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...Read the full article.

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This article is barely topical.It also needs serious editing.

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Thanks for reading and commenting. I will be glad if you could point out the aspects of the article that need editing. Remember, no one is perfect,we are all learning.

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Abuja never stood a chance and the organizers knew it. It was a jamboree while it lasted and some fast guys made fast money. The so-called organizers never got the people involved and the way they went about it, it was like the sun shone out of their royal bums and they had monopoly of wisdom over everything.

The press were not involved either because information that should normally be on the website or at least on file and available for all was being treated like classified CIA or FBI files. The facilities were not up to scratch despite all the hype and the lies. I am sure the committee must have been taken to the Satelite towns by 'Unpatriotic Nigerians' to see the rot behind the glitter. Abuja cannot even compete against some African countries. What happens if Pretoria or Johannesburg decide to bid against us in the future? Keep the dream alive? No! There was no dream in the first place but a nightmare.

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Hello Olamide, Abuja has now officially declared her intention to stand for 2018 Commonwealth Games. I hope the organisers will take some of your suggestions and amend the mistakes that they did during the first.:biggrin:

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“...Perhaps Abuja has better infrastructure, given that she is a new city and more, she has a very deep pocket and thus easily spends financially than Glasgow”

...perhaps hosting the games would have been a fantastic way to celebrate 100 years of the amalgamation of Nigeria. ...Or it might be also that, hosting the games would have been as most Nigerians thought, wasting monies on a project that will benefit few Nigerians.

...Hosting grand sporting events also serves to showcase the advances that the country has attained.

...As for Nigeria, she has many cities and states that are financially solid and thus fit to host the Commonwealth Games.

...And to crown it all, the new administration in Nigeria led by President Musa Yar’adua never cared to remove the message and image of his predecessor on the Abuja hosting bid web site, to substitute it with his..."


Dear Elie,

I am bespectacled and thought my four eyes were playing up, but I doubt it for I ensured I read this piece three times. It is replete with repetitions and must be afflicted with the ‘Abuja syndrome’, i.e. lack of attention to detail.

My response to your write-up can be summarised as follows.

It is characteristic of African leaders to chase shadows, egged on by dishonest interests. Instead of chasing shadows, which is what I see hosting the Commonwealth Games as, Nigeria needs to concentrate all its efforts first at the following fundamental provisions:

1. Food to its teeming populace;
2. Regular and uninterruptible Electricity and other sources of power supply, e.g. Gas;
3. Sustainable health care system;
4. Quality free Education up to University level as enshrined in our constitution;
5. Good road infrastructures;
6. Shelter to its increasing population;
7. Security of life and property;
8. Revamp of its moribund National airline;
9. Justice, Equity and Fairness.

On food, there is no doubt that 48 years after independence, we are still a country unable to feed its population because we have largely ignored agriculture since we found oil. I invite my fellow Nigerians with better understanding of words to argue the point more persuasively.

The fantastic state of our heath system is typified by the fact that the man we entrusted our destiny in his hands (although his detractors say we never elected him in the real sense of election, but we should not worry, we are a growing democracy) goes off to Germany whenever he has a migraine! In fact, our former Vice President was flown to the UK when he strained his ankle whilst burning off excess fat! Also, our best brains in the field of medicine are in Saudi Arabia, UK, US, Canada, Jamaica (yes, Jamaica), etc where patients do not die on the operating table because of power surges or whilst trying to switch on the back-up power generator.

Electricity; if you have been to Nigeria you will easily grasp the enormity of our problem 48 years after Independence! You will need a generator and assortment of gadgets to survive the erratic power supply in our ‘cry the beloved’ nation.

Education is in a deplorable state in Nigeria and, unless your father is a Commissioner of Police, head of the EFCC, Minister, top civil servant, etc, you can only dream about receiving world-class education in Nigeria, UK, USA, Switzerland, etc. To help alleviate the problem, our former Vice President established a private University (only meant for select few who are able to afford the astronomical fees charged), our former President established a Library with the equivalent of million of Dollars in contribution from contractors, his protégées and other political bootlickers and oil-block pirates! We pay our public servants and politicians so well, and in foreign exchange, that they can afford to send their own children to schools abroad where the fees for foreign students are truly astronomical. Examples, for the avoidance of doubt, are Senator Iyiola Omisore, Governor Gbenga Daniel, Nuhu Ribadu, all of who have children in private schools in the United Kingdom.

Our roads are death traps and to avoid dying with us commoners on these graveyards, our leaders have various private jets and Helicopters to ferry them around!

Our people are suffering because of inadequate shelter and the pragmatic responses of our leaders is to acquire choice properties all over the globe but particularly in places like Dubai, UK, Switzerland, United States, UAE, Dublin (where our Senate President is reported to have a modest Golf Course!), Germany (where our current President runs to for Medical treatment), South Africa, etc

Several millions have been pumped into improving the effectiveness of the police but it is still miserable unable to cope with the social problem of Armed Robbery. In return, the police is always willing to maim innocent civilians at every opportunity, especially those who have the misfortune not to clear the path of an approaching Governors motorcade. Such is the confidence of those who rule us that they go about with almost an Army of security personnel to shield them from the menace of Armed Robbers and other social miscreants created by failure of leadership. The citizens are not in despair since they know Nigeria has an Army, fully equipped to snatch ballot boxes for the right fees but abjectly unable to deal with the freedom fighters of the Niger Delta and the hoodlums parading the Delta kidnapping innocent people under the guise of agitating for a better life. The Military as been so demystified that it is predicated that they will soon invite the fed-up people to come and take up arms to effect a revolution of the people, as opposed to a revolution of the corrupt Generals and their cohort!

Nigeria is, or claims to be, the giant of Africa but lacks a national kite, talk less a national carrier. Ghana, Jamaica, Zimbabwe (what?), Uganda, no disrespect to them, have national airlines and the ordinary Nigerian people continue to ponder why it has become impossible for Nigeria, the Giant of Africa, to have its own national carrier. Other nations, taking advantage of our situation, will happily eject us from their airlines just for sighing or coughing whilst the pilot is making pre-flight announcement. Can one blame them for sniggering at a Giant without its own national pride to fly its citizens? They say, after all, Goliath was a giant and we all know what happened to him at the hand of a small but determined man!

Justice, Equity and Fairness are at the root of the cancer eating Nigeria to an untimely but inevitable death. I note you say that “...perhaps hosting the games would have been a fantastic way to celebrate 100 years of the amalgamation of Nigeria.”
First, let the truth be told, the amalgamation of Nigeria runs counter to the fundamental principles of Justice Equity and Fairness. It is hackneyed to rehearse the history of how different nations were forced together in order to satisfy the costs saving whims of the British Colonial Administrators. The problem has remained with us ever since. That aside, it has been our own people violating us since independence and it is so bad that some of the attributes of being elevated to a Military/Political leadership in Nigeria are being a liar (e.g. Ahmed Bola Tinubu), rogue (e.g. Alao Akala, Kalu, Ahmed Sanni Yerima,), ex-convict/fraudster (e.g. James Ibori), dishonest (e.g. David Mark, Joshua Dariye, Peter Odili), Murderer/Accessory to Murder (e.g. Ibrahim Babangida, Olusegun Obasanjo, Iyiola Omisore, Atiku Abubakar, et al (Bola Ige’s murder), Ayodele Fayose, Gbenga Daniel (Age’s disappearance in Shagamu – he knows what I mean!), a thug (e.g. Alhaji Lamidi Adedibu, the Uba brothers in Anambra State).

The Nigerian people have never really been allowed to choose a leader of their choice and there has never been a truly free and fair election, except for one conducted in 1993 and that was annulled by one of the most dishonest men to have forcefully occupied the seat of Government in Nigeria, aided by no less deeply corrupt group of military officers, such as the present Senate President, Senator David Mark, who was so well paid that whilst serving as a military officer in the Nigerian Army had some of his children educated in Switzerland. The winner of that election, M K O Abiola, was later poisoned under the sleepy watch of one Abdu Salam Abubakar, cousin to Ibrahim Babangida. At the end of the ‘Army Arrangement, Olusegun Obasanjo emerged as the selected civilian President of Nigeria in 1999. Abdu Salam Abubakar, unknown to most people, was ADC to Olusegun Obasanjo – see the arrangement yet? Throughout the history of Nigeria, what we have had is leadership by coup d'états and stolen (ballot boxes) mandates. The leadership that Nigeria has been cursed with has done nothing except loot, loot, and loot, since independence and when we complain they retort ‘we need to move the country forward’. We have been so preoccupied with moving the country forward, albeit to bank vaults in Western Europe, Asia and the Middle East, that we cannot maintain a national airline to help carry the nation forward. Our leaders suffer from lack of vision, and are innately afflicted with Economic/Political Conjunctivitis hence will accept anyone willing to play ball, e.g. the Chinese. The Chinese have newly discovered the opportunities in Africa that the bees are swarming to the honey trees. However, typical of our leaders, no questions are being asked or eyebrows raised about the Human Right record of the Chinese, the Chinese who recently sent arms to Mugabe to slaughter his own people!
I know I have virtually derailed the discourse by venting my spleen about the political and economic problems confronting Nigeria and, in that regard, I apologise. However, suffice to say that the message I am trying to put across is simply, that a country that has abjectly failed its people has no business hosting major sporting events. This is simply because there are more pressing and fundamental problems yet to be addressed. I ask, if you were hungry, thirsty, sick, fearful, unemployed and generally unhappy in the midst of plenty (the people of Nigeria) should you be thinking about hosting a major sporting event? The answer for those who stand to gain from contracts and associated privileges (Politicians, Contractors, etc and their cronies) would be yes, whilst the teeming populace will echo a resounding NO!

Personally, I fail to be convinced that we should be discussing hosting such events with the state of our nation. I just think it sends the wrong message that all must be well with the country. I have noted the arguments in favour of hosting the games but I remain unconvinced on how the benefits would percolate down to help lift the spirits of the long-suffering Nigerian people.

Lastly, thank you for bringing the subject to the fore.

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Mr dear brotha Ajimoh, this ur 'Summary' long pass the article by Mr Elie Smith.

On the main article, all I can say is: 'note to self, this is how NOT to write an article. LOL

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=BiafranPrincess;4295013170>Mr dear brotha Ajimoh, this ur 'Summary' long pass the article by Mr Elie Smith.

On the main article, all I can say is: 'note to self, this is how NOT to write an article. LOL

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My sister, make una no vex jaare, I plead guilty as charged. Sometime, e dey get as e be for dis niger matter. I go try use my long tory to write something else another day.