Imoke lifted 1 GAME - Obaji

1 GAME founder Philip Obaji says the rejuvenation of the anti-violence campaign organization was due to the intervention Cross River State Governor, Liyel Imoke.

The 1 GAME campaign has after a very slow start grown to become the biggest cause-related campaign ever associated with football on the continent with nearly a million members backing its cause, a success story Obaji attributes to role of the Cross River State Governor.

“He (Imoke) should take the biggest credit for this (the success of the campaign),” the 1 GAME arrowhead told online portal, naijasportivo.blogspot.com.

“It’s amazing how he works. He didn’t know me and must have heard very little about the campaign, but we made a request for government’s assistance and it came so quick.

“At the time we sought help, we had only just started and it was tough. If we didn’t get any, we probably would have folded and the talk about 1 GAME would have been dead. But the first and most vital intervention came from Governor Imoke,” Obaji said.

Obaji who was part of a committee that formulated a Sports Policy for the Cross River State Government in 2009, admitted that though he has had very few interface with Imoke, he has learnt so much from the Cross River State Governor.

“Yes I haven’t spoken much with him in person, but I’ve followed his administration and I’m excited about his achievement. He inspires me and I’ve learnt a lot from him. He’s a grass rooter and everyone can see.

“For me, it’s an honour and privilege to have been asked to serve in the Cross River State Sports Policy Formulation Committee and an even greater honour to be elected into the Cross River State Football Association Board,” Obaji added.

1 GAME is a grassroots advocacy and campaigning organization that fights violence and ignorance, particularly in Nigeria, by mobilizing and raising public awareness as well as pressuring political and government leaders to support effective policies and programs that are protecting lives and helping to put kids in school.

Imoke joins 1 GAME

Cross River State Governor, Liyel Imoke believes the beauty of sports will be exposed when much emphasis is laid on fairplay, unity and non-violence.

The Governor’s views were echoed at the closing ceremony of the 3rd Cross River State Athletics/Swimming Championship held at the U. J. Esuene Stadium in Calabar on Saturday where he seized a platform to add his voice to the 1 GAME: Football without Violence campaign.

Meeting formally with 1 GAME founder and Executive Director, Philip Obaji, Imoke expressed his appreciation and satisfaction with the progress of the campaign while pledging government’s continued support for sports and non-violence in the state.

“I’m proud of you and grateful for your efforts,” he said to Obaji after receiving a welcome T-shirt from the 1 GAME founder. “I’m glad that we have a team that is so passionate about sports. All what we’ve achieved in Cross River State has been driven by passion. We have a new team that is so passionate about sports,” he later added, apparently referring to the entire team that has made sports development in the state a success.

With this development, Imoke has become the first serving Governor in the country to publicly embrace the 1 GAME campaign and joins a growing list of local and international icons from the sporting and political world whose involvement in the non-violence initiative has helped promote its call for an end to violence and fanaticism in sports particularly football. His commitment to achieving zero tolerance to violence in sports has left Obaji handsomely impressed.

“I’m totally impressed with the attitude and commitment of the Governor towards achieving fairplay, unity and non-violence in sports,” he told sports writers at the end of the event. “Apart from the media, nobody or organ has supported this campaign as much as he has. He’s never hidden his desire for youth and sports development. We are grateful to him for the much we have achieved,” he added.

GOLDEN EAGLETS SHINE IN SIX-GOAL THRILLER

Ahead of its first high profile friendly match against Nanka 11 during the official opening of NEROS Sports Stadium in Nanka, Anambra on May 26, the Golden Eaglets spanked Dreamland Football Academy from Ukwa West LG of Abia State, 6-2 in a trial match played at the Practice Pitch of the U.J Esuene Sports Stadium in Calabar on Saturday.

The Eaglets dominated their opponents throughout the game to the delight of neutral fans and officials; their performance was an improvement over their first practice game when they were forced to a 1-1 draw by Calabar Selected last Thursday. Against Dreamland, the players were purposeful with the strikers finally showing that they have killer instincts by scoring three goals in each of the two halves. The two goals conceded were against the run of play due to momentary loss of concentration in the defence

Head coach, Manu Garba (MFR) said the team is still a work in progress, saying that the response of his wards to training and performances in the two practice matches so far are signs of better things to come.

“There is nothing to celebrate because we have not won anything yet but we must commend the players for their attitude towards training and good comportment since we started the closed camping,” stated Manu, adding that the team would be ready for its first major friendly match-codenamed ‘Operation Storm Nanka’- on Saturday. “We are intensifying our training so that the players would be ready for the important friendly match against Nanka 11. This is an important assignment for us and there is the possibility of playing one or two practice matches before we travel to Nanka.”

Coach Christian Nwoke of Abia State Sports (ASC), who accompanied Dreamland to the match, said the Golden Eaglets gave a good account of themselves and the match was good test for their players who would soon be undertaking a training tour of Portugal. He advised the Eaglets’ coaches to work on their lapses while offering his best wishes to the team.

“It was a good game and a good test for us,” said Nwoke who heads ASC. “The Golden Eaglets did well but there are still more work to be done. They are still evolving and we wish them all the best in their future assignments.”

Meanwhile, Manu has outlined four secrets of success for the Golden Eaglets –tagged The Four Cs- as they stepped up preparations for upcoming matches. He told the players that they needed confidence, composure, commitment and concentration at any given time on the pitch, revealing that those who would make the team’s final list would be subjected to the ‘four-way’ test.

Drug Courier, NDLEA Halt Eagles Lima Trip

It was like a soap opera on Saturday night when the national team; Super Eagles’ much publicised trip to Lima, Peru, for an interrnational friendly was halted by the arrest of a drug suspect by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), abored an Iberia Airliner in Lagos.

The Eagles led by Head Coach Stephen Keshi had flown into the Murtala Mohammed Airport in Lagos on Saturday afternoon from Abuja with 18 players and officials for an 8pm flight to Madrid enroute Lima, Peru for the firendly international that will hold on Wednesday.

After passing through check in formalities with the Iberia airlines and other boarding routines with the all security agencies at the airport, the team was asked to proceed for boarding along with other passengers in the airline. After about one hour the team and other passengers boarded the plane at about 8:30pm, and just as Iberians officials were asking all to sit down for the plane’s takeoff there was a sudden bedlam, as an official of the airline announced that NDLEA officials had asked that all paasengers of the airline which was Madrid bound must disembark for fresh security checks following the discovery of a drug courrier in the aircraft.

By now it was getting to about 9:30, and by the time the fresh checking was complete on all paasengers, it was exactly 10:20pm. NDLEA officials then came into the aircraft with their sniffer dogs and spent another 30minutes checking the plane. By now, a suspect whom they refused to give his name has been arrested and another suspect who left his international passport in the aircraft seat 4A, was on the run. Effort to apprehend him proved abortive.

The airline then announced that the pilot of the plane has said that he could not fly again, due to international regulations, thus aborting the national team’s trip to Peru on Saturday night. The players, officials and other passengers of the airline were then shephered into buses and taken to hotels around Ikeja area of Lagos, the nation’s commercial nerve centre and the flight rescheduled for 9:30 am on Sunday.

Head Coach Stephen Keshi said the team has lost valuable time to prepare in Lima, with early arrival there for the friendly but urged the players and officials to see their ordeal as one of the sacrifices to make for the nation as internationnal players.

Earlier, NFF President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari, who was at the airport to see the team off, had promised the team continous activities in the bid to rebuild a strong national team for the country. He charged the players and officials to go out for an outright victory in Lima, even as he said he was proud of the home-based professionals and their steady rise to international stardom. “You are lucky to have ex-stars like Keshi, Amokachi and Ike Shorunmi, as your coaches and I have no doubt in my mind that sooner than later new Keshis, Amokachis and Okochas will be discovered from this squad. The team has since departed for Lima on Sunday morning.

Peru bound Eagles

Chigozie Agbim, Dan Akpeyi, Okemute Odah, Azubuike Egwueke, Papa Idris, Juwon Oshaniwa, Godfrey Oboabona, Sunday Mba, Uche Ossai, Izu Azuka, Gbolahan Salami, Ejike Uzoenyi, Ogonna Izuchukwu, Gabriel Reuben, Henry Uche, Obinna Nwachukwu, Kalu Uche.

Euro-Pros: Ekigho Ehiosun, Raheem Lawal, Gege Soriola, Obiorah Nwankwo, Nnamdi Oduamadi

Nigerian referees are corrupt - Philip Obaji

1 GAME founder Philip Obaji tells National Mirror that corruption and poor administration were reponsible for the poor development of football in Nigeria. He also said football clubs are primarily responsible for violence in the Nigeria Premier League and the league body hasn't done enough to fight it. The 1 GAME Executive Director in the interview, labelled Nigerian Referees "corrupt" and said the Referees Appointment Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation isn't checkmating them. See full interview on http://nationalmirroronline.net/sports/sport-new/39647.html

Michael Bush: 1 GAME’s new talisman

When 1 GAME founder and Executive Director, Philip Obaji announced the appointment of a new Chairman of the organization’s Board of Trustees at a press conference in Calabar last Sunday, he began with these words: “It’s time for a cause campaigner to run football biggest cause related campaign.” His words were strong and he never for once casted doubts about the abilities of the man he described as “thorough and focused” especially when success was the only thing that needed to be achieved.

Indeed, he knew what he was saying and from his tone, the young activist meant it wholeheartedly. His description of Bush was nevertheless similar to what US President Barack Obama said of newly named President of the World Bank, Dr. Jim Yong Kim when announcing the Korean-American’s nomination for the post. In his words, Obama described Kim who currently serves as president of Dartmouth College as “a developer” by saying: “It’s time for a development professional to lead the world’s largest development agency.”

But unlike Obama who hopes that the world would see a reduction in poverty through improved aid to developing countries with Dr. Kim dictating the pace at the World Bank, young Obaji wants to see a society devoid of violence, conflicts and unnecessary fanaticism and believes a pragmatic Bush will help push the call for zero tolerance to vices and set the agenda right for the success of the anti-violence initiative.

Bush’s biggest task will be to redesign the existing framework of the campaign by making it more effective so as to support the programmes and objectives of the initiative. The organization recently designed three projects in line with its objective aimed at eradicating societal violence. These projects include: The Football without Violence project, the Goal against Violence project and the Education beats Violence project. Some pundits have argued that the size of the young organization was too little to effectively carry out projects of such magnitude.

For instance, the Goal against Violence project which is aimed at ensuring that school pupils play football and understand the essence of fair play and unity while doing so, hopes to have accommodated over one million pupils at the end on 2018. Obaji himself had agreed that it was an expensive venture, one that will cost about Fifty Million Naira each year to implement. Indeed, everyone will wonder how such money will be raised for such a tasking but necessary venture. Last year, Obaji had told the BBC that it was expensive to run 1 GAME and funds will be needed to meet its goals. It yet to be ascertained how much response he got from the world, if he did get any after making that ‘SOS’ call.

Nevertheless, the efforts of the charismatic Obaji, though in motion, must be commended. Having to organize and mobilize for a cause has never being an easy task, yet for the 1 GAME initiative, a lot can be termed as successful in their campaign. For instance, having over One Hundred and Fifty Thousand people sign up to the cause is no mean feat. Even heavenly funded programmes encounter big challenges gaining followership but for 1 GAME, it came reasonably. A lot must go to the forerunners. Very few would have given them the benefit for doubt. Maybe Bush did, thus the reason why Obaji will always have great words to say about him. His linking up with 1 GAME will no doubt shape things, after all, he’s used to redesigning things.

Back in 2003, he quit the services of Akwa Ibom Broadcasting Corporation (AKBC) and immediately founded Worldwin Media which proudly owns the very popular Bush House Nigeria. His ambition was clear, he wanted to reshape the way the media was run in Akwa Ibom State. Soon after, ‘reshaping’ became part of his name. When his wife Nneka was kidnapped in 2009, he reshaped by quickly relocating to Abuja from Uyo where he set up Bush House, a programme he had also reshaped at the Federal Capital Territory to meet the new age. When political issues in Akwa Ibom State took a nose-dive, bush reshaped things as he founded Ibom Medallion, a socio-economic organization aimed at making Akwa Ibomites living outside the state and abroad contribute to good governance in the state. He obviously knows how to rebuild and definitely will be the talisman at 1 GAME.

Wigan's Moses mute on contract extension

After some eye-catching displays in the Premier League of late, Nigerian international, Victor Moses is biding his time in signing a contract extension at the DW Stadium.

That may not be unconnected to unconfirmed reports that Wigan’s coach, Roberto Martinez will be leaving the outfit at the end of the current season as owner, Dave Whelan is keen to freshen things.

Moses has a year left on his contract and if he does not sign an extension and does not leave in the summer, he will be able to start contract negotiations with another club come January 2013.

“This is how it works in England,” said his agent, Tony Finnigan to metro.co.uk.

“Victor Moses has just a year left on his contract with Wigan Athletic and we were about to start talks on the extension when he said he does not want to sign a new deal.

The 21-year-old has continued his football development with strong showings against Manchester United, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal in the past month showing that he has the talent to rub shoulders with the big boys.

“Victor [Moses] has played himself into a position where virtually every club in the Premier League want to sign him.

“All of the Premier League clubs will be strengthening in the summer and we are not surprised that Moses has been linked with virtually every team in the top division,” Finnigan added.

Finnigan was though quick to point out that Moses is grateful to Martinez for the opportunity. “It doesn't mean he doesn't like his manager - he chose Wigan over other clubs,” Finnigan retorted.

“Martinez is a tactical genius and an excellent coach, and they are Victor's words. He's been playing regularly; he's in form and enjoying his football. He has been offered the chance to extend his contract but has said, "No thank you,” Finnigan concluded.