A NATION DOUBLY BEREAVED

...And to think that it all began with some top civil servant’s greed. Remember him? He was secretary to a state government in the early days of military rule. Like King David, he had time on his hands and ogled a lowly man’s wife, lusted at what he saw and decided to make her his own. Somehow, Gani got the brief and headed for the courts. But he didn’t go far. When all entreaties to hands off the matter failed, he was simply locked up and it took quite a season before they could relocate his cell key to eventually let him go! By the time he came out of detention, Gani was hardened. No, he didn’t become a hardened criminal, he was never one; he was a hardened human rights and civil liberties crusader. Over the rest of his life, he was to go in and out of detention centres and jail houses many more times than some of his colleagues entered court rooms...

That was the weekend that was. The last one, that is. Saturday morning, Gani Fawehinmi departed. And on sunday evening, Nigeria’s senior football team, the Super Eagles, all but crashed out of FIFA World Cup 2010, the very first to be hosted on the African continent. We are a nation doubly bereaved. How sad!

I know that many of us won’t see the connection. I might even be accused of trivializing the death of such a great man as Gani by daring to link it with a mere game. But look at it this way: the same reason Gani died is the reason we almost certainly won’t hoist Nigeria’ flag at football’s world cup in South Africa next year. That reason is blinding greed.

O, yes Gani died of lung cancer. But you don’t require much brainpower to figure out where he got it from, being a non-smoker all his life. And to think that it all began with some top civil servant’s greed. Remember him? He was secretary to a state government in the early days of military rule. Like King David, he had time on his hands and ogled a lowly man’s wife, lusted at what he saw and decided to make her his own. Somehow, Gani got the brief and headed for the courts. But he didn’t go far. When all entreaties to hands off the matter failed, he was simply locked up and it took quite a season before they could relocate his cell key to eventually let him go! By the time he came out of detention, Gani was hardened. No, he didn’t become a hardened criminal, he was never one; he was a hardened human rights and civil liberties crusader. Over the rest of his life, he was to go in and out of detention centres and jail houses many more times than some of his colleagues entered court rooms. Guess why he was gaoled each time: he was fighting somebody’s direct or indirect greed for gain.

Eventually, the irrepressible lawyer’s health began to fail. But a health sector stunted by greed-driven policies could not even diagnose his ailment correctly, until he had to go outside our shores at the behest of his family. It wasn’t until then that he became aware of the cancer that was eating up his lungs. It is a cruel irony that the very thing he spent his lifetime fighting was the root cause of his death.

It is unfortunately a similar scenario that’s playing out in our sports, particularly football. Last Sunday we all but concluded our World Cup 2010 journey – going from being a potential host to probably the best African champion which didn’t even play! You see, not many people saw it at the time, but trust me, it’s true. Nigeria had the best chance to be the one preparing to host the world next year. I know because I was involved with the Bid that never took off. I know because I was in the thick of things, working with some of the most selfless and patriotic Nigerians you never knew existed, under the leadership of one of Nigeria’s most visionary sportsmen, Segun Odegbami. That attempt floundered not, as many people thought, because it was ill-conceived. It failed because it was subjected to the most vicious, most virulent and most mindless attack by a section of the sports establishment with its media wing in tow, for no other reason than greed. This perennial wing saw a World Cup Bid as just another gravy train, which, like every other source of ill-gotten wealth, must be driven by them or be grounded. They had the fortune of having an emperor on the throne that saw his personal interests threatened by the success of the bid, and for once played along with a so-called phantom public opinion. A memoir by one of the key actors will hopefully someday reveal the selfish personal reasons the then potentate had for letting the bid die.

The sad truth is that the same wing of the sports establishment has held the sector in its stranglehold almost like forever, recycling their foot soldiers, nurturing others, journalists not excluded, by compromising them over time, and then pressing them into action as often as necessary. They ferociously protect their turf. You either play it their way or you are out. And if you are perceived to be too dangerous to be out, they do you the favour of putting you on committees where you cannot make any impact. The result is the outright failure and near-misses that have been the hallmark of our achievements in sport. The result is that it will now take a miracle for the green-white-green national flag of the largest country, with possibly the highest concentration of talents in Africa, to fly in the first World Cup on African soil.

Interestingly, it is not often that they manifest ineptitude. Sometimes they even strive to get it right, throw money around, organise friendly matches etc, yet things don’t work Take the match against Tunisia. Do you think those boys didn’t know what was at stake? Do you think they do not want to go to the World Cup with all that it would do for their career? Are they not experienced enough to know what to do to defend their one goal advantage five minutes to a crucial match? Think again.

Dr Adeleke Olaiya, President, Nigeria School Sports Federation (NSSF), I believe put his finger right on it, when he said during the week “that our football problem is intricately spiritual and we must apologise to Ibrahim Galadima, former Nigeria Football Association (NFA) boss for all Nigerians wronged him by disgracing him out of office with just no cause. If he was unable to take us to the World Cup, who will? This is the bitter truth and I stand to be challenged. Nigeria must not be careless with her spiritual life by taking things for granted, we must be sensitive in our public life and ask for forgiveness from God. Then our football will wake up with genuine developmental agenda. God will be with us and give strength to our leaders.”

Save for the fact that the injustice in our football predated the Galadima episode and has not ceased since, I am absolutely in agreement with Olaiya. The point is this. It is an inviolable moral and spiritual law that you cannot build something on nothing. One of my dear readers, Mr Akintunde Makinde once put it very powerfully on this page in a similar context. Quoting Charles Spurgeon he said “You cannot steal a goose and offer God the gosling” and added “Amalekite oxen are unacceptable as burnt offering. Might is not right but right is right. This is the way forward for the country.”

Gani died a day before our World Cup dreams died. Gani was a source of succour and hope for the common man. So is football. While we can keep Gani’s essence alive by picking up the gauntlet against greed which is the father of virtually all other vices, we can resuscitate our sports by exorcising the spirit of greed that has held it bound. Are we going to even try?

PIX: Chief Ganiyu Oyesola FAwehinmi, SAM, SAN in one of his valedictory outings