By Pini Jason
EVERY Independence anniversary provides us an opportunity to look back and reflect on our journey as a nation.

Nowadays, such opportunity is used to pour out our frustrations and lambaste our country. Indeed, things have gone so bad that Nigerians are fleeing to countries like Sudan for better life!

Now, by our own choice, we have become a terrorist nation. Even as we celebrate (?) our 51st Independence anniversary, various groups carried bombs and threatened mayhem against the country.

It is therefore not unexpected to read so much venomous deprecation of the country by indignant Nigerians. Unfortunately, such negative comments add to the mental poisoning of the nation. They induce a surrendering to the hopeless situation.

Some of us are lucky to know that it has not always been like this; that Nigeria started off on a very promising note; that our nation held so much hope, not just for us but for other nations in the Commonwealth. That is probably why some commentators say that our glory is in our past! Such knowledge is a source of optimism.

One day, at an editorial meeting at The Examiner, there was so much agonising about what ought to be and what ought to be done. I sat quietly, taking in the scene.

Then I threw a challenge: Tell me what you think is a desideratum that if Nigeria does it, we will know there is progress and I will tell you where in the past we have had it.

There was dead silence. I got the kind of look that suggested that I must be joking. When nobody could talk, I said, okay: I grew up not knowing that the light could go off unless you threw a switch!

There was murmuring. I grew up not knowing that you could open a tap and be greeted by hot air! I grew up strolling on a lush green “Love Garden” where you have the MUSON Centre today! Now there was laughter signifying disbelief.

I went on and on, till I said that in my youth a policeman in uniform would not shake anybody’s hands; he kept his hands akimbo, Ojukwu-like. They shouted: why? The reason was simple.

They wanted to avoid the indiscretion of somebody daring to slip bribe money into the hands of a policeman! And mind you, the intention was not to stop the policeman from taking bribe, because that was unimaginable, but to stop an irreverent member of the public from daring to bribe him!

Now everybody roared: “For where!” and proceeded to narrate how, today, policemen extort twenty-twenty Naira from motorists, in broad day light, and shooting anyone who dared to refuse! This is happening even as we face a daunting national security challenge!

Could anyone imagine Chief Obafemi Awolowo, Dennis Osadebe, Michael Okpara or Sir Ahmadu Bello, being hunted after office like a common criminal for stealing public funds? Today the office these eminent men occupied is wantonly desecrated. Could anybody imagine Prince Solomon Akenzue (the present Oba of Benin), Mr. Allison Ayida, A.B Attah (one of brightest civil servants this nation ever produced and who started his career in the Eastern Region when Nigeria held great hope) or Chief Philip Asiodu, as Permanent Secretaries, printing letter heads and invoices to award themselves fraudulent contracts? It is simply unimaginable! We had problems at the beginning, but they were nowhere near what we have today, where addictive thieves are ruling us!

Not convincing about corruption

Corruption is something that, at best, we are all hypocritical about. What do we mean when we describe a Ministry or post as “juicy”? We simply mean that it is a Ministry or post that offers the occupant abundant opportunity to amass illegal wealth! We even lobby, form faceless “groups” that sponsor advertorials and carry placards to get “our own man” into “juicy” positions. Then we turn round, pretentiously surprised or unhappy that “our man” actually robbed us blind! We are not convincingly against corruption.

It seems to me that there is even an unspoken national consensus that once you are in public office you are expected to steal or it is assumed that you have stolen. This assumption does not make allowance for those who, as Uncle Sam once wrote, “do not have the guts to steal”. Sadly enough, a section of the media not only promotes this consensus, but even tries to levy the few upright ones based on that assumption, if any exception must be made for them! Thus, in this preponderant cynicism, an accused is conclusively adjudged guilty without proof and every public officer is a thief until you prove otherwise! As we unconsciously promote corruption as a national creed, more thieves are struggling to get there on the philosophy of “if na you dey there nko?”

Absence of law and order

At a time like this it is very tempting to summarise our problem as due to corruption or leadership failure. I agree. But the single most culpable act of our leaders is to have allowed Nigeria to degenerate through progressive lawlessness. Other acts of indiscipline, such as corruption, flow from absence of law and order. It is on that note that I am optimistic of the future.

Now we know where the rain began to drench us. Our reflection today should not be on how or where we went wrong. We just lost grip on law and order. We only need to do the simplest thing: re-invent our nation as a law and order society and trace our way out of the bush. That was how we started at Indepedence!

The return of the beautiful game

I LIVE a walking distance from the National Stadium and the Teslim “Thunder” Balogun Stadium, both in Surulere, but I did not go to watch the scintillating football match played by Heartland of Owerri and Enyimba of Aba on Sunday 25 September 2011. First, I could not place this one called Federation Cup. It just did not grab me as a serious competition. Secondly, the last time I went to the National Stadium, over 20 years, I was scared away by thugs who manned the gates of the stadium.

It was not until Governor Fashola spoke to Super Sports correspondent that I realised that that was Challenge Cup final! I began to recall the beautiful memory of what our Challenge Cup final used to be—a colourful carnival! Rangers International (the antelopes) of Enugu, IICC Shooting Stars of Ibadan, Alyufsalam Rocks of Ilorin, Mighty Jets of Jos and Bendel Insurance of Benin were crowd pullers that made the National Stadium the Mecca of competitive football!

Those were the days that produced football legends like Mathematical Segun Odegbami, Muda Lawal, “Justice” Adokie Amasimaka, “Chairman” Christian Chukwu, “Alhaji” Dominic Nwobodo, Broderick Imasuen, Patrick Ekeji, Harrison Mecha, “Janta” John Nwadioha, Johnnie Egbuonu, Godwin Achebe, Godwin Okpueze, Tunde Disu, Sidney Asiodu, Felix Owolabi, Henry Ogboi, Agbonifo, Sam Garba Okoye, Peter Aneke, etc etc. That era also produced great sports writers and commentators liked Peter Osugo (PECOS), Cyril Kapo (CeeKay), Ishola (it is a goal) Folorunso, Ernest Okonkwo, Yemi Fadipe, Dele Adetiba and Walter Oyatogun. It was also the era of impeccable sports administrators like Isaac Akioye and Sunday Dankaro.

As Nigeria unraveled, our football fell into the hands of crass opportunists who began to hide our teams from the critical Lagos spectators to hide their ill-preparedness. They began to sell football competitions to any Governor who could afford it. The money they collected went to private pockets. That itself elicited intense war to get into the NFA. Now they have two warring bodies, the NFF and the NFA. The Challenge Cup lost its glamour and glory. The spectators disappeared!

What I saw on Television on Sunday 25 September was a shadow of the glorious days, but it was encouraging. Football is a spectator game played for the paying fans, not for members of squabbling boards! Challenge Cups have traditions; you don’t just change its name or venue! Lagos is the Mecca of Nigerian football. Return the Challenge, sorry the Federation (that name is dull!) Cup to Lagos, get rid of the thugs at the gates and in the administration, return certainty to our football calendar, attract private sector participation and sponsorship and the fun will return and the stadium will be full again, and our football will be alive again! Let men of substance run our football. The spectators will return to the stadium.