African govts waste money participating in World Cup – Shehu Sani Northern-based rights activist, Mallam Shehu Sani, has said that African governments waste scare resources sending their national teams to World Cup competitions. Sani said it was high time African countries had a rethink and channelled their resources into other productive endeavours other than football. Writing on his Twitter page, Sani lamented that African countries have continued to expend millions of dollars participating in World Cup competitions only to be eliminated in the second round of the sporting event. “Millions of dollars are pumped into football by African governments and we end up coming back home after the second round of the World Cup. Is it not high time we started thinking of diverting our scarce resources to other sports that can yield us better results and in which we are more endowed as blacks?” Sani stated. The human rights activist stated that the Federal Government needed to invest such resources in other pressing aspects of the economy. According to him, the health sector needs more attention than it is currently getting from the various tiers of government. He charged the Federal Government, as a matter of urgency, to attend to the grievances of the striking doctors “before lives worth saving turns to bodies waiting to be buried.” Sani said, “Our doctors have gone on strike. Poor patients and would-be patients are at the receiving end. It is boom time for private clinics. “And our bourgeoisie political elite and their families, don’t patronise public hospitals, they simply book appointments with their personal physicians and jet off to Germany, Egypt or Dubai. The Federal Government must attend to the doctors urgently.” Wondering why corrupt public officials have continued to evade prosecution, Sani, who doubles as the President of the Civil Rights Congress of Nigeria, said Nigeria needed to learn lessons from events around the world, especially in Israel, Italy, and France. Stealing of public funds with impunity and other violations of the constitution, he argued, should be discouraged by those at the helms of the affairs of the country rather than being subtly encouraged. “Former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is in jail for receiving bribe. In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi (ex-Prime Minister of Italy) is convicted for abuse of office, and in France, former President Nicolas Sarkozy is undergoing investigation for influence peddling. Why is it that African governments find it difficult to prosecute their predecessors who violated their oath of Office?” he asked. Sani urged Nigerians to stand in solidarity with the Federal Government as it battles to quell insurgency. According to him, the national flag, anthem, and the coat of arms do not make a nation but the spirit of patriotism from the citizenry and the political leaders. He also cautioned those he described as “cynics, skeptics and prophets of doom,” against predicting Nigeria’s disintegration come 2015. “A nation is founded upon the nurturing of the spirit of solidarity among its diverse inhabitants, of common pursuits of ideals and goals that are aimed at preserving it, sustaining it and advancing its status and relevance in the hearts of its citizens. “Since 1999, each time elections are near, cynics, skeptics and prophets of doom go on predicting that the upcoming elections will make or mar Nigeria and some will directly predict that the country may break up as a result of the elections. “However, the resilient spirit of the Nigerian nation continues to prove them wrong. Why don’t we learn to separate the fate of a politician from the fate of our country?” The activist, who played a leading role in the struggle against military rule, also decried the increasing roles being given to the armed forces in the current democratic dispensation. He added, “In Egypt and in Thailand, political crisis and unrest has given enough excuses to the military in those countries to overthrow their democratically elected governments. “The Western world first condemned, then tolerated and now embraced the ‘coupists’ in Cairo and Bangkok who claimed they are in power to restore peace and order. “There are many lessons to learn from the above in order for us to save our country from sliding backwards.”
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 11:12:51 +0000