Lessons In Tact For PBAT, KB Foundation Donation And KWAM 1 Arrogance
By Smallete Adetoyese Alamu,
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu appears to have learned some homely truth from Nigerians two Mondays ago. The lesson-learning was consequent upon the freebies he doled out to the girls who brought home the Women’s African Cup of Nations trophy for the tenth time. They had defeated their counterparts from Morocco, the country that hosted the competition, in a very dramatic comeback bid. Nigerians have seen the Moroccan victory as a revisitation of the “Dammam Miracle” of 36 years ago.
It was a time the Flying Eagles came back from a 4-0 spanking the had in the first 60 minutes of play, levelled up and still went on to win the match via penalties.
The lesson PBAT has learned is on how to get to do things one wants to do without much fanfare, especially actions that are capable of raising the anxiety level of our people. What do we mean here? One week before last Monday, the 4th of August, the President had announced rewards of over 150 million naira, a three-bedroom apartment in Abuja, and the National Honours of Officer of the Order of the Niger, (OON) for the girls. That honour is the sixth in the Order of hierarchy of our country’s nine-level stages of our National Honours list.
When the D’Tigress returned from Mali to present the trophy they had won for the fifth time to the President, there wasn’t much fanfare as we had at the Super Falcons’ reception. Even though the celebration of the D’Tigress’s conquest of African basketball was low-key, the President gave the victorious girls the same treatment he had given the female footballers, only that there was less noise about it. In fact, the Vice President had had to represent him. For what reasons we never knew. Could it have been part of the planned low-key?
Opinions have differed a lot on Nigerians’ views on the freebies handed over to the girls who conquered Morocco. Most of those views criticized the President for being more Father Christmas than Santa Claus hi Drmself. However, none of the critics ever said the girls did not deserve being appreciated for their gallantry.
They only criticized the size of the appreciation Mr. President gave out and that is quite understandable. If you ask us, the criticism is anchored essentially on the level of poverty in the land and nothing more. Because many can’t make ends meet, the tendency is for such critics to feel bad or be against the action of Mr. President.
Against the background of this truth, there was need for Mr. President to be more tactful than he was when he and his wife were with the Super Falcons in Abuja nearly two weeks back. This is so because tact is a better act of valour. One thing we know is that there is greed in all human beings. It is driven not by abnormal human appetite for more. Rather, it has always been driven by absolute ignorance on the part of us human beings. The President, having not shown that he is Father Christmas a second time in one week, has done well. It is both an acceptable and commendable act. Of course what one does not see nor hear cannot, or is not likely to, get one annoyed.
Let us establish the big fact that the giving of big-time rewards to successful sportsmen and women in Nigeria did not start with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Mouth-watering rewards were first given to footballers in 1976, when then-Colonel David Jemibewon, as Military Governor of old Oyo State, gave Volkswagen cars and huge sums of money to all the players of the IICC Shooting Stars of Ibadan and their coaching crew. Four years later, in 1980, President Shehu Shagari, as head of the Federal Government of Nigeria, gave 504 cars, sums of money, and three-bedroom flats to each of the Green Eagles players and their handlers. Each of them also had the Member of the Order of the Niger (MON) national honours.
Similarly, gifts were given to the gold-winning Under-23 team that conquered Olympic football in 1996 in Atlanta. Promises were also made to the Eagles of 1994, who won the African Nations Cup for the second time at Tunisia ’94 finals. Even though a number of the promises of gifts were not fulfilled at certain times by government, they were all the same expressions of a nation’s appreciation for the good works of these sons and daughters of Nigeria.
This fact is true. Our country is not generally an appreciating nation. It hardly takes care of its citizens, especially when they are in need. Athletes usually have poor facilities and training kits to practice with at home. Oftentimes, they sponsor themselves to get out of this country to showcase their skills. Nobody cares about them. It is only when they get up to podium performances that the nation gets interested in them. This is very regrettable.
While we cannot quantify the good image, successes, goodwill, and victories that international and continental successes bring our dear nation, we should also, at the same time, be careful in over-celebration as that could be counterproductive. It could lead to envy and morbid intentions. In giving the same gifts to the D’Tigress basketball team as he did to the Super Falcons we would like to believe that Mr President did not listen to any advice on the matter. It is likely that he was fixated on his own thinking through the matter.
The valid point is that all sports are sporting, but all games are not the same. The world over, football is the king of sports, which was why the Super Falcons went home with a $1 million prize money, Morocco as runner-up had $500,000, and Ghana in 3rd place had $350,000. How much did D’Tigress get in USD for winning the Afro-basket championship? It is therefore, wrong to have given the D’Tigress the same as the Falcons had. Similarly, athletics is more of an individual effort. As popular as it is how much does an individual get as prize money? It is professional boxing that also commands the bucks.
We cannot therefore lump all the sports together when there is need for rewards. They are not the same. When next the President finds himself in a sporting dilemma, he must consult widely so that he does not fall into similar situations. It is very bad to equate the wood with the tree in all circumstances. They are not the same. Wood will remain wood and a tree will remain a tree because it has life in it. We must therefore differentiate whenever we must.
KB Foundation’s Donation
The donation of a cyber security laboratory to Osun State University(Uniosun) last Monday in Osogbo attracts our comment. A Nigerian professor of computer studies based in Houston, Texas in the USA, donated the sum of 10 million naira to enable the university equip its Faculty of Computing and Information Technologies’ cyber security laboratory. The donor is a son of Osogbo, who has been based in the United States for some 35 or so years. He is Adekunle Buraimoh, a software expert who happens to be the son of Nigeria’s international fine arts empresario, Chief Jimoh Buraimoh.
The Multipurpose Hall of Uniosun hosted a beautiful event that set the city of Osogbo agog in being hosted by a very important part of its own landmass that has proved itself to be the fastest growing State University in Nigeria. It is right to say that the event saw Osogbo donating in support of its own self in an Ossogbo-to-Osogbo affair.
In commending the donor who is Chairman of the Kunle Buraimoh Foundation, the vice-chancellor of the university, Professor Odunayo Clement Adebooye, appreciated the hand of fellowship the KB Foundation has extended to the University. He assured that the partnership will grow in leaps and bounds. The vice-chancellor stressed that it is human beings who can change a nation through quality education, good policies and quality leadership, the type which he said the government of Osun State is providing.
That our dear country needs more thinkers and nation builders is not in doubt. Prof Buraimoh said it all. He stress the fact that quality education for our youth is the surest way to cast out ignorance in the country. He assured all present that as an individual, he has a passion to support people, which was why he used the opportunity of the donation to equip the Cyber Security Lab at Uniosun to also launch the foundation’s scholarship of five university students from Osogbo.
That brings the total number of students enjoying the Kunle Buraimoh Foundation (KBF) at the university level to seven. From what he has been doing these three years, from his base in Houston in the American State of Texas, Adekunle Buraimoh, a professor and software developer, must have seen himself as a man who has decided to live for others.
We congratulate him and call upon many of our brothers and sisters in the diaspora to be eager to come home and help. We need them especially in this period of our nation’s life when every resource available is needed to support ourselves. For a Nigerian professional who is making waves as a college teacher, we think the federal and state governments must be willing to collaborate with such a person
THE KWAM 1 ARROGANCE
The third matter we will touch on today is the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport Abuja Show of Shame that Wasiu Ayinde, one of Nigeria’s foremost musicians, put up last Wednesday.
In reading the report from the Captain of the Aircraft Ranti Ogoyi, we could read the phrase “Do you know who I am?”as having been uttered by the Nigerian music celebrity.
Well, we can say he tarmac of the Airport in Abuja is not an Events centre, nor a music studio or place where KWAM 1 as he is affectionately called, would think everybody is there is supposed to recognise him. If he is a close friend of the President, as many of us know, then he really hard not have to travel on commercial flights. He should rather talk to the President who is his friend, to get him one of his private jets to shuttle him about.
KWAM 1’s behaviour on the tarmac last Wednesday was an arrogance taken too far.
The six months ban said to have been imposed on him from flying in Nigeria is not enough; he should be charged to court for positioning himself as a public nuisance. Was that ban effected at all? How did he get back to Lagos same day?
And we talk of the arrogance of a prince who could be King of Ijebu-Ode. The gods indeed are not to blame. What he did before a Bombardier was the height of insanity and disrespect for authority. It is good he has apologized. But that is to us as a nation. The law he broke with impunity, he must face.
Smolette Adetoyese Shittu-Alamu
Osogbo