Gimbas probe of corruption - By Fabio Lanipekun

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Gimba’s probe of corruption
Since his appointment as the Sports Minister and Chairman of theNational Sports Commission more than a year ago, Niger State-bornlawyer, Alhaji Abdulrahman Gimba, has not endeared himself withNigerian sports lovers.
Not once has he made any visionary statement on sports but histenure is renowned for the endless crises between him and his keyDirectors.
Their relationship is like a bird that perches on a dangling rope;there is no respite for either. This has been the state of Nigeriansports since President Umar Yar’Adua came to office in May2007.
However, highly successful coach, Kadiri Ikhana’s bombshell,which The Grandmaster was the first to highlight in this column on June 1, 2008, hasprovided Gimba the impetus to make a move which may catapult himinto national reckoning. Remember, on the eve of his winning the2008 Globacom Premiership League title, with Kano Pillars, Ikhanadecided to call it quits with Nigerian football because CORRUPTIONhad eaten too deep into the system.
Ordinarily one would have expected a responsible and responsiveNigerian Football Association, the only body recognized for runningfootball in the country, to take up the gauntlet as Ikhana is ahighly respected and result oriented coach.
The NFA did nothing of such. Their affiliate, the Nigerian FootballLeague which ran the league competitions, took up the challenge,and with disarming candour decried the unwholesome behaviour ofsome corrupt referees, which was well known to anyone who followsfootball in Nigeria.
But to the NFA, see no evil, speak no evil and the evil continuesto swallow Nigerian football. So a month after Kadiri Ikhana openedthe Pandora Box, and the NFA shirked their responsibility by notacting on it, the nation’s sports authorities, the NSC, haverightly stepped into the thorny issue by setting up a six manCommittee, headed by retired Brigadier-General Dominic Oneya, aformer NFA Chairman, and former Military Governor of Benue and KanoStates.
The three terms of reference are: to investigate the claim (shouldhave been allegation) of bribery and corruption of referee in thejust concluded edition of Premier League conducted by the NigerianFootball League; to identify those involved; and to carry out anyother investigation regarding the conduct of the 2008 PremierLeague as it relates to the subject and make appropriaterecommendations.
The Committee has up to July 17 to submit its report, that is lessthan a month. And this is where I have a problem. How can the OneyaCommittee unravel in three weeks corruption in Nigerian footballwhich has become embedded for decades? Are they magicians? Or isthe Committee set up to achieve some hidden agenda?.
Four of the members, Oneya, Col. Maharaja Mamudu (rtd.), former CEOof NSC; Lawyer Godwin Dudu-Orumen, and Journalist Andrew Abah arewell known to me and I can vouch that they will do a good job. Ifthey unravel the voluminous bribery ring in the Nigerian league,Nigerians and posterity unborn will forever pray for them.
The third term of reference gives the Committee wide scope toidentify other issues militating against absolute transparency inour league. And with two legal minds, Maharaja Mamudu andDud-Orumen the Committee should proffer solutions.
But has the Sports Ministry got the power to enforce Oneya’sCommittee’s findings? If it is discovered that the NFA arethe stumbling block, can the Ministry take any action on themwithout courting the wrath of FIFA? I believe the answer is simple.
If the NFA are found wanting the solution is to convene an extraordinary congress where a vote of no confidence will be deliveredon the leadership and new elections held. FIFA will not raise abrow.
We have come to a stage in Nigerian sports where all the round pegsin square holes should be removed, as there are too manyincompetent people heading our various sports associations.
Not surprisingly, Gimba focuses only on football, what about othersports? There are two types of corruption – financial andmoral. Bribing football referees to win matches is one form ofcorruption, age falsification where 27 year-old plays in a 17 yearold World Championships, and the country triumphed, is moralcorruption. We are experts in both.
Sports Minister Gimba has not spoken out against our penchant forimmorality in football, especially against age cheats. Hecelebrated wildly when the Under 17 won the World Cup in Korea. Canhe swear on oath that his boys, the Nigerian team were all under17? So we all expect the Dominic Oneya Committee report in earnestand pray that it may be the turning point in Nigeria’s questfor a clean global sport glory. Pele and gun point robbery

Pele The expression – a prophet has no honour in his own country– should actually say a sports star. Here in Nigeria oursports stars from Segun Odegbami, Mary Onyali, Obafemi Martins, andnow to Emmanuel Okoduwa are regular victims of men and possiblywomen of the underworld.
In Europe, footballers who earn mega bucks have been targeted forburglary and a few with deep pockets, spend huge amount of money toprotect members of their families from kidnapping. The latestvictim of crime, Pele the Brazillian soccer legend, was held at gunpoint by youths and robbed, near the city of Santos, where Peleplayed all his club football.
Pele was too ashamed to report the crime to the police. If theyouth did not see Pele win the 1958, 1962 and the 1970 World Cupfor Brazil, they surely must know him as their country’sSports Minister a few years ago. Why did they attack such an icon?Granted crime rate in Brazil is one of the highest in the world,should there be no honour among thieves?
It is however possible that the young criminals recognized Pele butwent ahead to humiliate him for some of his perceived wrongdoings.In some quarters in Brazil and outside, Pele is seen as selfconceited, vain glorious, selfish and inward looking personalitywho has not done enough for humanity.
On the other hand, Maradona even though afflicted by drug problems,which are common to super stars, has made tremendous contributionto the emancipation of footballers and the oppressed especially thesouthern Italians during his playing days in Italy.
Whereas Muhammed Ali and Mardona have been invited by the OxfordUniversity to deliver papers, in recognition of their service tohumanity, Pele has not, because he is seen as a stooge of thecapitalist world public relations stunt. And that is the reason nocrime syndicate will rob Muhammned Ali in the United States, norany one think of robbing Maradona in Argentina.
But Pele who voted against his country’s bid to host theWorld Cup, and who told the whole world that Brazil would not winthe 2002 World Cup, which they won, under Coach Scolari, the angerof the Brazilian youths may take some time to abate. June 24 and Hogan Bassey
Did you remember that last Tuesday was June 24, exactly 51 yearsthat Hogan Bassey of Nigeria battered Cherif Hamia of France inParis to win the world featherweight boxing title?
It seemed like yesterday as I vividly recall how our ears wereglued to the radio sets, listening to the blow by blow commentariesand when the referee stopped the fight in the tenth round to saveHamia from further unnecessary punishment, the whole of Lagoserupted into the streets in wild jubilation.
Yet June 24 which should serve as a memorable date in our sportscalendar, passes off every year, and Hogan Bassey, the firstAfrican world featherweight champion, seems forgotten.
Elsewhere in West Africa, the Senegalese adopted a day in Septembernamed the Battling Siki Day, to commemorate the 1922 victory oftheir boxer, who won the world light heavyweight title by knockingout the French great, Georges Carpentier, in Paris. Battling Siki,real name, Louis Phal, later moved to the United States, joined therollercoaster world of the wild and was murdered after 23 fights.
Nigeria’s Hogan Bassey had a more distinguished boxingcareer. Born in Calabar in 1932 as Okon Asuquo Bassey, he moved toLagos at the age of 11, started amateur boxing at 15 and turned proat 17. having won all the pro titles in Nigeria and West Africa,Britain was the next inevitable port and after climbing the ladderrapidly his fight for the British Empire title against Billy“Spider” Kelly, which he won by knockout, propelled himinto the world ranking.
In those days for an African to get into the world ranking you hadto cross the Atlantic and head for the USA to meet formidableopponents. By the time Bassey landed in the USA, the much dreadedworld champion, Sandy Saddler had been badly injured in a motoraccident and abdicated his throne.
Elimination bouts were arranged, Bassey scaled through and emergedto meet the European champion, Cherif Hamia, whom he nearlydecapitated in the June 24 1957 fight.
As world champion, Bassey defeated Mexican Ricardo“Pajarito” Moreno, American Willie Pep and CarmeloCosta before losing the title to American Davey Moore on March 181959, in what was described as “an unusually vicious andbloody battle.”
Five months later Bassey sought to regain the title from DaveyMoore, but the eye cut he suffered in the first fight re-occurredand the referee stopped the fight in the eleventh round.
Hogan King Bassey retired and devoted many years to coachingNigerian amateur boxers. It was his professional exploits thatinspired Dick Tiger to win world titles, and similarly the likes ofRafiu King Joe to fight Davey Moore for the world title.
He passed on in Lagos January 26 1998, his remains buried at theNational Stadium, Lagos, but shouldn’t the nation do more toimmortalize him? For a start the Nigerian Boxing Board of Control(NBB of C) should set aside June 24 for some kind of commemorativeactivities which may include international boxing contests. It isnot too late.