NFF, OLISEH AND OUR FOOTBALL DEMONS

Oliseh had a bumpy ride as Eagles' boss

I see Oliseh is getting serious bashing for quitting. I wasn't exactly enamoured of his style. He had the

tendency to talk more than he should but hey, that's why he is who he is. It's what defines him.

He even had the good sense to leave at the right time unlike the Big Boss who allowed the 

(mis)administrators of Nigerian football to mess him up.

That said, I think much of the criticism of Oliseh is misdirected. Let us direct the blame to those who

are truly deserving of it. The story of our football in the last two years has been one of grandstanding, 

of motion without movement , crass propaganda and misplaced priorities.

Who will swear that in the last six years we have not been witnessing the game of musical chairs at our

football federation? It has been a classic case of Soja come, Soja go. We have done exactly the same

things and foolishly expected different outcomes. It would have been comic were it not so tragic,

events that have unfolded in Nigerian football in the last six years.

Both men have fallen out

For those making Oliseh the fall guy, let them remember what went down with Siasia and Keshi before

him. It seems to me that our football administrators are hopelessly inured to folly. They have

manifested without let, the strains of folly identified by the late American philosopher/Historian, Barbara

W. Tuchman in her timeless classic, " An inquiry into the persistence of unwisdom in government".

Yes, Oliseh will be mercilessly flagellated in the coming days or weeks; he will become the


embodiment of everything wrong with coaching but after we have exhausted ourselves in our 

misplaced adventure, the truth will stare us starkly in the face with an intensity that will call us back to 

our senses. And that truth is simply that the demons throttling Nigerian football are nestling 

dangerously in our football house!

Of Principalities, Powers and Nigerian Sports

True Christians believe in the existence of demons, which labour round the clock to deprive the believer of happiness here on earth and also to deny him a place in Heaven.

These demons are of categories corresponding to power and influence. In Ephesians 6:12 Paul
the apostle helps us identify these demons who are Satan’s agents in his quest for world dominance.

Satan at the head of the kingdom, has next to him the principalities who are followed by powers and then by rulers of darkness of this world and finally by spiritual wickedness in high places.

The rulers of darkness of this wicked world comprise the fallen angels as well as humans who have pledged themselves to Satan. Their activities are centred on and carried out on earth.

Spiritual wickedness in high places constitutes the fourth realm in the hierarchy of the Satanic Kingdom. They are the foot soldiers stationed in the second Heaven to defend Satan’s kingdom and anyone in opposition to it.
They attack anything that comes from God and are assigned to hinder the blessings of God upon his children.

I have taken time to outline the structure of the satanic kingdom because after deep and careful reflection on the state of Nigerian sports and its failure over the years to realise its potential, I have come to the conclusion that it is being held captive by the activities of these demons outlined
above.

If you do a thorough assessment of some of the individuals who have over the years superintended or still superintend over it, the army of junior cadre employees, athletes, sports journalists who have reported goings on there and a few other individuals associated with it one way or another, you will come to the inescapable conclusion that sport in this country is truly in the maw of the Satanic kingdom.

Demons in control

Who are the principalities in Nigerian sports and how do they operate? These are men who over time have come to see Nigerian sports as a field to be plundered. They occupy the highest reaches of Nigerian sports either at the National Sports Commission (NSC), the Nigeria Olympic Committee
(NOC) or the various sports federations and use their positions as platforms for self-promotion and self-aggrandisement. One of the ways they do it is by wriggling themselves into international sporting
associations from which they grow in influence without a corresponding gain for the country that provided the spring board.

One of these principalities was toppled a few years ago from the sports ministry and
only last year faced further shame when his misdeeds were exposed for the world to see.

Another member of this group occupied a sensitive position in the sports ministry and was
only removed in 2009. The same fellow has been the head of a sports federation in Nigeria for 18 years. That particular federation is dead to all intents and purposes but the man himself has continued to worm his way into global sports bodies.

At a time in Nigeria he was head of Nigeria’s Olympic movement as well as a director in the sports ministry in addition to holding down his job as boss of a national sports federation. There are others. One of them is currently doing his third term as head of a sports federation, which is going comatose from inactivity. He was also at one time Nigeria’s minister of sports and currently occupies a high ranking position in Nigeria’s Olympic movement.

Another principality

There is also another principality well known to Nigerians. He is a former head of Nigeria’s most popular sports federation, his act of hubris in disdaining popular opinion and endangered Nigeria’s chances at a famous global competition which cost him his job and to some measure, his
freedom.

Among the powers are those individuals in Nigerian sports who are sufficiently high up in the hierarchy of the sports federations but are not the actual bosses. However, they wield influence, which affects the fortunes of Nigerian sports. Like the powers in the Satanic kingdom, they love to be worshipped and fawned over. Thus you will see them luxuriating in titles such as ‘chairman of chairmen’, ‘skippo’ etc. One of these men about two years ago came out of his office and berated men and women
who spend their money funding the sport, catering for athletes and took offence that such ‘wretched people’ should sully his office with their presence.

Among the rulers of darkness of this wicked world are those individuals in Nigerian sports 

establishment who have chosen to tag along with their bosses in the destruction of sports in the country. They comprise those clerks, auditors and other employees who help the principalities and powers of Nigerian sports to doctor the books and cover up their crimes against
the Nigerian people.

The last category

The last group of demons in Nigerian sports Spiritual wickedness in high places is one that is of particular interest to me because among them are found members of my constituency, the sporting media. Like their counterparts in the Satanic kingdom, some members of this category have like Faust,
sold their souls to the principalities and powers of Nigerian sports.
These individuals instead of being watchdogs and exposing the malfeasance choking sports in the country sing praises of the principalities and powers. They encourage them by massaging their ego and shouting down any of their colleagues who dare to stand up for the truth. This category of demons more than anything else makes it impossible for genuine change to take place in sports in this country because if they played their true role of watchdogs, a new lease of life would surely come.

There, you have it, my thoughts on the malfeasance killing sports in Nigeria. Anyone is free to disagree with me but you ask yourself, why despite the shouting by the few decent members of the media and former athletes, things haven’t changed.

NOTE: This piece was written five years ago in my column, RED CARD in the NEXT Newspaper. I have reproduced it here because since it was written, things seem to have gone from bad to worse in terms of both the administration of sports in the country and their coverage by the media.

One of the Principalities mentioned in this piece after a long hiatus, is back as head of Nigeria's Olympic Movement. Things have stayed pretty much the same under his watch. 

Today, there's a new Principality in the realm. An opinionated Turk, who like the unthinking Trojans who at the height of a war for survival, mindlessly, received a gift from their adversaries from the Greeks, an act that had disastrous consequence for their existence. This Principality seems bent on sending the federation he superintends hurtling into the abyss with his clear lack of sense of proportion and priorities. With national team coaches owed salaries and allowances, he was quite clearly comfortable spending scarce resource on a venture as frivolous as ferrying cronies abroad on a jamboree!

Like the English writer and philosopher, Samuel Taylor Coleridge said many years ago, because man fails to learn from history, he is condemned to repeat mistakes. Here, our sports administrators have learnt nothing from the past and seem determined to keep making a poor show of administering their different enclaves. And they are helped in this woodenheadedness by members of my constituency, the media, who seem determined to pursue self-interest with a single-mindedness that defies understanding.

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