Olusoji Fasuba rejects Nigeria Flag

Olusoji Fasuba create some mild drama after winning the gold medal in the 100m event at the just concluded 9th All Africa Games and some people think it was a shame to the nation. Fasuba was reported to have on two occasions rejected the Nigeria national flag for a victory run.
Eye witness at the stadium on that day narrated, Calistus Ebare of AIT threw the Nigerian flag to him as was the practised when an athlete won gold in major events, but the athlete did not picked the flag, this further prompted Frank Ilaboya of Sportville to take it to him on the tracks, which he still refused by making a gesture indicating he didn’t want the flag. Finally, his colleague, Uchenna Emedolu, collected the flag and hand it over to Fasuba again who again rejected the flag and continue the celebration without any flag.
We awaits his official reasons for this unpatriotic, shameful and disgraceful episodes. Meanwhile, that perhaps prompt me to pause and ponder whether that action is an indication that the athlete is about to dump the country or perhaps his own little way of protesting some lack of preparations on the part of officials of Team Nigeria. Like I said, earlier, we awaits his official reasons.

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Darfur – Genocide or Conflict?

According to the United Nations, genocide is defined as "any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such:"

• (a) Killing members of the group;
• (b) Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group;
• (c) Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part;
• (d) Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group;
• (e) Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group.

Former U.S. President Clinton, chose to define the genocide in Kosovo with the euphemistic term "ethnic cleansing," since the term "genocide" might have implied an obligation for the United States to intervene. Perhaps, it is high time African should coined out another word to denote “Genocide” so that the crisis in Darfur be taken more seriously, if ‘Genocide’ is the only word recognized before action needs to be taken. An appropriate word like; Mini-genocide’ or ‘Multi-Genocide’ may be appropriate here.

The insurgency and counter-insurgency in Darfur began in 2003 which were driven by domestic tensions. On the one hand, there was a struggle for power within the political class in Sudan, with more marginal interests in the west (following those in the south and in the east) calling for reform at the centre. On the other, there was a community-level split inside Darfur, between nomads and settled farmers, who had earlier forged a way of sharing the use of semi-arid land in the dry season. With the drought that set in towards the late 1970s, co-operation turned into an intense struggle over diminishing resources.

As the insurgency took root among the prospering peasant tribes of Darfur, the government trained and armed the poorer nomads and formed a militia – the Janjawiid – that became the vanguard of the unfolding counter-insurgency. The worst violence came from the Janjawiid, but the insurgent movements were also accused of gross violations.

Since its onset, two official verdicts have been delivered on the violence, the first from the US, the second from the UN. The American verdict was unambiguous, that is a clear case of Genocide, but some people believe that since the US has no national interest in Sudan crisis, it can quickly rush to call the crisis a Genocide. The UN. found out that government forces and militias in Sudan conducted indiscriminate attacks, including killing of civilians, torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement, throughout Darfur, but that these acts were conducted on a widespread and systematic basis, and therefore may amount to crimes against humanity, but it believed the atrocities committed does not amount to a policy of genocide, as the United States has alleged.

In September 2004, what could be termed the African Union definition of Genocide was made known when the Nigerian former President Olusegun Obasanjo, then the chair of the African Union, pronounce as to whether the crisis in Darfur was a Genocide. Hear him:
"Before you can say that this is genocide or ethnic cleansing, we will have to have a definite decision and plan and programme of a government to wipe out a particular group of people, then we will be talking about genocide, ethnic cleansing. What we know is not that. What we know is that there was an uprising, rebellion, and the government armed another group of people to stop that rebellion. That’s what we know. That does not amount to genocide from our own reckoning. It amounts to of course conflict. It amounts to violence."

The truth is Genocide is just a bigger term to entails the above definitions, isn’t it the right time that those responsible for legal definitions of Genocide re-emerge with another befitting one that befit the crisis in Darfur if “Genocide” is the only magic word that will spur the world to solve the crisis.

Please read more about the world opinion on whether the Crisis in Darfur is a Genocide or a mere conflicts?

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The Month of July

The month of July virtually come and go in my life, until I got married in 2004. From then on, it is always one event to celebrate or the other any time I witness the month of July.
For a start, I got married on 18th July 2004 precisely 3 years today, I guess today is the 3rd year anniversary of our marriage. As if that is not enough, my wife's birthday is also July 10th. I remember we tried as much as possible to hold our wedding on 10th July back then so that we would be celebrating two things together on 10th July, but tried as we did, the marriage could not hold on that day.
And lastly, our bundle of joy arrived on 28th of July making it another occasion to celebrate especially where birthday is concerned. I guess to save cost, we need to fix all the celebration till July 28th and make it 3 in 1. So far, I am the odd one out in the family as birth date is concerned, because I hold the same month with Nigeria Independence.
Ever ponder how some things are mere coincidence? I guess my family and the month of July is another coincidence.

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The Fighting Flying Eagles Meet their Waterloo

Just like I predicted in my last post that the flying eagles will not get past the next stage, it did came to pass yesterday when they met their waterloo in Chile.
However, the attacking flying eagles did fought gallantly, and it took the assistance of the centre referee to help subdue their fighting spirit. The truth is, the first goal, offside as it looks like, was allow for a goal by the match officials, and that demoralise the eagles. They press on forward to equalise, and again the referee came to the rescue of the Chileans again, by allowing another offsides that resulted in penalty.
Having said all this, the attacking flying eagles did their best, at least they were not disgraced in a competition where the likes of US, Mexico were also sent packing. The next thing is for the football authorities to learn from what went wrong and move forward. Just like I said earlier on in my post, it is good we do not get past this stage, as it would send a wrong signal that all is well with our preparations.

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The Attacking Flying Eagles wont go far

Mark my words, the flying eagles will not get pass the next stage of the competition. I had not seen any vision, I just felt they are not good enough for the trophy. Let truth be told, and let me set aside sentiments of being a Nigerian, the present flying eagles team lack what it takes to continue in the competition. The only thing good about this team is their attacking nature and ball possession, but they lack the experience and capacity of utilising such advantages.
The number 15 shirt - Ideye Brown who is the point striker lacks poor finishing, they hardly take shot at goals, and when they does, it is always at the wrong opportunity. The best among the team are number 6 shirt, Ambrose Efe, and the number 4 shirt. The goal tender is good too, and I wonder whether the injured first choice keeper can do better than him.
Just ponder over this, if we win our next match, we probably will reach the final, but I am quite sure we cant go beyond the quarter final stage, at least that will be a good commensurate to our poor preparation for the event, reaching the final will be like, everything is well with our football.

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Chris Benoit - The WWE Wrestler's Tragedy

The wrestling world has suffered another blow. WWE sensation Chris Benoit was found dead, along with his wife and son. He was 40 years old.

Benoit, his wife Nancy and his 7-year-old son Daniel were found in their Georgia home on Monday. On Tuesday, authorities announced that Benoit had strangled his wife and smothered his son before hanging himself.

Also today, the CNN on Larry King LIVE also confirmed that Benoit actually killed his wife and son before killing himself.

From an investigation that had taken place since that time when the incident happened, and continued at the crime lab earlier, where autopsies were performed on all three subjects, the case was ruled as a double homicide-suicide. Evidence in the home leads us to believe that Mr. Benoit had, sometime - possibly Friday, had murdered his wife by asphyxiation. Sometime shortly after that, on the early part of the weekend, the same for his son, Daniel, and, then maybe later on Saturday evening, some time early Sunday, had committed suicide by hanging himself in the basement area. Further results from the crime lab are still being awaited, which will include toxicology reports which can take up to several weeks to get all of that information back.

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The FIFA Ban of Flying Eagles Supporters in Canada

The news making round was that FIFA ban the flying eagles supporters club in Canada from drumming their trumpets, but it is not clear enough to me, because i had not been able to read it on the net where a reason was given as to why the ban was effected.
This is a sad development because drumming and singing had always been trademark of eagles supporters club. Is FIFA now saying, drumming in match venue is now outlawed? Or was there a particular law in the hosting country banning drumming or blowing trumpet? They have started another year of Ojoro, just like they did in the last edition of the competition all in the efforts of frustrating Nigeria in lifting the trophy.

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49 Sacked Unilorin Lecturers - The Real Issue

It is no more news that the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) called off their over 2 months old strike last Sunday and directed its members to report back to work, what is news is that among the agreement reached was that the 49 University of Ilorin lecturers sacked 6 years ago may get reprieved, because according to ASSU there is a firm signals emanating from the government to reinstate the 49 sacked lecturers.
In an earlier post by this blog, I stated that, government had not been known to reinstate sacked employees and I still maintain it. The sacked of the lecturers concerned is a forgone issue, most especially when the last administration had turn a deaf ear to all pleas to reinstate them. Having said this, I want to believe there is more to it than what the ASUU want to make us to believe as to reason why the 49 lecturers were not reinstated. The government on the other hand will never come out to tell the world the truth about why they can never reinstate them. This blog will attempt to unravel real reasons why the 49 lecturers may never be reinstated.
The 49 sacked lecturers comprises mostly (if not all of them) non indigene of Kwara State, the state where the University of Ilorin was located. The University itself is a federal universities which make it possible for the non indigene to dominate the Vice chancellorship of the University from inception. As a result of this, at a certain stage, the majority employees of the University were non indigene of Kwara state. This also affect admission quota for the indigene of the state housing the University. As a result of this, the Kwara State indigenes mostly the elites had been lobbying incoming government to correct the anomaly, but they had always not been successful. Respite however came when Professor Shuaib Oba Abdulraham an indigene of Ilorin was appointed as the Vice Chancellor, he saw an opportunity to correct the anomaly as could be seen with the number of non indigenes of the state dominating the employee and admission quota of the university. I am sure the 49 sacked lecturers form a crop of those big wig among the top hierarchy of employees trying to see that the issue of correcting the anomaly never materialises. I want to further believe that this political bickering had been going on under like a cold war before ASUU embark on strike in 2001.
As usual, the Unilorin ASUU joined the strike, but the Vice Chancellor directed them to go back to work. The Unilorin ASUU refused, and the VC further threatened them that, whoever refused to go back to office shall be sacked and directed a strict monitoring of attendance. All other Academic Staff returned back to office and sign the attendance register except the 49 and they were subsequently sacked. The VC took the opportunity of the strike to get rid of the 49 lecturers to fulfill his mission The lecturer should have seen the handwriting on the wall by been wiser for it and return to office. All efforts to persuade the government to reinstate them since that time had proved unsuccessful, the Unilorin authorities does not help their matter either claiming that there is no more vacancy for their reinstatement even when Professor Shuaib Oba Abdulraham tenure ended, the same scenario still persists.
The irony of the whole matter now is that, since that strike, the University of Ilorin has never joined ASUU strike, and in the recent past strike which lasted over 2 months, they had been attending classes and due to finish the semester exam any moment from now.
So from the above analysis, one would see that, it is only a lip service the government is giving to their return back to the University, reinstating them back to that University would be a miracle, aside that, the only respite that the 49 sacked lecturers could get from Yar'adua administration is a retirement with full benefit as against termination of appointment.

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