Opinion

Opinion

Boko Haram Survivors and the Stockholm Syndrome | By: Tony Ogunlowo

Right now more and more people, hostages, are being rescued from the clutches of the Boko Haram sect. Many of them who were abducted as girls are returning as mothers having had children with their abductors.

Unfortunately many of the returning women are being ostracized by their own families and communities for having kids with their kidnappers. People can’t understand why they had relationships with their captors. Rejected by their own many of these women have expressed their desires to return to their ‘Boko Haram ‘husbands’ and people can’t understand why they would want to go back to such a dreadful place to live with equally dreadful people.

The answer is very simple and it’s called ‘Stockholm Syndrome’ or capture bonding where people held against their will, in time, start to bond emotionally with their captors.

When people have been in captivity for long periods of time the hostile relationship between captive and captor begins to break down and they begin to have feelings for each other. Sometimes hostages feel empathy for their captors and begin to feel sorry for them and think like them. Notable cases are the Stockholm bank robbery of 1973 where hostages began to feel sorry for the bank robber who had captured them and Patty Hearst who was kidnapped by the SLA in 1974 and later joined them on bank robberies and helped them make propaganda announcements.
It’s not just hostages who suffer from ‘Stockholm Syndrome’. People in abusive relationships, mostly women and children, are known to suffer from it too. After being abused for so long they begin to reason with their abusers, seeing things from their point of view until they start to blame themselves for their abusers often violent actions towards them.
Women kidnapped by the Boko Haram would initially be scared of their kidnappers but as time goes by (-and some of them have been gone for a long time) they will become friendly with their captors. Its human nature to seek out a friend. From time to time when we’re going through a rough patch in life we all need a friend or a shoulder to cry upon – and that shoulder could belong to anyone, even a Boko haram murderer.

To integrate them back into society we have to understand they’ve been away for a long time and would have become friendly with who we regard to be the enemy – even having offspring with them – because to them, over time, they became close – something that was beyond their control.
The people coming back from captivity will be strangers, shadows of their former selves. Their ways, mannerism and habits will all be different to what they used to be and they will have a general mistrust of the people around them. They will be scared – even of their own families and shadows – because they would have lost the ability to trust another human. They will need a lot of TLC, tender loving care, and without any doubt therapy to help re-integrate them back into society, to de-programme their confused minds and help them become themselves again. And to the authorities concerned leaving them on their own or dumping them in IDP camp doesn’t constitute help or therapy. Sadly our health authorities do not have specially trained psychiatric units standing by to provide the required therapy for people recovering from ‘Stockholm Syndrome’.

Also their families and their communities have a big role to play. Instead of shunning them because they’ve been with the Boko Haram for so long every effort must be made to help them. Remember none of them willingly went to live with the Boko Haram fighters and have kids with them. They were abducted and most likely subjected to un-imaginable abuse before their wills were broken. To help them back to their former selves will require a lot of effort from everybody around them – stigmatizing them won’t help. If for one minute they think they’ve been rescued from one hell hole to return to another they won’t think twice before indicating their desire to return to their former captors. 

Their children shouldn’t be ostracized (- or thrown away or killed as some reportedly have been!) but welcomed into the family and the community. You cannot blame a poor innocent child for its conception, something of which it has no control. And the same goes for children conceived as a result of rape or from an abusive partner – DON’T TAKE IT OUT ON THE INNOCENT CHILD! They might be created as a result of an un-holy union but every effort must be made to ensure they are given an equal chance to live a normal life.
You waited a long time for your loved ones to return from captivity, now they’re back don’t shun them or drive them away because they are slightly different. If you force them to run away you’ll never see them again.
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Opinion

Opinion : On Daddy GO Adeboye and a Spoilt Generation | By : Oluwole Aguda

 For now, I may be the most less-than-capable person to discuss anything marriage related but I find it disturbingly amusing that we are losing our common sense as youths because of cheap data and Samsung phones. I am yet to watch the video clip that generated the nauseating hues but I have read news about his position along lines of women and the chore of cooking among some other remarks attributed to him. When I see and hear from a man who has been married for more than 40 years, African tradition teaches me that the words that come from such a person may be 99% wise to follow.
We are the generation that now celebrates 5th wedding anniversaries like the Oscar Awards because the tenets that held our parents marriages together and which resulted in the enduring, refined and long standing unions that we emerged from have been eroded by fantastically corrupt “civilization” and odoriferous westernization.
For many of us, we never even made it to our 5th anniversaries before the roofs came down yet we have the electronic guts to punch nonsense from minds fed by education earned in ASUU strike-stricken schools and silly television series. A man that has been married for over 40 years should never find himself become subject of discussion from anyone less than 50 (this is still Africa) except for praise and admiration.
To the issues: should a woman cook or not? No she shouldn’t. It doesn’t make sense. Her hands are made for manicure and feet for pedicure. Her fingers are not to cut onions but to tweet about feminist rights and their “abuse”. Her mind doesn’t need to work with that of her husband, she is independent – what is she smart for? Why even bother to marry in the first place.
And prayers for 1 hour? Nooo….that is way too much. A whole one hour to pray? Is God that prayer broke to need a complete 60 minutes of prayer from a woman? Hannah is old school. Sarah is old school men. Even Mary in the temple is super old school. One hour is enough to dress up with geles and for stupid eye lashes but insufficient for supplication. Daddy GO, sorry sir, this is 2016 and the Bible is now an app so…
About guys working before marriage? I had worked in IGI Insurance, Image Consultants, First Bank of Nigeria, Oceanic Bank Plc, Vitafoam Nigeria Plc before anything like “I shall” happened some years back. I will feel very insulted to hear or read a debate about any guy not willing to till the earth before taking on marriage responsibility. Medical fees alone for a child in Yankee will leave you (oops me) without a choice but to be a Workaholic! I am one and I don’t care what you say about that. All die na die but when a man should be a man, it is wrong to be a sissy.
I ask, if Daddy GO was wrong, does the Bible qualify him as wrong or you do? After that I’d ask: who are you? You that a smart phone is almost “smarter” than? Oh please!
Data and a phone are no excuse for rancorous social disintellectualism. We are STILL Africans. Even if you do not cook, do no’t mislead others who choose to. Leave a Prophet alone and do him no harm.
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Opinion

Dear Woman, It Is A Lie | By: Florence Ozor

Husbands
Every woman should have a husband like Bill Clinton. 
I do know about the sex scandal….Yes I do. I do not condone nor trivialise It……I do not stand in judgement of anyone, we are all genetically wired with flaws.
It was with his scandal that I got to know how grievous it can be to everything else. In my young mind, it only bothered on trust and betrayal until I saw and read the reaction of Americans to a cheating president. I thought to myself….what a world!
In Nigeria culturally till date it is not  an “issue”. What a tragedy.
Confidence and intelligence has its place. Being self aware and ambitious has its place also.
Motivation from one you love can birth confidence amongst other things; likewise the wrong words from the one you love can erode confidence amongst other things.
A woman who is getting the right dose of praises, support and push from her husband glows and blossoms differently.
I watched Bill speak about his wife and you register the fact that he is still in awe of Hillary……same with Obama to Michelle.
The strength of a woman is the reflection of the strength of her husband. The weakness of a woman is a peep into the soul of the man who husbands’ her.
Only great men help women be Greater.
Though few,  there are so many men holding the ladder of success for their women knowing her success is a mirror of his greatness.

       Dear Woman, it is a lie
When you are instructed not to have a voice in a gathering or an opinion on politics, business, economy, foreign policy but should only be heard when it concerns housekeeping, cooking and laundry….. it’s a lie.
When you are acquainted with the fallacy that your well put together and sometimes expensive cloths intimidates the man…it’s a lie.
When you are told that your ambitions are not valid and neither are your goals relevant….it’s a lie.
When you are told to intentionally exhibit weakness in other to make him feel strong….it’s a lie.
When you are told to act unintelligent because your intelligence will put him off…it’s a lie.
When you are told that telling your spouse how to pleasure you sexually exposes you as a whore…..it’s a lie.
When you are told: Do not buy that first car, that house and do not get that degree as men are going to run…it’s a lie.
When you are told that having your own money, owning your own company will make you scary to men..It’s a lie.
When you are made to belive that your divine and sole purpose is to make babies and that all there is to you is your virgina….it’s a lie.
When you are told that ambition is bad and a show of Strength is repulsive to the man….it’s a lie.
When you are told that you should be confined to a small corner, a taped box and should not pursue your dreams because he feels threatened….It’s a lie.
When you are made to belive that your dependence on a man is your sole ticket to relevance….It’s a lie.
When you lose yourself and it is said to be an injustice to humanity……it is true.
The greatest gift of the world is being a woman, the greatest blessing For the world is being a strong woman. 
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Opinion

The Path To Your E-Million Dollar Business

 
Most fortunes are made online these days, predominantly in the fields of apps and games development and social media.
Whilst everyone is not in the league – or have the resources – to develop the next Pokemon Go! Or Call of Duty games simple games have been developed by individuals that have gone on to be worldwide successes such as Angry Birds. A look around the Google or iTunes stores will show how many of these individual-created games are growing in popularity.
Without a doubt to create a game you will need coding skills. These can either be learnt online, in colleges or if you’re unsure of yourself you can farm it out to the professionals. Coding skills or not you still need a blueprint for how your game will work. To do this requires the old-fashion technique of writing things down on a piece of paper. Your scribbling without any doubt will be about what the game is all about, how it’s played and the rules and regulations. Once done comes the task of translating it into computer code. If you can’t do it yourself then get a professional to do it. Uploading it to Google or iTunes apps store is easy – just follow the prompts.
Marketing. Just like with any other business you need to advertise your new game or it will just sit there in the store unsold. There are lots of websites and blogs out there that promote new games. Some do it for free and some may charge a nominal fee. Google ‘new game promoters’ to pull up a more comprehensive list of potential markets.
In our modern day and age we can’t live without the computer applications, or apps, on our smartphones or tablets. We use them for everything from booking fight tickets to ordering takeaway meals. And more and more apps are coming on to the market everyday – some are absolutely useless and others we can’t live without.
Even though there are millions of apps out there there’s still room for lots more. For instance has anyone come up with an app warning people about where armed robbery or carjacking hotspots are in Lagos?  Or an app to let you know where to buy petrol when there’s a scarcity? Or an app that lets you stream new local music content? These are simple ideas that can be turned into profitable ventures. Don’t worry if you can’t code for there are people out there that can turn your raw idea around into a professional program. You just need an original idea and there are lots of help online on how to take it further.
The most profitable and simple online venture that people use to make money online these days is blogs. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist or computer programmer to run a blog. It’s so easy to run that most 10-year olds have them.
In Nigeria today there are thousands of blogs: some have a few subscribers while others, such as Naijagists and Linda Ikeji, have a subscriber base that runs into hundreds of thousands.
The commercial success of a blog depends on the traffic it receives. The more people visiting your blog, the more click-thrus and advertising revenue you can earn. Now, not everybody can be in the same league as Queen Linda Ikeji whose blog receives hundreds of thousands of visits per month but you can take steps to increase your subscriber base.
Why do so many blogs fail to earn their bloggers any money? The answer is simply two words – Boring Content!
If your blog is boring nobody is going to read it. It needs to be lively, full of the latest gossip, information or news (-depending on your preferences or speciality). It’s got to be full of stuff people can’t read elsewhere – and please no stale or third-hand news or gossip lifted from another blog!
Be first with the best. Be original and you’ll be surprised how your subscriber base will grow by word of mouth (I found out about Linda Ikeji’s blog from a friend!) even before you hit the promotion trail. Look up the top 10 blogs in Nigeria and study the format that makes them so successful. If possible copy it! (- but don’t plagiarize!)
Are you good in front of the camera? Good at singing, giving advice or just good at making a fool of yourself? Then why not give vlogging a go. Vlogging is just the making of a video of what you get up to and posting it on the web (WARNING – No adult or X-rated content please!)
Setting up a channel on YouTube is easy and free (- so easy kids are doing it!) and all you have to do is upload your videos. YouTube, who generate income from advertising, will pay you depending on the number of visitors you receive to your site. Some accomplished vloogers such as Zoe Sugg, Zoella the fashion and beauty vlogger, are earning in excess of $50,000 per month. Again you need to find your own niche – and get a good digital camcorder and someone who knows how to operate it and edit videos! Check out the top vloggers and learn from them.
Again all these ventures whether it be games or apps development, blogging and vlogging, if you don’t market them you are going to earn nada!
Social media has made life easier when it comes to marketing. Google, Facebook and Twitter all have marketing plans designed for the individual that won’t break the bank and can reach a wide worldwide audience. Again there is word of mouth – tell a few friends who’ll hopefully tell their friends and keep spreading the word till you’ve built up a considerable subscriber or client base. There are also lots of trade websites that offer advert placement worldwide, banner creation and exchange and simple affordable marketing services.
You may not grow as big as Facebook, Google, Snapchat or Twitter – but yet again you may!
Get to work on your ideas: spruce them up, get them refined and get out there and market them.
As always I can only wish you the very best in your endeavours to establish your own very e-million dollar business.
Goodluck!
Written by Tony Ogunlowo
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Entertainment, Opinion

Opinion: Tiwa Savage and Omawunmi Interviews are Perfect Examples of How Not to Conduct an Interview

Written by Cletus Offor of Olisa.tv

The last two weeks have been terrible for journalism in Nigeria. Yes, I know what you are thinking: “Was there ever a time that was good for journalism in Nigeria?” Well, it wouldn’t do to go into what many say was the golden decades of Nigerian journalism, that time before the Millennium when excellence was the mantra of many a pen pusher. These days, as any truth speaker knows, journalism can comfortably be said to dwell in the gutters around here.
See ehn, there is no point playing the ostrich. I’ve been a journalist for seven years and a handful of moons. Let’s tell the truth, most of what we call journalism around here are unmitigated trash. In the last two weeks particularly, we have been treated to embarrassing displays by journalists who have come to embody the dearth of professionalism in the sector.
First, it was Azuka Ogujiuba making a complete dog’s meal of the interview with Tiwa Savage. The interviewer was so devoid of passion that you wouldn’t be blamed if you made the mistake of thinking Tiwa was talking to a life-size doll. I’m one of those who believes so much more could have obtained from that interview if it had been expertly handled.
Some say the interview was stage managed; a PR masterclass, and this would explain why Azuka was that passive. I cannot confirm this, but even if it were true, the affair though bleak, wasn’t a funeral, was it?
Azuka’s performance is also a lesson in knowing your limits. No matter how hard you try, you cannot possibly do everything. Azuka is perhaps one of the most influential entertainment journalists around but she is a trained print journalist. She is not a broadcaster. Even if she had helped to facilitate the interview, there is no rule that says she must be the one to conduct it.  Pulse, who ran the interview, has a crop of excellent onscreen journalists. Azuka should have allowed one of them to handle the interviewer. It would not take anything from her, really. And if she wanted it, she could be given credit as the facilitator.
While we were still dissecting the disaster that Azuka’s performance was, I woke up yesterday morning to yet another terrible performance from another journalist. It was the interview of singer Omawunmi on the programme, “Da Chat” by Zinnia. The interview was so disastrous I felt moved to scratch out the interviewer’s fake accent through my computer screen.
The interviewer, Zinnia, probably woke up on the morning of the interview, painted her lips, applied eyeliner, did her hair, practised her fake accent, but forgot to enrich her brain.

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From the moment she opened her mouth, one just knew she did not do any research before walking into the studio.
How could a journalist get the opportunity to interview an A-lister and the first real question she could muster was one about the paternity of the artiste’s child. To say I was shocked would be euphemistic. Questions in my mind included: Are Ogbanjes doing meeting in your head? Did you chew a fat stem of Osun igbo before the interview?
Yet Omawunmi though obviously pissed off by her line of questioning controlled her emotions nicely and responded in a charitable manner but not before clearly warning her that she would not tolerate that manner of questioning. But this interviewer was deaf to gentle rebuke.
The interview suddenly had the trappings of an inquisition. There were no real questions about her career, what she was doing at the moment etc. instead she proceeded to ask her why she has not had collaborations with artistes from around the continent – a question that actually exposed her as a proper Olodo, because as Omawunmi pointed out, she has had a recent collaboration with two of the biggest names in African entertainment, The multiple Grammy award winning performer, Angelique Kidjo, and Selif Keita.
Omawunmi and Zinnia
Of course, our interviewer didn’t know about this. Because she never bothered to do the most basic of research before the interview. It became clear that all she wanted was to scandalise the singer when she continued with her vexatious probing.
She went on to set a trap for her guest Omawunmi, by first asking her if she believed she should be a role model to young people. When  apparently she didn’t get the response she was expecting, she moved in with the most demeaning thing I’ve heard on TV recently by trying to tie the singer’s alleged drinking and smoking habit to her ability(or inability) to be a good mother!
Of course, the singer gave her a piece of her mind and a thorough dressing down before walking out on her.
We could tell that she never expected the clap back from the artiste because hard as she tried to hide her embarrassment with her faux accent and plastic smile, one could see that she was dying inside.

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You are the host of an entertainment show, not an investigative programme, digging into the misconduct of public officials or crooked businessmen. You should fashion your questions to reflect that. She is a private citizen, and you have no right to dig into her privacy more than she allowed you; on national TV.
Besides, what kind of journalist bases her entire interview on rumours?
What Zinnia has done is effectively sabotage her own show. Now tell me which self-loving artiste or entertainer will agree to come to her show after that debacle. Asking silly questions has never made any journalist a star, instead asking well-researched questions in line with the theme of your programme make you appear more professional and eventually successful.
Source: Olisa.tv 
Article link here
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Entertainment, Opinion

State Of The Nigerian Music Industry: No Talent Required | By: Jidé Taiwo

Them boys dey lose they minds, music is getting empty; they don’t mean nothing and really they talking plenty- Iceprince; Overkilling Remix by Djinee//
A strange thing happened last year at the second edition of the now annual Nigerian Entertainment Conference Live: Davido and his producer, Shizzi demonstrated how easy it was to produce a “hit” track. In about fifteen minutes or less, they had hummed and ahhed their way into a sound no different from any of Davido’s several hits.
To be fair on the pair of them, what they did is what every other performer out there does: arrange a catchy beat, lace some dodgy lyrics with a generous dash of autotune and voila, a hit is made. However what made this demonstration strange was the audience- made up of entertainment insiders (producers, journalists, record execs etc) applauded and stood in ovation as though they had just witnessed a euphoric magic trick by another David-Copperfield.
It is pretty much obvious to anyone who is not musically oblivious that the standards of the music industry and the artistes involved have significantly dropped during the past decade. The popular music currently streaming across the airwaves simply lacks quality and any form of talent on the side of the artiste. Aside from producers and a select few musicians, popular Nigerian music (which till today still has no definition or genre) is nothing more than run-of-the-mill sounds. It offers no lyrical depth; no tasking composition and any random performer can be referred to as “talented”.
It is undeniable, for the most part that the music is catchy, but the credit is not placed in the right hands. Instead of the artistes (and I use that term loosely because the word “artiste” in this context is an anomaly: what they do cannot be described as any type of art) getting all the credit, it should be the producers. Producers are the masterminds behind the writing, mixing and mastering of these tracks, not the artistes. Of course, there are many exceptions to this, but for the most part, the artiste is nothing more than the talking head and the personality presenting the music, which is why they should be called performing artistes and not musicians.
Worse still, majority of our most popular artistes simply cannot sing, or rap as the case might be. There’s a reason that most live performances are out rightly crappy, the performers almost always struggle to reach the sound so perfectly honed in the studio. It makes listeners wonder if it wasn’t the same person that made the CD version of the cacophony they’re suffering live.
By implication, any producer or label can pick ANY boy from the streets of Bariga and make him record Skiborobo Skibooo I’m not alright oshey. Doing that requires barely any talent or brain tasking research.
Back to back, every fucking single was a hit- Olamide
The issue of Olamide’s grouse with the Headies Awards has been talked about to no end and it is starting to bore this writer. However it is instructive to note what his point was: every song that his protégé had released was actually a hit. That exactly is the crux of the matter: for whatever reason that cannot be more than the rush to make music that caters to the present wave of absurd gyrations and monotonous gibberish, an average Nigerian artiste will rather take the easy out and produce popular nonsense.
After all, that’s what everybody is doing, isn’t it? Talent means that you possess an attribute that stands you out. When you do not have that talent, you overcompensate by flooding the airwaves with single after single. The idea is pretty basic: beat the audience over the head till they get it: E fe jo ku. That’s why no Nigerian artiste can afford to take a sabbatical from music. They’re all cut from the same unimaginative cloth and the result is the ton of music that is, with apologies to MI, fast food, disposable music.
msisdn: 2348159533652
carrier: GLO-NG
Nigerian music is in dire danger of becoming irrelevant as its practitioners. Five years ago Dbanj had a godlike status that made him think he could actually be Africa’s Michael Jackson. Today, the ridicule that his “artistic” struggle attracts is painful to watch. His diehard fans will let you know though, that “Baba is still making money o!” Whether he or any other artiste makes as much money as their PR handlers would make the audience believe is a matter for another day. That is not why we are here.
For some of us, it is about the music and it is intensely scary that even the few truly talented musicians are not immune from the petty nonsense that is the rage now: Jantamata is a weak, opportunistic material that Don Jazzy, with more than a decade long status as near genius, should have outgrown. Chidinma should not be singing “My money be like lorry”. Iyanya should not be doing some damage control by insisting he meant “birth room” when he actually sang “From the bed to the bedroom”. (What the heck is birth room anyway?). Even MI made a hook that said “My shepe bottle standing on thewall…If I drink shepe and I accidentally fall…
For as long as this trend goes on, the assembly plant will always churn out dozens of disposable music that fades as soon as the next fad comes along. It’s perfectly okay to make flimsy music but as we can see from Asa who is Nigeria’s biggest international act, you can also choose to put hard work and meaning into your craft and still be relevant. It is commonly said that talent is not enough. It never is. But it should be at least present in some measure, no matter how minute. Sadly enough, like Nigerian’s oil earnings, true musical talent is in very short supply.
 
 
Jidé Taiwo is a Lagos based writer and  Editor of The NETng. He’s on Twitter- @thejidetaiwo
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Opinion, Sports

Sunday Oliseh, Artificial Turf, Super Eagles – Wrong Equation | By: Segun Odegbami

MY piece on CHAN 2016 last week was not in any way intended to make any excuse for the poor showing of the Super Eagles at the championship. The issue of artificial turf affected all the teams equally and I believe that no matter how long players play on it, playing on plastic would never compare to playing on grass.

I have always believed that that’s why the USA would never rise to become a truly global football power despite all their application of advanced science and technology to football. Football shall always remain an Art form played best on the lush greens of grass.
America’s use of artificial turf for their professional league will keep them rooted to their present levels forever. Why they do not know this that baffles me.
The best football cultures in the world do not touch artificial turf even with a long spoon. Those that have ears let them hear. I rest my case.
On the Super Eagles and Sunday Oliseh, I am unable to pass critical comment because, as a reader rightly pointed out, I am complicit in the recruitment of Sunday Oliseh through my supportive writings and comments when he was to be appointed coach of the national team.
I believed, and still do by the way, that Oliseh would introduce a slightly different dimension to coaching the national team, an intellectual angle that would make a big difference.
I believed also that he would bring a deeper level of technical and tactical understanding and knowledge to the national team, those things that are not taught in the classroom of football, but rather are a measure of the intelligence and genius of the coach in charge.
That is what separates the great coaches from the good ones, what makes the difference between a Pep Guardiola and a Rafael Benitez, or between an Alex Ferguson and a Sam Allardyse, with all due respect to all the coaches! Genius is not taught in the classroom. It is engrained in the genes!
That is what I believed Sunday Oliseh would import into Nigerian football. Knowing him, I still think he can achieve great success if he re-sets his objectives, let everyone know where he is going, how he intends to get there and what he wants them to do and understand so that he is not distracted by the clamour for instant results.

My take is this:
1. Nigerian football is at a very low ebb at the present time;
2. The country will be extremely lucky to qualify for the next World Cup;
3. Winning the next AFCON will be a tough order;
4. Nigeria does not have the finished products in players to succeed in these two quests now; and,
5. The domestic league is not churning out exceptional players in large numbers.
All of these are not Oliseh’s handiwork.
That is why it is unrealistic to expect too much immediately from Oliseh, and too early in the day to judge his competency as Nigeria’s national team coach even if ‘morning shows the rest of the day.’
The CHAN 2016 team was definitely not his making. He used the best players assembled for him from the country’s poor production room (the domestic league) and tried to work some semblance of organisation into the team. He did not succeed as far as the results showed.
His rhetoric before and after should have been different. He should have kept telling Nigerians what his longer- term goals are and how he is going about achieving them down the line.
He should not have raised the people’s hopes and expectations (the reports by his aides from out of the Eagles camp in South Africa promised heaven and earth) with veiled promises despite people’s impatience for success and unearned victories when the players to do the job did not exist.
His biggest challenge is that he cannot conjure great players from nothing. They do no exist now given the state of the domestic league that should hone them.
Exceptional players are not being churned out in large numbers, are not being groomed well enough domestically, and are not being directed to the right teams abroad that will provide the necessary technical advancement that would take them from being good raw materials coming out of Nigeria to becoming excellent finished products after a few years in Europe. 

That’s the formula that produced the Olisehs, Kanus, Okochas Ikpebas etc. The domestic league at that time produced very good raw materials in Nigeria before the players left for Europe. The rough grounds, the harsh environments, the tough and challenging leagues on poor grass, etc, all made the players individually very skillful, hungry to learn and ready to absorb new things.
Once again, playing domestic leagues on artificial turf takes away that essential raw material that makes the big difference in the development of raw talent.
Examine this: why would the Super Eagles never agree to play at the Teslim Balogun Stadium in Lagos, or anyone of the number of stadia in Maiduguri, Enugu, Ibadan, Abeokuta, Benin, Ilorin, Jos, Kano, all with artificial surfaces in Nigeria? Yet, that’s where the players that are expected to play for the same national team are cultivated and nurtured.
Can’t people see there is a contradiction there? Can’t people see that there is something wrong with that equation?
I do not expect that most people will see my point and agree with my argument on the matter because this is deep stuff!
Forgive me for always digressing to the issue of artificial turf.
Now back to the Super Eagles.
Oliseh is facing the greatest challenge of his life trying to fix Nigerian football in a hurry. It can only be done holistically, slowly and steadily from the grassroots up. He must, as Clemens Westerhof, his boss and coach, did in the early 1990s, work with local Nigerian coaches and administrators, to determine how the domestic leagues will start again to produce quality players with exceptional skills, power, speed and control.
I sided with those clamouring for Sunday Oliseh at the time because I believed he had the knowledge and guts to look Nigerian football in the eye and to prescribe the right solutions following a forensic audit to move the game beyond the level attained by Stephen Keshi, Shuaibu Amodu, Adegboyega Onigbinde and others, who had done a good job that needed to be taken to a higher plane to make Nigeria join the club of the elite football nations of the world.
His conversations and incisive analysis, added to his personal experiences as an excellent football player and product of the best of European coaching made him the excellent candidate to take Nigerian football to the next level.
He would need time to achieve this. He would demand for time, the resources and the right personnel. He would work with coaches and administrators in the domestic leagues. He would continue to scout for finished products from Europe and anywhere else in the universe and use them in the short term, but remain focused on the ultimate goal to take Nigerian football to the zenith.
He cannot hurry through the process. He cannot also tie this assignment and his own fate to the immediate successes of the present Super Eagles. He cannot afford to raise false hopes and expectations of Nigerians that he can win everything immediately when the true situation on ground is that the present Super Eagles are work-in-progress!
Sunday Oliseh’s absence from Nigeria due to what is reported as health reasons surely is not helping matters.
I have a feeling that Sunday Oliseh is succumbing to the pressures of needing to win small now at the expense of winning big later. He has not helped himself either with his rhetoric. He must henceforth be patient with critics, and be bold, sure and clear with his words and actions!
Luckily, there are a few new Nigerian players showing up on the radar in Europe that can help his immediate cause and steady his wafting ship – Ighalo, Iheanacho, and co!

Credit: Guardian Newspaper
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Opinion, Sports

The Lagos City Marathon – A Participant’s personal experience.

The marathon is a long-distance running event with an official distance of 42.195 kilometres (26.2 miles), it is usually run as a road race. The event was instituted in commemoration of the fabled run of the Greek soldier Pheidippides, a messenger from the Battle of Marathon to Athens. Many runners in Lagos were excited when we heard that Lagos will be hosting a marathon event. The opportunity offers many runners an avenue to test themselves with the ultimate running experience.
The time the announcement was made to the time of the event was short. Preparation for a marathon race takes about 6 months.
Myself as well as many other runners quickly registered. We assumed that the race will be well organized because it is being sponsored by a major financial institution in Nigeria.
When I went to collect running my kit & bib, I started sensing that all may not be well. After verification, & registration, I was given a bib showing my race number. I also noticed with pleasure that the bib has an electronic tag. This device is meant to track the split time between distances along the race track, I moved onward to the collection point, a man toss a bag to me, I quickly informed him that I will need an extra large vest, he smiled and said it is one size fits all, that the vests are expandable. When I brought out the vest, the quality was very poor and my instinct started telling me that this race may not live up to expectation.
On race day, I got ready quickly, I had heard on the news that the roads will be blocked around 6.30am. I joined my 2 other friends that are also participating to the stadium. We trekked from Costain roundabout to statdium because the road had been closed. 
By 7.12am the race started. The weather was a little bit cool. Spectators were cheering us as we go. From stadium to Ojuelegba to Anthony, at around 3km, we saw the first casualty been lifted into the ambulance. I said to myself “no be small thing o” many participants were not regular runners. The shoes some people wore were not running shoes. Considering the hot and humid weather, some people were over dressed. Some believed they can win the prize money. Knowing Nigerians for who we are, I believe some may have gone to their place of worship to pray for success in the race. $50,000 in this tough economic dispensation would definitely go a long way.
The organizers had promised that at 5km intervals, there will be water, energy drink, sponging spots  and probably toilet. The disappointed came when I, as well as many runners got to where we were meant to refresh with water and energy drink and found nothing. Alas !, all the drinks were gone. Many runners started experiencing dehydration after 6 – 10km. When we enquire from the volunteers at the water stations, they just waved us on as if we were speaking a foreign language. For the rest of the race, I never got any form of support in terms of drinks or water to sponge myself. The temperature was getting high. The temperature was around 34 degrees centigrade.
Thankfully, I had a running pouch with 2 water bottles, I had filled it up with energy drink. I also had three hundred and fifty naira (N350) in my pouch. That turned out to be my saving grace.  At Oworonshoki, as we approach the 3rd mainland bridge, some spectators brought out 2 bags of pure water, myself and other marathoners rushed to grab the pure water sachet as if our lives depended on it, we drank some, poured some over our bodies and kept on with the race.
While we were on 3rd mainland bridge, many participants started retiring from the race, I suspected fatigue and dehydration have set in, many BRT buses, filled to capacity passed by, conveying participants.
At Adeniji area, we were lucky to find a woman selling cold pure water, I bought 5 for N50, I took two and gave 3 to other marathoners. We needed to urinate at that time, we had to do it near the edge of the bridge. There was no toilet facility throughout the race course.
We continue to endure the race, at Osborne just before the traffic light, a gardener selling plants was wetting his flowers, we begged him to shower us with his hose. He gladly did and we thanked him profusely. The lowest point for me is when I saw a young marathoner picked up a leftover energy drink from the road and drank it. I felt so depressed. That was desperation and survival.
At the Ikoyi registry & Lekki – Ikoyi  link bridge some good Samaritans gave us pure water & bottle water respectively. We thanked them and moved on. All these while, I was running and walking intermittently so that I can finish the race within 5 hours 45 minutes which was my previous personal best at the last marathon I ran in Chicago 2013. The scorching sun with no fluids to replenish made me slow down drastically. From 37km to 41km, I trekked at a pace of 11 minutes 30 seconds per kilometer.  I started running as I entered the Atlantic city. I am happy I completed the race but so sad that I have been let down by the organizers of the race. At the finish point, there were no more medals for people like us that finished the race after 5 hours. I finished my own race after 6 hours 13 minutes. There was no water nor energy drink or food. Instead, we were lining up for medals which had been given out to participants that did not finish the race but boarded the board to the finish line. After taking pictures with my friends, I was eventually able to get a blank certificate. There was nothing to recognize my position or the time I finished the race. I now wonder what benefit is the tag on my bib for?  
As I leave the venue, runners that came after 2.12pm which is after the official cut off time were treated shabbily, there were not allowed to pass through the gate of EKO Atlantic. They were pushed and shoved by the security personnel at the gate. This, in my own opinion summarized in totality, the underlining factor which I call the Nigerian factor, we do not have respect for ourselves. We do not treat each other with dignity. This lack of respect & dignity has eaten into the fabric of all our institutions.
The experience taught me once again that I cannot rely on organizations, whether private or public to deliver a world class event. The organizers registered 36,500 participants and probably 20,000 runners started the marathon but catered for only 1,000. My running pace was about 7 minutes 20 seconds many runners before& after me did not get any water & energy drinks neither was there any sponging area to cool the body temperature down.  We were simply left to our fate and for many people that did not have money on them; they suffered through the race and were left to the kindness of proactive spectators that provided pure water while many simply retired.
I had voiced my concern that since the event is free it may not be properly organized. Many people said but they have a big sponsor, it is pertinent to note that despite having big sponsors, Chicago & Dubai Marathons participants still pay $175 & $125 respectively in order to register.
I will implore the organizers to plan future events carefully & properly and pay special attention to the following areas;
1. Weather – the event should be held when temperature in Lagos is coolest (for instance temperature on Saturday, 23rd January was cooler than on the 6th of February)
2. Cooling / refreshment stations – There should be adequate drinks (water & energy drink) as well as sponges (for cooling) for all the participants not just few. 
3. There should be toilets for participants that need to ease themselves.
4. The integrity of the marathon race track should be protected throughout in order to ensure every participants starts at the same time and are not able to join the race at any other point. 
5. The participants that could not finish the race and joined the bus should not have been taken to the finish line because medals & certificates should only be for finishers. They should have been taken to another area where they can get refreshment and go home.
6. There should be more ambulances to attend to the participants that require medical help. There should be more buses to convey runners that could not finish the race.
7. Participants should pay a registration fee in order to improve the quality of event.
8. The organizers should organize training workshops for aspiring participants and also inform aspiring runners that marathon should be prepared for appropriately. Many runners that have never run more than 5km showed up for 42km. what do you expect?
9. There should be an official result of the event of all participants that finished the race showing their position and time.
Many people have made their concerns known to the organizers through various media. I seriously hope that the organizers will take note of my sincere critic of the Lagos city Marathon 2016. Organizing this marathon is a right step in the right direction because it can attract tourists and thereby generate revenue for the state & country but the way it was organized and implemented on Saturday, the 6th of February, 2016, left much to be desired.
The organizers owe the public this duty of care.
Thank you.
Olawale Olabintan
Lagos City Marathoner – Bib number 1598
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Entertainment, Opinion

20 Things Nigerians Should Expect From Buhari In 2016 | By: Governor Ayo Fayose

Who knew Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose was a Prophet? Oops! How can we forget so soon? he said he predicted his return to power.
The controversial politician has revealed 20 things Nigerians should expect from President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration in 2016.
In a statement personally signed by him , yesterday, he said:
“Fellow Nigerians, I want you to take note of the followings that will unavoidably happen under the Buhari-led government in 2016.”
1. Workers Strike: There will be so much industrial unrest, especially in the first quarter of the year.
2. Subsidy: There will be removal of fuel subsidy and petrol (PMS) will sell over and above N100/litre, leaving the masses in more serious hardship. Product will not be available and long queue in petrol stations will persist throughout the first quarter of 2016 and beyond.
3. Electricity: Power generation will drop to the lowest ebb. Still, Federal Government will increase tariff in 2016.
4. Unemployment: Millions of jobs will be lost in 2016 as against the three million jobs promised by the APC yearly. Most States and Federal Government will retrench workers as evident in the over 2,000 Federal University workers already sacked.
5. Economic Policy: Most private owned middle-class businesses will fold up because of bad economic policies of the Buhari-led government.
6. Devaluation: The Naira will continue to have a free fall which will take it to as low as N320 to one Dollar.
7. Economy: The Buhari-led FG will have no solution to country’s economic problems.
8. Security: Boko Haram will keep spreading and the Shiite Muslims will get more emboldened.
9. Human Rights: Penchant for dictatorship will rise with rampant human rights abuses and disobedience to court orders.
10. Anti-Corruption: Insincerity in the fight against corruption will continue and the fight will not only be selective and political, but targeted more at Southerners.
11. Elections: Attempt to forcefully control any of the South South States of Akwa Ibom, Rivers and Bayelsa by the APC will lead to unprecedented deaths.
12. Economy: Crude oil price will fall to below and about $30 per barrel.
13. Anti-Press Laws: The masses, especially men of the media profession will rise against the FG’s plot to deny Nigerians of their rights to freedom of expression. There will wide condemnations by Nigerians and the International community against President Buhari’s human rights abuses and disobedience to court orders.
14. Polity: Renewed efforts will be made to remove Senator Bukola Saraki as the Senate President; this will not only fail, but will heat the polity.
15. Hardships: Nigerians will experience more hardships. The President himself attested to this (THE SUN newspaper Tuesday, December 15, 2015). This obviously negates the change Nigerians voted for.
16. Elections: Plot by the APC to take control of at least one South South State will lead to death of many people. Particularly, rerun elections in Rivers and Akwa-Ibom States will cause many deaths.
17. Corruption: Halliburton scam may be revisited in 2016.
18. Kogi State: Court will sack Governor-Elect, Yahaya Bello.
19. Bayelsa State: Governor Seriake Dickson will win the supplementary election. Taraba State: Governor Darius Ishaku will be victorious at the Court.
20. Politics: There will be subtle political alignment and realignment before the end of the year ahead of 2019 elections.
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Entertainment, Opinion

Opinion: Fayose: The Prophet Predicts Own Doom | By: Bayo Oluwasanmi

Governor Ayodele Fayose of Ekiti State maintains his false sense of security and invincibility with delusions of grandeur. He avoids looking scared when in fact he’s in panic overdrive. He embalms his face with cosmetic joy when he’s bleeding from inside. He disregards bad news. Dodges the reality.
But lately, joy has been hard to find for the ex-danfo driver and star of Ekitigate. He’s been hounded for his past and for sure his sins would find him out. He hates to embrace humiliations of his ruthless ambition, recklessness, crudeness, and oasis of lies and other despicable atrocities that have become Fayose. It’s no surprise that his ardent loyalists have all deserted him. “Let the fool hang himself,” they seem to be saying.

Reputed for shaking things up and accomplishing nothing, a man of architectural character oddity, with looney tunes coming out of unguarded outbursts these days. Two Sundays ago or so, Fayose called a press conference in Lagos to announce to the world his impending doom in a prophetic declaration. He said the Federal Government headed by President Muhammadu Buhari was plotting to reverse his election victory at the Supreme Court using a phantom military report based on the military inquiry of Ekitigate. He said he was aware that the Buhari administration was after him.

He warned that any attempt by the Buhari administration to remove him from office would be resisted by Ekiti people. In a panic overdrive, Fayose said: “The military panel over last year governorship election in Ekiti State is (a) hatchet job. They have a target, but we are waiting for them. They are after me but I’m prepared for them. I am the governor of Ekiti State, I have history, I have record. Any attempt to invade my state will meet our resistance.”

“The day Buhari singles me out,” boasts Fayose, “his government will crumble. They have attempted to impeach me, they didn’t succeed, they disturbed my swearing-in ceremony and they failed. They now set up a military panel to upturn what the Supreme Court had decided in my favour. We are waiting for them. Any attempt to rob the people of Ekiti State of their mandate will lead to chain of events, the end of which no one could accurately predict.”
He described President Buhari’s war on corruption as vengeance. “After flagrantly disobeying court orders,”says Fayose, “whatever that is done or said by the Buhari-led government concerning Sambo Dasuki will appear vindictive…”
How can any inquiry about Ekitigate exclude Fayose, the star of the famous election rigging video? How can Fayose deny his star role in the biggest election fraud and cover up? Why is Fayose foaming on both sides of his mouth with epilepsy of lies about Buhari’s administration? Who is out to get him? Buhari or Ekitigate?

Fayose, no doubt, is feeling the weight of his guilt. He’s carrying a heavy load of guilt and he’s been weighed down by guilt. Guilty conscience is causing him nightmare. Fayose is like a bank robber whose guilty conscience stopped him from making a quick getaway after a successful bank robbery operation but instead waits for the police to arrive and arrest him.
Fayose had substituted anger for his guilt in Ekitigate and cannot own up to what he did in rigging himself into office. He’s using anger to chastise President Buhari and tries to preempt the looming sword of Damocles on his head. He’s using anger to look good to protect his tattered fragile remnants of self-esteem. This is the basis of his macho behaviour, bullying, and aggression.

Denial, aggression, projection, and blaming President Buhari are Fayose’s defence mechanisms which help him to avoid feeling guilt and shame. Using projection, Fayose blames President Buhari and APC instead of looking at his own part of the problem. As the saying goes, what you resist persists. What Fayose is resisting – arrest, prosecution and punishment – would persist and eventually take place.

Fayose has become the ultimate traitor to both God and the State. He constitutes a counter-kingdom of perversion and disorder. He has become a personification of all forms of deviance and revolt. He demonises opponents as a tool to promote his political agenda and propaganda in order to remain in office. He operates on behalf of the devil’s agency.
 The irrefutable fulfillment of Fayose’s prophecy of his own doom does not cause Fayose to rethink and reconsider his raw nerve, abrasive, and egotistically driven behaviour. Rather, Fayose serves up juicy pieces of brisket of pre-emptive nonsensical gibberish of how President Buhari and APC plan to remove him as governor, the gubernatorial office he won through Ekitigate.
History in the strict sense of the word is personal. The annals of centuries gone by are nothing more than individual days sewn together by those who keep the records using their own needle and thread. Fayose is writing his own history with his own needle and thread. When the history of democracy in my beloved Ekiti State is finally written, we’ll have to sift through the charred rubble of our wrecked civilisation etched with sticks into the barren dust brought about by ex-danfo driver, Ayodele Fayose.
Meanwhile, Fayose’s prophecy to meet with his nemesis – the Ekitigate – is lurking in the shadows. There is no escape route. Tic… Tac… Toc… Fayose, they’re coming for you!

Credit: Premium Times
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