SEX SCANDALS AND DEATH THREATS ARE STRANGERS.

Coach James Peters

I thought I was just being a nasty sports journalist I have been since some 25 years back. A colleague of mine who read the first report I did on the sex scandal in Trinidad and Tobago pleaded so well that I should kill the story. I pleaded back, “were any of these girls your daughter, what would be your response? He kept quiet and sneaked out of my office.
after I published my report and one of my very respected colleague, we call him Ikwerreman, sent me a link to an earlier blog he had written on Thursday, December 6, 2007 titled: ALL EYES ON EVUMENA AND GABOSKY, I rested my nerves.

A day later, I had the encounter that led me to write the follow-up. Then, Kikelomo Ajayi received so much calls and she came up to substantiate the matter the more. Then, I got more information of how a former coach of the Super Falcons had three of the players in his bed where a retired Colonel and a staff of the NFA caught him right in the act. I sighed. Oh, it is a culture!

According to Ikwerreman: “When it comes to women football in Nigeria and the scandals that have arisen from Nigeria as regards sexual harassment, two coaches who have the biggest profiles are Dan Evumena and Felix Ibe (Gabosky).Just name the kind of scandal and they have it under their belts.”

As at that time that was true. I had the story of a board member of the NFA who sleeps with the players he is supposed to superintend.

Monday, 27^th September 2010. Jibola Oni called me from BrilaFM. One of the questions he asked is, “were james Peters to take you to court what will be your reaction?” I responded, did the NFA not say that the claims of sexual scandals cannot be substantiated?
NATIONAL ASSEMBLY:

I am aware that there are petitions before the NFA member under Sani Lulu’s board before  the National Sports Commission (NSC). Nothing has been done about it. So it is useless going to the same Commission on this matter. I am heading to the national Assembly to ask for a public enquiry.

This matter should be investigated. I know some of the ladies who if provided confidentiality will come out and say what ill deafen the ears. That was why I kept the name of the coach in the Kikelomo Ajayi story back to myself.

Coach Dan Evumena

The NFA really do not care about these girls and what happens to them. The NFA members themselves ask for sex from these girls as conditions for them to play for the nation or coach the national teams. I do know some of the girls these useless and shameless coaches harassed, some buckled and gave in to them, some got pregnant, some had abortions for the coaches.
JAMES PETERS:
I am so angry that people you will think the fire in their loin will not blister after omen are in the league of defiling teenagers. Upon the exposure, as it is with the NFA, death threats are being sauntered into my phone. I do promise that I am waiting on them. I also do promise that so long as the remnant of the little trainings I had as a growing youngman remain relevant, I will donate the dead bodies of such messengers of death to their masters. This system must be cleaned once and for all.
I used to respect coach James Peters. Though, as a coach he was a perpetual failure. I wish him luck in his endeavour to institute and establish the case of libel in this matter. I will simply enjoy the decorum to officially record these details in a court of law!
No amount of death threats will surmount my spirit. If God kept me in the guerilla era of my days in THENEWS magazine and when we transmuted into Tempo newspaper, who else do I need to be afraid of. The same God kept me intact when I fought the gallant naval Admiral Mohammed Alabi Lawal in Kwara.

However, it is said only a stupid parent from Ekitiland will leave their ward unguarded asking God to take good care of it. Like the Islamic injunction, tie your camel and leave the rest to God. Let them come.

PARENTS AND WOMEN FOOTBALL:

Are we not getting to a stage where serious and responsible parents will not be withdrawing their female wards from playing football or even any sport for that matter since their coaches are likely going to be after them for sex? Since the latest expose, both the NFA, the NSC or any organ of government has not deemed it fit to make a comment. They kept mum. Yet, their own children will never be able to be athletes lest being endowed with the rare skills and abilities of those who are athletes.

I think we need a movement to make parents hold their female wards from sports. Dangerous men are  on rampage. They are employed as coaches to spoil the lives of their children. To make them pregnant and abort severally all in the name of playing for their fatherland in return for paltry sums. Soon, no serious man would want to marry your daughters when they know they are or were athletes.

NDANUSA AS NOC BOSS: SORROW, TEARS AND BLOOD

New NOC boss, Sani Ndanusa

When the late president Umaru Musa Yar'Adua chose to appoint Engineer Sani Mohammed Ndanusa as his Sports Minister from among the technocrats in the sports fraternity, there was joy in the land. Ndanusa, a water engineer, had served as Commissioner for Works and Infrastructure in Niger State. His appointment was so hailed and heralded with flowery pomp, pageantry and expectations. Some pundits even pointed to the fact that since the advent of the Fourth Republic in 1999 this was a correct appointment. This is because, unlike his predecessors, he had served and is still the President of the Nigeria Tennis Federation.
Before Yar’Adua appointed him minister, Ndanusa had posted a dozen years as President of the federation. One good thing the man achieved was a sustained skew of growth beyond the point of origin on the graph. The game went down into oblivia.
Ndanusa assumed office telling us in his words 'it's not going to be business as usual'. He promised to reinvigorate Nigerian sports by repositioning the Sports Federations, provide standard infrastructures and restore athletes' confidence in the sports authorities. On a first measure, these three promises he failed woefully.
Quoting one of his interviews: “I've been around for some time, specifically in Tennis, but I think I've been to a number of sporting events and I consider myself as an insider. What I know is the need to re-engineer the sporting structure of this country, re-engineering from the grassroots because definitely I want to say that grassroots is the place to be and tap talents. Ask, even Bida where he has come from, if charity truly starts at home, how many talents was discovered? By his words, did he not fail?
He added in the interview “we want to make sure that no child is disenfranchised. You might have the flair for badminton, you might for volleyball, basketball, but where are the facilities at the grassroots? That is why am starting by providing facilities from the local government level; that's why I'm coming up with what we call Community Sports Complexes. Uhm! Need I say anything further? Not one of such was built even as a model.
CONCESSIONING PROGRAMME:
I recall vividly a personal letter I had written him. I warned him that this programme is not originally his. Given my decades of experience being an athlete for 25 years since 1976 when we got into sports, growing to be a sports journalist having posted 22 years I warned him. He took to his frail heart. History, the fairest judge today acknowledges him as a blatant failure in that direction.
Prospective concessionaires, who had earlier had their bids for certain sports disciplines like athletics, basketball, cricket et al ratified as winning bids, were later unceremoniously dumped. The would-be concessionaires watched in astonishment as elections were being conducted to the Boards of the same sports federations meant to be concessioned to them. Investigations revealed that some of the organisations that won bids but were later denied concession were yet to get a refund of their fees paid for the bids.
SPORT FEDERATIONS:
The former Chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC) threatened to sack the Board of any sport federation that failed to organize, at least, two major competitions in a year. As at the time he was relieved of his duty, 90% of the Boards of the sports federations had failed to meet this target. Mr. Ndanusa pretended that all was well.
Rather, some of the sports federations could not fund the trip of their athletes to continental and global tournaments. The few federations that managed to smuggle themselves and their athletes did so by borrowing and ending up in debts. For instance, the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN), is alleged to in debt to some banks to the tune of N16 million spent on making sure that the country was represented at last year's World Athletics Championships in Berlin; The same is true of the Boxing Federation, the Handball Federation of Nigeria (HFN), Weightlifting Federation of Nigeria (WFN), Basketball Federation of Nigeria (NBBF).
CORPORATE SPONSORS AND TAX RELIEF:
Many atimes, Ndanusa went to the attic preaching tax holiday to sponsors and corporate organisations to sponsor sports. This did not yield any dividend. What we had was a situation where sponsors who had years of identification with some sports disciplines chose to terminate the existing agreements and relationship. For instance, Globacom, the telecommunication giant, which had the franchise to all the lucrative brands of the copiously corrupt Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), only late last year announced the withdrawal of its patronage.
However, rather than delivering on his promises, Ndanusa instead hugged the headlines for all the wrong reasons, the bright side being only that Nigeria returned to the 2010 FIFA World Cup under his stewardship, however costly it was. Thereafter, it was a terribly calamitous outing.
FOOTBALL MINISTER:
He struggled throughout his tenure promising to uplift ‘the lesser sports’. Ironically, even tennis which as the pedestal he used to reach his position he could not develop! He was very busy with football and kicking against Shaibu Amodu. He presided over Nigeria’s most corrupt sports federation, the Nigeria Football Federation.
Ndanusa successfully entered the pages of history as the first sports minister to preside over where $400,000 was stolen but his Commission said it was $236,000 and the agency from where it was stolen said it was $200,000. Whichever was actually missing, no trace could be established. The police despite its sophistry could not deliver the whole truth about the saga. Uhm! Like all criminal mysteries in officialdom, this may also be one of the unfinished businesses. Unfolding events have proved some of us right.
U-17 WORLD CUP:
Candidly, Ndanusa’s most outstanding achievement was the execution of the U-17 World Cup. So much monies were allegedly mismanaged. Had President Umar Musa Yar’Adua permitted ab initio, Nigeria would have lost N37billion to the event. He approved N9billion and later another N3billion but we gathered about N18billion was eventually spent.
Desperately guided by the goons and foxes in the NSC to etch his name in history books as the minister who hosted and won the 2009 FIFA Under-17 World Cup, they chose to look the other way whilst the football federation supervised the assemblage of age-cheats for the Golden Eaglets whose ambition was truncated by an obviously younger side from Switzerland.
NATIONAL OLYMPIC COMMITTEE:
We thought we warned him that his advisers never meant well for him. He was pushed to bid for the Presidency of the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC). Though, in truth, his opponent, Habu Gumel, who got the position vide the trickery of the NSC officials is no better than him. Between the two of them, it is the case of two extreme evils.
The dispute created by his candidature was eventually resolved in his favour using official manipulations. Thank God for the goodluck in Mr Jonathan ho sacked him. Had the Nupe man remained as the NSC boss today, he would squandered himself bankrupt, therein as the first Nigerian to reign as the sports minister, president of the Nigeria Tennis Federation and president of the NOC all, at the same time. All of the positions he had occupied in the past in sports, he was a celebrated failure! This may not be different either.
With this new addition, thanks to the blind NSC which he once led. They needed a yes sir man which they found in him having exhausted the use of Gumel who was pummeled to “withdraw”. I presage, my worst fears will come to pass again like all my previous predictions in sports. This is a four-year tenure of sorrow, tears and blood for Nigerian sports. Wait until the next NOC elections in four years.

WHY KIKELOMO AJAYI WILL NEVER PLAY FOR FALCONS AGAIN, *CONFIRMS SEX DEMAND

Kikelomo Ajayi the Super Falcons former captain in the World Cup

Those who know and had followed the beautiful game of football in Nigeria call her 'small mama' with the big football boots. No doubt, Kikelomo Ajayi is a legend in Nigeria, having won five continental football titles. Today, yes, I can reveal she may NEVER play for the team that brought her to limelight again on account of the unveiling sex scandals in the female national teams.
This revelation is coming on the heels of reactions to my last blog posting where my investigations revealed how a grandfather, James Peters, was alleged to have been sleeping with the teenagers in his stead at the World u-17 football championships in Trinidad and Tobago.
An Abuja based women football coach who also plied her skills in the national team stormed my office and pleaded to talk on anonymity “for now” said, “are the coaches in the various national teams today the best available in the country?” In her own world, she replied, “definitely, no”.
I was approached to pick the job. Then, coach (James Peters) demanded I should sleep with him as part of the conditions for my taking the job. I objected and was promptly denied the job. I told him, “if I want to sleep with you, it will be because I want it not because I need the job. I would have loved to coach the national team having played there for years,” she said.
She added, can you investigate it. Kikelomo Ajayi, sebi you know her. She is a victim too. So long as JP remains there, she will never play for the national team. She rejected offers to be variously slept with and she was yanked out. She is far better than a lot of the girls in the team now. She is fit, experienced and in good form. As captain she has the luck. But since she won’t give out her private part she is out.!
Uche (the Super Falcons coach) had an unwritten instruction. Only the willing girls get shirts!” Please investigate my claims.
A telephone call was pulled to Kikelomo Ajayi who said without knowing the intentions of this reporter, “the selectors of the national team have their own reasons for not inviting me. All I know is that I am better than some of the players in the team now.”

Prodded if the sex demand on her is the issue for her being left out, she wryly said, “there were some big people in the football house that demanded sex from me and I politely told them no and I had been in the cold since then.” Asked to name the persons, she diplomatically said, “please, I want to be spared at this stage.”

Kikelomo Ajayi, the first daughter and second child in a family of six, it would be recalled began her romance with football in the Isolo area of Akure, the capital of the southwestern Nigerian state of Ondo. "My brother and I contributed the little pocket money my father used to give us to buy a ball for our little games in the street. We also got a small trophy that we made for the winner of the competition we used to play in. My team used to win this trophy most of the time and I was the only girl on either team!" she recalled in a file interview.

SEX SCANDAL IN THE FLAMINGOES U-17 CAMP

We can reveal on authority again that there was a heavy scent of sexual harassment in the camp of the national team. This time around, it was in the camp of the Nigerian U-17 in the just concluded women championship in Trinidad & Tobago. The Flamingoes, as their official sobriquet goes, were at the mercy of a former national cadet team coach.
The highly placed Nigerian Football Association (NFA) official as revealed was in the habit of abusing the non-technical officials and coaches of the team in the presence of the girls. He was eventually nicknamed “Emperor”.
The senior coach who sat all through on the bench of the team during the championship “had carnal knowledge of about seven of the young girls who are young enough to be his granddaughters” said our source. He is so iron-handed threatening them to report in his room and if they do not, he makes life verbally difficult for the girls.
On one of the occasions, he asked one of the girls, a goalkeeper to report in his room. With the rumour of how he has harassed the other girls into submission already rife in camp, she was so jittery. She fretted until the other coaches encouraged her to go and hear him out. She did. The offer was made to her which she politely rejected. She was so traumatised verbally and she got so confused. That was the day the team conceded the highest haul of goals in the championship. The team scored five goals and conceded six against Korea.
It would be recalled that we broke the story of how a board member of the Sani Lulu led administration in charge of women football was also fond of sleeping with the Super Falcons in the last African Women championships. On the day he had a marathon with the goalkeeper of the team, the nation lost the following day to a less fancied African opponent. There are long petitions against the official with the National Sports Commission (NSC) who till date is yet to be brought to book.
Nigeria had a first sex scandal in her sports in 1980 during the Moscow Olympics when a top rated African record holder in the short hurdles and who by her timing was expected to dust the Olympic title for her keep but came distant seventh, far away from the worst of her personal best. It was further shown later that sex in camp with officials was the result of her failure.

2011 ELECTION: A MALIAN WANTING TO BE NIGERIAN PRESIDENT?

INTRODUCTION:
Senator Gbemisola Ruqayyah Saraki, the first official female daughter of Dr Olusola Abubakar Saraki has declared her interest to be the next Governor of Kwara State. She just got married to beat the Sharia law. One question on the lips of those watching developments in the north central Nigerian state is if she will get a smooth sail to the Government House located on the Ahmadu Bello Avenue in Ilorin.
The one-term House of Representatives member (1999-2003), two-term Senator Gbemisola Ruqayyah Saraki (2003-2010), has to beat the other tough candidates in the PDP then face formidable opponents from the other parties.
Is she ready for the expectations of governorship or is she extending her luck thinking it is the anonymity of being a legislator moreso all she’s got before now was by virtue of being “daddy’s pet”. What about her brother the incumbent Kwara State Governor, Dr. Bukola Saraki, who is reportedly looking across her shoulder on who becomes the next Governor of the State. He taunted the sister saying: "I have the courage and the capacity to make bold my ambition and pursue it. I don't need the ridiculous pretence of instigating crowds to persuade or beg me to run, or to wait on mere good luck to be a contender."

WHERE GOETH KWARA IN 2011?
Like every reasonable Nigerian who hears of the interest of Gbemi Saraki, its like the people of Kwara won’t mind if Saraki siblings: Bukola, Gbemi, Laolu and one other lady including their children should rotate Kwara State governorship mantle among themselves.
It is taunted that if you are not an affiliate of Ilorin 'ruling house' (sometimes called “Ile-loke”), or you are not a Moslem, you don't have to smell any top government or get any executive positions. You must be “anointed” to get any elective or selective office in and from the state. This is obvious and everyone knows that including the beneficiaries as well. They sometimes even play it to your face with no apology.
The man is wont to say "I have not yet decided on who I will pick as candidate. I prayed to God that I wanted somebody who would take care of Kwara State for me," as if the state is his private estate. No doubt, Dr Abubakar Olusola Saraki deserves every respect. People can disagree with his style of politics. For his daughter at this time to nurse an unholy ambition to rule Kwara after eight years of her brother’s rule is greed.

A MALIAN WANTING TO BE NIGERIAN PRESIDENT?
To make the people of the state look stupid and mulish, they are wont to tell us that "he is from Mali and not Nigeria? He said he is a Fulani immigrant from Mali". There are no evidences that he has naturalized to be a Nigerian. Agreed that Nigeria allows dual citizenship how can a Malian want to rule Nigeria? Are there no more Nigerians in this country again?
I THINK and candidly too, that Dr Abubakar Olusola Saraki needs to take it easy, count his successes and enjoy the rest of his life for the hard labor he has put in building Kwara politics. As it was rightly pointed out by Uztas Saanu Shehu, an Islamic preacher in Ilorin, there must be a shift from Saraki to another area so as to allow capable hands outside the lineage to succeed the incumbent in 2011.
According to the cleric, "My own advice is that come 2011, let somebody else taste power outside the Saraki family. It is more honourable that way. This family has produced a House of Representatives member for four years, a Senator for eight years, and a Governor for eight years. So the most ideal thing now is to allow somebody else to do it outside that family." Anything outside of this box is playing God.
I know the oldman well. I have reported him for about 15 years. A shrewd and sly politician. His key followers have a slavish mentality. He successfully installed Kwara State governors since the 1970s to date. Without mincing words and being immodest, has played his part in Kwara to where it is today. He should allow a credible candidate to emerge to lead the state to the next level.

THE MEDIA AND THE CAMPAIGN:
Most Kwarans FEEL, THINK AND WANT a credible person to lead them. The question whether Senator Gbemisola Saraki has what it takes to succeed her brother, Bukola, as Kwara State Governor is a mathematical debate. Or, how much has Bukola succeeded in his task as governor? History is there to judge what his son has done in the State with the understanding that miracles would not happen anywhere in Nigeria, not even in Kwara, as situations had turned sour before the new leadership style in the State.
Gbemi has some natural qualities that people would admire. She is like complexioned, a beauty to behold, speaks the queen’s English, and is a diva in whatever she wears. She is brilliant writes with the left-handed. Many of my friends that are close to her relish that she is very warm in the heart.

BOTTOMLINE: Gbemi is not the right person to continue with the moving progressive train of the State of Harmony. I do not see her fit into that Kwara executive slot. She looks too innocent to wanting to step into the heat at this century of Kwara politics.
Kwara needs a visionary, progressive, down to earth individual to lead the State to the 'Promised Land'. Someone who knows Kwara in and out, committed, educated, devoted, caring for the community not the untouchable, none friendly, antagonistic to the poor community cosmetic uncaring individual to govern Kwara State.
Can she match the intimidating credentials of the former Bauchi and Osun State military administrator, Colonel Theophilus ‘Aduragbemi” Bamgboye? Can she stand besides any of the other candidates that had shown interest to rule Kwara? Candidly, which other candidate in the state can near the credentials of Colonel Bamgboye in terms of the identified values of our next governor? Without being immodest to the interest of other candidates like Dele Belgore (SAN), Architect Lola Ashiru, Architect Kale Belgore, Alhaji AbdulFatai Ahmed (Saraki’s Finance Commissioner), and Alhaji Isa Bio Ibrahim, the current sports minister I think we can do well and better by having a level playing ground for these other worthy Kwarans.

FEDERAL HIGH COURT CONTEMPT TRIAL AND FIFA LAWS

INTRODUCTION:
I took my time to become a ‘sports lawyer’ combing through all the laws and statutes of FIFA. I went through cases and case studies. Today, I am ready to say it without mincing words that Harrison Jalla is very right to have gone to court. The Federal High Court in Lagos is right to have decided the way she did. You may want to ask, why.
It is true that FIFA has all EXCLUSIVE powers and the last say on all matters of the laws of the game. FIFA has the final say on the technical matters of football including fixtures, match results, issues of disciplinary matters, etc

COURT MATTERS AND FIFA:
Let me in a haste say it loud. In the event of any conflict between FIFA and any of its affiliates. Where any such matters become controversial FIFA is expected to take a final decision. Where such affiliates is not satisfied with FIFA’s decision. It is ONLY the Court of Arbitration (CAS) in Lousanne, Switzerland that can intervene.
Any other matter that is not technical in nature but concerns INTERNAL issues of the member, FIFA DOES NOT HAVE THE POWER TO CONTROL IT. This is FIFA statute. The rationale? All FIFA members are registered as PRIVATE ORGANISATIONS and undertake their activities and businesses in accordance with the laws of the host nations.
It is trite eduction from the above to assume that the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) election CANNOT be entertained in a court of law. Like Yinka Adebayo once raised on my facebook page sometimes ago, I insist that the issue of the election DOES NOT belong to pure football business (as enunciated above);
It is as a result that FIFA, being a smart organization, will only observe and wait for the outcome and CANNOT interfere with any domestic court process or proceedings like we presently have on our hands. FIFA will only react IF and ONLY IF there is an incursion into its jurisdiction, football matters (matters of the laws of the game of football);

IMPORT:
It is necessary for uninformed persons that had been bamboozled by those who used to dangle FIFA sword of Damocles to be reminded that, given this findings, every one of FIFA’s national association members must operate within the laws of the contrary they are situated in, and that FIFA’s statutes on issues outside of the Laws of the Game cannot be superior to the laws of the country within which their members operate. FIFA itself operates under the laws of Switzerland where it’s headquarters is located.
Immediately, does matters of the processes of election, the election or ensuing other issues pertaining to the election qualify as internal issues of the member state? I think yes. Why? FIFA has general guidelines which she approves for members. They are not part of FIFA statutes.
It is strictly internal matter of the member nations. The electoral guidelines are unique to every nation but within the approval limit of FIFA.
These, therefore, mathematically are issues that bothers on the rights and privileges of its affiliate members and individuals including the leagues, fans, media, sponsors etc
In view of the foregoing, is NFF or its derivative agent, NFA a juristic person or not? If the Nigerian Premier League, a key affiliate is a juristic person then the NFF or NFA is a juristic person. Since the NFF or NFA is a creation of an existing law (decree 101 or Act 101) and its gets appropriation from the Nigerian National Assembly, then, she is a juristic person. As a juristic person, she can sue and be sued.

MISTAKES ARE GOOD FOR YOU!

I love asking questions. Do you know or even, agree with me, that we all need knowledge and skills to do well in life? Yet, when we do have these things, events don’t go our ways as expected. One other fact is, no one wants to make mistakes. Mistakes are usually seen as failure. We also do not realise that there is no rehearsals in life. So, if there are no opportunities for rehearsals in life, don’t you realise that mistakes are a basic part of making it in life?
The biggest lessons I have ever learned as a youngman, either as a journalist or as a sports consultant, as an athlete or as a lecturer has been from the greatest mistakes I have variously made. Luckily, I have a sort of parents who believe what you as an individual believes in. Even when they disagree with you, they will express their position and ask you what is your final position. When you insist, they’ll follow you. When you fall, they’ll help you up and say, we told you, what is your new path?
As parents, they give us the space and honour. If my dad wants you to do something for him, he’ll say, ‘Mr. Fash, can you please get me my newspapers?’ when you bring it for him, he returns with a smile, ‘thank you sir’. My friends marvel how ‘your dad uses sir for you people in your house.
When I started work, my first boss, Mr. Dapo Olorunyomi will equally use sir for you for even what you are paid to do. He makes you feel you are doing him a favour. I got so bugged in the virus and till date it has been a part of me. Honour people around you and they feel so secure with you. It is security that builds the wall of intimacy.
This is not different in the home. Honour your spouse so well as much as you will want to be honoured. The instruction of the bible to women to be submissive to their husbands is based on the theory of honour. When you honour people, does it not make your spirit submissive?
Most marriages I have studied carefully crashed, including my own first marriage, is because that ingredient is missing. Honour is the blood that drives most successful marriages and institutions in the world. A honourable person is so submissive in spirit. Submission does not make you stupid!
Submission brings you respect. No one wants to hurt or injure a submissive person. Have you noticed this fact? When you submit and honour yourself, it will not be difficult to submit to and honour others around whether they are your subordinates or superiors. It earns you respect and loyalty. A submissive person is never in anger. A submissive person stifles so many things.
Do not ever consider your spouse to make you the centre of his or her world. Everyman has a life to live. A client once complained bitterly, ‘his friends are so important to him, he jokes with people outside but once he gets inside the house, he goes dry like a bone. His work, his sports and his other activities are too important to him than me.’
In reality, it is true that NOTHING can near or be as important than a spouse. It is the actions and attitudes she interpretes as making these activities more important than she does. I begged her, when you get home, make your own spouse the most important part of your life and see that you are not going to get the result.
Now, start with yourself. Make yourself important to yourself. Honour and respect yourself. Submit to yourself. Give only what you have. What you don’t have, can you give? Your words, actions, attitudes and behaviour must show honour to your spouse. Do this simple mathematic for one week and let us see if there is any improvement.
She left my office disenchanted and disappointed. She came back a week later saying, after two days of her experimenting with what looked ordinary words to her, she was shocked when the husband asked, ‘its like you have changed?’
He was surprised at her new chemistry. He came back home the fourth day with a gift for her. The lawyer husband could not believe his wife is such that talks with him with so much honour and respect. He had no option than to reciprocate the same gestures. On one occasion, they went out together, he was so broke she had to bear the cost, before, she would pay. This particular day, she brought out the money, fixed it in the car port where he can pick it. He picked and paid. He was allowed to sustain the honour of being the man. He was so surprised and ever since then, they’ve been a wonderful couple. When I gave her the manuscript of this book, she wrote back: “I am not surprised!”
The world we live in is so full of dishonourable people. That is not enough to make us lose our senses of honour. Be different. Be outstanding. Honour people around you and realise how much joy you mean and bring to them. Yourself worth must be constantly so high at all times in all places.
One day, a man I so much respect and adore for being a support pillar called me to follow him to a meeting. On his way out, he bidded everyone bye. As he was to leave the house, he told his wife: “I may not be the richest man in Nigeria or in the world. I may be a success in all I do. One job I can tell you I want to be remembered for is the BEST HUSBAND TO MY WIFEY.”
Instantly, it was obvious to me, she not only felt coo, she was fulfilled inside her. Her security was guaranteed in front of a stranger. I asked the boss, ‘what was the statement meant to achieve?’. That woman? I will do everything on earth to ensure she never feels so bad for a moment, except I am not aware what I did made her bad.
I agree and know that they are a perfect couple. They will in the evening hours especially during weekends go on long neighbourhood strolls holding their hands like newly found love birds. This is known of them in the area where they live.
He told me, ‘she went out of her ways to prayer houses on my behalf. She honours me with everything she has. You know her parents are very rich. The wealth of her parents never one day ran into her head. I am a signatory to her accounts. Painfully, she is not to mine. She makes it look like I am the one who owns the whole money but the truth is, she is the source of my wealth.’
Uhm! The woman not only has a husband. She used her submissive nature to ‘buy’ a husband. No other value outside is enough to take the man out. Though, I know that he has some women outside but he keeps these other ones at a distance. Those words are securing.
‘I tell her these things in different ways virtually everyday. It is almost my own national anthem,’ he affirmed. You must express the value of the those you love preferably in words or in gift, sometimes in your own personal handwriting. Even to my children and staffers, I tell them how valuable they are to me. Their worth is what makes me what I am.
‘One day, my secretary sent me a text citing Psalm 139:15-16. Instantly, I changed it to: “Bimbo was not a mistake, for all her days are written in Ayo’s (my name) book.” I sent it to her and you cannot believe it that she felt so radiant and has never deleted it from her phone till date.”
When Chief Obafemi Awolowo referred and called his wife, Hannah, ‘my jewel of inestimable value’ what did you think he was doing? It is our own conduct that will make people respond to us the way we do. Hannah must have done too many things to her husband for him to be able to write such things. You know one thing, most men don’t pretend on issues like this. What he wrote about the wife most likely is the true situation he felt inside his mind and heart.




June 14th 1994
Dear social worker,
I am 62 years old, a retired civil servant having worked in government service for 36 years in the choicest offices of the land. I had very good education when it mattered most. I have Julianah my good wife from a good home near my village. She is my co-opted mother. We toiled and moiled together for 39 years.
Materially, by any standard now, I think I am comfortable. It contacts is the issue, I have the means to get anything I want in this country since I had good rapport with people everywhere I’ve worked ranging through the Planning and Budget department of the Federal Ministry of Finance, as Secretary to three regime’s Supreme Military Councils, the diplomatic service, Mines and Power etc
My beautiful wife gave me five children: Lanipekun 35, Ibidoja 33, George 32, Ifeanyi 29 and Mandela 24. All my children had everything they wanted that money can buy. We have the choicest houses in London, Lagos, Jos, Kaduna and my village.
Candidly, my only problem is my last child, Mandela. He is too aggressive, withdrawn and can’t explain himself by talking to people. Instead of expressing himself, he’ll get annoyd and become coldly quiet. He loves no other thing than his game of chess, scrabble, draft and early morning long jogging. His love for the opposite sex is very limited. He is brilliant in school, intelligent and well admired by people who come across him.
Some people confess that he is a special breed. He does not smoke nor drink alcohol. To that extent, we are friends. Many times, we don’t see eye to eye. He has a better rapport with his mother, that on its own is not adequate to understand Mandela.
Twice, we had to try to see if we can understand him from his only girlfriend, Edith. We were befounded when Edith said repeatedly amidst tears that she “does not understand him. At one point, he is so loving. At another, he is so moody. Many times, he loves being alone without any form of contacts all. I love him. He loves me so passionately but I can’t understand him’”
The problems we have with Mandela is unique to him. We never really had the same with his only sister, the second child in the house nor with his other brothers. Whereas, he had the best of everything to himself from school, cloth, money, gifts, and general comfort.
Another point we quarrel often over is the issue of church going. He is a complete rebel of a sort. The moment you seem to be tired of preaching to him, the moment he starts to go to church; When you want to silently express joy, he’ll stop. He has two cars to himself, yet he many atimes would trek to slum areas of the community where he cultured his friends from.
One evening, we had a slight difference. A minor one indeed compared to what we used to have or had had in the past. Suddenly, Mandela rose on his six feet frame and slapped me with his mother right there in the parlour. I felt humiliated. I felt defiled. I shed tears uncontrollably for days. I felt abomination. The mother was hysterical. The boy stormed out of the house for weeks without being reached.
The other children were told of the incident. They just came in at once. They pleaded individually and jointly with me not to take offence. I am still at loss. Why? In Yorubaland where I come from, its an abomination for a child to lay his or her hands on the parents. I prayed and fasted for him, yet, I can’t get answers. For five years now, I’ve been wondering.
I’ve tried to forgive Mandela. He is the child after my heart. I’ve tried to show him everything. He had severally apologised to me but the incident will not blot out of my mind. I’ve remained troubled. We still cannot appreciate Mandela uptil now.
Dear social worker, a family friend of ours, the Attahs, gave us your address to get in touch with you. We had tried to go to the United Kingdom with him to see if we can solve this same problem, he does not like travelling abroad at all. He is the only person in the house who had not travelled abroad in the last 15 years. What can we do? Please help us. We need help and QUICKLY too.
One thing is, you should open an office where we that are troubled can consult with you as they do in Europe. We need people like you now than ever in this country. We will wait for your magical touch. We’ve heard you’ve tackled even worse cases than ours. The Attahs revealed the whole lot you did for them. We are ready to spend everything we have to cure ourselves and Mandela of this problem. You may call me on this line.........and tell us how to locate you. We need the solutions urgently.
Thank you. We are eagerly waiting for you.
Yours sincerely.

THE FEDERAL HIGH COURT’S DECISION AND FIFA

By virtue of article 17(2): “A Member’s bodies shall be either elected or appointed in that Association. A Member’s statutes shall provide for a procedure that guarantees the complete independence of the election or appointment.” In view of the other subsisting articles in the FIFA statutes, the ONLY body that FIFA can recognise without any stress is the Board of the NFF before the election. (art. 17(3): Any Member’s bodies that have not been elected or appointed in compliance with the provisions of par. 2, even on an interim basis, shall not be recognised by FIFA.) So, what the NSC needs do is to work with the lawyers representing her interests in the FHC Lagos to help the court take a “reasonable and current” decision in tandem with Nigeria’s membership of FIFA. FIFA will only take an elected body or one appointed by its elected affiliates. So, the NSC can start to work behind the scene with the last Board.

THE FEDERAL HIGH COURT’S DECISION AND FIFA:
If the provisions of article 63(3) is anything to go by, the decision of the Federal High Court in Lagos may stand but the court has to be helped to reach a clear cut acceptable decision, viz, order the return of the Board that was in place as at when the election took place. That is what FIFA will recognize and yet, allow us to keep our face internationally and within the political releance of government in Nigeria. This is important.
This provisions cover the grounds whereupon it is not considered “football matters” which any other court can exercise her jurisdiction: 63(3) “CAS, however, does not deal with appeals arising from:
(a) violations of the Laws of the Game;
(b) suspensions of up to four matches or up to three months (with the exception of doping decisions);
(c) decisions against which an appeal to an independent and duly constituted arbitration tribunal recognised under the rules of an Association or Confederation may be made.

VII. ARBITRATION 45
4. The appeal shall not have a suspensive effect. The appropriate FIFA body or, alternatively, CAS may order the appeal to have a suspensive effect.
5. FIFA is entitled to appeal to CAS against any internally final and binding doping-related decision passed by the Confederations, Members or Leagues under the terms of par. 1 and par. 2 above.
6. The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) is entitled to appeal to CAS against any internally final and binding doping-related decision passed by FIFA, the Confederations, Members or Leagues under the terms of par. 1 and par. 2 above.
7. Any internally final and binding doping-related decision passed by the Confederations, Members or Leagues shall be sent immediately to FIFA and WADA by the body passing that decision. The time allowed for FIFA or WADA
to lodge an appeal begins upon receipt by FIFA or WADA, respectively, of the internally final and binding decision in an official FIFA language.

Article (64)1 provides for the conditions when matters of the game CANNOT go to a civil court. A careful examination shows exemption here. Now, the courts MUST be obeyed. The Court’s decision can be helped to be in tandem with the situations acceptable in the game;
(1) The Confederations, Members and Leagues shall agree to recognise CAS as an independent judicial authority and to ensure that their members, affiliated Players and Officials comply with the decisions passed by CAS. The same obligation shall apply to licensed match and players’ agents.
2. Recourse to ordinary courts of law is prohibited unless specifically provided for in the FIFA regulations.
3. The Associations shall insert a clause in their statutes or regulations, stipulating that it is prohibited to take disputes in the Association or disputes affecting Leagues, members of Leagues, clubs, members of clubs, Players,

46 VII. ARBITRATION
Officials and other Association Officials to ordinary courts of law, unless the FIFA regulations or binding legal provisions specifically provide for or stipulate recourse to ordinary courts of law. Instead of recourse to ordinary courts of law, provision shall be made for arbitration. Such disputes shall be taken to an independent and duly constituted arbitration tribunal recognised under the rules of the Association or Confederation or to CAS.

PROACTIVITY:
1. It is a fact that the tenure of the last board before the election terminated on the 28th August 2010. Given the position of the Nigerian law, with a subsisting injunction in place, it is trite law that that board is the one in place.
2. That is the ONLY board that FIFA will recognize if the law of the land and the order of the court will be obeyed and respected;
3. The order of the court is clear in sacking the Congress alongside the Board she elected; By eduction, there is no congress in place. It is only logical too since FIFA laws DOES NOT have room for a caretaker structure. The only way out is return the last Board; The Board can now write FIFA to ask for extension of its tenure, which also by precedence in FIFA is automatically one year, expected to lapse by the 28th August 2011; Then, draw up its time table of transition;
4. Once the State FA elections are undertaken, the Congress is thereby in place to ratify all these other actions of the Executive Committee;
5. The NSC upon getting the Board back by the order of court on the 24th September 2010, whereby, the papers are supposed to be prepared by Jalla’s and the NSC Counsel, in ‘helping the court reach the correct decision’. These papers have to be discussed IMMEDIATELY and filed on Monday to prepare the mind of the court to appropriately giving the decision;
6. With the Board in place, other details and modalities will fix in. (These may not be healthy to put on paper);

THESE ARE MY CANDID VIEWS AND POSITIONS.

OBINNA OGBA, EX-NFF VICE PRESIDENT, EXPLODES

*NFF CONSISTENTLY LIED TO FIFA ON MANY ISSUES
*WE MADE OVER N1.2B YEARLY FROM SPONSORSHIP
*LULU IS STILL IN CONTROL OF AFFAIRS
*FIFA KNEW OF COURT ORDER
Obinna Ogba in an exclusive chance interview in Abuja yesterday was not willing to talk saying “time is not ripe yet” but a little more pressure made him to yield and the outcome was quite explosive. Enjoys the interview unedited as was delivered:
NIGERIANS THINK THE NEW BOARD OF THE NFF ELECTED IN 2010 IN ABUJA IS ILLEGAL. THERE WAS A LAGOS COURT INJUNCTION SERVED ON YOUR BOARD WHICH ALHAJI AMINU MAIGARI SIGNED FOR, YOUR BOARD IGNORED THE COURT AS IF SAYING ‘DO YOUR WORST’. IS THE NFF SUPERIOR TO THE COURTS OF THE LAND?
Well, it is true that the election has come and gone. As a politician, I have personally taken it in good faith. Its true that there a Lagos court order served on the NFF board. I am aware that former Super Eagles player, Chikelue Iloenyoesi served the injunction on Alhaji Aminu Maigari. The Assistant Secretary General of the federation presented it at our last board meeting.
Based on the premise that the present federal government under President Goodluck Jonathan respects and stresses its official mantra in the rule of law, board members reasoned and all agreed that the election be postponed on that ground. It was part of our communiqué. The Congress vetoed it. Remember too that the congress is the highest organ of decision in the game;
The Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Chief Patrick Ekeji, even called myself, the then acting President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari, and Dominic Iorfa to advise the NFF board to obey and respect the court order. They wrote us in that effect and left us to take the decision.
IS IT TRUE THAT YOUR BOARD REFUSED TO LET FIFA KNOW THAT THERE WAS AN INJUNCTION OF COURT ON YOU?
That may not be too true. There was an advocacy that the board should keep quiet and refuse to tell FIFA about the court order. Here, let me tell you, a member of the board, Dr Peter Singabele, met with the CAF and FIFA observers and let them know of the court order which he showed them. In principle, FIFA was aware of the court order but a clique of people hiding under the cloak of FIFA decided to manipulate the congress to ignore the court and conducted the election.
EX-INTERNATIONALS LIKE ALL THOSE WHO SIGNED THE IMPEACHMENT OF LULU, OGUNJOBI AND UCHEGBULAM GOT “VOTED OUT”. CAN THESE BE MERE COINCIDENCE?
As a politician, I knew all along that election is a game of numbers. The former leadership of the board under Alhaji Sani Lulu had the delegates in their firm grips. Their loyalty to him is 100%. He dictated the outcome of the election. No two ways about it. I have no regrets about how we got to where we got to. I can’t spit and go back to lick the spit. I have a name to protect. The impeachment was done to save Nigeria’s face and Nigerian football. Nigerians wanted and applauded what we did.
For those who spit on the ground and went begging on their chest and licked their spittle in the process, so be it. None of us that signed the impeachment returned. It’s okay. I wish the others will take it in good faith and watch the proceeding. Its only change that is permanent in life. Something will soon happen. Watch out.
Many people in football in Nigeria today are jobless. Football administration is their full time job. They can’t survive outside of football. To me, it’s a hobby. I’ve returned to my politics and business.
Candidly, we needed to have used the will of the sports minister, Ibrahim Bio, to have gotten it right once and for all. We have squandered it. This opportunity may not come our way again. Anyhow, at worst, four years is by the corner.
DO YOU AGREE THAT ALL OF YOU IN THE LAST BOARD ARE FAILURES?
I honestly feel that comment may not be fair. I happen to be the Chairman of the Marketing and Sponsorship Committee in the last board. We generated in a year about N1.2billion. Though, how the money is spent is another thing altogether. No FA board has achieved this volume of successes before us.
IS IT TRUE THAT YOUR BOARD HAD IN EXCESS OF N7.85BILLION INCOME FROM INTERNALLY GENERATED FUNDS, FIFA AND FROM THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT?
By now I hope the EFCC would have gone deep enough into the matter. I hope they will be able to make public their findings. They will know the individual involvement as it concerns money. I was just a board member. I do not have approval limits or powers. Mine is to attend meetings and contribute my quota and return to my state. I don’t know who much was generated.
I also know that a lot of monies came into the coffers of the NFF during our tenure. Our board participated in all FIFA, CAF and WAFU competitions. These will require so much money to prosecute. I am not defending anybody but I also do know that most of the things that was done during our time did not pass or get approval of the board. The records are there to show.
For instance, when we returned from the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, the President told us there was no money to pay the legitimate allowances of board members. We believed him. Only for the EFCC to freeze our account and getting to know how much was there. It baffled us.
DO YOU HAVE CONFIDENCE IN THE EFCC GETTING TO THE ROOT OF THE INVESTIGATION AND PROSECUTION OF THE FRAUD DURING YOUR BOARD’S TENURE?
The EFCC should always find a way to conclude not just investigation but also prosecution of financial crimes committed, not just in football but everywhere. That is the only way we can grow as a nation.
I have problems with the last board. We are all aware of the fact that decree 101 is an existing law. It is on the strength of that the National Assembly appropriates funds for the NFF.
Our board lied to FIFA that decree 101 has been repealed. This is not true. This is fraud. For government to have put money in the NFF, tax payers’ money, she has a right to ask how the monies are spent. That does not amount to government interference. This is a part of the primary duty of good governance.