GEJ Steps down for Siasia ?

Which is more important? The state of the national economy or the football status of a nation? That is a million dollar question.

Sia one failed to fulfill the terms of his contract so he must go. I wonder, does GEJ have any contract that his performance can be benchmarked with?

Every day, on many Radio/TV stations, we discuss sports/football with a passion. Yet I don’t get to hear agriculture or education (except on Wale Micaiahs blog taken the front burner). Let me confess, I love football but not more than the national economy or issues.

Football is now the opium of the people. If it is our birth right to go to the nations cup and get to the semi-final then it is also our birth right to have access to basic amenities and infrastructure.

Can the NFA lawyer draw a contract for the President, Governors and other political office holders? Can we have a yardstick to determine if a President, Governor, LGA Chairman and others deserve to be retained or fired after a given period of time?

I wish GEJ has 2 years to build 2 refineries, generate 10,000 megawatts, prosecute 100 corrupt politicians, fix the railway system or he losses his job. I wish the Minister of Education has a KPI to determine if he will remain after a year in office. While 10,000 megawatts is the semi-finals of the Nations cup, 3,000megawatts could be the equivalent of qualifying for the Nations cup.

I also wish qualification for the Nations cup, World cup, Olympic etc was not based on a qualifying round but on certain governance parameters……..hmmmmm.

If we miss 4 Nations cup due to poor governance then we will get the kind of uproar that greeted the dismal performance of the Eagles (please, Super is for Tunisia ‘94 set only) culminating in the missing of 2012 African Cup of Nations!

You know what will follow. They will sit up or be shaped out.

At least if Nigeria will not be there Niger will get our support.

Paradox of the Overaged Underage

I wrote this piece while watching the Falconets of Nigeria play against the USA team.

In spite of how interesting the match was, my mind kept wandering back to the last world cup and the dismal performance of the Green Eagles (super????).

At the senior world cup where there are no age restrictions; teams like Germany, Ghana etc came with teams with an average age ranging between 22-24. Nigeria came with a team with an average age of 27-29 years. Recent developments tend to show that it takes more than old age / experience to win or perform well in international tournaments. It also requires youthfulness and strength

At age-grade competitions, some countries are world famous for using “overage” players. These countries usually perform excellently at such competitions using “experienced players”. The irony of it is that when these players are supposed to blossom and mature with time in subsequent senior tournaments, the players become tired-legs, “expired” and no longer effective.

The irony is that these same countries bring tired-legs to tournaments with no age restrictions and perform woefully. Perhaps the football leadership of these countries have forgotten that the purpose the age group competition is to identify talents early and encourage football development. The objective of the tournament to member countries should not be primarily to win but ensure that talents are discovered and nurtured to maturity over some periods of time. While it is desirable to win under 17 and under 21 competitions, the method should not be through the use of overage players but through proper preparation and having under 13, 15 clinics and competitions to discover talents which abound in the Nation.

In 1989, the great Pele predicted that “Uncle Godwin Okpara” would become one of the best players in the world by virtue of what he displayed on the pitch. Luis Figo played in that same competition but nothing was said of him, but you and I know Figo became a shining star before he retired from active football. One commentator said regarding Mikel Obi in 2005, “this ‘boy’ plays with a charisma of an experienced and exposed player. He holds the ball and makes excellent passes”. Mikel and Taiwo eventually became 2nd and 3rd best players of the tournament behind Lionel Merci. Today, five (5) years after, Merci is world best. Our dear brothers are probably African or Nigerian best (sorry if I hurt you).

All major towns and cities should by now have a secondary school that focuses on football and athletics generally. Regular competitions should be organized between them at State and National levels under the watchful eyes of the national team coaches. I sincerely hope that a “good” coach will be hired for the national team with a 4-year term contract. Quality friendly matches should also be organized for eagles i.e. against Germany, Holland, Argentina, Spain etc as against poorly rated teams to expose the real weakness and strength of our teams.

I look forward to seeing the green eagles “super” again.

Written by Oluyemi Adeosun

Focusing on the Fundamentals

Written by TM Oluyemi Adeosun

We need a leader who we can identify with not on the basis of tribe, tongue, political party and religious affiliation but on his the capacity to understand the fundamental challenges we are facing as a people/nation, identify the strengths and numerous potentials within the nation as a result generate and implement ideas that could harness these potentials to deliver our nation from the doldrums of poverty and ineptness/ineptitude.

I am bored with newspaper report about zoning, northern, eastern or minority agenda. My challenge is not and will never be where the president comes from but lack of electricity, infrastructural decay, monolithic economy, educational decadence, the beast called corruption etc

Earlier in this administration, we had a manifesto built on 7-point Agenda covering all basic and essential aspects of the Nigerian lives – according to the ruling party. (you could mention the 7 points). But one thing that was lost amidst the propaganda and braggadocio was the absence accountability and a measuring scale what has been done from day one the campaign started. Now, 7-point agenda seems dead or out rightly dead. Imagine if each point were taken as a project with milestones and deadlines! Imagine if Minister of Power had a mandate to deliver 1000Mega Watt as his KPI! Imagine if Minister of Education need to ensure less failure in National exams before he gets his next project approved. Imagine if the Minister of Labour was appraised on the number of jobs created in three (3) months! Imagine what I am imagining!

It has been recommended that we perhaps should focus on one agenda and see it to a logical conclusion i.e. electricity. If an administration can make uninterrupted electricity available to all Nigerians, we can name all transformers after the president as a memorial. Providing this critical resource will have a multiplier effect on all aspect of the socio-economic milieu. SMEs will thrive and more jobs will be created. In our individual lives, I believe this is one step we can take now and likewise have an overwhelming impact on our entire lives.

Our multifaceted developmental problems may appear to require multi-dimensional strategy to face it headlong. In each sector, we can identify one project that will provide succor on multiple fronts to the citizenry of this great nation.

I wish the government or minister of transport can select the railway sub sector and connect the hinterland with the cities. I.e. connect Lagos to all the major towns in the southwest i.e. Ibadan, Abeokuta, Ijebu-ode,Sagamu with high speed train systems. This will mean you don’t have to live in Lagos to work in Lagos (population distribution). This will result to the over hiked price of rents in Lagos to fall to realistic levels (reduced housing problem). Jobs will be created for train drivers and officers (employment generation). Income will be generated by the train operators. What interest me the most is that our roads will last longer since their will be less traffic on the road (traffic decongestion and cost savings). Heavy duty goods will be moved more through the rails than the roads.

The above illustration is simple and anybody can think about it. The big question is will someone implement it?

We need a leader with the capacity to think and deploy solutions using native intelligence and indigenous personnel. To some extent Lagos has shown us what a strong will can do. We need a thinking President, 36 thinking Governors and 774 thinking Local government Chairmen. (108 Senators, 3XX Reps, XYZ Commissioners, XYZ Councilors) We must embrace the process of beneficiation i.e. Add value to the raw materials before exporting them. We are well endowed we just need to put on our thinking cap, implement and start prospering.

Road Map to National Development

“Anybody saying it can’t be done is liable to be interrupted by somebody doing it. Nothing is impossible to the human spirit. Just dare” Anon

How are we going to get to the promise land? This is the question people of faith ask. Yes the skeptics simply say it can’t be done. People of faith want to know their role. The part they have to play….their contribution. What is the roadmap to our economic breakthrough?

We have looked outward to long. By now we should have realized that our help is not from abroad. We need to look upward and inward. Real help is in our midst. What we can get at best from abroad are mere shadows and not substances. Temporary and short-lived reliefs are not permanent solutions. Charity they say begins at home. We need not fight globalization. All we need to do is to make our products and services global in usefulness and relevance.

Can you conceive a tomorrow where your shirt will not be regarded as modern or standard if it is not made from Adire or Aso-oke. I know someone is saying this guy has gone bananas. Believe it we need to adjust our mindset to change our lot. When GSM was introduced into the country they said it was not possible. An indigenous company made it a reality!

Do we need more respect then we need to accord it to ourselves. We need to stop going to international meetings with cap in hand begging for alms. We have got to help ourselves. We have to live within our means. The starting point is by appreciating what we have gotten at our disposal right now. All we need to do is to repackage and rebrand our products.

We have to break from this vicious cycle of poverty. Vicious by the way means self sustaining. It is self sustaining because it is powered by habit i.e. the things we do daily. We need to make a conscious effort to break into the cycle of wealth. This too is sustained by habits.

We need to change our consumption, investment and saving patterns. It is not really about how much money enters how hands but how much we are able to save and invest. Poor People or nations usually claim that they don’t save and invest because they are unable to earn good income. The rich people and nations save and invest a fixed proportion of their income no matter how meager or fat.

Another area where we need urgent change is in our housing and rent structure. In developed world, you do not pay 2 years rent in advance like we do here. Rent should be paid on a monthly or quarterly basis. Imagine how much money you will free up for investment if we follow a similar pattern. I hope the house of assembly or representative will address the issue.

Nigeria - Prophecy Vs Invention

I have always believed that there is nothing so bad about 3rd world. The world hasn’t stopped, so the fact that we are third world, simply implies that when the positions were scored, we were third. There is nothing wrong with that. He who is third today has the benefit of learning from the 1st and the 2nd. If the 1st runs into a ditch, the second will avoid the ditch and so will the 3rd. If the second runs into a ditch, the 3rd still has a 3rd chance. It means also that the opportunities we have to get back up after we have screwed up is more. Can someone say to someone - “there is nothing bad with being ranked as 3rd world”.
However, there is something wrong with staying 3rd world, and heading in the wrong direction. It means for as long as life exists, we would never be anything better than 3rd world. The question that ought to bother us as a nation and as individuals, is where is our nation heading. I will not worry about the details of the speed, or the stretch of our movement if direction is uncertain. It is only a fanatic that doubles speed when direction is unsure. I am a student of prophecy and by extension a son of the tribe of Issachar, I am also a student of creativity, and believe that where the future prophesied future seems bleak, another can b
e invented.
Here are some key indexes for determining the future of our nation and easy fixes for ensuring we invent the one we desire.
1. Individual Vs National Development: When the MD of General Motors became a Minister in America, he was asked an integrity question. He was asked if he could endorse good policies that would adversely affect General Motors in any way. He responded, that while he would seek to uphold the good of the American people above that of his company, he doubts seriously that there will ever be any good policy that will affect GM negatively. He said that all the while he was MD, he had always ensured that whatever he was doing was not only good for GM but good for America. Hear this loud and clear. Until the decisions of individuals in Nigeria both in public, private and in no office starts to consider the good of the Nation, Nigeria will never be great. Until individual progress can be connected with National progress, there will be no National progress. Where are we facing in these regards? The wrong direction. Today, people can rise to the top of the economic food chain without having a thought about National development. Where does that kind of direction lead to? Extremely rich and extremely poor, no middle class, dying nation.
2. Dependence Vs Interdependence: One of the key elements sinking America today, is that America has developed itself into a nation of dependents. There are too many people depending on the government for social security and retirement settlement. America has developed an entitlement generation, people who believe that they are entitled to what does not exist. The entire social security and retirement benefit system is a huge ponzi scheme, and the populace does not even understand what lies head or what a ponzi scheme is. The Nigerian is fast brining itself out of a situation where all federal government workers believe that the government will take care of them till they die, the structures of pensions and gratuities is quickly being repositioned to what makes sense even in the private sector. While this is happening gradually, many still do not understand fully, that their lives now lie in their hand, not only in pension allocation, but generally. The government is not responsible for Nigeria - Old Nigeria or New Nigeria. We are not entitled to what we had in the 1960s and 70s where we were running systems that have begun to fail globally. If Nigeria will ever be better or change, it’s going to be by the effort of the individuals. No matter how good the government is, no matter how leader the leader, we will never be entitled to what we don’t take conscious ownership of. Just like your personal financial intelligence guarantees your future, so does you personal national input guarantee your future in the New Nigeria. We need to be a nation of volunteers, of people who ask not what their country can do for them, but ask what they can do for their country.
3. Producer Vs Consumer: The Jones’ make a monthly salary of N100,000 but have a monthly budget of N250,000! What do you think will happen to the Jones’? If you said, go bankrupt, get into slave trade, become beggars or become extinct you are not far from the truth. They will end up somewhere within that matrix, depending on how many years after. As a nation, we are no different from the Jones’. We are consuming more than we are producing. Or rather, we are consuming… because I struggle to remember what we are producing. What type of encouragement do we need to patronize our own local businesses? What encouragement do we need to wear made in Nigeria clothes? What motivation do we need to buy our products? Do we first need to run aground and be back down before we look up? The direction that consumes more than it produces ends up extinct.
4. Money Making Vs Value Creation: Who are the richest people in Nigeria? That might be a difficult one, I think a better question is who are the billionaires in Nigeria? What work are they doing, and what value can the average poor man boldly claim to derive from them? Are they into Financial Services? What value are they adding to the economy? Are they funding SME’s or are they collaborating to fund non Nigerian companies? Are they financing the real sector, or are they trading stocks… or monkeys? Are they oil barons or are they in the oil and gas sector? Are they drilling oil and adding value to it and to the populace, or are they selling raw materials, buying finished products and selling us more of what we should need less of? Are our rich men creating value? But I thought money making was a function of value creation, how wrong was I. It is possible to make money without creating value, it’s called bad money. I understand from history as well, that when bad money shows up, good money goes into hiding. If we promote and encourage money making without addition of visible value, the voice of value adding initiatives will be suppressed.
The direction we face as a nation is clear. It’s the direction different from the one we should be facing. We should stop blaming the government, it’s not the government’s fault. It is all our fault. The government has too long been the destination of bastard blames, leave the government alone. We are overrating the importance and power of politicians, they are vital, but can’t do it alone. If you have anything to offer Nigeria, make it known. In the days of God’s power, there shall be volunteers.

written by deolu akinyemi
www.deoluakinyemi.com