Sunday, June 16, 2013

IF ONLY FOR HIS SPERM...Happy Father's Day BY ENA OFUGARA


Okay mother's day had more weight...maybe it should. Maybe because mothers are usually more hands on with the children and also maybe the nine months or being in their belly and another 3-10 months feeding from their nipples is factored. However, PAPA NA PAPA.

Now I have seen so many people send BCs that basically rubbishes Father's Day because of what they perceive as an uncaring father. hmmm... I empathise if you did not have the firm and providing hand of a father in your life. There is no gainsaying the importance of that. In fact I usually am able to tell a girl who was raised by her mother without much input from the father.

The first thing you will notice with SOME of such girls/women is a disrespect for men. They make it seem like Fatherhood is as important as the appendix or pinky toe (the small toe is of no use and some women take it off abroad just to fit into smaller more pointed shoes.) These girls speak of such independence from their husbands that it is scary when they converse. Quite often in my usual conversations amongst people, once a girl starts to speak, I simply say "u no follow your papa stay same house" To which they reply "how you take know"?

Now also statistics have shown that kids that had no father-figure growing up are up to fifty percent times more likely to turn out bad as in go to jail etc. This is no longer in dispute.

Thus I am really against fathers who breed 'em but do not feed 'em (had to rhyme it)

Now having said that, WETIN SEF!!! so because he no train you naim make you no just send your papa? Haba!!!

Now do not look lightly at the role your absent father played in your life. He determined more things in you than you care to imagine. It could be your "ogo" at the back of your head, handsome face, your selfish but determined outlook etc. But even if you do not look like him, HE GAVE YOU YOUR DNA.

Now you think it was easy for him to toast your mother? Do you know the amount of lies he had to tell, clothes he had to buy/borrow/iron just to impress her? And when she finally agreed, DO YOU KNOW THE WORK INVOLVED IN MOVING HIS WAIST BACK AND FORTH, BACK AND FORTH several times, till he em em...you know.... till you came out swimming and egg-hunting? And even if it is one school fees, or one book or ...just his name that you bear, or even if you do not, HE WORKED HIS WAIST TO DEATH SO YOU COULD SWIM.

And so you love your mother and are grateful to her and you buy her a car just to spite your father. As my friend and brother Precious Izobo once told his dad when he was giving him money "papa, I no suppose dey give you money cos you no try for me. Na my mama I suppose dey give, then if she like she go give you inside" Yet he gave his father and did as much as he could even though as he said "papa you no try for me"

Two wrongs have never made a right. So he did not do his duty as a father, does that mean you too will shirk your duty as a son??? How are you then better than him? In fact it shows you are more like him than you realise.

I am afraid to raise this argument that maybe not providing for you was the biggest provision your father could have ever done for you. crazy logic right? But if Obama's Muslim father had been a good, monogamous providing father, if he had brought him back to Kenya would Obama be POTUS today... Most powerful man in the world? If Sade Adu's father had been good to the mother, would they have snuck back to London and that annoyance, passion and pain you hear in Sade's voice that reveals an electra love gone sour (yes. She came for his burial showing like most girls she loved her father and must have felt the biggest betrayal and yes hate for the man for how he treated her mother) would she be THE KING OF SORROW today? Yes it is warped logic but maybe just maybe it is truth.

And no matter what you think, drive a Mayback and build a mansion in Banana Island for your houseboys and drivers to stay, tar the road to your church/mosque, donate to All Saint Motherless Baby's Home in Anthony Lagos (had to plug that orphanage so someone reading this might buy them a bag of rice or something soon. Again, it is at Anthony right before or after Maryland depending on where you are coming from) if your father has holes in his wrapper from which you see his buttcheeks, (yansh) if he hungers and starves even with the junior wife over which he threw your mother out, if when he is ill, he cannot afford to go to the hospital.... your gold-plated boxers and diamond-studded singlet notwithstanding, YOU ARE POOR. Yes poor. Poor in forgiveness, poor in love, poor in honouring your father and your mother as God commanded in the ten Commandments; poor in not taking higher roads; poor, poor,  ABJECTLY POOR.

 IF FOR JUST THE SPERM,  If for not masturbating that night or using a condom IF FOR JUST PROVIDING YOU WITH SUCH A SPECIAL WOMAN AS YOUR MOTHER, if only for not beating your mother till she lost the pregnancy when she told him she was pregnant,  if for bearing the same title of "father" as GOd does....if for ....anything anythin anything, forgive your father and honour and provide for him....

Happy father's day y'all and to all males yet to father a child,  MAY OUR SOLDIERS MARCH, and may we have the good sense that MY CHILD WILL EAT FIRST THEN MY WIFE THEN ME even as the Lord provides for us as the heads of our household.

AMEN. Happy Father's day

(This article was partial to biological fathers. We consider every man or uncle or friend or stepfather or "uncle" (mama boyfriend) who helps to raise a child "a father". Jackson's kids are white and he is their father. I wrote this only for people to forgive fathers who did not provide for them. It in no way diminishes your role as a wonderful stepfather, adopted father etc etc etc.)

Saturday, June 8, 2013

BEFORE YORUBAS ALIGN WITH THE CORE-NORTH... a friendly reminder BY ENA OFUGARA

Professor Angos Abdullahi's offer of alliance to any region that offers the North the presidential ticket and Tinubu's dallying with Buhari forces me to point a few things out to Yorubas who care to listen.

 Firstly we all know Awolowo was a more intelligent man than Zik and the  Igbo-hating Ahmadu Bello (i shared the link were Ahmadu Bello spouted total hate towards Ibos). Why, pray tell did his Action Congress  not go into alliance with the NPC (Northern People's Congress) and instead the naive "One Nigeria" Azikiwe did to dastardly consequences? Awolowo was in Zik's house offering the Alliance between AG and Zik's NCNC when  Ahmadu's call came through and Zik accepted to align with the North instead of the West, an alliance that has done nothing for the East till date.

What did Awolowo know that made him not align with the core-north that Tinubu does not? Does the Awo-imitation glasses which Tinubu wears not reveal same wisdom to him?

Then let us look at MKO ABIOLA. MKO fought Awolowo and struck alliance with the North. He was a graduate and established businessman and was very wealthy. He built countless mosques and spent huge resources wooing the North so he could be president under NPN. In fact, Abiola's utterances and postures back then was so anti Christian and anti-Awo....same Awo whose free education he used to acquire education which in turn made him able to take advantage of the opportunities presented in a new nation. The North took his money and made a TC11 holder Shehu Shagari...a Northerner, president and again Awo turned down any alliance leaving the Ibos and Alex Ekwueme to align with the North. Of course when the Hausa's took a coup to unseat Shagari, Buhari placed The president Shagari in a "house arrest" while his powerless deputy and Ibo ally Ekwueme was in kirikiri even though he did not take a single executive decision we can remember.

Abiola MKO had learnt his lesson. Thenceforth he balanced his affections somewhat between Christians and Muslims and knew not to rely on the North. He spent as much time helping people in Port Harcourt almost as much as in Sokoto with his immense wealth. And when IBB called for parties to be formed and elections held, Abiola refused to join the fray. He knew he couldn't trust the Northerners and perhaps was unsure how South east and South South would react to his previous suspected anti-Christian stance. So he stayed away. Shehu Yar'Adua was thus the Colossus and President in waiting until Sani Abacha's hate for him perhaps influenced IBB to ban everyone who contested and open the field for fresh candidates. (Till date there is no rationale for the ban on Shehu Yar'Adua so pardon me if I attribute it to his rumoured personal squabble with Abacha)

Now with the "first eleven" banned, the temptation was too much for Abiola and he threw his hat in. That was when he knew that South East and South South did not support Awo, not because he was Yoruba, but because Awo was TOO YORUBA. His writings and speeches and actions showed he was for everything Yoruba and no place else. They also felt betrayed by his actions as finance minister during the Biafra war... the action of changing the naira which in everyone's view won the war for Nigeria (told you he was brilliant)

Back to Abiola. The south and East went for him like he was Munachi Kiniovo Oritsesan (MKO) Abiola. The south and East seeing Kingibe as his deputy did not give a hoot about their Muslim/Muslim ticket. We knew Ambassador Kingibe was too civilised to be a Muslim Fundamentalist and Abiola had shown he cared for the common man and so nobody cared if he walked naked to a river to worship Olokun or shaved his hair and climbed a mountain to see the Dalai Lama in Tibet or to Ethiopia to worship Haile Selassie. NOBODY CARED.

And then Babangida realized he had made an unforgivable mistake in the eyes of the North. Ahmadu Bello's speech about them never allowing power to move to the south had been flipped and IBB had to beat a retreat and annul the June 12 elections. And the East and South South stood up with the Yorubas and fought and rioted and burnt buildings of even their sons whom they considered traitors.
THE EAST AND SOUTH SOUTH STOOD WITH THE WEST.

Now how did the North react? You could have heard a pin drop. Silently they backed IBB and when the West and East and South South will not be placated, IBB "stepped aside" and put Ernest Shonekan as head of the Interim Government and refused to put a vice but left Geeneral Sanni Abacha as Minister of Defense and put him as Shonekan's Number 2 man. And when the polity was settled to a degree, Abacha returned power to the North and himself. And when he died, power stayed in the North and Jerremiah Useni who ordinarily was the ranking officer after Abacha then knew being a Christian Middlebelter made one at the mercy of the core north and like David Mark and other Middlebelters, you are offered what falls of the master's table and from lessons learnt from allowing Gowon, it will no longer include the presidency.

So Abdul Salaam became president but also knew the east and South South and West were deeply aggrieved and IBB knew the country was tottering on the precipice of disintegration and so the Yoruba Man who had once delivered power back to the North is recruited from prison and so OBJ became President and indeed sent power back to the North upon completion of his 8 year tenure.

Again it must be noted that the East and South South stood behind the Yoruba OBJ. he had almost 100 percent of votes cast.

So when OBJ picked the brother of his former 2IC (second in command) Yar'Adua and put a very compliant GEJ as his deputy, there was no thought that power would ever go to the east or South South. Then Yar"Adua started removing all OBJ's fingers from reins of power, chasing out and prosecuting his allies like El Rufai and Nuhu Ribadu. Vetoing the sale of NNPC and a few other major decisions. And upon Yar"Adua's rumoured and denied death, OBJ knew it was an opportunity to get back in the saddle of power and supported the then stooge-mien GEJ to power.

Now the West and East and south South stood behind GEJ so he can be called "Acting President"....something that should go without saying.

And when finally Yar"Adua death was confirmed, GEJ was sworn in as president. The West almost betrayed the alliance by adopting Nuhu Ribadu. But somehow we understand Tinubu decided to go with GEJ as Ribadu had no chancee of winning even his home state and only Ekiti or so returned Ribadu as winner.

But since GEJ's tenure, the North have bullied him and sadly the West have joined them. Boko Haram has been used as a scourge and since Yorubas are not the primary target, as those to be butchered are chiefly The Easterners and South Southerners, the west's leadership have been totally uncaring. Instead of supporting GEJ to rule well, the new Awolowo (if only by his glasses and leadership of the Yorubas), Bola Tinubu decides to plot and remove the minority GEJ from power. Unlike Awo, he decides to align with the same core North that will not allow a Yoruba Imam preside in a Northern Mosque nor consider Abiola good enough to be president. Tinubu decides to add the Western weight to that of the north just to have his hands on the reins of power...power of vice president at best...an aberration to Awo.

When GEJ finally decided to take the bull by the horn as he was getting zero cooperation from those who have led Nigeria and who consider themselves senior partners to the union called Nigeria, when he decides to tackle terrorism, Tinubu, the leader of the Yorubas decide to not support the only action that can savee the life of Ibos and South Southerners in the North and maybe with time, in the very south. (cancers grow).

This I find to be a big betrayal by the Yorubas...if Tinubu indeed speaks for them. This was a chance for Yorubas to take charge of being leaders of the south by backing GEJ. For them to empathise with our dead and support all actions to keep us safe. But Tinubu like Akintola decides his bread is best buttered with an alliance with the core north and like Akintola, he will find his stock plummet in a very short while.

So as Professor Angos Abdullahi offers alliance with any region that would offer them the presidential ticket, I ask Yorubas to look inwards and ask 1. with whom are they truly equals and even apparently superior and not second class citizens? 2. Who has stood with them the most? 3.Whose resources have built their Lagos and everywhere else? 3. if the country should break, with whom would they rather form a republic? South South or North? 4. What has previous alliances by Akintola and Abiola with the North done for them? 5. Should they not be leading a united south against those who say they are born to rule? 6. What is the cost to the Yoruba nation to be forever hated by the East and South South for supporting the North at the only time they have felt any sentiments as being truly part of Nigeria. 7. Should we not be uniting to address why the North has 80 plus percent of oil blocks or is the Yoruba 19 percent fair enough so no need to change the status quo?

I will end by saying, give us a Kingibe and the south will not mind being as one with the North. But all we see are fundamentalists and supremacists like the Ciromas, Anbos Abdullahis, Buharis who will not even comisserate with Southerners and easterners killed by their terrorists. WE CANNOT HAVE THAT and the Yorubas should not allow themselves be used to return power to this ilk.

Awo would turn in his grave in disgust watching Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his Alliance with Buhari

Friday, June 7, 2013

WHEN WILL CHELSEA LEARN? Let Mourinho BUILD not BUY a team.BY ENA OFUGARA

THE BLUE NIGERIANS... MIKEL AND MOSES
As a long time Chelsea fan who experienced all the pain Thierry Henry used to heap on us, I cannot help but marvel at how far we have come since then...and how far Arsenal has fallen since. So make no mistake, I am grateful for the spendings and the wins and the trophies.

But we must agree that with all of our expenditure which dwarfs that of our rivals...at least till Manchester City and their Arabs opened their wallets, we are still not where we ought to be. Seriously since Ferguson outclassed Mourinho in Mou's third season, despite the continued purchase of big name players and Mourinho's eventual sack (yes he was) Chelsea has not been as dominant as we should be. Yes Ancelotti won us the double with some excellent scoring formations and yes Di Matteo won us the Champions League and FA Cup in a heroic manner, yet The owner and I know Chelsea is not the finished article yet.

Seriously with players like Shevchenko, Crespo, Veron, Ballack, Deco, Torres, Mutu, all having been on our teamlist quite recently, with the huge amounts expended on their purchases, we should not be on just three premiership trophies and a couple of third and even a fifth place as the above named players are definitely "Galacticos" in every conceivable way. Yet Manchester United, with no real purchase of note (They built Ronaldo and Rooney was a kid in Everton) is still the best club in the land.

Now aside the players, we have also had the best coaches football has to offer. We have had the old wiliness of Ranieri, had a world cup winner in Scolari, an experienced hand in Guus Hiddink, a quadruple Champions League winner in Ancelotti (twice as player, twice as coach) a young genius in Villas Boas, a home-grown crowd favourite in Di Matteo, and Champions League, Europa League, Spanish league and World Club Cup winner in Benitez and yet we still fall short of the standards set by Manchester United who has had just a coach within all those times...and I did not even mention Avram Grant.

If I was to extend the comparison to other leagues, Bayern and Barcelona who have spent so much less have outclassed us these past years.

So I dare to ask why this is so. Why we still lack a certain factor that puts us just below Manchester United, Bayern and Barcelona.

Many will point to the musical chair of our coaching staff...the inconsistency. Many will say Ancelotti or AVB or even Benitez should have been kept to continue their work on the team.

I wish to disagree to a certain degree. Manchester City has had one coach and two trophies in three years of mad expenditure. And have achieved precious little.

What then is the problem? I dare to say a lack of chance to young talents to mature

Looking at these three clubs I have put in front of us, you will see that their strength has been built on either grooming or buying fantastic young players and letting them grow and jell with some other expensive big money buys. Each player is not assessed by his individual ability or super-star nature but how they with time grow to understand the playing philosophy of their teams and how the team then runs in their blood as opposed to being just mercenaries.

Listening to Benitez say Mourinho has a warchest of 100 million dollars, I said to myself, "here we go again".  And the rumour mills have not helped either with the chase by Chelsea of every single player with any talent and in all positions.

Now look at Chelsea. Our three greatest legends are Lampard, Drogba and Terry. Lampard was in West Ham as well as Terry but their relative young ages and desire to do well and make a name for themselves led them to achieve such great feats for our club. Lampard outclassed the Petites and Verons and Jarosiks and Ballacks and Maniche and Decos and every big name we bought to shore up the midfield....and he was in West Ham. Terry is the highest scoring defender ever in Premiership history and this was because as a young kid he learnt from Lebouf and Desaille and Chelsea got in his soul. Drogba, a relatively unknown with Marseille also needed a stage to shine and despite all the clubs attempt to relegate him to the bench with purchases like Crespo, Shevvy, Anellka, and Torres, Drogba proved that names and fame play second fiddle to desire and hunger. Drogba bled blue which Crespo and Shevvy and Crespo never did.

So once again we are at the Rubicon. We once again have gone and gotten a sojourner as coach in Mourinho who has the effrontery to say "if Chelsea sack me, I become a millionaire and a new club will hire me". It is to him we have turned proving once more all we care about is a quick fix. Yes he has said he intends to stay for a long time but knowing Mourinho....

In the next few days I know Chelsea will have signed Cavani and I pray it goes well. However WHEN WILL CHELSEA LEARN when it comes to signing expensive centre forwards? I hope it is different this time.

Then again a very brilliant project is about to be thrown out. These past years Chelsea has acquired some very brilliant young prospects. These boys in the youth team have dominated the age grade competitions in the Premier league. If the Premiership like Spain allowed clubs register their  youngsters, the quality in our youth team would have astounded everyone.

We now have in our fold a group of fantastic youths who with time will know only Chelsea as their club and their very blood will be blue and Stanford Bridge their only home. We have the very excellent Ruben Loftus Creek who I can assure you today can be as excellent as Rodendo was. This seventeen year old held his own against Manchester City twice and i am talking Yaya Toure. Then there is Nathan Ake whom Benitez has blooded. There is also Kevin De Bruyne who is outplaying Hazard in the Belgian National team and Thorgan Hazard, Eden's younger brother who was also invited to this very talented Belgian squad. We also have the very skillful Wallace from Brazil as cover for Azpilicueta who himself is a youngster. Then there is Chilobah.

Then to the attack, we all saw Lukaku. He outplayed Torres and Ba doing a hat trick against manchester United.

Now with John Terry still able to play as central defenders play into the late thirties, as Ivanovic is able to play as centre and as right back making our right backs three, as Luiz is able to play holding midfield and Libero and sweeper, as Cahill has proven he is a fantastic committed great centre-half in waiting, as all defenders named are able to chip in an unfair share of needed goals, as we have both Hazard Eden and Oscar in a second season and definitely more acclimatized, as we have a Mata that totally outplayed Bale truth be said last season, as we have a Ramires that is both a holding midfielder and a number 8 and also a right midfielder, as we have a Mikel who we have seen still has the number ten in him if Chelsea will let him express himself and who even Benitez chose in our difficult matches until he was injured (I hope Mourinho does not punish him for refusing to join Inter after his agent Shittu had "agreed"  with Mourinho), with Lampard still able to find his way to the goal at unbelievable consistency, as Torres for the first time went beyond 20 goals and was our highest goal scorer, as Moses has proven England made a mistake in letting him play for Nigeria with his dribbling, work-rate and crucial goals, as Ba will have had a pre=season this time with our midfielders, with Hazard and Oscar and mata all able to be midfielders and left and right wingers and fluidly switching the roles in matches...with Marko Marin not yet clicking but deserving of a second chance, WHY DO WE NEED TO BUY PLAYERS??? Is Mourinho not THE SPECIAL ONE or ONLY ONE?

Honestly, Abramovic should pocket his millions and let Mourinho work with the same tools the other coaches were given. He has the advantage of them having acclimatized. Lukaku is no longer the raw-eyed thing in awe of Drogba. Let him reel him and courtois in from Athletico Madrid and switch him and the injury-prone Chec every now and then as Lindegaard and De Gea and as is done in Spurs too. Lets have these youngsters in to train and work with the Lampards and Terrys. This squad won the Europa. If we played as we started the season under Di Matteo or as we ended it under Benitez, winning in Old Trafford, we can win the Premier league without risking another 40 million pounds for a striker that is in Chelsea to pasture.

Now some people will point to Arsenal's trrophylessnes as proof that you must buy big players. This would be misleading as Wenger has not been allowed to keep the players he grooms like Flamini and Hleg and Fabregas and Ashley Cole and Thierry Henry and Anelka and Alexander Song and Van Persie. I would have loved to see him shut the door to important exits....or maybe not. Song, Fabregas, Flamini Hleb (his hleb not the one ruined in Barcelona) added to Cazorla, and Arteta, with Van Persie in front of them, that is the team I would have like Wenger's experiment to be judged by.

Mourinho, if you are special, work with the players that are in your dressing room right now and the youngsters. Like Guardiola with Messi and Xavi and Iniesta and Ferguson with Scholes and Giggs and Beckham and Van Gaal with Ajax back then with their young inexpensive squads BUILD US A DYNASTY, you cannot buy one else Manchester City would be Champions not basement of Europe.

CHELSEA CHELSEA