Solomon Dalung was appointed by President
Muhammadu Buhari to mange the Sports Ministry and possibly extend the change
mantra to it to see to its growth and development. However, it seems Dalung has
already failed.
In this opinion we highlights five reasons
that can propel President Buhari to sack the Minister of Sports. Nigerians were
taken unawares when Mr. Solomon Dalung was appointed by President Buhari to
manage the affairs of the Ministry of Youth and Sport as a minister. They wondered
why the president deemed it fit to give a Khaki and beret wearing ex-prison
official such an important task of managing a ministry that directly and/or
indirectly affect the lives of most Nigerians due to their love for sports
especially football.
There were criticisms at that time but
majority of Nigerians perhaps took solace in that the intentions of the
president were good and not evil. However, Nigerians now believe that recent
events in the management of sports and other activities of the ministry of
youth and sport is due to a competency gap on the part of those managing the
ministry and that the minister should be sacked. Here are five excuses the
President can give to sack Solomon Dalung if he wants to.
1. Fuelling crisis in the Nigerian Football
Federation: Crisis in the Nigeria Football Federation has over the years
been a major impediment to the growth of football in the country. As a matter
of fact, there is hardly any year the federation is not ensnared in one major
controversy or the other.
Nigerians were of high hopes that with the
introduction of a new government and appointment of Solomon Dalung there will
be an end to all these problems and Nigerian football will be back on the right
track. But these expectations were dashed when the minister literarily
added ‘petrol to fire’ by interfering in the matter undiplomatically.
He re-awakened the NFF crisis by calling a peace meeting which became a battle
ground for the NFF President, Amaju Pinnick and Chris Giwa. They almost engaged
each other in a physical battle as they both claimed leadership to the same
office.
2. Inconsistency: One of the hallmarks of every great leader is
that they are consistent but that seems to be lacking in the way and manner the
Solomon Dalung has been managing the ministry of youths and sports. It was
widely reported that the minister tried to mislead the public when he claimed
that the failure to account for money is the reason for the Federal
Government’s refusal to provide funds for the country’s preparation for the
2016 Rio Olympics. Whereas, Dalung had previously claimed the exact opposite as
the reason for the government’s failure to promptly release money for the
Olympics, says Gara Gombe, former Chairman of Gombe State Football Association
in an interview.
Gara Gombe berated the minister adding that such double talk
would make sports men, women, and stakeholders not to take him serious on any
issue. He also advised the president to call Dalung to order. Gombe
said: “Unknown to Dalung, Mr. President is fully aware of his involvement
in the disappointing recklessness. The minister, desperate to account for the
money, sent security agencies after Alhassan. “He first sacked him as NSC DG
then scrapped NSC but the former DG is a better trained ‘felon’ found his way
around it and even the security agencies were quiet about the matter till today
now a helpless Dalung is going round to say it is the missing N2.9 billion that
is causing the non-release of funds.
Yet Alhassan Yakmut is walking freely and is
still a civil servant in Federal Government agency. We are waging total war
against corruption.”
3. Foreign coach recruitment comedy: Nigerians were treated to
some nauseating comedy by the NFF and Solomon Dalung in the recruitment of a
foreign coach. It was announced to the nation and also the international
community that Nigeria had engaged the services of Paul Le Guen to manage the
Super Eagles and in another moment the news was disowned causing Nigeria
international shame. It later became a “back-and-forth thing” as the
minister claimed he wasn’t aware about NFF’s decision and NFF saying the
minister was aware and that his denial came as a shock.
Victor Eyinnaya, a
sport writer captured it this way: “It showed in all ramifications the
height of ineptitude, a clear indication of lack of institution of due process
in their assignment in the first place, before its afterthought and lame duck
excuse that it dumped the respected gaffer. Simply, the body shot itself on the
leg. “It once again brought to the fore huge international ridicule which
reduced the country to mere bundle of unserious and naive administrators. In
short, it can safely be likened to a case of a nation never ready to mend its
old and twisted ways. The other angle from Le Guen’s agent that emphatically
said he rejected Nigeria.”
4. Rio Olympics and the national embarrassment: The Nigerian men’s
soccer team was the talk of the town few days to the Olympics. Why? Because the
Nigerian men’s soccer team was stranded in Atlanta. The team trained for the
Olympics in Atlanta since July 3 and never knew they will be there a little
longer than they hoped. According to reports, the Nigerian team only arrived
Brazil few hours before their first match against Japan in Manaus, Brazil due
to “logistical mix-up” with the operators of their charter aircraft
which left them stranded in Georgia and caused Nigeria an international
embarrassment.
A source close to the NFF puts the blame
squarely on Dalung’s sports ministry: “The Nigerian government (sports
ministry) is responsible for booking the tickets for the team to travel, but we
heard there is a logistical mix-up with payments. The money paid by the
ministry for the charter flight did not hit (the) airline’s account on
Tuesday, so they refused to fly the team to Brazil,” a source close to the
Nigeria Football Federation said.
5. Dalung’s United States of Nigeria
(USN): The minister of sports committed national blunder while trying to
address the U-23 footballer who were stranded in Atlanta few days to the
commencement of the Olympics. The minister called the United States of America,
“United States of Nigeria” as he tried to absolve himself and explain why the
team was stranded. Dalung said: “Our U-23 team suffering in
the United States of Nigeria, What are there for? Because they
are U-23 and they went to US and they are having problems, does that
become our business? “ He then came under intense criticism on social media
especially twitter and had to set his account to private.
Do you think
President Buhari should sack the minister of sports, Solomon Dalung?
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