And Nigeria Lost

Comfort Obi

Of course, it is stale news that Nigeria lost its bid to host the Commonwealth Games in 2014. We lost to Glasgow, a city like Lagos, Abuja, Calabar or Port Harcourt. The city, single-handedly, decided on its own to bid, with its own resources. We lost to a city, not to a country. Since that loss, I have been having a good laugh at those who are lamenting our fate. I have been asking what the big deal is. Don’t get me wrong, it is a big deal to host the Commonwealth Games. Billions of dollars in investments will roll in. A lot of development. The hospitality industry would boom. Traders would make profits. And so do transporters.Tourism booms. Its benefits are, indeed, unlimited.
Former Head of State, General Yakubu Gowon, who was at the head of the Nigerian lobby group for the hosting rights knew the numerous gains Nigeria would have made. Gowon: "The benefits for any country that hosts the games are very enormous and that is why, as a nation, we can build new facilities that would be of international standard..." Truth is, I pity Gowon. I don’t know why he got himself involved in the mess. I know it is an honour to serve one's country. I am proudly Nigerian. Yet, I will not disgrace myself because I want to serve my country.
The tragedy is not that we lost the bid after sinking a whopping N1.1 billion. The tragedy is that Nigeria had the temerity to bid for the hosting rights. Whoever muted the idea, and thus planted the urge for us to bid, should be held responsible for prostituting the faces of Gowon, a respectable man, and that of Vice President Goodluck Jonathan, at the bidding session. The person should also be held responsible for the N1.1 billion wasted in what was clearly a fruitless exercise. How could we?
The Commonwealth Games is not a school's sports festival. Or an inter-state sports festival. It is a serious affair. It needs planning and preparation. Which can we boast of? As at the date of the bidding, nothing was on ground. We don’t boast of good stadia. It is debatable if we can boast of more than six five-star hotels. Even at that, how many of them are safe? Armed robbers have learnt to raid our hotels at will. So, where were the visitors going to stay, and which Stadia were the athletes going to use? In Abuja, a games village was built, beautiful flats, bungalows, storey buildings, during the All African Games, but where are the houses? Nigerian "big" men and women have bought them off. What other thing recommends us?
Inspite of the obscene amount of money we make from oil every day, we don’t have any good roads. So, on which roads would the visitors ply. The other day along the Benin-Ore-Lagos Road, it took some very amazing Igbo-traders for the hundreds of vehicles which were stuck to continue their journey to Lagos.They borrowed matchets, axes and shovels from villagers to uproot trees in a bush, leveled the ground, and created a path-way for vehicles to wriggle through. I was never more proud to be Igbo than I was that day. To worsen matters, we don’t have a Rail transport system. Nor do we have an air transport system to be proud of. And, ah, no electricity.
Definitely, one of the reasons why we shouldn’t have dared bid is the security system in the land. The Nigerian police is the worst equipped police anywhere in the world. They fight crimes with bare hands, almost. They live in the worst quarters. Their morale is low. So, armed robbers and other criminals hold sway. Nowhere is safe. Banks, churches, markets, schools, the roads, homes, just nowhere. The other day in Lagos, armed, robbers snatched a three-month-old baby from her mother's back when she couldn’t give them money. Mercifully, they had a change of heart and abandoned the baby somewhere.
It is okay to say that we would have been ready before 2014 if we were successful. But that will be stretching our capabilities. What other countries hear, and read, about us would never recommend us to host such a game. They read about a near stark illiterate called Lamidi Adedibu, a glorified tout, who is former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s best friend. They read that while he has made life hell for people in Oyo State and beyond, Obasanjo turned history upside down by declaring him the father of the PDP. If a former President of Obasanjo’s status couldn’t get that simple fact right, how can they take us seriously? The founders of the PDP were former Vice President Alex Ekwueme and members of the G-34. At that time, Obasanjo was serving an undeserved jail term. And Adedibu was rooting for his other bosom friend, the late General Sani Abacha who imprisoned Obasanjo. And he was not initially a PDP member. He was in the ANPP. So, how did he father the PDP?
They read that while NAFDAC is alleging that Adedibu is supporting the selling of fake drugs and other fake products, and is being charged to court by the police for an alleged breach of peace, Obasanjo is praising him. And they wonder at Nigeria’s effrontery in bidding.
Somebody must be held responsible for our losses. We should ask how the sum of N1.1 billion was spent. Not many people even knew Nigeria was bidding. Not a single major newspaper, or magazine, carried it one day as a lead story. The stories, usually interviews, granted by one member of the bid committee or the other, to support the jamboree, were always tucked away (inside). So, who knew what was going on?
Amos Adamu, a constant in Nigerian sports, alleged that Nigeria lost because African countries betrayed us. Not true. We lost because we are incompetent. How many countries out of the 71 that voted did we visit? We had nothing on ground. No publicity. No facility. Glasgow which won was 70 per cent ready to host. But let’s believe Adamu and ask him a question: If Nigeria couldn’t convince African countries to vote for us, who then did we convince?
We are, indeed, jokers!