APC chieftain cautions against politics of exclusion

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Hon. Kola Okesanjo, has urged the party to give every member a sense of belonging. He said that those who lose election should also be accomodated in the scheme of things.

He said the era of ‘winners-takes-all’ politics is over, advising the leadership of the party to promote the culture of inclusiveness, reconciliation and crisis resolution.

Okesanjo, who spoke with reporters in Lagos,  advised the APC leadership to wade into the crisis in Adamawa,Edo,Ogun,Kwara and Sokoto states where party members are at loggerheads.

Okesanjo said an all-inclusive administration would forge unity and harmony and prevent division in the fold.

He advised the APC to use the ‘grassroots fire brigade approach’ to address the situation in the affected states, noting that proportional representation would provide the platform for party cohesion.

The APC chieftain urged the leaders to learn from the mistake of the defunct Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidates, the late Femi Agbalajobi and Dapo Sarumi, which led to the emergence of  the the National Republican Convention (NRC) Governor Michael Otedola in Lagos State.

He said the endorsement of a governorship aspirant, Akinwunmi Ambode, by the Olowo-Eko of Lagos, Oba Rilwan Akiolu, was a mere  royal blessing, which can also extend to other contestants.

Okesanjo said that religion should be detached from politics, adding that the APC has many Christian and Muslim aspirants to rule the state. the stttparades enough governorship aspirants that can move Lagos State to the next level.

The APC chieftain said the APC governors have distinguished themselves, citing the Osun State government’ education programme as a good example.

He said the Osun State Opon Imo programme introduced by Governor Rauf Aregbesola is making waves in the academic circle.

Onazi: External comments won’t affect us

Super Eagles midfielder, Ogenyi Onazi has admitted that players of the team came under some harsh criticism after their opening day draw with Iran at the ongoing 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil.

Onazi however claims that it did not affect the players adversely insisting it instead galvanized them to secure their first victory of the completion against Bosnia-Herzegovina on Saturday.

“After our game against Iran, many people wrote us off. However, that did not affect us. We are united and are always together as a team,” Onazi told supersport.com.

Captain, Joseph Yobo had hinted during Friday’s pre-match press conference that “some people” were trying to create distractions within the team.

“I think (some) people are trying to create distractions in this team. They can’t find anything yet.
“At the end of this tournament, I will have other things to say about the people trying to create these distractions. I don’t know where they are coming from,” Yobo said.

Following Saturday’s win over Bosnia, Onazi has now echoed the sentiments of his captain insisting that a united front has been the drive behind the team’s success.

“We do not listen to any comments from outside because if we win, it’s for us and if we lose, it’s also for us.

“After the game against Iran, we encouraged ourselves and vowed to do better than we did (when we face Bosnia),” he said.

The midfielder concluded by revealing the banter he shared with his Bosnia teammate (at Serie A club, SS Lazio), Senad Lulic before Saturday’s game.

“We chatted as soon as the draws were made and Lulic kept telling me they were going to beat us. I said, ‘no problem’ but I knew God was going to see us through,” he said.

5 things that made the Eagles fly

World Cup debutants, Bosnia and Herzegovina saw their hope of progressing into the last 16 come to end when they lost to African champions, Nigeria inside the Arena Pantanal in Cuiaba on Saturday.

It was a match full of key battles, interesting stats and end-to-end stuff. From ending a 16-year wait for a first World Cup win to becoming the African team with most goals in the history of the tournament and also to ending a nine-hour run of not scoring in open-play capture the story of the Super Eagles’ victory against Bosnia.

Supersport.com picks out Nigeria’s key moments in the match that helped downed the Europeans in the must-win clash.

Emenike The Bully
Fenerbahce striker, Emmanuel Emenike, was a constant pain in the neck for the Bosnian defence. If the battle between Emenike and the captain of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Emir Spahic, was a boxing bout the latter would have either had a bloodied face or thrown in the towel.
Emenike completed eight dribbles against the Europeans on the night, which remained the most by a player as on Sunday at the tournament. Even former Ghana defender, Sammy Kuffour testified that Emenike’s style of play against Bosnia reminds of Daniel Amokachi’s bulldozing style of the past.

The Emenike-Odemwwingie combination
The telepathy between Emenike and Peter Odemwingie all through the match was huge in Nigeria putting Bosnia to the sword. The build-up to Odemwingie’s goal confirmed the partnership between the two strikers. The two forwards put no foot wrong and played for each other by taking up impressive positional plays that made it difficult to know the point man though Emenike played as the number nine.

Babatunde’s sweet left foot
The Volyn Lutsk midfielder is one of the players who came up for criticism when Stephen Keshi named him in the Nigerian squad for the World Cup. But Michael Babatunde, for the first time, showed he has a sweet left foot coupled with a high work rate. The 21-year-old preferred ahead of Victor Moses for the Bosnia game forced Asmir Begovic into making two saves from long range efforts.
Certainly, his performance was one of the positives for the Nigerian bench to take into their next game against former world champions, Argentina on Wednesday.

Yobo still a defensive leader
Forget about Joseph Yobo being concerned with only becoming the first Nigerian men’s footballer to earn 100 caps in international games. The 33-year-old, who took up the place of injured Godfrey Oboabona, showed he is still not just up for the big stage but he is the leader of the team.
He quietly did his job as team leader and the most experienced man in the Nigerian back four and it robbed off on Efe Ambrose, Juwon Oshaniwa and the impressive Chelsea youngster, Kenneth Omeruo.

Enyeama’s super save
Definitely Vincent Enyeama’s big save on to the post from Edin Dzeko’s effort inside stoppage time is the best of the pick from a Nigerian perspective. Surely a lot of Nigerians would have had their hearts in their mouths or a few would have vomited theirs.
That super save by one of the most underrated goalkeepers in world football has now earned the Lille custodian new nicknames like Saint Vincent and The Saviour.

Amadu commends ‘One Match at a Time’ approach

General Secretary of Nigeria Football Federation, Barrister Musa Amadu, has applauded the resolve of the Super Eagles to approach it one game at a time at the 2014 FIFA World Cup finals, saying the approach has been working and will work well to take Nigeria far in the tournament.

Getting ahead of themselves has worked against Nigeria previously, when players naively thought they already reached the quarter finals and became quite casual, allowing Italy to equalize and eventually trump a Round of 16 game in USA 20 years ago.

The attitude was also at play in France four years later, with players haggling over money for a potentially –explosive quarter final clash with Brazil before the Round of 16 meeting with Denmark in Paris.

“The approach of taking it one match at a time is excellent. That has worked well for us in the first two matches. It will also work for us against Argentina and take us very far in the competition,” Amadu said on Monday.

Working hard and playing for one another, the African champions brought to an end their nine-match winless streak at the FIFA World Cup by pipping Bosnia-Herzegovina in Cuiaba on Saturday.
Apart from the bringing the dubious record to an end, Nigeria is also the only African team to earn four points from its first two matches in Brazil.

Also, as at Monday morning, only Nigeria and Mexico had not conceded a goal in the 32 –nation finals that started on June 12.

Before their victory on Saturday, Nigeria had not won a match at the FIFA World Cup since beating Bulgaria 1-0 at the Parc des Prince in Paris on June 19, 1998.

“I have confidence that we will go ahead and create several other records in this competition, going by the fact that the Super Eagles have picked up in form. When the Eagles are in form, no one can stop them,” Amadu maintained.

Before the match with the Bosnians, NFF President, Alhaji Aminu Maigari had expressed optimism that the African champions would pick up the three points, as the unyielding Nigeria spirit comes to the fore when much is expected.

It would be recalled that the Super Eagles also started slowly at the 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, drawing with Burkina Faso and Zambia, before going ahead to defeat Ethiopia, Cote d’Ivoire, Mali and Burkina Faso to claim the

Enyeama rated 5th best

Super Eagles goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama has emerged the fifth best player in the Castrol Index statistical top 10 ranking following his outstanding performance in the ongoing 2014 FIFA World Cup in Brazil.

FIFA released the Castrol Index ranking after the second round of group fixtures. The latest Castrol Index comes out after every round of matches.

Enyeama’s efforts in the Super Eagles Group F matches against Iran and Bosnia-Herzegovina earned him a place in the ranking with 9.59 points having kept clean sheet in the two games.

The Maccabi Tel Aviv shot stopper made several close-range saves during Saturday’s 1-0 victory over Bosnia-Herzegovina. Two games in the tournament, Enyeama has made eight saves that prevented the opponents any chance to find the back of the net, notably among them was a last minute attempt by the Bosnia-Herzegovina striker Eden Dzeko which was saved by Nigeria goalkeeper.

The Bnei Yehuda goalkeeper is relatively known for best performance. Enyeama kept 11 consecutive clean sheets in Ligue 1 matches during the first half of the 2013–14 season. He thus came within 114 minutes of equalling Gaëtan Huard’s Division 1 or Ligue 1 goalkeeping record, set in 1993, of playing 1,176 minutes without conceding a goal.

France striker Karim Benzema’s eye-catching performance at the Arena Fonte Nova on Friday evening ensured he has ended the second round of 2014 FIFA World Cup group fixtures at the top of the Castrol Index statistical ranking with 9.77 points, just ahead of the Netherlands duo of Robin van Persie (9.72) and Arjen Robben (9.67). With a goal average of 2.9 per match – by comparison, the figure for South Africa 2010 was 2.3 – it is no surprise to see three forwards up there, with Benzema leading the way.

Switching to the left side of France’s three-man attack, he gave the Switzerland defence nightmares with his clever movement, pace and sheer appetite for goals throughout the Group E fixture in Salvador and besides scoring once – a volley on the turn from close range – also set up another two for Blaise Matuidi and Moussa Sissoko. He was a split-second from having a second goal too, scoring with a spectacular long-range strike just as the final whistle sounded. France have now had 42 goal attempts over two games – more than any other side in Brazil – and Benzema’s hunger is underlined by the fact he has contributed 15 of them, with 11 on target.

While the Netherlands pair have climbed from sixth and seventh respectively, Brazil defender David Luiz remains in fourth place after helped the hosts earn a clean sheet in the Group A goalless draw with Mexico, limiting their opponents to three shots on target. That same game featured a save by Mexico goalkeeper Guillermo Ochoa from Neymar that “was almost a Gordon Banks” in the words of the great Pele, evoking the then England goalkeeper’s famous stop from his seemingly goal-bound header at the 1970 finals. Ochoa has climbed into the Index top ten with his efforts, which earned him a second clean sheet.

Three other players have entered the top ten, starting with sixth-placed Croatia midfielder Ivan Perisic, who set up his side’s opening goal and struck the second himself in the eventual 4-0 dismantling of Cameroon. Ecuador forward Enner Valencia is seventh after his two goals earned his country victory over Honduras, and took his tally to the tournament for three.

And last but not least, Colombia playmaker James Rodriguez is ninth after producing a second Man of the Match performance already in the 2-1 victory over Ivory Coast. He has shone with his passing and vision, and it is also worth noting he has actually covered more distance – running 21km in two games – than any other Colombia player. To top it all he even scored a rare goal with his head and is unlikely to disagree with Deschamps’ suggestion that this Brazilian setting is bringing the best out of players.

Oboabona back in training

It was a smooth one hour, thirty minutes flight for the Super Eagles and its officials from Campinas to Porto Alegre, as the team gears up for Wednesday’s group decider against former World Champions, Argentina.

On the flight with the Eagles was the Vice President of the NFF, Chief Mike Okeke Umeh, House of Reps members led by Vice Chairman, House Committee on Sports, Alhaja Ayo Omidiran, Coach Stephen Keshi and his crew and all the 23 players registered for the tournament.

The team is quartered at the Holiday Inn Hotel, about 10minutes drive from the airport and the good news for the team is that defence Trojan, Godfrey Itama Oboabona, was back in training on Monday afternoon. “I am ready to resume training today (Monday) and the medics have given me a clean bill,” Oboabona said smiling as the team alighted from the TAM flight that brought them from Campinas.

The team departed for training immediately it settled down at about 2:15pm local time, which was 6:15 in Nigeria, with Team Skipper, Joseph Yobo, saying he prefers a win on Wednesday to his much advertised attainment of a 100th cap if featured in the match against Argentina.

“It’s good news that I will reach that milestone but what is uppermost in my mind is for the team to win and for us to advance to the next stage. The rest will be a bonus,” he said on Monday.

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