumption. How many Nigerian athletes made anything from endorsement in the past one year? The US announced last week that camp for the 2016 Olympics would open in September, here in Nigeria, we will not start until three months to the Games,” Osaile said.
Former boxer and an Olympian, Jeremiah Okorodudu, said the boxers who represented Nigeria in London were not ready for the contest.
He said, “We had three boxers but they were not good enough to win medals. They were picked from the National Sports Festival which was wrong. If we are going to use the festival as Olympic qualifier, it should be made open. You cannot take rookies to a big event like the Olympics.”
Okorodudu also said Nigeria was heading for a major failure when training tours are not properly handled before the Games.
“In the past when Nigeria did well at the Olympics, training tours were not limited to putting athletes in a hotel and training at a remote facility. Tours are meant to expose the athletes and put them in proper shape for the big events,” he said.

NIGERIA: A nation Charred by insurgency

Just take a look; and then imagine.
Take a very long, hard look; and then imagine that your brother, or sister or any member of your extended family had been a victim or had been lost to the insurgency in those areas marked on the face of the map of Nigeria as areas of insurgent attacks.
To understand the magnitude of the crises confronting the Nigerian nation, just imagine for how long this had gone on and the attendant magnifying spectre of extremism and criminality, as well as the increasing helplessness of many a people.
Then try to make sense of the ridiculous spat between a former military President and Commander-in-Chief in the person of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, and an Ijaw leader and elder statesman, Pa Edwin Clark, over who is not speaking out loud enough in condemnation or who is making a senseless statement and ask:  To what extent would their show of shame solve the problem? You can add to this the seeming shambolic approach of government in containing what is turning out to be an insurgency of extremism, clearly far from politics and poverty that some people are reading into it.
Last week, the Jamaatu Ahlil Sunna Lidawati wal Jihad, otherwise known as Boko Haram, demonstrated to President Goodluck Jonathan that it can be very audacious.  Having called on Jonathan to either resign or convert to Islam, the sect went to town to inflict maximum terror:  an attempt on a Muslim leader, an Emir, to planting bombs in the domain of the caliphate in Sokoto, the killing of soldiers via ambushing, visiting terror on fellow Muslims during Ramadan lecture and the slashing of the throats of Christians, is President Jonathan still wondering what the insurgents are asking for.  Even the dreaded Maitatsine bunch was dealt with decisively by the Shehu Shagari administration in the early 1980s.
But it must be admitted that these are different, complicated and more dangerous times.
With the advent of Al Qaeda, Al Qaeda In The Islamic Magreb, AQIM, Al Shabab and the linkages which terror groups have established and are establishing, the training received by Boko Haram members in North Africa and the increasingly glaring reality of the sophistication of the insurgency in the North, it does not need rocket science to understand that the check point approach of this administration merely fits the expectations of the insurgents – avoid the areas of checkpoints and ‘carry go’.

And to the United States of America, USA, the number one global terror policeman, Nigeria must look.  In looking up to the Americans, this administration had flip-flopped between seeking assistance and condemning public terror alerts issued by the same Americans.
Well, Sunday Vanguard has been reliably informed that an ambassadorial encounter at a very high level which brought home the realization of why shambles have become this administration’s approach, “left the Americans with no option but to go public with terror alerts”.
Whatever the encounter was, with whom, where, when, why and how it happened was not disclosed by the diplomatic source.  But the source maintained that “the encounter was very, very, embarrassing”.
And whereas the Americans have labeled three leaders of Boko Haram terrorists, it has refused to tag the group a FOREIGN TERROR ORGANISATION, FTO.
There are so many issues involved here.  If the administration of Barack Obama has decided that it can not just intervene in Syria where an average of over 80 people are killed everyday, with strategic partnership interests at stake and likely to suffer if it makes a false move, why should it dabble into the controversy over tagging Boko Haram an FTO?
The first interest to be protected is American and America’s.
If Nigeria likes, she can continue to fiddle while insurgency takes over the entire land, why should America “give a damn”?
If the leadership of the Christian Association of Nigeria, CAN, continue to allow itself to be seen as an appendage of the presidency, but would like Nigerian Christians and peoples of other faiths in the country to see it as fighting the good cause, why should America’s Obama “give a damn”?
The leadership of CAN was in America to attend a congressional hearing where it pushed the FTO agenda. Yet, Johnnie Carson, America’s Under-Secretary of State for African Affairs, who was in attendance, and the State Department, have their logic. But the logic is grandly illogical and incongruous because how do you label three leaders of a group as terrorists and refuse to tag the group an FTO?
It is either because of the coming elections in November, or just a statement of criticism of Nigeria’s handling of the state of insecurity that has become so pervasive.  By the admission of a General Officer Commanding, there are joint military operations being carried out in 33 states in a country of 36 states – this represents over 90% of the entire country.
During the congressional hearing, Carson’s understanding of Nigeria as a largely Muslim nation and that the country stands to surpass other Arab nations in terms of the faith in less than a decade, was laid bare.
Sunday Vanguard learnt that Carson had had a running against the Yar’Adua administration over some issues of national security over biometrics.  He has found acceptance which verges on messianic accommodation by the present administration and, therefore, is entitled to wax pontifical about Nigeria. (READ ENCOUNTER AT THE CONGRESSIONAL HEARING)
Well, Hon. Smith, who chaired the sub-committee hearing, would not allow himself to be hoodwinked if members of Nigeria’s government engage a slavish mentality in their dealings with America. Smith sought clarity from Carson on why leaders of a group are tagged terrorists and the group is not deemed to be a terrorist organization (Details of the hearing will shock you).
Meanwhile, last week Thursday, at the State House Abuja, Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, was in a closed door meeting with President Jonathan and his security chiefs and the main discussion of the day was centred around Boko Haram and FTO status, as well as – you guessed right – CORRUPTION. Still, there is also the increasing theft of crude oil in the South South region to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars.
In this package, you will read the widening scope of Boko Haram’s activities and some contradictions in America’s perception of the crises in Nigeria. Pastor Ayo Oritsejafor’s plea to the Americans and the letter written to Hillary Clinton by some scholars who insist that designating Boko Haram an FTO would not solve Nigeria’s problem but would, rather, embolden and further radicalize the group – that, in fact, such a designation would be an endorsement of the might of Boko Haram; these would come up in subsequent series and would enlighten you the more. But before the next series you will also read about the carnage in Damaturu, Yobe State; and the killings in Okene, Kogi State – all by Boko Haram
This is a multi-series package that would run for a while in every edition.