In 1977 during the first tenure of Olusegun Obasanjo as a military Head of State, the government had issues with Fela Anikulapo-Kuti over his caustic criticisms of the regime.
One fateful day, February 18, 1977, a senior military officer ordered about a thousand soldiers to invade Fela’s home he named Kalakuta Republic. They beat up everybody they found in the house, including his mother, the famous Frances Abigail Olufunmilayo Thomas Ransome-Kuti, who was allegedly thrown down from his one-storey building which they burnt to the ground.
There was outrage in the land over the action of the soldiers. To absolve itself of blame, the military government of Obasanjo set up a panel of enquiry to investigate the incident. At the end, the government issued a white paper from the findings of the panel and put the blame on ‘Unknown soldiers”.
It was shocking because even if the soldiers who did it were not known, they came out from a particular barracks and must have been ordered by a superior officer. Soldiers don’t carry out such orders without a command, a situation which Fela aptly described in the song, Zombie which put him in trouble ab initio. He equally did another song ‘Unknown soldier’ on the ridiculous government white paper.
I have narrated this story because of the position of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria, AFN on the recent allegation of age discrepancies by the Athletics Integrity Unit, AIU of World Athletics, the governing body of athletics.
The Tonobok Okowa-led AFN told Nigerians they were going to investigate the issue which had brought embarrassment to the federation and the entire country after the ultimatum given it by the AIU.
A few weeks after, the AFN came out with a verdict similar to the one given by Obasanjo’s military government on the investigation of the raid on Fela’s house.
In the case of the government white paper on the panel’s report concerning the invasion of Fela’s house, it was clear the Obasanjo military government didn’t want to indict its soldiers who may have been found culpable in the destruction of the music icon’s house and the despicable act of throwing down his mother from the one-storey building which caused her bodily harm.
For the AFN, the embarrassment from the charge of the AIU for the AFN to provide it with verifiable age confirming documents, including birth certificates, passports, school records, or medical files to establish the athletes’ true ages was huge and therefore can’t be swept under the carpet like it is trying to do now.
The deadline given by the World Athletics organ was two days ago, January 16. But in a move to save its head and avoid a full blown investigation by AIU itself that could lead to a damning consequence, the AFN hurriedly came out with a laughable decision which makes it a mockery before stakeholders.
Even the Holy Bible says in Galatians 6:7 that “Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows”. It means that actions have consequences, and people will
ultimately face the results of their choices.
The AFN has a technical department whose duty it is to check that every information submitted by athletes and coaches it is registering for competitions, local or international, are correct always.
But it chose to turn blind eyes because of the urge to win by all means. And now that the actions of its officials have brought embarrassment to Nigeria, it mustn’t hide under any guise to avoid the consequences of the stupidity of its officials.
Imagine the AFN agreeing that “falsifying age is no minor paperwork issue, it is a direct assault on fair competition, athlete welfare, and the credibility of the sport itself,” and that “age eligibility is not a technicality (but) the backbone of fair play, designed to protect young athletes, ensure a level playing field, and preserve the integrity of development pathways.
When age is manipulated, trust collapses and so does the future of clean sport,” it stressed.
If the AFN believes that age falsification or manipulation, as it chose to describe it, is inimical to the growth and future of athletics, why is it hiding its findings that it may have sent to the AIU?
According to the AFN, because of the query from the AIU, it has taken some disciplinary actions against confirmed cases of age falsification, stressing that accountability is no longer optional.
It said sanctions were wide-ranging and severe as athletes found guilty were disqualified, their results wiped from the books, and periods of ineligibility were imposed.
It added that coaches and support personnel who enabled or facilitated violations were also sanctioned, while states with a history of age cheating did not escape scrutiny. It beat its chest that the net was cast wide so as not to spare anyone.
If the AFN wants Nigerians to believe that its investigations were conducted independently, hearings were granted, and decisions were based on credible evidence, in line with World Athletics and AIU, why then is it shielding the culprits who it said were punished by following due process?
Since, according to Okowa and his board that “the presumption of innocence was respected (and) once guilt was established, consequences followed swiftly”, they should make their findings and sanctions open to the Nigerian public.
It is not enough to accept guilt before the AIU which made its query of Nigeria public to the whole world and then tell Nigerians that the culprits, who brought shame to the country, have been secretly punished without telling them who these people are.
The AFN cannot play the ostrich on this matter which could make the world see us as a people always cutting corners to win laurels.
The post AFN playing the ostrich, by Patrick Omorodion appeared first on Vanguard News.
