The elections are now over, so I don't want to bore you with post-election analysis. Instead let me go to my other passion, the world of football.
Those of you who know me can attest that I'm identifiable as an unrepentant supporter of both the round leather sport as well as the game of politics. Regrettably, I returned from Idanre very late on Saturday night already sensing in my spirit that PDP had probably lost the governorship elections, only to learn that my beloved club Tottenham Hotspurs had been defeated 2-1 by Chelsea at Stamford Bridge. The combination of the two events made 27th November 2016 an extremely miserable day.
One consolation that I can fall back upon if at all is the fact that a Nigerian by name Victor Moses scored the winning goal which decided the London derby and sadly punctured Spurs hitherto unbeaten record so far this season.
All three goals in the match came through the run of play, no dodgy penalties or free-kicks on the edge of the box, no controversial offside decisions leading to goals, therefore on balance of probability a fair result, though unfavourable as a Spurs fan committed since 1979.
It is a great pity that the same cannot be said about the guber elections held in Ondo State, but I promised not to talk politics so let me return to match analysis and other match reports.
The final two matches of the Guber Cup were played on Saturday where the AD played SDP for the 3rd place whilst APC went head-to-head against PDP in the grand finale. The 3rd place match was a boring one-way traffic as AD outclassed SDP 2 goals to Nil (with every 50,000 votes counting to a goal).
But the grand finale was a more exciting encounter with APC team defeating PDP team 5-3.
The stadium spectacle was witnessed by over 500, 000 supporters from the various teams, with each fan being paid different sums of money to turn up and support their team. The jubilant APC supporters in the stands celebrated their teams victory as some of them were paid as little as N3,000 and for some who sat in better seats as much as N7,000 to attend and watch the match. Good sums of money for a poverty-stricken fanbase who turn up once every 4 years for this Guber Cup competition.
The losing finalists PDP supporters were conspicuously 94,000 fewer in number than the APC, perhaps due to the fact that they were only mobilised to attend the match with a sum that could only buy 2 bottles of beer. Is it any wonder why they had such a poor turnout, particularly in Akure the capital city?
Well, APC emerged as winners and Akeredolu was declared the Governor-elect of a contest where many pundits had predicted that there was already a well-orchestrated and predetermined result.
Any suggestion of match-fixing in this competition, which is now making the rounds in sports and political circles, must be properly investigated and any persons found culpable should be punished.
But it is common practice that every loser often raise plausible reasons or excuses to justify why they lost a match which international analysts had expected that the incumbent ought to have won with ease.
So what could have gone wrong?
Let's consider some of the highlights of the match.
1. Prior to kick-off the management of PDP made a last ditch attempt to get the match postponed by citing cogent legal & constitutional reasons for their request. However, their protest fell on the deaf ears of the competition organisers (INEC);
2. They protested against the forced inclusion of an unregistered ineligible player in their squad (J Ibrahim) forced upon them by the competition organisers. An anomaly that could not be corrected until very late in the match;
3. The said player Ibrahim had been given the Team Captaincy by INEC and was allowed to dictate training sessions for 28 days before the competition and given authority to submit the Teamsheet for kick-off, that is, the starting line-up;
4. The authentic Team Captain (E Jegede) was forcibly left on the bench on instructions of the competition organisers after being prevented from training for 28 days prior to the start of the competition;
5. The match was running to an end and for a duration of 88 minutes the PDP players were forced to play with both hands tied behind their backs, (afterall it's football, not handball so why do you need your hands) and in the case of the Goalkeeper, whilst his hands were free both feet were tied together;
6. In a dramatic twist in the 89th minute, the Referee showed a red card to Ibrahim dismissing him from the field of play when he received a message from the 4th official that Ibrahim was indeed an impostor and an ineligible player whose Captaincy was obtained fraudulently. PDP now one player short having been reduced to 10 men made a belated substitution, bringing on Jegede, their authentic Team Captain (too little too late) and the Referee ordered that all PDP player's hands and legs to be untied;
7. After playing 3 minutes of second half injury time, the Referee blew the final whistle signalling the end of the game with final scores standing at: APC 5 PDP 3.
8. In post-match interviews the APC team captain Akeredolu said "the victory is of God through the people".
In a swift response, the PDP team coach queried how the match officials failed to see the 3 off-side goals which handed victory to their opponents. He angrily challenged why his team were subjected to such harsh playing conditions and why preference was shown or an advantage given to the APC team.
When we contacted the organisers of the competition (INEC) they pride themselves as having conducted a free, fair & credible competition in which an overall winner has emerged.
In concluding this match report, I ask some very searching questions:
a) Was it a free & fair match?
b) Should this result stand and can this result possibly stand?
c) At a time of deep recession in the country, how much was used to pay supporters to come and watch the dramatic final?
d) Who were these Philanthropic lovers of the game that sponsored the huge outlay running into billions of Naira for just one weekend?
e) Is this the new outlook for our game of politics in this country under the INEC of today?
My undying passion for the game of politics and the sport of football leaves me in a deep-rooted dilemma. Maybe time will tell.
Hon GaRo
Gbenga Akinmoyo
writes from Idanre. idnewstab.com
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