Every four years, the world gathers to celebrate the Olympics. There, the world celebrates not only brawn but brain. Callisthenics and gymnastics bear testimony to the power of the brain on the body and its immense possibilities. You can measure the decline or decay of a country from its performance.

Once, it was the United States; once, it was Britain; once, it was the Germans. Now, the ascendency is China tells you how we are. Once in a while, Nigeria rides the firmament like a meteor - gold in China; gold in Dhaman and gold at South Korea. When that happened, we lived on it for a while.

The committee in charge has given us a bill of N37 billion and the President has called that an impossibility in a year of dwindling fortune that needs a lot of management.

Any prudent manager of funds will ask the same questions: What is the rationale for spending that amount of money to host a sporting event? Is there a correlation between hosting sporting tournaments and doing well in sports?  How come countries like Kenya, Ethiopia that do not host tournaments usually do well in the Olympics?

Do we make gains as most Western countries do when we host tournaments or do we incur losses? What has been our experience over the years with regards to some of these tournaments we have hosted?

There is no way we can answer the President’s question fairly satisfactorily. People spend money to make more money and there should be no need to undertake the exercise if no such purpose will be served.

The President seemed to have gone too far to infer there has been no correlation between hosting tournaments and doing well. No one can say that Kenya and Ethiopia would not have done better if they had hosted a tournament. It depends on the degree of preparation and motivation. Besides, Kenya and Ethiopia have natural environment for the marathon in which they excel at the Olympics.

There is no doubt that we have always incurred losses as hosts and that has everything to do with our husbandry of our financial resources and our penchant for corruption. Such occasion should have been for the projection of the image of our country and the highlighting of our potentials. But they have not been so used.

We have used them for scrambling for contracts that would not be performed and for settling our political allies.

The are “issues surrounding the hosting of COJA (that) were yet to be properly addressed by the same people promoting the hosting of Under-17 tournament.” I agree that efforts should be made to develop our sports and hosting should not be excluded. Hosting, as I have stated above, does have its own advantage.

I do not know that we need that much money to host the Under-17 championship.  There are the infrastructures and I dare say we should be making money for whoever invests in the venture - government or the private sector.

But there is this about sports - most especially football: there has never been a moment when we have been so united as during a soccer tournament in which we are involved.  You would not find a voice of dissent; no federal character; no quota and no rotation. Even only for that it will be a worthwhile investment. An investment in peace and harmony is a worthwhile one.  Peace should be a priority of any government. I will advise Yar’Adua to invest in peace.

Jerry Useni

JEREMIAH Useni, I thought was not in this country when suddenly he was unearthed by a reporter.  And he would not keep quiet. The Holy Prophet advised anyone who does not have any good thing to say to shut his trap. He was reported to have justified the hanging of Ken Saro-Wiwa.

The military would justify anything and that includes murder. I am, therefore, not surprised that Jerry did justify the murder of the writer and others. He was hand-in-gloves with Sani Abacha and it was common knowledge that he was a very close pal of the late dictator. The general impression was that you could get anything from Abacha if you conjured with the name of Jerry. Some said Sani liked his drinks and the same was true of Useni.

Ken Saro-Wiwa was murdered as the entire process did not enjoy the due process. Take, for example, while the trial lasted, some diplomats were justifying a guilty verdict to be returned. No room was given to an appeal. The Ogoni 9 were hanged before they had the time to appeal.

How can that hanging be justified? Let me say this: the Nigerian journalists also had a hand in the murder of Saro-Wiwa and co. Many of them were invited to Rivers State to do some hatchet job for the regime of Sani Abacha. What I am saying is that the trial was not transparent.

 See what is missing in our homes or the beauty of Sharia

HOME training is what is lacking in today’s  world. We seem to be too busy making money or making ends meet that the upbringing of the child is left to the teachers or to society at large.

But the teachers are minding their business and the society is full of all corrosive influence. I wish we could do what Mallam Sama’ila Tahir, a Bauchi trader, has done.

Sama’ila has taken his 20-year old son, Jamilu, to a Bauchi Sharia Court for idleness. He asked the court to jail his son because he belonged to a gang of criminals. He said his son refused to go to school or engage in productive activities in spite of counseling and guidance by the family.

He said: “He is bringing shame to my family ... I am tired of his nefarious deeds. Please put this boy in prison so that I can be free”.

Jamilu admitted the charges and asked for leniency. He did not show remorse. He was sentenced to six months imprisonment under the Sharia penal code and 30 strokes of the cane for being disobedient to his parents.

This is for all of us whose children do no laundry duties yet come home with many and different clothes. Yet, we fail to see a thief that close.

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