I am worried that growth of football will be the only victim. Finally, has President Goodluck entered into a plea bargain with the characters who squandered the goodwill of Nigerians? Has he accepted the apology and inadvertently dragged us as usual to several steps backwards?

WHEN Dr Goodluck Jonathan became Acting President, while Yar’Adua was still receiving treatment in Saudi Arabia, he acquired substantial powers and started to take bold decisions that moved the country forward.

Football is a victim. Its tormentors are the victors. The minor disagreements between the impeached Nigeria Football Association, NFA, bosses and those who have firmly grabbed the reins of football are part of the class fight for the sustenance of chaos in our football.

Last week, I wrote on those who are expected to transform Nigeria into a united and prosperous country from the amalgamation of unequal ‘nations‘ divided by ethnic, religious and political interests.

THE British Government angrily yanked the blog from the website of its ambassador to Lebanon, Frances Guy in which she had praised the Grand Ayatollah Sayyed Muhammad Hussein Fadlallah, the famous Lebanese cleric who passed away on July 4.

THERE is a renewed rage of insecurity in the land. You can understand why. The elections are around the corner. It is usually at this time in the political season that abductions, assassinations and sundry breaches of law and order come out of the woodwork like chicken pox rashes.

The Embassy may be deluged by requests from stranded Nigerians and those who have been victimized by recent laws and regulation which may not be their fault. My charge is to look into every case and seek the best way to ameliorate the situation , save the citizen and at the sametime make sure the laws of the host nation are respected.

THE tunes are familiar. Across our beautiful motherland, rascals are beating the drums of hooliganism and gangsterism. The Armed Forces which is adept at this were again asked to pay an exemplary fine for brutality.

WE are surely getting good at being bad, taking one step forward and several backward. And rather than pretend that the Nigeria/FIFA spat has been resolved by Nigeria blinking and grovelling before FIFA while the latter looks away to make for the impeachment of principal officers of the Nigerian Football Federation, the truth of the matter remains that we’ve once more made fools of ourselves before the whole world, showed ourselves up for the spineless people that we are.

PROFESSOR Gates piece was published in The Nation Monday, April 26 2010 edition. As to be expected the problem he was addressing was elegantly stated in the introductory paragraphs reproduced below: