Former Bolton Wanderers skipper, Austin Jay Jay Okocha has warned Super Eagles not to underrate Mozambique in Sunday’s World Cup qualifier in Maputo. According to former Hull City midfielder, Mozambique were capable of turning the heat on the star-studded Eagles in front of their teeming fans.Okocha said African football has changed and he was expecting tough challenges from the Mozambique as they would do everything to grab the maximum points at stake.He said Nigeria should not go to bed against Mozambique as the country will not give Eagles any respect.“Going to the World Cup is like a war.
As Eagles are prepararing, other countries too are showing more commitment towards making it to South Africa. Nigeria should know that they are no longer the giant of African football. We need to start afreash and build a solid team for the World Cup,” he said.Okocha also warned Eagles over the mistake of the past, saying that the players involved must be dedicated and determined to qualify Nigeria for 2010 World Cup.“We must learn from past mistakes,” Okocha said. “There is no doubt that we have a good squad, but football matches are not won off the pitch but on it.
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Trouble looms for Ogbulafor
These are not the best of times for Prince Vincent Ogbulafor. For despite the façade being put up before the public, the national chairman of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is seriously embattled. He is set to become the first major victim of the Obasanjo/Yar’Adua division within the party – a division that has been brought to the fore by the perceived disagreement over the return of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar to the fold.
While Yar’Adua is yet to openly oppose the return, the body-language of his close aides suggest that he is not excited about it.So, for openly sticking out his neck for a cause on which was yet to clearly read the president’s lips, the clock appears to be ticking for Ogbulafor. And, if the presidency goons that have been unleashed on him have their way, he could well be on his way out of the exalted office of leader of Africa’s largest party before the end of next month.The president is said to be so pissed off with Ogbulafor that a highly reliable party source told Daily Sun that the chairman has been unable to see the president one-on-one for some time now. “I suspect it was to fence off Ogbulafor that Polycarp Nwite was appointed by the president. Now, Ogbulafor takes whatever he wants to see the president for to Nwite and Nwite would then brief the president. It has been like that for sometime now”, the source revealed.Dubai meeting that could cost Ogbulafor dearThe presidency is said to be very angry with Ogbulafor for allegedly meeting with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar – probably to discuss the latter’s planned return to the PDP family. The meeting which allegedly held in Dubai was said to have been facilitated by one serving governor from the North Central and a former governor from the south-south – both of whom are believed to be close confidants of President Umaru Yar’Adua.Incidentally, one of the facilitators of the meeting is suspected to eyeing the presidency himself.Already, it is an open secret within the party that the push of the former Vice President to return to the PDP is driven by one goal: the desire grab the ticket of the party for the 2011 presidential election.Although President Yar’Adua has not told anyone that he is desirous of a second term in office, some of his ardent supporters, including, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, the attorney-general and minister of justice, FCT Minister Adamu Aliero and PDP Deputy National Chairman Mohammed Haliru Bello, have left no one in doubt that the desire is to get the president to seek re-election in 2011.Consequently, Ogbulafor’s romance with Atiku is perceived in the senior hierarchy of the party (and the presidency) as a direct affront to the Aso Rock agenda. The matter is made worse by the fact that Aiku/PDP rapprochement is being masterminded by former president Olusegun Obasanjo who is believed to have a no love lost relationship with Yar’Adua. Although the Atiku/OBJ fence-mending efforts recently went awry – with the ex-president’s comments on his BBC Hardtalk interview, many within the hierarchy insist that throwing Atiku into the PDP mix a direct attack on Yar’Adua, and Ogbulafor should be wise enough to steer clear of the plot.
Extortion meets greed: the corruption allegationOgbulafor is also fingered in allegations of extorting from the party’s elected members, especially the governors. Of particular interest were those who had their elections upturned at the tribunal and fresh elections ordered by the appeal court.Three of the governors so affected were said to have erroneously thought that the party ha the prerogative to either field them or replace them as the party’s candidate for the re-run.To ensure that they were not dropped by the party, the governors allegedly parted with hundreds of millions naira under the table. Unknown to them, however, the party was statutorily stranded with them. It was either the PDP re-fielded them, or it would not field any candidate for the re-run.But the money had already reached point of no return.In the South-east, where the PDP has only two of five states, the anti-Ogbulafor forces also allege that the party chairman squeezed one of them so much that he soon wizened up. It was this wizening up that led to the situation whereby the governor reportedly refused to send anyone to receive the party boss at the airport when he visited the state capital. In fact, Daly Sun gathered that the smart governor whom the party boss put on alert before leaving his Abuja base had switched off his phone as soon as he finished talking to the chairman. The result was that the party chief had to drive alone to government house, where the aides of the governor rubbed salt into injury by refusing to allow him see the governor.An infuriated Ogbulafor was said to have returned to Abuja to attempt to drag the governor before the party leadership for ‘anti-party’ activity.
But even that move was blocked by some members of the National Working Committee who insisted that the beef with the governor was a purely private matter. A national officer from the South East zone was said to have chastised Ogbulafor for trying to rub a governor from the zone in the mud when his governor colleagues from the north were being treated as demi-gods.But that was not the only handwriting on the wall for the embattled National Chairman. Soon after some elements in the party went public with the allegations of corruption against the party chairman, another junior officer who had placed an advertorial exonerating Ogbulafor and boasting that the man came from a rich family and had always been a rich person, soon drew the wrath of the NWC members who queried whether he was a spokesperson for chairman or party. They warned him that he should let Ogbulafor defend himself.The optionsWith the noose daily closing in on Ogbulafor, Daily Sun learnt that the presidency is exploring two or more ways of kicking him out. One of them is to try to see if one of the many allegations of corruption would stick and then the chairman is forced to resign. To this effect, all manner of fresh allegations have been thrown up to support the initial allegations of buying a house worth over N400 million in Abuja and the extortion story.Another option is to call for a special convention of the party where the chairman can be thrown out.But the chairman is not folding his hands and waiting. He is said to be sending emissaries to intervene and plead with the president and also explain his own side of the story and how all the allegations are untrue.He is also said to courting other party bigwigs, including members of the national assembly.Irrespective of which direction the pendulum swings, it is likely that Ogbulafor might become the first victim of the new Obasanjo versus Yar’Adua division that has now been introduced into the already balkanized PDP.
Ndigbo kickIncidentally, while Ogbulafor’s butt is set to fry over the contact with Atiku, not too many people seem to be remembering that the national secretary, a believed protégé of Kwara State governor Bukola Saraki (another Yar’Adua man), was also said to have been at the Dubai parley. This seeming silence on the party scribe has, however, introduced an ethnic coloration to the move against the PDP chairman.“why would two people commit the same offence and you now single out the Igbo man and leave out the Northerner?”, a member of the South-East caucus of the party asked this reporter. He alleged that the development is following a known pattern of the lot of Ndigbo in the PDP. According to him, “every time an Igbo man is given a position of importance in the party, they set all manner of hurdles for him to ensure that he is never really able to assert himself”.He lamented that there is no longer an Igbo voice in the PDP strong enough “to challenge all this rubbish”, adding that “this is one score on which we miss (Orji Uzor) Kalu sorely”.“When Kalu was here, he would look them in the face and say ‘this can’t happen’. Yes, many of us disagreed with him then, and still disagree with him on a number of issues, but that was one strong south-east voice they had to listen to. Now, there is none.
Everybody has fallen in line and are keeping quiet”The pro-Ogbulafor lawmaker also hinted that it was as a result of the lacuna created by the exit of the likes of Kalu that there are now subtle efforts to lure the former Abia governor back to the PDP fold. Unfortunately, we hear that the PPA leader has said that he would rather quit active politics than return to PDP”.
While Yar’Adua is yet to openly oppose the return, the body-language of his close aides suggest that he is not excited about it.So, for openly sticking out his neck for a cause on which was yet to clearly read the president’s lips, the clock appears to be ticking for Ogbulafor. And, if the presidency goons that have been unleashed on him have their way, he could well be on his way out of the exalted office of leader of Africa’s largest party before the end of next month.The president is said to be so pissed off with Ogbulafor that a highly reliable party source told Daily Sun that the chairman has been unable to see the president one-on-one for some time now. “I suspect it was to fence off Ogbulafor that Polycarp Nwite was appointed by the president. Now, Ogbulafor takes whatever he wants to see the president for to Nwite and Nwite would then brief the president. It has been like that for sometime now”, the source revealed.Dubai meeting that could cost Ogbulafor dearThe presidency is said to be very angry with Ogbulafor for allegedly meeting with former Vice President Atiku Abubakar – probably to discuss the latter’s planned return to the PDP family. The meeting which allegedly held in Dubai was said to have been facilitated by one serving governor from the North Central and a former governor from the south-south – both of whom are believed to be close confidants of President Umaru Yar’Adua.Incidentally, one of the facilitators of the meeting is suspected to eyeing the presidency himself.Already, it is an open secret within the party that the push of the former Vice President to return to the PDP is driven by one goal: the desire grab the ticket of the party for the 2011 presidential election.Although President Yar’Adua has not told anyone that he is desirous of a second term in office, some of his ardent supporters, including, Mr. Michael Aondoakaa, the attorney-general and minister of justice, FCT Minister Adamu Aliero and PDP Deputy National Chairman Mohammed Haliru Bello, have left no one in doubt that the desire is to get the president to seek re-election in 2011.Consequently, Ogbulafor’s romance with Atiku is perceived in the senior hierarchy of the party (and the presidency) as a direct affront to the Aso Rock agenda. The matter is made worse by the fact that Aiku/PDP rapprochement is being masterminded by former president Olusegun Obasanjo who is believed to have a no love lost relationship with Yar’Adua. Although the Atiku/OBJ fence-mending efforts recently went awry – with the ex-president’s comments on his BBC Hardtalk interview, many within the hierarchy insist that throwing Atiku into the PDP mix a direct attack on Yar’Adua, and Ogbulafor should be wise enough to steer clear of the plot.
Extortion meets greed: the corruption allegationOgbulafor is also fingered in allegations of extorting from the party’s elected members, especially the governors. Of particular interest were those who had their elections upturned at the tribunal and fresh elections ordered by the appeal court.Three of the governors so affected were said to have erroneously thought that the party ha the prerogative to either field them or replace them as the party’s candidate for the re-run.To ensure that they were not dropped by the party, the governors allegedly parted with hundreds of millions naira under the table. Unknown to them, however, the party was statutorily stranded with them. It was either the PDP re-fielded them, or it would not field any candidate for the re-run.But the money had already reached point of no return.In the South-east, where the PDP has only two of five states, the anti-Ogbulafor forces also allege that the party chairman squeezed one of them so much that he soon wizened up. It was this wizening up that led to the situation whereby the governor reportedly refused to send anyone to receive the party boss at the airport when he visited the state capital. In fact, Daly Sun gathered that the smart governor whom the party boss put on alert before leaving his Abuja base had switched off his phone as soon as he finished talking to the chairman. The result was that the party chief had to drive alone to government house, where the aides of the governor rubbed salt into injury by refusing to allow him see the governor.An infuriated Ogbulafor was said to have returned to Abuja to attempt to drag the governor before the party leadership for ‘anti-party’ activity.
But even that move was blocked by some members of the National Working Committee who insisted that the beef with the governor was a purely private matter. A national officer from the South East zone was said to have chastised Ogbulafor for trying to rub a governor from the zone in the mud when his governor colleagues from the north were being treated as demi-gods.But that was not the only handwriting on the wall for the embattled National Chairman. Soon after some elements in the party went public with the allegations of corruption against the party chairman, another junior officer who had placed an advertorial exonerating Ogbulafor and boasting that the man came from a rich family and had always been a rich person, soon drew the wrath of the NWC members who queried whether he was a spokesperson for chairman or party. They warned him that he should let Ogbulafor defend himself.The optionsWith the noose daily closing in on Ogbulafor, Daily Sun learnt that the presidency is exploring two or more ways of kicking him out. One of them is to try to see if one of the many allegations of corruption would stick and then the chairman is forced to resign. To this effect, all manner of fresh allegations have been thrown up to support the initial allegations of buying a house worth over N400 million in Abuja and the extortion story.Another option is to call for a special convention of the party where the chairman can be thrown out.But the chairman is not folding his hands and waiting. He is said to be sending emissaries to intervene and plead with the president and also explain his own side of the story and how all the allegations are untrue.He is also said to courting other party bigwigs, including members of the national assembly.Irrespective of which direction the pendulum swings, it is likely that Ogbulafor might become the first victim of the new Obasanjo versus Yar’Adua division that has now been introduced into the already balkanized PDP.
Ndigbo kickIncidentally, while Ogbulafor’s butt is set to fry over the contact with Atiku, not too many people seem to be remembering that the national secretary, a believed protégé of Kwara State governor Bukola Saraki (another Yar’Adua man), was also said to have been at the Dubai parley. This seeming silence on the party scribe has, however, introduced an ethnic coloration to the move against the PDP chairman.“why would two people commit the same offence and you now single out the Igbo man and leave out the Northerner?”, a member of the South-East caucus of the party asked this reporter. He alleged that the development is following a known pattern of the lot of Ndigbo in the PDP. According to him, “every time an Igbo man is given a position of importance in the party, they set all manner of hurdles for him to ensure that he is never really able to assert himself”.He lamented that there is no longer an Igbo voice in the PDP strong enough “to challenge all this rubbish”, adding that “this is one score on which we miss (Orji Uzor) Kalu sorely”.“When Kalu was here, he would look them in the face and say ‘this can’t happen’. Yes, many of us disagreed with him then, and still disagree with him on a number of issues, but that was one strong south-east voice they had to listen to. Now, there is none.
Everybody has fallen in line and are keeping quiet”The pro-Ogbulafor lawmaker also hinted that it was as a result of the lacuna created by the exit of the likes of Kalu that there are now subtle efforts to lure the former Abia governor back to the PDP fold. Unfortunately, we hear that the PPA leader has said that he would rather quit active politics than return to PDP”.
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