It's a new year and above all things, I wish that you all will rise up from your cradles of greatness and attain higher heights; reach for the skies and pluck the stars; swing your gears and drive on the lane of progress. I do not pray that your ways be rough but I pray for strength and courage and wisdom to navigate through what storms may come. I am assured you will berth at the harbor of profound peace and lounge in the spa of divine health. Banks will bash each other's cars to reach your doorstep and your signature becomes an invaluable autograph. One thing though, wherever you are, I am always a beep away and my account is just 10-digits, easy to memorize, ini't? With love, Tobi. Ff me on twitter: @tobisammyjay

LOVE AND MEMORIES

That line comes back often

Like the aunty Tola's abiku

'The memories of our heroes past'

Ken Saro Wiwa and the nine

Even Dele the Giwa

Nigeria the nation I love

The love and the memories

They come together like strings

Of an ancient beaded crown

When Dele is no more deh

AAnd Wiwa can no more wa

Then we think of Goodluck.



Oil they say is flowing

Beyond the creeks to the palms

He is a Jonathan without a Saul

But with Patience on his side

His bowler can work the trick

Wondering if he shoots high or low

Jonathan sounds like John

Who knows

Vision 2020 may just not be so far.

The Road to 'Saviour' Lagerback!

It's just about a hundred days to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa, the first in Africa, and graciously, our beloved(that word is constantly questioned these days though) country, Nigeria's flag will be hoisted at the mundial. Nigeria qualified for the fiesta after a tortuous campaign but that's gradually being pushed aside now and taking its place is the issue of who leads the nation's senior national team, the Super Eagles to the soccer fiesta.
After a qualifying series that left many football fanatics with high blood pressure and an uninspiring outing at the 27th edition of the African Cup of Nations where the nation picked the bronze trophy, the team's head coach, Shuaibu Amodu who was roundly accused of tactical deficiency, was removed and redeployed to handle the home-based Eagles. Justifying his removal during an interview with BBC, the NFF president, Sani Lulu claimed Amodu was removed in response to public outcry against him. It must also be noted that some of the national team's most respected players like Osaze Odemwingie and Obafemi Martins had at different occasions questioned their handler's tactics, an obvious bad omen.
After Amodu's sack, many thought the job of tinkering with the Super Eagles at the first world cup in Africa would go to another Nigerian with many touting former U-23 coach, Samson Siasia and former Mali and Togo handler, Stephen Keshi as favourite candidates. The NFF however had other plans. They soon announced they were in search of a foreign technical adviser, a phrase exclusively used by the football administrative body. The announcement was followed by the release of a five-man wishlist of top coaches they had curiously but characteristically not contacted. The list included Dutchman and Russia coach, Guus Hiddink, his compatriot, Louis van Gaal, Egyptian coach, Hassan Shehata, Englishman, Peter Taylor and Italian, Trappatoni. Surprisingly, two of them, Taylor and Hiddink went ahead to take up jobs with Bradford and Turkey respectively, obviously not taking the Nigerian offer as a serious one. The other coaches on the list also in no time distanced themselves from the job, leaving the NFF in a confused macabre dance of shame!
Not to be outdone as a super source of comedy, the NFF went back to the drawing board (I can't say if it's black or white) and came up with more names such as Bruno Metsu, former Senegal coach; Ratomir Djukovic, former Black Stars of Ghana handler; and Lars Lagerback of Sweden while Glen Hoddle of England and Swede, Sven Goran Eriksson sent in their applications for the job. Subsequently, in a move that inspired more laughter than hope, the NFF incurred the huge cost of sending some of its eminent board members to meet with the above-mentioned coaches in London for a meeting that was in the view of many, utmostly unnecessary considering the fact that all the coaches were still to come down to Abuja for an interview, another hilarious piece of the puzzle!
Dangling the carrot of a CV-boosting opportunity to tinker with the Super Eagles at the world cup, the NFF got all five coaches to come down to Abuja (obviously on the NFF's bill) to face a panel comprised of NSC Director, Patrick Ekeji and CAF Technical Adviser, Chief Adegboye Onigbinde among others. The interviews have come and gone and the panel by a yet to be revealed criteria deemed former Sweden coach, Lars Lagerback as the best man for the Super Eagles job. Lagerback was born Lars Edvin Lagerback in Katrineholm, Sweden on July 16, 1948 and is aged 61. He played for Alby FF (1960-1969) and Gimonas CK (1970-1974) before going on to coach Arbra BK (1983-1985), Hudiksvalls (1987-1989), the Sweden U-21 side(1996-1997) and then serving as an assistant coach of the Swedish national team in 1998-1999 before being made coach between 2000 and 2009 when he resigned his appointment after failing to qualify the side for the world cup.
The process that gave Nigeria her new foreign coach might have raised some questions but he's here now and must settle down to work immediately. He must realise that despite having only a couple of months to work with his players, Nigerians will not accept a less than excellent performance from him. The team must not only win, they must play beautiful, scintillating football that would take our football back to the high pedestal where it used to be. If he's thinking of anything less, then he's probably ignorant of the Amodu story. That of a man who qualified his national team for the world cup twice but got sacked before the tournaments, this time for playing uninspiring football. Some say it would be injustice if Amodu doesn't go to South Africa but if he will and in what capacity is yet unknown.
Conclusively and on a lighter note, for those who feel Nigeria, the world's biggest black nation ought to be led to the world cup by a black coach, not to worry, we can make Lagerback one by calling him Lagerblack! Welcome coach, best of luck!

FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF...

A land filled with plenty
Yet pockets are empty
People branded the happiest
In league with the poorest
Here we grin
Where smiles should not be seen
Super oil producer
Major oil importer
Refineries in states of pity
Reflecting humorous absurdity.

Here
We choose to leave to rot
Intellectuals without support
While importing inferior brands
From some distant lands
Here
The servants eat the broth
While the masters lick the pot
Workaholics are derided
While looters are celebrated.

Here
We spurn the truth
And reward deceit
We overlook the diligent
And celebrate the indolent
This is dire tragedy
Clothed in euphemised comedy
As we call her
This is Federal Republic of Nigeria
But for a while
Let’s be witty
And re-christen her
Federal Republic of Irony.

LORD OF THE KINGS

A young apprentice sits on a bench with his colleague in an auto-repair shop tucked away in an unprivileged part on the outskirt of the city, he watches with vain fantasy as yet another exquisite automobile cruise out of the dusty environment, stirring up dust that tails it and then thins out as the car glide into oblivion. The young apprentice with an awkward standing position, conditioned by the rigours of the job, and his thick hands folded across his chest, turns to his colleague and mumbles endlessly about the spectacle of the wonder on wheels and how he wished he could own one of such. The colleague, a bit more experienced and advanced in age conceals his own fantasies and gives a terse albeit philosophical response, “the rich also cry”.
It’s indubitable that virtually everyone with functional auditory and optical nerves would have come across that phrase if not used it directly either as an admonition to caution a seemingly over-ambitious friend or as a means of self-consolation used in pushing aside the saddening weight of thoughts about the social inequality in the society most especially if one’s portion is the short end of the stick. However, in whatever way one considers the phrase above, it will be discovered that it’s more or less a truism with a plethora of cases around us to prove its astuteness. Aside the peripety tales of once-rich-gone-broke, there are several other instances where the rich, relatives and acquaintances have wished that things were otherwise and perhaps of those circumstances, fast gaining morbid notoriety in Nigeria is that of the grief-birthing phenomenon of cancer, in its various forms.
While it’s agreed that cancer refers to any malignant growth or tumor caused by abnormal and uncontrolled cell division; it may spread to other parts of the body through the lymph, it’s harvest of influential members of the Nigerian society suggests ‘a choosy-killer’ should be considered for addition to its meaning. Cancer has indeed had a rich harvest of death among the Nigerian populace with its latest catch being Maryam Babangida, the former first lady of the nation between 1985 and 1993, who died on December 27, 2009 of ovarian cancer at the University of California’s Jonsson’s Comprehensive Cancer Centre in Los Angeles, USA. She was aged 61 and it was her second encounter having earlier survived cancer of the breast. Before Maryam Babangida, erudite lawyer and human rights activist, Chief Gani Fawehinmi(SAN) had also lost the battle against lung cancer on September 5, 2009, aged 71.
Before these two, there had also been other cases such as that of renowned broadcaster, Yinka Craig who died on September 23, 2008 at the age of 61 at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota in USA of non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, a cancer disease that attacks the white blood cells. Also in May 2008, African Soldier crooner, Evangelist Sunny Okosun died at the age of 61 of colon cancer. Before him, cancer had also claimed another eminent personality in the person of Mrs Alaere Alaibe, wife of former NDDC boss, Timi Alaibe on January 31, 2008 at St. Mary’s Hospital, London. She was aged 44 and died of Renal Cell Carcinoma. These people are among many other Nigerians, popular or not who have lost their lives to the menace of cancer.
From research, cancer is a class of diseases in which a group of cells display uncontrolled growth(division beyond the normal limits), invasion(intrusion and destruction of adjacent tissues), and sometimes metastasis(spread to other locations in the body via lymph or blood). These three malignant properties of cancers differentiate them from benign tumors, which are self-limited, and do not invade or metastasize. Most cancers form a tumor but some, like leukemia do not. Cancers are however less effective when early detected and arrested, a phenomenon lacking in the Nigerian health system as all the cases stated above were all detected abroad and with the exception of Chief Gani Fawehinmi, all the victims died in foreign hospitals.
Conclusively, it’s pertinent to recommend that the health system in Nigeria be upgraded to allow for the timely detection and control of such deadly diseases as cancer among other benefits such an upgrade would avail the nation for even while cancer might have proven itself to be a king to the Nigerian elites, it has among other diseases also been a lord to the sprawling masses who have neither the means to afford treatment nor have media value that would give their cases widespread publicity.
TOBI ‘SAMMYJAY’ ADEBOWALE