Lagos — In less than a week, the Presidency took two major decisions on the proposed plan by the nation's sports authorities to host the FIFA Under-17 World Cup next year.

On October 23, the Presidency had announced that the nation could not host the competition because it was not a priority to the administration. Last Tuesday, another announcement was made by the Presidency in which it said it has reconsidered its stand and that the nation would go ahead with the hosting arrangement of the global football competition with tremendous contribution from the private sector. In a statement by presidential spokes man, Mr. Olusegun Adeniyi, the presidency stated that the cost of hosting the tournament has been drastically reviewed from N35.5billion to N9billion and that the National Assembly has been asked to appropriate the money for the sponsorship.

Since the first announcement was made, there has been a hot debate on the desirability of the hosting of the competition at this point in time in the life of the nation and that of the Yar'Adua administration. There are those who believe that the earlier decision not to host the competition will expose the nation to ridicule and may attract sanction from FIFA. They added that the refusal to host the competition would upset the world soccer body's arrangement and make Nigeria appear as an irresponsible nation in the comity of world soccer loving nations after she had initially agreed to host the event. Some others in the pro-hosting group argued that it was an opportunity for the country to develop its infrastructure.

The group which supported the first announcement and favours not hosting the competition argued that the nation cannot afford that luxury. They argued that the money that would be used for sponsoring the competition can be utilised for some better purposes that will benefit the masses and portray the government in better light than seeking to sponsor a competition in which half of the money will go into the pockets of some sporting officials. Let me at this point take a position on the debate and declare my interest so that readers can know where I am coming from. I am a sports lover. In fact, I am a devotee of football.

On this page in the past, I had narrated how I had followed football religiously as a student and endured hunger to enable me watch Challenge Cup or National League matches involving IICC Shooting Stars, Abiola Babes, Leventis United and matches involving the then Green Eagles in the 80s. Today, I have also joined the fad in Nigeria by being loyal to Chelsea FC despite the fact that my first son is so loyal to Liverpool that he has a branded jersey of his favourite club. My two other children are Manchester United FC fans.

I however support the group that is opposed to Nigeria hosting the Under-17 World Cup. My position is based on the fact that hosting the competition will only gulp money that could be used on better social services or infrastructural facilities that would benefit a greater majority than the tiny elite (I am only pretending to be one of them without the wherewithal to really belong) who watch and enjoy football matches. I am opposed to hosting that competition because it will end up enriching the small oligarchy in the sports ministry and their accomplices in the political arena.

I am taking this position because unlike in other climes like China which hosted the last Olympics or England which is preparing for the next Olympics or South Africa which will host the next World Cup, the Nigerian sports handlers do not use the hosting rights of major competitions in such a way that in its aftermath we can boast that the infrastructural facilities we gain during the preparation for the competitions are enduring.

I am opposing hosting this competition because when Nigeria host similar events in recent times nobody has told me it helped the national and individual economies to any particular extent. The events are not managed in such a way that after the event, foreign investors will come back to invest in our economy or that local manufacturers will sell their products and develop contacts for exporting more goods.

I am opposing the sponsorship of the under 17 World Cup because I know more than 70 per cent of the budget which may end not being embezzled will be spent on foreign goods which will bring no benefit to the indigenous manufacturers and artisans.

We can take the points I had raised against hosting of the tournament one by one and elaborate on them. Those who believe that hosting the world next year will help us develop some infrastructure should tell me the state of the infrastructural facilities developed during the last All Africa Games in 2005 and the African Cup of Nations in 2000. Even the National Stadium in Abuja has not been properly maintained while the National Stadium in Lagos on which millions of naira was spent before the Cup of Nations in 2000 is now a dead sporting venue. Same is Adamasingba Stadium in Ibadan. Unlike in the 70s and 80s, big sporting and other international events do not bequeath to the nation surviving monuments.

Most of the money is spent on intangibles, which makes it easy for those who want to manipulate the figures to have a field day.

I cannot support the wastage of N9 Billion at this point when the country faces acute infrastructural challenges. The roads are bad. The hospitals are without necessary facilities. The railway lines are no longer functional. The only thing anybody can learn in most of our public schools is ignorance. The airports are lacking the necessary facilities. Cholera and other water borne diseases are still ravaging our towns and villages. The power situation remains deplorable. Those who know that this country needs money to fix so many of her broken parts will not clamour that we embark on another jamboree.

I know there are strong arguments like the one raised by my colleague, Simon Kolawole that there is no guarantee that the money meant for the Under 17 World Cup would be utilised for repairing roads even if we end up not hosting the competition. My answer to that point is that we are talking of taking the money for this sponsorship from the National treasury. The global financial crisis has occasioned the fall in oil price in world market. So, the period of cheap money in which oil producing countries were just making free money is over. A country like Nigeria needs to be careful the way it dips hands in its reserve. Otherwise, people in government will soon start telling us we need to endure more hardship because the price of oil in the international market has fallen and that the nation is broke.

One major reason why the federal government should not have changed its earlier decision on hosting of the Under-17 World Cup is the manner in which the organising committee which earlier fixed the cost to the government at N35.5b now reduced the cost to government to N9b. I hope the reduction is not just a bait which after the government has fully committed itself, then more requests for funds will be presented. It is obvious that the Mafia group in our sports ministry is desperate to get the event hosted.

Even the Presidency seems aware of the plot by the cabal. And that is obvious in the newspaper reports on the government's latest decision on the Under 17 World Cup hosting. After reporting the statement by Adeniyi, almost all the newspapers quoted a Presidency source who said the federal government was aware that some persons had been instigating FIFA against Nigeria following the earlier decision to withdraw from hosting the tournament.

The source vowed that such persons would not get away with their treacherous act. The source added that "our football is dying and rather than work to develop it, the pre-occupation of some people is to commit our country into hosting all kinds of sporting tournaments that benefit them and not Nigerians. It would interest you to know that it was following government's initial statement that these same people who had defended their N35.5b budget proposal now say they can host the tournament for as little as N5b and you ask: if that were the case, why did they propose N35.5b in the first place? You can bet that heads will roll as President Yar'Adua intends to dismantle the corrupt cartel that has for years been destroying our sports".

The implication of the above statement by the unnamed top official in the presidency is that it is now known that when sports ministry officials commit Nigeria to international engagements, the objective is selfish not patriotic. And the Under 17 World Cup may not be different. Now, that the nation is committing N9billion to the game, the presidency should raise a team of private sector operators, particularly those who are ready to partner with government in sponsoring the tournament, to map out ways in which our economy can maximize the gains of hosting the international audience expected to grace the games.

We need to also ensure that infrastructural facilities that will be built as part of preparations for the game are enduring and can later benefit the society as a whole. The process of handling funds meant for the games should be transparent and all contracts to be awarded should not only follow due process but also work done must be commensurate with money disbursed for it. Also, the opportunity provided by the controversies surrounding the hosting of this tournament should be ceased to cleanse our sports management of the rot and inefficiency that have kept it down for too long.