Onochie Anibeze
9 January 2009
column
VICE President Goodluck Jonathan has been touring the venues Nigeria will present for the Under 17 World Cup the country will host later this year.
The Presidency became more involved in the organisation of the championship after it agreed that Nigeria would host the event, reversing its withdrawal following the bogus N35 billion budget of the Local Organising Committee.
Everybody condemned the budget. The Federal Government agreed to dole out N9 billion for the global fiesta but they have taken time to appoint a Presidential Committee to monitor and supervise what the LOC is doing.
But many see that committee as the de facto LOC. After the N35 billion mess, nobody is complaining about the need for such a committee. It is for transparency in the disbursement of the N9 billion and a few general matters like the inspection of facilities that Jonathan is doing right now. He is heading that commitee.
He has visited Ijebu Ode, Lagos, Warri, Kaduna and Kano. All the reports from these centres have been positive, very excellent. And the Vice President was quoted in all the visits as commending all the venues, commending all the state governments for doing tremendous jobs and expressing satisfaction with the work done so far.
Football matters are largely technical but there are also political angles to them as we see in elections, selection of host countries for competitions and a few boardroom politics. Nigeria appears to be enriching the political machinations in football with the Vice President's tours. But they should know where politics end and transparency begins.
How come nothing bad has been said about any facility in all the venues? Is it possible that everything is good about our preparation so far?
Is it possible that no venue has faltered in any area? Is it possible that the pace or work has been great and not slow in any area? The remarks of the Vice President from all the venues appear political.
This is the problem I have sensed so far. I have not heard Jonathan condemn a few places and commend some. Everything has been wonderful. Is this possible? I really don't know why this is so because the Vice President is in the position to be blunt where necessary.
It is not in his position to impress anybody. I do know that everything is not okay as voiced out severally by the Vice President. Just one. What is the state of the training pitches in all these venues?
The Vice President will weep today and declare emergency in some of the venues he adjudged excellent if he is taken to places they are reserving as training pitches.
I say this because I know, I have seen some. May I inform the Veepee that, but for time, FIFA may think otherwise about Nigeria's hosting if they come today and ask officials to take them to the grounds for training of the teams that will be in the venues.
We need about four STANDARD training pitches in each venue. And knowing what it takes to grow grass, prepare a ground to meet certain standards as training ground for international competitions, I say, without fear or favour, that we are running behind time.
That is the truth they are concealing to Vice President. Unfortunately, the man appears not to know. Let Jonathan send independent people to find out a few things and report to him. This will help us. In all the visits, they showed him what they wanted him to see, simple. He did not see all.
I understand some officials are scheming to raise money by inducing some venues to contribute to some running costs and book their hosting rights . That is wrong. We'll expose them if they insist on this fraud.
They claim that they can influence FIFA on some venues. Let FIFA men come and do their work and select the venues. But may I add, very importantly, that apart from standard facilities, the football culture of every venue matters in the eyes of the beautiful game even if it escapes the inspectors.
There are places people do not watch matches and their governments are vying to host. They will end up disgracing Nigeria if they are selected. It makes a poor scene when a match is on television to the whole world and all you have are empty stands.
It is not good for the game and FIFA doesn't like it. Aside Lagos, Warri and Kano, I don't think I can vouch for any other venue on crowd attendance.
Any venue, other than these three cities, which eventually wins must embark on massive mobilisation of their people to ensure good attendance to save us from disgrace. This is my message as we await FIFA and the final selection.
On the league again
It appears the league board, NPL, has made it mandatory to be organising seminars every quarter.
These seminars are meant to educate all and improve the league. They invite guests from England to present papers. We have had many of them in the past two years.
Another is on the pipeline as I write. My question is how have these seminars impacted positively on the league? What progress have we made? What evaluations have they made? There's no doubt the effort to acquire knowledge is commendable.
But what evaluations have been made to know if these seminars are result-oriented or just opportunities for some officials to make personal ends meet or if they are just some grandstanding ventures? The league board needs to know.
They must have gotten it right in some areas and faltered in others. It is good to learn everyday but I think that the seminars are getting too often without evaluations and necessary actions.
I want to know how far the league board is tackling the problem of corruption in the league. I want to know about their measure of control or rather checks on clubs to ensure professionalism, I want to know about their insistence on high standards on match venues etc.
They impressed with their decision on Bayelsa United over the debt to players and officials. I commend them for that and I urge them to carry out more of such actions on other offending clubs.
I was happy to read about the communication gadgets they are procuring for match officials so that assistant referees and the center referees will be in constant communication while officiating a match.
Kudos for that. The league board must understand my concern and why I can never close my eyes to our local football.
While many would be thumbing their feet and beating their chest, chanting gunners forever, up reds, down devils, flying blues or vowing to never walk alone, I have my Enugu Rangers, Enyimba, FC Abuja, Kano Pillars, Sharks or Shooting to worry about.
I know that if these clubs never get to lift their game and produce local stars, we'll never have good national teams and the results will simply be the continuation of the current plunge our football is facing. That's why I'll never leave the Nigeria Football Federation, our clubs and the league board alone.
I have no other country but Nigeria and this Nigeria we must continue to repair, hoping that some day some revolution will help us chase those crazy bald heads out of our town (apology Bob Marley) and we will begin to enjoy the leadership that will ensure such good governance that will transcend all sectors including sports where our potential can make us a world power.
To whom much is given much is expected. The league board knows that Nigerians deserve more than they are getting on the league if Globacom's sponsorship money is anything to go by. The football federation knows they would be condemned if we are to pass judgment on them.
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