Politics Of Things: Ozil, Amaju, Giwa in different battle of interests

Mesut Ozil for sure has done it and all. Won a World Cup and a Champions League. He owes the German people the respect for giving him such a platform and opportunity. But respect is reciprocal. He was disrespected and it’s only natural he exits the National Team.

Even if he didn’t renounce his allegiance with first team of Germany’s football. Chances are evidently glaring that he wouldn’t be offered a space in there for long. He’s growing older and weaker.

Naturally, Ozil isn’t a player of rock and iron. He is soft. And was designed to be soft and intelligent. His best days were at Madrid. Where all he was expected to do was give scintillating pass that challenged the maestro of the passing game, Xavi.

So a team that wants Ozil must understand that he is a Fabregas by nature. They have better brains than muscle. The worst of Ozil in a typical game is evident after 60mins. He turns red and tired.

A reason he wanted to play for Pep Guardiola in the past. A reason he is playing for Arsenal (knowing Wenger’s playing style collaborates his kind of play). And I see him playing for Pep in the nearest future. Ozil at 29 has won the DFB-Pokal, La Liga, Copa del Rey, Supercopa de España, FA Cup, FA Community Shield, UEFA European Under-21 Championship, FIFA World Cup. If Barca is still interested in 29-years old Willian. I don’t see why Manchester City won’t want to lure Ozil to the squad after this season.

Back to his Germany issue, isn’t it unfair to make Ozil the scapegoat when the actual culprit is the manager that left out a player I insist is far better than all the 23-man players that rep’ed Nigeria in the World Cup.

Sane’s pace would have helped a soft pace Ozil. And the racist actions are also very depressing. At times, it’s not usually personal motive that sees a player make a decision to play for his second country. We do not know the pains some players endure, knowing they can’t represent their first country.

So Ozil thinks it’s double standard to exaggerate his German side when he wins the World Cup for German, but Turkish-rize him when he loses. Since all the stones started coming to him after his pose with the Turkish president.

He is still very much Turkish. His parents leave in Turkey, he now leaves in England and on this matter, there’s only one loser (or zero, since Ozil wasn’t going to make the Qatar 22 squad anyway).

He could as well become English by lifestyle, stay in England and enjoy his days doing club heroics. He is not a Messi and so we don’t expect Germany coming to beg him out of quitting. Unless, they decide to repair their international image that has been a bit tampered by this racism allegation.

So there’s politics and government-ality everywhere. Not only in Nigeria. Like I tweeted in a live radio show this morning. In absolute terms, you can’t separate the government from football. Yes, I agree that Government can be limited to providing basic structure, environment and facility. But the undertones of politics will remain engraved to the game.

It pure Government implications that gets nations the hosting rights to the World Cup. And it’s usually big international politics at play.

It’s a bit tricky but that’s what it is. There are so many angles to the Amaju Pinnick versus Chris Giwa show that has gotten to its peak of drama in the last few days. And my personal observations scares me. I am scared for the lovers of the game. I am scared for you, you and you that love Nigerian football.

The issue is the enemies of Nigerian football are indeed multi faced. The media is a part of it. The brown envelope syndrome could be very shameful. As we see and here some  journalists sit on the fence because they have eaten with both sides of their mouth.

So a radio host, a seasoned professional says Amaju Pinnick and Chris Giwa are not the problem of the Pinnick vs Giwa saga. And I am flabbergasted. All the while, I thought Pinnick was the new hero (at least until we didn’t win the World Cup. Meanwhile, it was these same set of journalists that said we weren’t going to Russia to win Gold).

I thought Giwa was the destroyer of the labor we have managed to put into building our football. I thought his disruptions meant FIFA ban. And I thought we were all on the same page about not wanting this.

Alas, some thoughts were hanging on the fence or on the shop for sale.

I like to keep an open mind as far as opinions are concerned. So I discussed with a good friend of mine. Who had tweeted,

“The good thing with Nigerian football is, Giwa has come to stay and nothing can stop it. Giwa has master minded the few age grade games with ease and perfect calm. To make things better, he even went a step further by bring a game to Lagos. Victory is won already for Giwa”.

I was shocked at his tweet and so had to engage him privately. We talked about this just last night. I have known him to be a bold speaker. He was bold as well with his opinions again. He felt Chris Giwa was doing something awesome.

He had advised Pinnick before now to be president of Nigeria Football, not President of Super Eagles.

“Amaju was president of the Super Eagles and the other teams were orphaned. Giwa has government solidly backing him through Dalong. Yesterday confirmed everything. Flying Eagles played yesterday at Agege, Amaju was in Lagos, he couldn’t dare to go to the stadium”.

So in the spirit of keeping an open mind I went sampling other people’s opinion and they are here represented:

“If you say Amaju is the President of only the Super Eagles, then who arranged all the logistics for Flying Eagles and Falconets. The game in Lagos was inserted even before World Cup. The Austria trip for Falconets was done before WC.The money Giwa and Minister are using at the moment is the left-over of the World Cup monies generated by NFF from private investors”

“All the sponsorship deals signed by Amaju did not pass through TSA. That is a criminal offense. If he activates FIFA ban, he will die in jail”

“Pinnick knows why he is slowing down on activating FIFA ban. Sir, na trap and they realize it. From Monday, this case would wear a new phase. Mark this comment sir”

All those happened last night (Sunday). But by this morning (Monday), from a top NFF source:

“DSS acting on presidential orders threw out Chris Giwa and his cohorts from causing any more embarrassment for Nigerian football and returned Sanusi Mohammed as the head of the secretariat…signalling the return of Amaju Pinnick as NFF President. President Buhari was properly briefed on the development and he ordered that football in Nigeria must be played in line with the statutes of FIFA. The distraction of the past few weeks were unnecessary. Today’s DSS action of installing the properly elected NFF leadership follows weeks of thorough investigation and briefing by the presidency and other related security agencies.Moreover, the Court order Giwa stand on was an exparte order issued on June 5, 2018 which normally should have a life span of 14 days and should not had even been issued in the first place in line to Football regulations”

Now there are many who believes the drama is still on going. The Giwa favored theorists believe the script on ground will ensure Amaju doesn’t come back for second term. That he will be asked to do an underground agreement not to context, otherwise face the EFCC.

But the other side of the theory disagrees. They say Amaju will overcome all the traps. And emerge as President for the second time.

Yet after all has been said and done. The shame remains that we have a minister of Sport that should naturally have no business managing Sport. God save us all. Like someone noted, “The longest serving Sports Minister in the history of Nigeria sports since 1960 after independence just in one year gave Nigeria two presidents each in Basketball – Musa Kida & Tijani Umar, Taekwondo – Binga & George Ashiru, Rugby – Edward Fom Pam & Kelechi Mbagwu, Football – Chris Giwa & Amaju Pinnick. Supporters Club,  Rafiu Ladipo and Okumagba”.

NOTE: Most of my sources herein would appreciate the anonymous status. So I gave it to them.I