Ministers come and go. Some back to their businesses or farms or professional practices. Such is the nature of government by which we have had several sports ministers.
It seems however that Solomon Dalung is finding it difficult to adjust to the reality of his expiration, having apparently carried along with the malice of his failed personal fights in the office to now attack his replacement.
It was awful reading Dalung take a scathing swipe at the new Sports Minister, Sunday Dare, much so on social media, for meeting with the board of the Nigeria Football Federation, as he also did with the basketball and other federations, aimed at resolving lingering disputes of various stakeholders and mitigating the adverse public perception inflicted on our sports by the mindless machinations of his regime through frenzied malicious and unfounded accusations of corruption, especially against the leadership of the NFF.
For Dalung to suggest that by seeking to reconcile disputing factions, the new Sports Minister meant that the “ICPC and EFCC should hands-off” (their investigations of the NFF officials) “for peace to reign,” is a most uncharitable and unbecoming mockery of his successor and President Buhari’s judgment in choosing the person of the new sports minister.
For the avoidance of doubt, Dare had made clear, early and rightly, that cases with any agencies would be left to run their logical course, but Nigerians are not surprised at Dalung’s anxiety as such haughty pettiness defined his tenure, leading him to leave nothing behind but relics of war. Perhaps, the reason Mr President thought it wise to rest him, to the relief of Nigerians.
At inception in 2015, Dalung pettily announced that he was part of a government delegation to an international sports event at about 2012 and still bore malice that he did not get a supposed estacode in full. So, he came with such spirit of vengeance with which he splattered bad blood all over the place and left Nigerian sports dripping.
He not only recalled the dispute of the 2014 election of the NFF, but he also made it the cardinal of his ministration. Insisting that Amaju Pinnick leadership must give way for his preferred Chris Giwa group, he supported the harassment of the NFF through several courts, including pleading a phantom Supreme Court order. Matters came to a head after the 2018 World Cup when he encouraged the group to violently take over the NFF Secretariat. Not even FIFA’s warning nor the intervention of the Presidency with a declaration of its alignment with FIFA Statutes could bring him to order. He proposed that Nigeria should leave FIFA, just to satisfy his malevolent agenda.
Before these, he had harmstrung the NFF operations in several ways, disowning the National U23 team’s effort to camp in Atlanta, US, ahead of the Rio 2016 Olympics. The NFF leadership however doggedly propelled the team to emerge the only sport that won a medal for Nigeria at the event.
It cannot be forgotten how he declared he didn’t provide for the allowances of the Super Falcons at the African Women Championship in Cameroon because he was not expecting them to win. The same situation played out at the Egypt 2019 Africa Nations Cup in which he declared that his ministry did not provide for the Super Eagles because the NFF did not make requisition early enough. Such lie. The same thing happened at the Russia 2018 World Cup in which fund was denied the national team throughout the preparation period until their second game against Iceland at the World Cup proper.
In between, he had equally deliberately denied funds, as and when due, for the qualifying competitions of the Super Eagles to the 2019 Nations Cup as well as for other national teams to various international events, all aimed at ensuring the NFF failed. Such examples of how not to serve a nation.
Just as he tried to sabotage the national teams so also did he seek and still seeking to undo the President of the NFF. He was indeed a pity spectacle when, against all oppositions organised at home, Pinnick still won elections into the Executive Committee of the Confederation of Africa Football. He became iller when CAF appointed his fellow countryman its 1st Vice President.
Next was his moves to stop the 2018 NFF elections or stop Pinnick from being re-elected. Though he failed on both counts, it was no surprise to see that while some persons in the Presidential delegation to support the Super Eagles at the 2019 AFCON volunteered personal means to motivate the team, somebody took the opportunity to confederate with CAF President Ahmad Ahmad to ensure Pinnick’s removal.
He has sustained attacks on Pinnick with accusations of corruption, with the aim to turn the government against him, keep him under pressure from the SPIP, ICPC and EFCC with the hope of forcing him to step down in the face of investigations.
That has been complemented with an orchestration of well-funded media attacks which unfortunately do not only hit at Pinnick but effectively de-markets Nigeria football to the point that sponsors and corporate organisations no longer want to associate with it.
For instance, while Supersport pulled out of the broadcast of the Nigeria Professional Football League, the League Management Company had sought and almost concluded an agreement with ESPN to take over the broadcast from the 2018/2019 season. When they returned after the World Cup to finalise, they met the destabilization of the NFF and they simply pulled out. As we speak, the fortune of the NPFL is hanging on the balance. It was the same with the Premium Partner of the NFF who threatened to pull out of its sponsorship in the face of the continued disruptions of the operations of the football house.
To be sure, corruption must not be encouraged nor treated with kid gloves, but it must also be established that persons who find their way to power must not surreptitiously take undue advantage of the agencies to settle personal malicious with such malevolence as Dalung is apparently exhibiting, to the extent of needlessly and disrespectfully challenging the sitting sports minister on his mandate.
Indeed, Dalung must recognise that he doesn’t belong to the same league with the more cerebral, intelligent, resourceful, mature, focused and better organised Sunday Dare, who has defended his his Bachelors Degree in International Studies and Masters in Law and Diplomacy with his selection as a Freedom Forum Fellow and Visiting Scholar at the New York University School of Journalism and membership of the Harvard University Nieman Journalism Fellowship. Added to these is his winning the Reuters Foundation Journalism Research Fellowship at the University of Oxford with his research contributions on “Using New Media Tools and Citizen Journalism to check Corruption in Nigeria.” Decorated as one of the 50 Leading Nigerians during Nigeria’s Golden Jubilee anniversary celebration in North America and declared the winner of the Voice of America 2009 Meritorious Honour Award for his sterling leadership and professional contributions in Africa and Diaspora, Dare clearly dwarfs him and Dalung cannot be in any position to interfere with him.
With his exposure, civilization and decency, Dare knows that merely accusing people of corruption do not amount to their guilt, that it behoves the anti-graft agencies to carry out their investigations with such discreetness and, if there are strong grounds, let the accused, in fairness, have their day in court.
He knows that the objective should not be to solicit the obnoxious culture of abusing power to influence accusations of persons or bringing institutional leaderships to public disrepute as was done with the painting and media campaign about the investigation of the properties of the NFF leaders, all of which were built several years before they ascended their positions, just to fall them for the pleasure of inordinate envy. He knows that it should be about getting to the bottom of the truth, to protect and preserve national assets and institutions, a duty for the agencies and not of Dalung, much so when out of office.
As we are witnessing, Donald Trump of the United States is probably the most litigated President in the world, both on criminal and civil allegations, but he has remained President as the democratic system continues to ensure that the processes are not maliciously wooled with political acrimony and primitive personal animus.
But, we only need to pray for Dalung, that God would circumcise his mind into soundness and unchain his spirit from any impish urge to destroy his fellow man for pristine and Frankenstein pleasure. May God grant him peace like other past ministers.
Fred Edoreh, Former Chairman of Lagos SWAN...a sports analyst
