29 years later, Who remembers this IYC song?
I was in Abuja, on my way to the airport when this song came to me from nowhere. I mean, from absolutely nowhere.
Its a song from my childhood days and it came to me very suddenly.
Such was the clarity (none of those 'Kai, I dont remember this word') it felt like I was singing it along with other children, only yesterday.
This made me think i just had to share.
There's got to be someone who remembers this song
International Year of the Child/
International Year of the Child/
A year of faith/
A year of hope/
A year of dedication/
1979 we hail thee!/
1979 we hail there!/Who else remembers? It cant be just me, surely.
And what memories does it stir up for you
NFA's bungling merry-go-round
Is there some curse on whoever and whichever group moves into the Glass House that they must lose all sense of logical reasoning?
I am sitting in Abuja and being a very interested spectator in the comedy of errors that is the process of appointing a new coach for the Super Eagles.
Okay, scratch that. Its a new assistant coach for the Super Eagles. No, I meant to say, just coaches for the national team.
Are you as confused as I am?
Well, thats exactly how confused the folks trying to appoint somebody, anybody for the national team are.
The exercise which took place on Wednesday was ostensibly to select a replacement for Berti Vogts. But constrained by a contract they signed (I will charitably assume they did so blindfolded--nothing else explains it) with the German, the NFA have got themselves tied up in knots.
On Wednesday, Committee chairman Taiwo Ogunjobi was quoted as saying that they were only going to appoint assistant coaches.
This, inspite of Sunday Oliseh making it clear he had applied for the top job and nothing less. Same with Stephen Keshi.
So what is the problem really.
It all boils down to a comprehension deficit from the Glass House. Either that, or the people were in so much of a hurry to pander to the wishes of the masses, they failed to sit down and look at the document they signed in the first place.
By the way, these are the same people who harp on about following 'due process'.
Here are the REAL FACTS of this whole sorry situation.
1. The NFA held a series of meetings in Ghana prior to and after the 2-1 quarterfinal loss.
2. At the meetings prior to the QF, there was a consensus that Vogts was not the man to take Nigeria to the 2010 World Cup
3. Consequently, it was decided that Vogts will be asked to go, especially if he failed to make the semifinals. A consensus was also reached that th enext coach would be local.
4. After the defeat in Ghana, the NFA were poised to announce Vogts' dismissal (without recourse to his contract), but were advised, with barely an hour to spare, that the contract stipulated a 30-day notice in the event of dismissal.
5. The NFA subsequently did an about-turn at the world press conference where his dismissal was to be announced.
6. On arrival in Nigeria, the Sports Minister asked the NFA to hold on before sending the German his notice.
7. After holding on for a while, the FA then sent out the notice.
8. After receiving the notice, Vogts lawyer came out with a statement saying that ' because of the behaviour of the NFA during and after the Nations Cup, further co-operation with the NFA was impossible.'
9. Vogts lawyers then followed this up with a letter to the Nigeria Sports Commission (NSC) acknowledging the notice sent to him.
10. Somehow, this acknowledgement letter was misconstrued as a 'resignation letter'. And Vogts' statement to the international media was interpreted as a breach of the confidentiality clause in his contract, even though he made no reference to the letter.
11. Meanwhile, up until the NFA board meeting on Thursday, most NFA board members had not seen the purported resignation letter.
12. Yet, the recruitment exercise for a new coach was initiated on the basis of the fact that Vogts had resigned.
13. When it dawned on the NFA that they were stepping on quicksand by starting a recruitment process when the 30-day notice was yet to expire, Ogunjobi came up with that statement of 'interviewing assistant coaches'
14. By Thursday morning, prior to the board meeting, the tune had changed. Now they were just interviewing coaches for the national teams. Comical.
But what was the hurry? What stopped the FA from waiting until the 30-day notice had expired?
In light of our catastrophic failures in the past, why not hand over the process over to a reputable consulting agency?
Now, our 'wise men' once again find themselves in a quagmire of their own making and are desperately looking for a way out.
From where I sit, there is none to be seen.
And Egypt claim No 6, but what happened to Eagles?
Neither of the two teams in the Final of the 26th African Nations Cup were my choices, and as a matter of fact, I watched the game as a neutral without supporting either side.
I would probably have preferred both teams to lose.
Oh well. . .
My choice of winners, after Nigeria were booted out in somewhat humilating fashion, would have been Ivory Coast. But they imploded against Egypt, and again in the third place match against Ghana.
Well, its come and gone, and that it.
I have been inundated by calls to speak up on the inside details of what went wrong in the Nigeria camp.
All I can say is that I will, in the next few days. Right now, I am putting my thoughts together.
What I want to do is examine the whole situation with a clear head.
I am in a position where I have good relations with the players, the coach and with certain people in the FA, and there is blame on every side.
What I will do is sit down and do everything with a clear head and not the knee-jerk thing we have been subjected to all over the place.
Besides, I have obligations to folk who pay me for these thoughts and they must come first.
What I can promise though, is that I will do what needs to be done without fear of favour.
THAT, You can take to the bank!
In-flight jitters
This post should have been made at least two weeks ago, but maybe I am still to recover.
Flying has never been a problem for me, despite all the crashes we have had in Nigeria. Whenever I get on a plane, I hand myself over to God's protection, and to His glory, he has been kind and kept me safe.
Of course I feel the normal take-off butterflies everytime(who doesnt), but that is usually about it.
This tim however, I endured the worst experience of my flying lfe.
It ws on JAn 16, on my way to Accra for the African Nations Cup. The flight was virgin Nigeria.
Usually, I do my ablutions (err, and this includes everything else you do in the 'white house') before I leave home every morning.
On this day however, I needed to catch that flight--it was for 7am. When you leave where I leave (Ajah) and you have to be at the Murtala Mohammed Airport by 7am, you leave by 5:30am at the very latest.
So I left the number one as I didnt have time for it.
When we gotto cruising altitude, I decided to go do my 'business' in the head, as I had become so uncomfy I was sitting on one nyansh.
Wrong timing.
Almost as soon as I started, we hit the worst kind of turbulence imgaginable!
The aircraft was climbing and droping at an alarming rate. Of course, everything went back in.
One big dive had me feeling like I was going through the roof.
But I told myself that noway on God's good earth was I going to get out of that place without wiping and washing my hands, not even when the hostess announced that 'the gentleman in the lavatory should please come out and take his seat and fasten his seatbelt."
My first thought was how on earth she knew it was a gentleman in there. I quickly looked up to see if there was a hidden camera somewhere.
I barely had time to steady myself as we took another really big roll.
The planned climed, and I felt like I ws going to go through the floor.
This time, her announcement was for everyone to take the emergency position and await further instructions.
Luckily, the aircraft steadied a bit, which allowed me time to do the necessary and step out, and quickly take the first seat I could find, which was just in front of the loo.
By that time, I was sweating buckets, and happy to just sit down. Most folks were in the emergency position, and I quickly followed suit.
The plane continued to dance ajasco as as the pilot fought his way through the turbulence.
I didnt have the liver to go back in there, and waited patiently until we were back on good ole terra firma.
Whew!!!!
When two Elephants fight
There's plenty of football to go around with just 10 days to the African Nations Cup so on my return to bloggin duties, let me drift in a diferent direction.
Okay, I'll admit there is a bit of football to it (no be there my garri dey? LOL), but it is essentially more than that.
Its the fight for the contents of my wallet by DSTV and HiTV, two of the major cable TV providers in Nigeria.
As Africans, we all know the saying that whenere two elephants fight, its the grass that suffers. Well, in this case, its a bit of both. Some parts of the grass are suffering, the other part is having a ball.
But down to the nitty gritty. I want to do a comparison of these two and I am going into this because a friend of mine was in my house recently and saw me using both and asked if I could recommend HiTV on the basis of my usage.
My answer was to tell him in similar words, what I am about to post here.
I got my DSTV a long time ago, so I am going to keep initial costs out of this, even though I got my HiTV at the total promo cost of N25, 000 (frankly, I wouldnt have bought it otherwise).
Another reason why i decided to add HiTv is because I found out that cost-wise, I was spending about the same, or even more more money than the subscription fee going to see games at bars than I would if I just pay the bloody subscription.
Reason is because I usually take energy drinks when I go out, and the least I pay for one of those is N400. Over a 90 minute spell, I end up with between 3 and 4 cans. A N1200, over a one-month period, I would have been set back about N4800 in a month. An this is not counting fuel for my car, etc.
Back to the comparison.
DSTV subscription is N9500. HiTV is N4000.
DSTV has over 60 channels, plus about 20-odd audio channels.
HiTV has 15 channels, out of which one (Hi-Sports 2) only comes up at weekends. So that makes 14, abi na 14 and half.
Of HiTv's 15 Channels, Sky News, BBC news and E! are also avialable on DSTV.
Hi-Mix is the equivalent of DSTV's Series Channel, and loses hands down.
Hi Nolly is their own answer to Africa Magic. I dont watch Nigeria home videos but my wife, and one colleague in the office are afficionados, and they swear by Africa Magic.
Infact, because AM is a no-go area for me on my DSTV, I set the HiTv to Hi-Nolly for them. But they all refuse to watch the Hi Nolly films and prepare to wait until I am out to work and then dig into Africa Magic.
So, on the basis of second hand experience, I would say DSTv again takes that one.
Nigezie is a Nigerian music channel and would be said to be the alternative to Channel O. I would call that one a draw, even though Channel O offers a wider range of quality content
Hi Kids has nothing on the DSTV equivalents.
Hi Soccer and Hi Soccer 2 are HiTv's flagship channels as they carry the English Premier League that has made them top competitors with DSTV'S SuperSport.
But in answer to that, Supersport have claimed other leagues and now have matches for the UEFA Champions League (a real biggie), French Ligue 1, the English FA Cup, the Carling Cup, the Portuguese League, Serie A, the Nigeria Premier League and a major competition like the African Nations Cup (another major body blow for HiTv).
What this has done is to split the market. Where DSTV enjoyed a monopoly in the past with the EPL and other properties, HiTv is left with just the EPL, the Spanish La Liga and selected UEFA Cup games.
As for picture quality, DSTV is infinitely better than HiTV.
I have also experienced serious issues with my HiTV decoder in that it scrambles frequently and has to be switched off and turned back on at the mains for it to start working properly again.
A friend with close relations to HiTv told me that the problem was that they had a lot of substandard decoders supplied to them and are working to replace them. He advised me to go back to my dealer and exchange the old decoder for a new one. So far, I havent done so, yet. But I plan to.
In summary, I would say that for my money's worth, over 80 channels of quality TV at N9500 is a better deal than 15 channels at N4000.
Some may say I am saying this because i work for a company with close affiliations to DSTV. Guilty as charged, but the bottom line is that facts are facts.
Which reminds me, can someone please explain this statement 'Not every fact is the truth'
Thats a HiTV line in their radio commercial and I dont know if I am slow, but I cant for the life of me, fathom what that implies.
As far as I know, fact are facts. Simple. And a fact can be twisted to suit a context, but a fact has got to be true, o therwise it is not a fact.
I mean, doesnt the very nature of a 'fact' make it true?
Anyway, like I said, unless you are a real English Premier League fanatic, there is really little reason to dump your DSTV for Hi TV.
You are better of doing what I did. Keep your DSTV, and use the HiTv to supplement it, on weekends for EPL games.
Thats what I told my friend.
Good news for me now is that I am off to the ANC in a week, and wont be back until February, and since no one at home will be interested in soccer, I dont have to pay any subscription fee for nearly two months.
Last weekend was FA Cup weekend, so I had my footie dose from SSport.
By the end of the EPL season in May, I wont have to pay again for another two or three months until August, so I get the best of both worlds.
Now you know.
Wonder kid Rabiu Ibrahim
Last week I was in Abuja, and I saw the Under 17s play to a 2-2 draw against the U23s. Playing a starring role in that game was new wonderkid Rabiu Ibrahim, who has just signed for Sporting Lisbon.
To say Ibrahim was impressive is stating the obvious, so let me state the unobvious. I noticed the beginnings of something I hope can be nipped in the bud right here and now: Its the start of what I call 'The Brat factor'.
A player, especially one that young who knows he is good, tends to do different things to impress, on and off the pitch. But it's left to the coaches to stop it before it goes too far.
Simplicity, in writing and playing football is always a winner. Showboating sgould come at intervals. That is what makes it so alluring. The unpredictability.
I noticed that Rabiu was doing no-look passes almost all the time. He tried to dwell on tha ball every opportunity, and he walked with an arrogant bounce to his step.
Now that is an attitude that cannot be encouraged. Unfortunately, the coaches either did not notice it, or appeared to have got used to it.
My advice is that while a young player can be allowed a certain degree of 'feeling', he should be brought back down to earth and reminded that he has not won anything yet, has not proven anything at international level and still has a ways to go before he can be listed as a genuine star.
Otherwise, we stand the risk of having another brat on our hands.
I have nothing against Rabiu, but I believe that he is a young kid who needs to be guided so he doesnt go the wrong route. Properly managed, this kid can be a huge thing in Nigerian football. I dont want to see him going down the wrong route.
Having said that, I must admit that the kid can ball. His short game is good, his long game even better.
He is an archetypical playmaker with the strength to hold his own in an area of the park where folks take no prisoners.
Abuja files. . .
Have been in Abuja since Sunday night. Was actually booked on a 2pm flight from Lagos, but got back slightly late from Church and didnt make it.
Nothing spoil, though. Re-booked on the 6pm, which gave me a chance to watch United claim the Community Shield over Chelski. Sweet. . .
Anyway, Monday has been tough but rewarding.
Was at the NFA office this morning and had long fruitful chat with Media Officer Ademola Olajire and Secretary General Bolaji Ojo-Oba.
Left to attend the opening of the NFL's Pre-season Seminar.
The highlight was a disappointing presentation on 'Corporate Governance' by Dr Amos Adamu. It was such a shockingly horrible presentation I was embarrassed.
This was Presentation 100: How not to.
Anyway, rounded up the day by watching the U23s and U17s play out a 2-2 draw and then interviewing Super Eagles coach Berti Vogts.
But I was happier with myself for able to get him to agree to a general press conference 2moro.
He didnt feel inclined to do it, preferring to speak to me. But I explained to him that others also needed access and he would be well-served doing it in one fell swoop.
He agreed. So 1pm Tuesday, it is then.
