President Umaru Musa Yar'Adua has assumed a reputation for reversing himself with awkward aplomb.

The U-17 FIFA Championship is the latest confirmation that the Federal Government makes decisions without enough information, creating room for sycophants, cronies, panjandrums and others whose claim to fame is contriving and thriving in deceiving Nigerians to take advantage.

The first decision not to host the competition was the right one. However, it should have been followed with a decisive punishment of those who contrived the budget of N35.5 billion for a competition that FIFA almost fully sponsors.

Spurious explanations and fretting about FIFA sanctions were part of the conspiracy to dupe Nigeria of billions of Naira. Government has cut the budget to N9 billion, but some of those involved in the preparations have said that N5 billion would be more than adequate to host it.

How did the government arrive at the new budget of N9 billion? There is enough time to bring the budget to a still more reasonable figure.

What lessons have government taught us about prudence in approving the competition at a higher cost than some members of the organising committee say it requires? Whatever happened to all the noise about due process and fiscal responsibility?

Whose brand of fiscal responsibility produced this blotted budget? Is the Federal Government interested in finding out?

The decision to host the competition in the face of the apparent fraud some wanted to turn into -- without a modicum of effort to unravel the fraudsters -- flies in the face of any known logic.

More worrying is the way our government reaches its decisions. It appears to decide and think later.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Chief Ojo Maduekwe tied the decision not to host the event to the "global financial crunch". In less than two days, Nigeria recovered from the crunch and is willing to host.

A letter had been written to FIFA stating Nigeria 's position. Nigeria has written another letter saying it would host. All these indecisions are shameful.

They portray our government as chaotic, indecisive, acting without adequate information, and easily influenced by the least pressure.

Those praising the President for reversing himself are deceiving him. Some Nigerians eke out a living from applauding any action of government, once they expect it would get them attention from the right quarters. They are at work.

Claims that hosting this competition would boost tourism are dubious. Security, infrastructure, and a dedicated marketing of a country as a tourism destination enhance tourism.

No visitor who travels on our roads, enjoys our "steady" power supply or benefits from the absence of the most basic information about anything would return.

While we are not asking the President to reverse himself again, he should be interested in how some Nigerians wanted to dupe this country of billions of Naira.

It is the least he can do to ameliorate the international embarrassment Nigeria has suffered from the earlier uninformed and hasty decision that he must have made in anger.