Adokiye Amiesimaka: The Man Who Told The Truth

Sabella Ogbobode Abidde

Sabidde@yahoo.com

The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has been caught with its pants down. The Eaglets Skipper, Mr. Fortune Chukwudi, is said to be at least 25 years old, and not 17, as the NFF and the national team claims. For a country trying to rebrand, trying to clean up its image, this has to be a terrible blow to the face and chin. In one fell swoop, Nigeria’s image sinks deeper into the cesspool.

There is a contradiction, an ironic twist, to the over-age saga. Most Nigerians, privately and publicly, are quick to point to their religiosity. Usually the first to point to their born-again status, or to having a direct phone line to God, they usually cannot wait to shoot themselves on the foot. They cannot wait to expose their hypocritical nature. And as usual, they will not take the blame for their personal and official irresponsibility. They have God to blame or to praise for everything under the sun – even if God had no hand in it.

From all indications, the Nigerian Football Federation is made up of Muslims and Christians. Considering the nature of the country, vis-à-vis religion, one can safely assume these are men and women who attends Church and Mosques on a regular basis, and who wears their religions on their sleeves. As is the practice in some government ministries and government agencies, one can safely assume they hold prayer vigil at the NFF, too.

The Qur’an, we are told, says, "Truly, Allah does not guide one who transgresses and lies” (Surah 40:28). In the Hadith, Mohammed was quoted as saying: “Be honest because honesty leads to goodness, and goodness leads to Paradise. Beware of falsehood because it leads to immorality, and immorality leads to Hell.” Two other passages in the Qur’an are also instructive: “Cover not Truth with falsehood, nor conceal the Truth when ye know (what it is)" (2:42); and “Take not your oaths, to practice deception between yourselves" (16:94). One wonders if the Muslims, within the NFF, who engaged in this deception and falsehood, read or are familiar with these passages.

Luke 16:10 tells us that “Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” We trusted the NFF to be honest with us and with the international community, but see what they’ve done. Lied!  Heb. 13:18 wants us to "conduct ourselves honorably in all things;” We also know, as Prov. 12:22 tell us: "Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord.” And then this: Rev. 21:27 - "no one who practices abomination and lying shall ever come into heaven." The Christians at the NFF, Coach John Obuh and member of his team must have read these passages, too.  God’s injections must not be taken lightly.

We know Coach Obuh to be a Christian. We know because the Vanguard newspaper, in Obuh Takes Eaglets to Church for Thanksgiving (November 1, 2009), reported that, “after guiding the Golden Eaglets to a hard-fought 2-1 win over Argentina, Coach John Obuh took time to attend a special thanksgiving service to God at an Abuja church.” The Coach was reported as saying: “Without God, there is nothing that one can achieve. How far and how well we have fared can be attributed to the divine handiwork of God…today is my day to give thanks to God and I know that I would have more reasons to give thanks to God in the future.” I hope he confessed to God for this grand deception.

Now that the Nigerian Football Federation and the Golden Eaglets have been caught with their pants down (for lying and for rubbishing Nigeria’s image), they have decided to shift the blame, refuse to take responsibility, but instead blamed the truth-teller. The move is in full gears to attack, to condemn and heap vituperations on the man who dare tell the truth: Adokiye Amiesimaka. As a result of his moral and enviable act, he has now become the object of hate, ridicule, and slander by the Nigerian Football Federation.

At a time when the nation is expending a lot of resources in rebranding our country, men and women like Mr. Adokiye Amiesimaka should be commended, honored and emulated. He has NOT committed a crime -- be it legal or ethical. The current attacks against his person and reputation are therefore unwarranted. All he has done is appeal to our conscience, to our moral base. All he has done is help us believe in ourselves; that we need not cheat in other to win sporting championships. He is telling us that, as a nation striving to be great within the international system, integrity matters.

If we allow duplicity within the sporting arena, what hope do we have in the economic, cultural and political arena? If the establishment turns blind eyes to the transgression of our young minds, what then do we expect of such men and women when they grow up and are in position of authority? This is the time to rebrand and reorient our youths. If we lose the FIFA championship, that’s fine. If we win, that’s also fine.

Win or lose we must be confident in our ability, we must be proud that we played the game according to laid-down principles. Why celebrate a winning-performance that’s based on duplicity? This, in essence, was what Mr. Amiesimaka was/is getting at. He deserves our collective praise, not condemnation.

But no, for speaking the truth, he has now become the target for crucifixion. Is this the type of nation we have become? A nation of liars? Are we saying it is now acceptable to lie and lie and lie until the last man lies? And that it is okay to lie and to deceive not only ourselves, but the international community. When Coach Obuh went to Church to speak to God, to give thanks, he also lied to God. Three or more of those players also lied to themselves and to their country. They lied lied to FIFA and to all those young boys and girls who look up to them for inspiration and as inspirations.

For those who lied, why didn’t their parents, siblings, nieces and nephews say something, anything?  Didn’t their pastors and Imams and teachers know? Any one of them could have told the truth; but none did. But instead, all partook in mass deception. Instead of accepting the blame, they now want to shift culpability on a man who decided to tell the truth?

According to newspaper accounts, Adokiye Amiesimaka assert that “In the 2002/2003 season, I was chairman of Sharks Football Club of Port Harcourt. I decided to have a feeder team of fresh school leavers not older than 20 years. One of my key players then is the current captain of our so-called Under 17 Golden Eaglets. By his own admission at that time, that is seven years ago, he was 18 years old…If we are not utterly irresponsible, how can he be eligible for this tournament when he is not less than 25 years old now?”

Coach John Obuh and his technical team could not have perpetrated and perpetuated this scam without the active connivance of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and the Sports Ministry. In reaction to the scandal, the Acting General Secretary of NFF, Mr. Musa Amadu said: “We are not claiming to be perfect, as that is a virtue that belongs to only the Almighty God. But Nigerians are aware of the efforts we made to ensure that we put forward a genuine team.” No one demanded perfection, only honesty -- which is one of God’s injunctions.

Other than the bold-faced lies and their habitual lying, the NFF is now accusing Mr. Amiesimaka of evil designs, claiming that a man who decided to tell the truth – a moral and ethical action members of the NFF seem totally incapable of -- they wants to destroy the Golden Eaglets and Nigeria’s reputation. Which is more egregious to a nation’s reputation: lies or the truth?

Musa Amadu went on to say, “We are only stunned that there are Nigerians who so passionately hate their own country, simply because they are not at the helm…We should learn to celebrate excellence some of the time, not trying to bring down other people all the time. Has Amiesimaka been obsessed with so much hatred for our successful players because he never played in the World Cup? It is possible.” What nonsense! Who hates his country more: the truth-teller or peddlers of falsehood?

Along with Musa Amadu, others, including Taiwo Ogunjobi and their posse of imposters, are now accusing Mr. Adokiye Amiesimaka of the “destroy-them- by-all-means” syndrome, instead of being grateful to him for being truthful and upright. How could a man who spent the better years of his life in the service of Nigerian Sports and judiciary be so accused of “discrediting Nigerian football” as Ogunjobi has alleged. Now, who is a credit to Nigeria? Document forgers or the harbinger of truth?

In recent years, many Nigerian, privately and publicly, has been acting as though they are more catholic than the Pope, more saint than Saint Michael, more righteous than the righteous ones in all the Abrahamic religions. These are people, including Musa Amadu and Taiwo Ogunjobi, who may have knowingly engaged in fraud. Yet, they have the temerity to accost a truth-teller, a man who has for several decades, been a credit to the country.

The action of the Nigerian Football Federation, directly and indirectly, encouraged older boys to falsify their age; their incompetence made it possible for deception to take place; their inaction made cheating FIFA possible. Collectively, the actions and inaction of the personnel in and within the Nigeria Football Federation has made nonsense of Nigeria’s rebranding efforts. We speak of rebranding, of a new image; yet, we made it possible for the global community to deride Nigeria. We owe Adokiye Amiesimaka a world of gratitude.

Sabidde@yahoo.com

Robot  # 1 | 04.11.2009 03:32

...Read the full article.

ugwunagbo  # 2 | 04.11.2009 04:23

sometimes people want to gain cheap publicity for the wrong reason. ask Mr Truth Teller where was he during d screening exercise. why did he hold back the ''truth'' until now.what does he intend to achieve by telling us now. methink that peharps Mr Truth teller could not get his egunje from the poor boy. or that the poor boy has rejected his bid to be his manager. i know that somebody will tell me that Mr Truth is not cheap. It is too late.

Godwin  # 3 | 04.11.2009 04:45

Nigeria is a country of liars. We deserve the leadership we have.

jthelmsdeep  # 4 | 04.11.2009 07:36

Definetely food for thought. It's sad to see a man castigated for being honest, but until we embrace the truth about ourselves and our nation, we are unlikely to make any significant progress in the fight for positive change. Thanks for writing this.

nijalaw  # 5 | 04.11.2009 09:24

=ugwunagbo;401908>sometimes people want to gain cheap publicity for the wrong reason. ask Mr Truth Teller where was he during d screening exercise. why did he hold back the ''truth'' until now.what does he intend to achieve by telling us now. methink that peharps Mr Truth teller could not get his egunje from the poor boy. or that the poor boy has rejected his bid to be his manager. i know that somebody will tell me that Mr Truth is not cheap. It is too late. Nigerians never fail to disappoint with warped views & imagination.

Eace  # 6 | 04.11.2009 09:33

This is funny... On one hand, no one denies that what the man says is truth. On the other hand, he is blamed for telling the truth 'at the wrong time':rolleyes: Pilate had a point then when he asked Jesus the Nazarene: "Truth - what is that?"

Ebe  # 7 | 04.11.2009 15:40

Have you seen the lead striker of the same U-17 team, Stanley Okoro? Compared to him, captain Chukwudi is a baby. I don talk my own.

oguzie j.j.  # 8 | 04.11.2009 17:54

=Ebe;402040>Have you seen the lead striker of the same U-17 team, Stanley Okoye? Compared to him, captain Chukwudi is a baby. I don talk my own. Ebe My brother i no undastand ur own o. Wetin you mean sef? :D Even the Adokie himself in his playing days will not deny never have lied about his age. But I think he was only trying to spill blood and revenge to his ex player who did not accord him who knows one or two pay recognition. That does not mean that i support lies and the lying tradition that is part of the Nigerian psyche.

Silent 1  # 9 | 04.11.2009 18:25

The average Nigerian's why-do-you-want-to-pull-me-down mentality will forever chain Nigeria down. Some Nigerian's are now placing the prisms of patriotism, jealousy, timing and what not before Adokie's white light in the hope that it breaks it down into the darker shades they much prefer; which have forever darkened our space. They say: why didn't he come open earlier? discounting the many valid reasons that could have kept him from doing so; like, the distinct possibility of his only recently being aware of Chukwudi's inclusion in the squad. I used to naively wonder why Nigeria and Nigerians seemed to condone, even encourage age fraud in sports until it struck me that, age manipulation is practically a national pastime. Those who should and could easily end this, in many cases owe their very positions, jobs to this fraud.

Godwin  # 10 | 05.11.2009 04:11

Below is the full article written by Adokie. From http://www.punchng.com Published 11/1/2009 3:00:00 AM Once again, we have let our children down (1) IN the context of age-grade tournaments, especially the on-going FIFA U-17 World Cup that we are hosting, what is in the best interest of Nigeria? Believe me, as I sat down to write this piece last Friday, after our 2-1 victory over Argentina, I pondered this question for more than a moment. And it was not easy to decide that if we do not want to continue to fool ourselves that all is well, or that we are even making any reasonable effort to get our act together, then we must never sweep the accumulating dirt under the carpet. We must keep on reminding ourselves of its unhealthy presence until we are forced to take the bold step of sweeping it away. You see, the team that is representing us in this tournament is a good one. In fact, so far, it is one of the outstanding teams. In our first match against Germany on October 24, it showed the courage and resilience that was, ironically, typically attributed to Germany. Since then, it has grown from strength to strength, beating Honduras and much-feared Argentina in quick succession. Team coach John Obuh has done a marvellous job in building a team for a global event in less than two months. Remember the Magnetic Resonance Imaging test that disqualified a greater percentage of players in our previous team as overage, thereby decimating that team? I am optimistic that this team can go all the way and possibly win the cup a record fourth time, and in that case make Nigeria the first defending champion to clinch it. But to do so the team may need to be more efficient in front of goal. As I noted in a previous article, the secret is not to let the usually frenetic activity in the goal area make you lose focus and composure. Then, just before making contact with the ball, choose the spot in goal where you wish to send the ball. Critically, at the moment of impact, keep your eyes on the ball. The fact that we are able to produce a team that can hold its own in such a short time shows what an unassailable status we can attain if only we will pay painstaking attention to detail over time to prepare our teams. I have always believed that we have comparative advantage that is probably embedded in anthropology and genetics to excel in sports. But what happens is that because of our complacence we only show the enormity of our potential without fully realising it, even in victory. We have consistently underutilised our capacity and so always underachieved. We won the maiden edition of this tournament in China in 1985. We won again in Japan in 1993, and yet again in South Korea in 2007. Brazil is the only other country that has won it so many times. But do we feel fulfilled? No! How is it that after wearing the crown as world champion three times in an age-grade event, we are still not implementing a comprehensive youth development program? How, then, have we ‘‘excelled‘‘ in this category? We all know the answer. Much as we have the potential to excel, we have preferred to cheat. And that is why even if we win again we still won‘t feel fulfilled. Neither will we get the respect that we crave from the rest of the world. Yes, we are still cheating. By our education system, all the players in our U-17 team should either still be in secondary school or just passing out. Of course, they may also be attached to professional teams as apprentices, as is done in other parts. But we have never fully tapped the synergy of the education and sports sectors to respectably unleash our might on the global stage. I know as a matter of fact that our team is not Under-17. It is for this reason that I feel like a hypocrite to congratulate this team for its performance so far. In 2002/2003, I was Chairman of Sharks of Port-Harcourt. I decided to have a feeder team of fresh school leavers not older than 20 years. As the feeder team concept was relatively new and because I had my ideas about how a team at that level should be handled, I also doubled as its coach. And we had remarkable results in that period. I am sure that fans in Rivers State still remember how we played friendly matches with teams with much older players all over the state and regularly won by wide margins. One of my key players then is the current captain of our so-called U-17 team. By his own admission at that time, that is, seven years ago, he was 18 years old. Please do the arithmetic yourself. MRI test or not, his football history is common knowledge. If we are not utterly irresponsible how can he be eligible for this tournament when he is not less than 25 years old now? There is another player with very interesting facial features that has been likened to a top senior team player in Argentina. Well, let me just say that looks can be deceptive and leave it at that. I really wonder whether the MRI test was done on each and every one of our players. If, indeed, a ‘‘thorough‘‘ exercise was conducted, then FIFA must review the procedure. For the avoidance of doubt, it is not only Nigeria that should be the focus of FIFA‘s attention, but every participating country in the tournament should also be carefully scrutinised. This is a very serious matter and my stand on it should not be trivialised as ‘‘holier-than-thou‘‘‘. I am not looking at it only from a moral perspective. I only happen to know that our penchant for cutting corners is self-limiting and counter-productive in the long run. And in this regard, I have the support of none other than the Honourable Minister of Sports and Chairman of the NSC, Sani Ndanusa, himself. I must admit that I like this guy, even though I do not recall ever meeting him. Listening to his comments on sports and reading his interesting column, ‘‘NIGERIA 2009: FROM THE MINISTER‘S DESK WITH Sani Ndanusa‘‘, in THE NATION, he comes across as unassuming and your regular next-door buddy that is aware of the ephemeral nature of his power and does not have a sense of grandeur about him. Even more importantly, he sounds like a minister who means well for sports and knows where the priority for sports development should be. Last Thursday, in an article with the heading ‘For a greater tomorrow‘, he wrote, ‘‘I have always been an advocate of youth. When one fails to build bridges from one generation to another, the future of a sport is endangered in the long term. To secure the future of a sport, there should be a programme of succession between generations. There should be a regular supply of talents and a conscious effort to groom and graduate these talents from one phase to the other. Most importantly, there should be machinery in place to discover and hone budding talents. If the latter is neglected, the freshness of the supply reduces. If the supplies are not fresh, what is left is sour. Any nation that negates the importance of youth and freshness in sports, gambles with its future.‘‘ Now, one of the most important reasons for the introduction of age-grade competitions by FIFA is to stimulate the process of discovering and honing budding talents so that they can graduate to the next level as well groomed players to secure the future of football as a high quality entertainment sport. Ironically, by not having an honest official policy of strictly observing age limits in a tournament like this one, we are doing the exact opposite of what FIFA and the sports minister are saying. And the minister‘s further statement suggests that he is probably not accurately briefed on ‘‘the series of MRI scans on this team‘‘, as he put it. ‘‘I can confidently say we have a crop of genuinely U-17 players. By the time this vision runs its course, these boys would be around 26, 27 years. That is the peak of every footballer. If we have a generation of talented players who are like a family and attain their peak together, we can harbour hopes of ruling the world by 2018 or 2022 World Cup.‘‘ Unfortunately, this is mere wishful thinking, my dear honourable minister. Your team captain is already at his peak at ‘‘U-17‘‘ and in all probability so too are many of his teammates. To be continued

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