Patrick Omorodion
8 November 2008
interview
Last Monday at the Senate, the Committee on Sports led by Senator Heineken Lokpobiri took on the LOC big wigs and the Director-General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Dr. Amos Adamu in what seemed like an image-laundering exercise and virtually condemned President Umar Musa Yar'Adua's decision to scale down the bogus and outrageous N37 billion drawn by the LOC for the U-17 World Cup which the country will host next year.
While Senator Lokpobiri said Nigerians were crying wolf over "a paltry N37 billion" and that the money would not even be enough for the championship which is the least among the FIFA competitions, Dr Adamu said the President was "deceived" by the former Minister of Sports and Chairman, NSC, Barrister Abdulrahman Gimba into taking "a wrong decision" of either first canceling the hosting of the event or slashing the budget.
Nigerians reacted angrily over the circus show by the Senate Committee and poured invectives on the LOC members as well as Senator Lokpobiri for daring to compare the U-17 World with the 2010 World Cup South Africa is hosting,
Former President of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), Mr. Dan Ngerem, who was a member of the Presidential Advisory Committee on Sports which recommended a restructuring of the NSC for effectiveness and efficiency, said the comments by Senator Lokpobiri, Dr. Adamu and Mainasara Ilo, CEO of the LOC were an affront on the President of the country. He wrote Saturday Vanguard and we publish it for Nigerians to read:
What is really happening with the Under-17 sports sector in our beloved country? Why is the LOC quoting different, conflicting and confusing figures?
The LOC media machinery issues one press release; the CEO and Vice Chairman LOC (Mainasara Ilo) issues another.
For example, ICT was N4 billion from the LOC media release but now it is N2 billion from the CEO.
Furthermore, if N9 billion is enough - what was the point of the press release and the show of 'arrogance' at the Senate Committee of Sports a few days ago where the LOC issued a press release saying N35 billion was not enough and the Committee said they will increase the budget.
It also smacks of hidden agenda by making the already removed former Minister of Sports (Gimba) the 'whipping boy' of that visit, after all the man is gone and the President who appointed him did not make the reason (for his removal) public.
One would have thought that the LOC should now concentrate on convincing Nigerians about their budget and what benefits the billions committed will accrue to Nigeria - the silence of the LOC on this aspect speaks volumes!
They further compared South Africa 2010 to Nigeria 2009 which is like comparing apples to oranges - the World Cup is arguably the biggest sports property in the world while the FIFA Under-17 is for children in the school system - maybe the fact that we cheat with over aged people in this competition is beclouding our judgement of the fundamentals.
Why the affront to the Presidency's decision to cut the budget to N9 billion at the Senate 'without briefing the acting Minister of Sports, what was so important in that Senate visit by the LOC and staffers of the NSC without the acting and/or substantive Minister of Sports and Chairman NSC; after all, the Minister is their boss and will be the one to once again defend the LOC budget at the Federal Executive Council.
On a secondary note, this is the same Senate Committee on Sports that had an orchestrated public hearing a few weeks ago and went outside their original brief of probing Nigeria's performance at Ghana 2008 and discussed all aspects of sports where they found the former Minister of Sports guilty on all counts without giving the man a chance to defend himself.
The former Minister is now gone but our problems in sports show no signs of abetting; if anything the prognosis for the future is frightening and headed for the precipice especially as it concerns school sports which should be the conveyor belt of our future glory and laurels in sports.
Is the Senate Committee on Sports just being briefed by LOC and NSC on the FIFA 2009 budget - if that is the case, did they have time to read, understand and digest the budget before challenging the Presidency in their wisdom to cut the budget from N35billion to N9 billion?
That visit of the LOC to the Senate also defies logic and one wonders why we should continue to accept this type of contrivance in our sports sector.
We have had seven Sports Ministers since 1999 which is an atrocious attrition rate of nearly one Sports Minister for every year - and our sports has continued to wallow in mediocrity and less than optimal performance compared to the resources wasted.
Are the Sports Ministers the problem or does the problem in our sports lie elsewhere .....?
The substantive Sports Minister has not arrived and already his staffers with active connivance of 'outsiders' are setting an agenda for him and had strewn 'banana' peel for whoever that person may be.
We can safely bet from experience that with billions of 'free' Government money at stake for the FIFA 2009 U-17 World Cup, the new Minister of Sports is already doomed if he fails to fall in line and/or align himself to the framework of the floating billions (from pronouncements in the Senate the stage has already been set for the massive increase of the budget).
That comparison with South Africa is also misleading because while South Africa has used the World Cup as a catalyst for massive infrastructural and socio-cultural regeneration and revolution - LOC is yet to articulate in concrete terms what Nigeria stands to benefit.
Furthermore, South Africa LOC is partnering with the corporate world and has raised over $3 billion to FIFA from the corporate world thereby not only surpassing the Germany and Korea/Japan World Cups but it is the biggest revenue to date for FIFA.
I am not making up the numbers or the story because no less a person that the CEO of South Africa 2010, Danny Jordan was in Nigeria recently to give a lecture and tell us directly to our faces how things should be done - besides it is all on the internet and website of South Africa LOC 2010.
Please goggle Nigeria FIFA U-17 2009 and what you will see on the internet is still the Korea edition - no mention of Nigeria!
Why are we the only country in the world that host FIFA events and other sporting events with 100% reliance on Government to provide the money - it is what I call a tragic-comedy for a country like Nigeria that is so endowed with an abundance of talented people and institutions in this area.
One can go on and on.
However, all sports lovers should challenge the LOC to publish their budget with detailed breakdown and the projected revenue profiles from the private sector (they claim they will raise billions from the private sector) so that we can subject it to empirical analysis and hold them accountable to some benchmark of performance.
Why should the project be so opaque if openness, transparency and accountability is the watch word of the present Government?
We should ask these questions so that we are not taken for a ride or be subjected to the usual 'musical chairs 'and we should not allow a few people to continue to mortgage our collective destiny and that of our children on the altar of private greed and gain.
Why should the questions be proactively asked? Very simple; it is because we have not seen any budget and any accounts in Nigeria sports in the last fifteen years - from FIFA Under-20 World Cup tagged, Nigeria '99 to the 2003 All Africa Games to our Commonwealth 2014 Games bid and the wasted billions, and more recently the Beijing Olympics.
If the Government really wants accountability and private sector buy in, participation and input, the whole process of budgeting and accountability should not be shrouded in secrecy and/or left to civil servants alone.
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