Nigeria: More on the Paralympians' Allowances Story

It was a good news story

Yesterday, I wrote a blog based on a news story published in the Nigerian Tribune with regards to the payment of allowances to our Nigerian Paralympic contingent to the London Paralympic 2012 Games.

It was titled Nigeria: Do Right By Our Paralympians Before Sundown and I challenged the senior sports administrators of Nigeria to address the issue with immediate effect.

A confrontation

By the evening whilst I was travelling in and out of mobile telephony areas on the London Underground trains I got involved in a direct confrontation on Twitter with @MrFixNigeria, the sometimes feisty and sometimes level-headed  Special Assistant  (Advocacy) to the Minister of Sports.

Now, a slightly truculent @MrFixNigeria was of the opinion that I was peddling an unverified fictitious report on the basis of him having confirmed from the Chef de Mission had said that the athletes where paid accordingly.

Accordingly is sophistry

One then asked what accordingly really meant and how accordingly could have somehow given rise to a fictitious report in a national newspaper about a protest, the payment in dollars and the difference in payments made to the Paralympians compared to the Olympians only weeks before.

The reporter who filed the story signed off as being in London, it would be rather atrocious if not mendacious for a newspaper to unnecessarily forment a crisis and create a controversy on the payment of allowances just to embarrass the sports bureaucracy – on balance, every Nigerian contingent to an international event has had to protest about allowances and I know that when I attended the Nigeria v Bulgaria match at the France 1998 World Cup in Paris, there was a threat of a walkout just because of allowances too.

A Google search for Nigerian Team Allowances presents pages of references indicating the story does have some provenance and elements of truth.

Ask the athletes, not the chiefs

The Nigerian Tribune in my view engaged in a spot of investigative journalism that does not paint of the officials in any good light and the least they should do for matters of both integrity and reputation is to speak directly to the athletes about their concerns and experiences rather than insulate themselves from the core issues that should inform any policy for change and reform they might consider to prevent sporting disasters in the future.

I hold this view more strongly because in conducting his London 2012 Olympic Review as the Olympics were closing a few weeks ago, it appeared the Sport Minister had laid out a whole range of interesting reforms without input borne of debriefing the athletes or their coaches – the danger is such a review will not by any stretch of the imagination address the fundamental issues athletes and coaches face in preparing for international competitions.

The arms-length approach of hierarchical reporting when matters go wrong in the lower cadres will only present to officialdom a false sense of order and efficiency with the athletes being frustrated by their lack of access to the people who really can ensure that the chain of command that guarantees their welfare is clued-in on what it will take for an athlete to perform at their best without distractions.

Get a shop floor view, first-hand

My advice to the Sports Minister and his Special Assistant is to go to the shop floor and get their hands dirty, find out how each sport works from the view of those who really have to sweat it out to bring back the laurels.

This should be first to squelch every rumour of impropriety or ascertain how and why story like the one I wrote about became a topic of discussion either as the truth of the situation or otherwise.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian Paralympic contingent has added another gold medal to their Powerlifting tally bring the medal haul to 5 Golds, 5 Silvers and 1 Bronze – it is the sports officials that now have to make themselves worthy of the task they have of ensuring our heroes are not distracted by incompetence and other shenanigans.

Nigeria: Do Right By Our Paralympians Before Sundown

Hail our heroes

As at this morning the Nigerian contingent to the London 2012 Paralympic Games has won 10 medals in the Powerlifting sport with 4 Golds, 5 Silver and 1 Bronze shared amongst 4 gentlemen and 6 ladies.

This means in the best attended and arguably the best representative Paralympic Games ever, we have gloriously heard the strains of the Nigerian national anthem played out to the whole world four times and had Nigerians step up to take other laurels six times.

Considering what a debacle the Nigerian outing to the Olympic Games was earlier in August, these paralympians have singlehandedly with guts, ability, spirit, dedication, resolve and amazing patriotism put Nigeria on the Paralympic map at the 14^th position and leading the Powerlifting medal table comfortably.

Sports bureaucracy failing us again

It should not have been beyond the capability of the redolently incompetent sports bureaucracy to have learnt some quick lessons from London 2012 to have been better prepared to do right by the Nigerian Paralympic contingent to ensure that they are being dealt with fairly, justly, honourably, respectfully and with consideration on all matters with regards their welfare and all they need to represent Nigeria without being subject to unnecessary pressures and angst.

I woke up this morning to read a manifest injustice meted out on our patriots by some faceless and unconscionable officials who should by all rights be out of a job before the sun goes down if there is any justice in this world and if the Sport Minister and his gilded entourage along with the much vaunted tough-talking will act to clean up the unforgivable atrocities that have bedevilled Nigerian sports administration for too long.

Too many wrongs unforgiveable

First is the matter of the late payment of allowances, we have always been tardy with payments that are due across the board in all walks of life in Nigeria but it is no excuse to have high-profile representatives of Nigeria suffer such indignities when they are supposed to be concentrating in beating the world and bringing glory to Nigeria – that this singular view was lost on the sports officials is regrettable to say the least.

Secondly, the athletes are in the United Kingdom where the British Pound is legal tender, there is no reason why the athletes should have been paid allowances in dollars and then have to run the gauntlet of being creamed off by others waiting in the shadows to exchange the currency to pounds.

The sports officials should have converted the allowances to pounds before paying the allowances; it was just an unnecessary burden to place on the athletes who in terms might have been desperately in need of the allowances that some rotten official thought to exploit their vulnerability.

Short-changed by £1,329

Thirdly is the matter of equality in representation. It is instructive to see Paralympians bring recognition and glory to Nigeria that seemingly and apparently more able Olympians failed to do. There is no reason why any sports representatives of Nigeria should be treated differently, unequally and with contempt.

Apparently, the luckless Olympians were paid £2,400 and now the Paralympics contingent was paid $1,700 (£1,071 @ today’s exchange rate from Google) suggesting they have been dealt an inequality blow and short-changed by £1,329. It is unbelievable that anyone in charge of sports administration will sanction this atrocity and expect to get away with impunity.

Equality is the biggest message

If for any reason not enough money was allocated for the allowances of the Paralympic contingent, then I expect that all is done to make up that shortfall by every means possible. The success of the Paralympic contingent should be a ringing endorsement of challenged people to come out and be the best they can be in any endeavour they choose to embark on.

It should be the impetus for equality legislation that no matter how impaired physically or mentally you might be in Nigeria, you will not be discriminated against, you will be accorded due courtesies, respect and access to all opportunities that are available to Nigerians and those who contemn, disparage, denigrate or belittle you will face the law with punitive compensations made out to those affected.

Minister, step up

This, I believe will be the first test of the Sport Minister Bolaji Abdullahi’s resolve to change the face of sport in Nigeria or continue to allow impunity and incompetence to reign in our sports bureaucracy.

To go into speculation as to why one has had to write this piece will be too unreadable for the disgust that it will raise, the only remedy to this matter is to do right by our Paralympic contingent – Pay them their allowances, pay them £2,400, pay them in British pounds, pay them now and make a public shame of all those involved in this disgraceful debacle.

The time to remedy this situation is now, along with compensation for the unnecessary hardship and exasperation caused our heroic athletes – these allowance protests at every sports meeting must stop forthwith – Enough is enough! 

Olympics: I have a facial on the 8th of August

Scheduling appointments

I must have words with my calendar secretary, he has been scheduling all sorts of appointments that I am not sure I would be able to honour because of other eventualities that might arise.

I have found that I have a facial schedule; in fact, it is a full body treatment as a metrosexual aside; on the 8^th of August 2008 in the afternoon. That is not to say I have no other indulgences before then but that seems to clash with another important event that I had previously considered attending.

Regrets, regrets

My regrets to the Chinese government for not being able to attend in person the opening of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing would be duly expressed, but the greater regret would be, if I have cucumbers over my dainty eyelids, I would not watching the opening ceremony on television either.

I would not give up a floatation tank treatment and the reflexology manipulations not to talk of the beauty treatments that would make a me surer man than me to while away precious pampering time in front of a tube – I do not have a flat-screen television yet – the one I have still works.

We are busy

Before I begin the self-flagellation of utter regret, Gordon Brown might also be down at the spa, Ban Ki-Moon seems to have booked his pedicure for the same time and George Bush is thinking maybe his pheasant shooting date might just change the course of history to make him the best President of the United States ever.

Suddenly, at the eighth second, of the eighth minute of the eighth hour in the night of the eighth day of the eighth month of the eighth (It is really the ninth) year of the millennium we might all be busy doing something else but what the Chinese want us to do – watch their grand show of pretending to be a nation that has arrived on the world stage.

Learning from 1936

This time we would not be spectators of a new kind foreboding once experienced in Berlin in 1936, all is not well in China today just was all was not well in German then, one has to be discreet enough not to mention Tibet, Myanmar, Darfur or human rights within China itself, that would not be the done thing.

Ah! I have an offer at the Spa, I can visit twice in a month, and I would be back there on the 24^th of August.

Olympic torch lights up Tibetan cause

Taken by the Dalai Lama

I have been thinking about a comment that Roosevelt the blog-owner of MoThanSkin left on my blog titled Snuff out that Olympic torch already.

“I agree with you, Akin, the Olympics have become much too politicized. But the truth of the matter is no nation is without some degree of human rights violations, America included!

The Dalai Lama and his Tibet government-in-exile is misleading the Free World as to his true objectives, which is to have the Peoples Republic of China give back to him and his fellow monks the centuries old feudalistic rule of the Dalai Lamas over the Tibetan people!

The Dalai Lama is not what he appears to be! To have the Dalai Lama rule over Tibet is not freedom or democracy! China is being unfairly judged by the Free World when it comes to Tibet, in my opinion!”

Somewhere in between

I am not too sure that I subscribe entirely to the view of the Dalai Lama being the covert instigator of unrest in Tibet much I do not believe that China has much to offer Tibet apart from the suppression of their culture and the emasculation of the people.

Probably, the truth is somewhere in between, the fact that Tibetans are religious people who have allegiance towards the Dalai Lama and the other fact that China invaded and forcefully occupied from 1950.

There is no doubt that Tibet has had a vibrant, turbulent and in some ways violent past, but they are still a people with an identity and a yearning for a form of nationhood.

A determined China

An article on Reuters.com opines that China has trouble reading Tibet’s pulse, Tibetans still revere their god-king in the person of the Dalai Lama where the Chinese had expected them to revile their former rulers to whom they were in obeisance in feudal serfdom.

The journey of the Olympic torch around the world has given the focus to human rights issues in China rather than the harmony of global sport in the spirit of the Olympics, once docile administrators and custodians of the tarnished Olympic brand have now had to speak up.

In some cases, the dogged determination of China to continue the torch relay regardless and their forceful desire to defile Mount Everest and run the torch through Tibet almost makes it appear as if they are impervious to any criticism.

Naivety par excellence

In the end, if China really thought they could pull off the Olympics with scant regard to all other issues on the basis of taking politics out of the Olympics and sport in general, they have displayed a level of amazing arrogance and sheer ignorance being propped up by the hubris of might and untrammelled remit to mess people up big-time within China – surely, feelings would have been aroused in an Olympic year and they have not been so politically astute but outrageously naïve to the extreme, it beggars belief.

If at the end of the day the Dalai Lama is the secret puppet master behind all this unrest around aspirations of Tibet, well, there could not have been a better occasion to get maximum publicity for Tibetan issues than at this time, for which I can only commend him for the genius of timing and execution.

As to where I standard on this matter, it would appear the Tibetans need neither a communist state nor a Western democracy over them, rather they want the Dalai Lama as their leader.

Before we get all funny about this, the Vatican is both religious and political with the head of both structures being the Pope – why should Tibet be different, feudal or not?

Snuff out that Olympic torch already

Non-political Olympics

I can only wonder how long we can continue to delude ourselves into thinking the Olympics has no political connotations.

I would acquiesce to that feeling only when representation at the Olympics moves on from geo-political entities called countries or nations and allows for independent participation. Let a world-citizen complete without having to be affiliated to some country and let the best sportsman win regardless.

Press-ganged by China

I have no problems with China hosting the Olympics in Beijing but that honour comes with global scrutiny which cannot be caged in some restraint of protest because of discomfort.

It is amazing that we find European countries being forced into uncomfortable and embarrassing authoritarian police action all to appease China whilst China tries to manage the propaganda at home by demonising any dissent.

Berlin to Beijing

The parallels; the showcasing of the 1936 Berlin Olympics under the Nazis who were announcing the arrival of Germany on the world stage and the 2008 Beijing Olympics announcing the arrival of Communist China on the world stage leaves us without much scope for irony because the reality is as stark as we all can see.

The Chinese have great national pride just as the Germans under Nazi occupation but they have none of the great liberal freedoms that we in the West take for granted and that allows them to condone other unpalatable regimes around the world for the reason that they term certain matters internal even though the issues affect humanity and the human race - global review can no more condone this kind of oppression.

The matter of the Olympic torch relay is interesting because it owes its progeny to the Nazis in 1936, why we need to have the torch tour countries other than the penultimate host, Greece and the host country, escapes me – it is as political as you can make the sport without owning up to the fact that it is political.

Politics in sport in politics

Politicians and sportspersons with political leverage in some ways would handle that dreadful torch and send all sorts of messages to the whole world.

I sympathise with the fact that sportspersons look for the ultimate accolade and challenge at the Olympics, nowhere is national pride so displayed for a global audience as the Olympics, the football World Cup does not come close with just 32 countries.

I am not advocating a boycott, but there has to be a message sent out to all well-meaning people and those who think they can through propaganda silence the yearnings and aspirations of their people need the force of humanity at a gathering such as the Olympics to highlight the plight of the oppressed and have something constructively done about it.

For glory or honour

We should not in the quest for Olympic glory forget that there is an honourable duty to perform on behalf of the oppressed, the suppressed and the disenfranchised.

If we cannot bring into our sportsmanship that quality of moral outrage in support of those who have been so battered by governments they did not chose, who rule over them with an iron fist but have no legitimacy with their constituency – then it is time to snuff out that Olympic flame forthwith and send the wet and watered wick back to Beijing.

The new ball order - Football meritocracy

The new ball order

Brazil is a superpower, Ghana has joined the elite, Africa has contenders, Australia has come of age and the USA lags the curve of progress that they are not counted with the few.

These are ideas that can only find fertile ground in the world of football.

When I read the Economist piece on why the World Cup is better than the Olympics, I had until then believed otherwise.

However, there are points to note, the Olympics includes all nations but it is usually dominated by global political powers trying to exert supremacy over their rivals, the gold tally is usually the chase amongst them rather than the participation which is the joy of many.

Small but greater

The Olympics is based in a major city of a country whilst the World Cup is spread all over the country and in some cases co-hosted in 2 countries.

Whilst the crowds of sportsmen and official make up for the Olympics, it is the fans that respond the most to the spectacle of the World Cup even where ones nation is not represented.

The Nigerian in me rues our absence but my support is shared between England where I was born, Holland where I live and Ghana, the currently surviving Africa team that made it through the group stages.

All for 22 seconds?

The culmination of all the events in the Olympics is the 100 metres final for the men and women, all over in less than 22 seconds - the World Cup is entertainment from start to finish over a month with 64 matches of at least 90 minutes each of tension to the final.

Reputations are destroyed, stars are born and the memories linger for up to 40 years - England still celebrates their only World Cup win of 1966 as if it were yesterday.

Many games have been boycotted for all sorts of political reasons, but the World Cup maintains a mystique of competitive zeal that probably only Brazil can afford to stay away having won it 5 times already.

FIFA Security Council - NOT!

For once, the Americans cannot produce a Dream Team, the Russians a Power Team, the English an Imperial Team, The French a Napoleonic Team nor the Chinese a Communist Team that would dominate as they dominate the UN Security Council.

When it comes to football, you can either play on the day or you are out - it appears even with the football elite where our expectations fail, it is sure one global level playing field - you are really expect the best team to win.

On to South Africa 2010- Oh! We are yet to get into the second round of Germany 2006 - the excitement of it all.