Recently, a girl asked me to explain relegation in the
football context. It was fairly easy. A set number of teams that finish at the
bottom of a league must descend to the lower league the next season. The
concept of relegation is one that is not only applicable in competitive
football but in many other aspects of life.
But teams don’t just get relegated. Relegation is not an
act of God or an act of marginalization nor does it come as a result of
conspiracy by other players in the league. Relegation has one key determining
factor: poor form over the season. The teams that get relegated failed to find
form during the greater part of the season and in the end, must go down.
Teams must struggle to find form, rhythm and confidence
to carry on in the fixtures of a season. Football managers are quite inclined
to ensure the lasting of form. They have different assistant coaches who keep
looking at the players, scouting opponents, training and generally doing
everything within the laws of the game to win matches. The teams that win
league titles of course do not suffer relegation.
It is safe to say that in life, business, music, and even
politics, one must find form, rhythm and confidence to carry on the daily
challenges or suffer the descent into relegation. It is easy to see that the
PDP allowed its 16 years dominance of Nigeria’s political scene to lead into
complacency. Complacency results in poor form and the fans are unrewarding to
teams that are not in form. They may troop to the stands still but will exit
once they stare another defeat in the face. Some will boo their own teams while
others will throw pellets.
Presently, the Buhari administration and the APC at the
federal level are deep in relegation zone. His administration has failed to
find any meaningful form. Managers meet some players at the club and then they
are allowed to release and sign some new players. So too Buhari’s government
met some players in the civil service and then brought in his own men after a
curious six months wait. The basis of
signing players will vary from coach to coach but overall, coaches sign players
to help them achieve their season’s objective whatever that may be.
Some coaches chase the big players with proven reputation
while others sign talented youngsters hungry to make a name for themselves.
Another coach would sign players who showed signs elsewhere but failed to prove
themselves on the big stage. Some would sign only local talent while some
others will sign only players with certain attributes including set piece
taking, heading ability, tackling or physical build. Whatever the thinking,
signing players is up to the manager, technical director or both. Once the
players are at the club however, it is up to the coach to make good use of
them.
President Buhari signed his team. He replaced many of the
others he met. This team is entirely his. However, the president himself has
failed to find rhythm as he is mostly unavailable due to injuries sorry illness
for which he has had to seek foreign surgeons.
One clear advantage real football has over life football
is the incontrovertibility of stats. If Swansea have only 16 points from 22
games played no one including sycophantic fans of Swansea would debate that.
But where the stats from our bureau of statistics show that we had 4.7million
job losses or that inflation rate is at 15%+, the supporters of president
Buhari would insist that the stats are made up or that they are not indicators
of anything. All the stats show that this government is enjoying its
performance, the presidency recently released 17 accomplishments of the Buhari
administration. This release of 17 accomplishments is tantamount to Swansea
celebrating victories over West Brom and Watford but failing to see the league
table which shows them at the bottom of the log.
Teams do not get relegated before the end of the season.
The relegation is gradual. The managers of relegating teams promise the fans
they will get out. They reassure the board and pressurize the players. In the
end some get relegated. Some boards do not allow this. Some would fire their
coaches after a few matches while others will wait till mid-way into the
season. Some others wait till the last 10 games to press the panic buttons.
This also happens in Nigerian politics. With just about
over a year left to end his presidency, Buhari will likely press the panic
buttons sometime this year and a flurry of government activities will happen so
quickly to impress the electorate. Will it be enough to convince the already
dissatisfied fan or will it be scoring a consolation goal when the team trails
by an irrecoverable margin?
Let us look at some of the reasons Buhari’s government is
deep in relegation zone. A zone they deny sycophantly and even wholeheartedly.
1. APC:
The party is a coalition between two regional powerhouses: Buhari’s CPC and
Tinubu’s ACN. Neither of these parties could clearly define its ideological
position and there were varying contradictions from one governorship candidate
to another within the ACN. This coalition’s primary objective was to “rescue
Nigeria from PDPs misrule”. Needless to say, a people without vision will keep
wandering in circuitous motion even after they have come out of the woods.
2. Settlement
Structure: Buhari’s popularity in the north is major political card that cannot
be denied. But one name is not enough to win election in Nigeria. Just as Messi
cannot be defender, play-maker and striker all at once for Barcelona. He needed
henchmen here and there. These henchmen brought in monies, their reputation, messages
and influence to help Buhari and APC’s cause. It is only natural that these men
have to be settled. But as we often see, this scenario creates a
“clannish-untouchable” mindset. Settled men do all they can to recover
financially what they sowed. Then they also go about singing more praise to the
president than hundreds of thousands of worshipers at The Experience could
sing to God in one night.
3. Buhari’s
Ignorance and Incompetence: You do not
have to look up either word to understand Buhari’s ignorance or his
incompetence. The president had in Germany addressed the chancellor as the
president of West Germany. That he said this abroad in the presence of foreign
dignitaries is clear proof of his ignorance. He has led a government that
continues to blame a previous one for every mistake including missing budgets
and padded budget items. Only recently, he appointed over 5 literally dead
people to head commissions and boards. What a gaffe!
4. Buhari’s
Conservatism in a “Progressive Party”: One would expect a party with
“progressive” as it’s middle word to lean towards progressivism but not Buhari
or the APC. His government has not named any “progressive policy”. As if these
were not enough, Buhari’s personally disagrees with strong demand by the populace
to adopt a truly federal structure.
5. Selective
Preference/Favouritism: One thing that has plagued Nigeria over the years is
ethnic favoritism with appointments and blind favouritism with development
projects. The president unashamedly told a foreign reporter that his
government’s position would respect the election results with its appointment
and projects. Just before he became president, he condemned the incumbent’s
inability to deal with Boko Haram but his administration has so far struggled
to contain remnants and recently requested a billion US Dollars to finish off
the insurgents. Meanwhile the scores of his relative nomadic herdsmen have
unleashed terror everywhere killing many and destroying properties. He has kept
quiet and managed to speak up for the first time only recently.
As has been said in this piece, no team gets relegated at
once. They get relegated gradually. They may win or draw a few games but
failing to win more games would ultimately prove fatal. The Buhari
administration has been losing several matches. It failed to field a strong
team, selecting only tired old conservatives in the interest of settlement more
than competence or performance. His own lack of understanding of the changed
times or capability to scrutinize the efforts of his immediate team including
speech writers demonstrate an intolerable rate of ignorance, and incompetence
the kind of which is bound to land not just Buhari into relegation but Nigeria
as well.
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