₦airaland Forum

Mikel is Mikel, the best of Mikel can not fit into Okocha's shoes.

Some Midfielders wherever they play can only be part of a Mildfield, while the greats like Maradona, Zidane and Okocha and a few others are in themselves a midfield. They are the sort of players who you simply give the ball when you run out of ideas.

Mikel can only be part of a midfield while Okocha is a midfield in himself.

However that being said, Mikel is not as successful as his mates who he once outshined. Lionel Messi and Fabregas are better players than Mikel right now and I have no doubts in my mind that if Mikel then went to Man Utd he would have been a better player.

Ivory Coast should have spared us a future heart break by playing draw

Still backing Ivory Coast to win the tournament

Nigeria is not good enough and have no regrets that I did not wish them well against Benin


Did I hear Drogba say his wife is from Mali?? Make the woman no match am till the next one month

[size=16pt]Anybody praying that Nigeria should qualify should kindly not take the name of God in vain[/size]

Ok appologies

comment retracted

Spin doctor take it easy

Just view my remarks in the positive light

nuzo:
Is kobojunkie a female?
If she is, then i see another NAFDAC woman in the making.
Keep it up, though i don't agree with you on this topic.

To be honest am shocked too

If kobo is female then she is absolutely brilliant

As soon as Kobo does not agree with a reason he starts claiming there was no reason given.

So in all of Kenedy's speech he did not give any reason for backing Obama??

Kenedy's endorsement simply renders useless the politics of fear promoted by HRC, that Obama is inexperienced and could be a risk. When the likes of Ted Kenedy, John Kerry, Dick Durbin, Deschale who have all been in the inner workings of American politics and Government says Obama can be trusted then he can be trusted.

Those who say it means nothing should tell us why the Clintons flooded him with phone calls lobbying him to at least remain neutral, or those who think it means nothing should tell us why the Clintons consider it necessary to parade Robert Kenedy's Children in response to Ted Kenedy endorsement of Obama.

bawomol:
what makes u idiots think racism would be erased if obama wins??

God knows why he is blogging with idiots

Truthman

It is called politics, something tells me that most members of democratic establishment (super delegates) who claim to be neutral believe Obama is the best candidate to win the election but are too close to the Clintons to make decision too early.

As things draw closer to an end they will be bold enough to back Obama.

Obama has shown that without the support of democratic base he can rally supports from independents and some republicans and thats phenominal. With the support of even 1/3 of the democratic base he is capable of winning.

Meanwhile it looks like John Edwards is the last Joker in Obama's Arsenal.

This is not about politics of scratch my back I scratch yours, its about the future and whether Hilary is good enough to ride that future.

Meanwhile does Democratic Party allocate any delegates in Florida? and how is Florida anymore significant compared to Michigan??

And how about Arizona where Obama has the support of Gov Napolitano.

seabiotics:
Dawid,

You are right. It is becoming more evident that the election is about race.
How far this will get Obame, though, is what we don't know yet. But write Hilary off at your peril.

The deciding factor will be February. It sure will be interesting.

John Edwards might decide the race.

Obama always says to win an election you must not be afraid of loosing it, so the idea that he should have gotten lesser block votes from blacks would have made him a better candidate is simply not true.

Obama was never a black candidate, because he is as white as he is black and also has an Asian foster father. He can not play racial politics.

For those who think this is about black votes, you are simply not following the trend
IOWA - Obama won both popular vote and technically (delegate count)
New Hamshire - Obama lost popular vote but drew technically (delegate count)
Nevada - Obama lost popular vote but won technically
South Carolina - Obama won both popular vote and technically

If after this trend whoever thinks he is still not a serious candidate should rid himself of delusion. The Clinton camp does not obviously think that way otherwise they will not deploy the service of an ex-President to attack him, Washington does not think that way otherwise they will not grant him a secret service detail, John Kerry and Ted Kenedy do not think that way otherwise they will not endorse him.

ndubest:
Obama win

This may be 24 season one playing out

Let's wait for super tuesday

My brother did u notice a lot of similarity??

Also heard Obama's Lawyer is Robert Buaer

I-man:
My friend,watch that entire Bill Clinton speech where he made the "fairy tale" comment.It was simply to do with Obama's position on Iraq.To allege that this was racist is outrageous.

Bill responded to a question about Obama's claim that he was,unlike Hillary,always against the Iraq campaign.He was chronicling why in his opinion,this was far from the case and refered to it as a "fairy tale".Cue, screams of outrage by hypersensitive blacks who seemed to be horrified that Bill could attack dare Obama so strongly and started waving the racial card.

As far as Hillary's comments about MLK were concerned.I saw nothing racist about it.Like the above case,she was trying to make an innocent but mangled distinction between "rhetoric" and "action".She was trying to say that unlike Obama,she was a person who got things done.

To quickly accuse her of racism was the best gift she was given. Most people couldn't see the racism in the above comments.The only racism is from those who are quick to call others racist upon the slightest provocation.

If Hillary was arguing in support of a bill sponsored by the Presidency and explaining to black people why they should appreciate the efforts of the President against the rhetorics of a Civil Rights activist its totally a different issue, and will be considered innocent.

But when a Senator makes such a comment in justifcation of her electability over another Senator, it brings to question why she considers herself a defacto President in waiting and not her opponent.

Ohikhena u probably called the hiring of Berti Vogts criminal out of anger, but the truth is that in fact u have a point.

As a kid and up till date, soccer is the one thing you can wholeheartedly be proud of as a Nigerian. It is the only thing that give Nigerians a cause to dance on the streets regardless of our shortcormings. It is the only thing that you see Nigerians talk about without sentiments, it is effectively the most unifying excersize of our Nation.

Now for personal interests Sani Lulu and co is destroying that one thing which makes us smile as a Nation, and if our football is destroyed am not too sure what else is there to be proud of about Nigeria. So I think his actions are criminal especially when guided by greed and fraud

The trouble is we keep doing the same things and expect different results, it was for a reason that the idea of having an independent FA came to the fore. But before our eyes, Sani Lulu and his cohorts designed an election that will produce a default result. 
When Lulu becomes NFA Chairman, all he does was to start a search for foreign coach after which he had all the time in the world to engage in Power struggle with Obaseki. (reason being he has no work to do and has no vision for Nigerian football).

Recomendations:
1. We need to merge the NFA and NFL to form one solid mega Football Association (FA).

2. People who have a track record with football by either being ex-players themselves or ex-coaches and who have aquired the necessary administrative skills should head this mega FA.

3. The FA should undertake an action plan aimed at transforming our local league, they can in collaboration with the Sports ministry upgrade six stadiums in six different geopolitical zones.

4. They can collaborate with the Media (i.e TV) for quality weekly coverage from these 6 stadiums and then produce a sports channel which people can subscribe to and pay for.

5. We can also innitiate a programme to attract older foreign based players nearing retirement to come home and play. That will boost the excitement in our local league. (At least Rashidi Yekini did it and it did not hurt him).

The future of Nigerian football lies in developing our local league, the idea of depending only on foreign players and assembling them only 2weeks to every tournament hoping that the boys will win if they playout their hearts cant continue. Team cohession and tactical awareness is built over time.

Besides that, there is the economic dimension to this. The success in Nigeria's entertainment industry (movie and music) should be repeated in the soccer industry

Removing Osaze in this match defies logic, common sense and any football strategy whatsoever, especially not when Yakubu was simply of no use in a match we desperately needed to win.

Guess what, our destiny is out of our hands. whether we beat benin 100 - 0, Mali and Ivory coast will simply play draw to see us out. You can trust the Francophone Nations, they will gladly do that hitjob for free especially when it is Nigeria that is at the recieving end.

But all through the second half I tried imagining what Austine Eguaveon will be thinking, while he sat on that Bench. An ex-Nigerian Captain with playing experience accross Europe (leaguewise) with World cup experience Nationally as well as a 1994 African cup of Nations Gold medal.
In his debut year as coach he took the Super eagles to the Semi Finals, but we did not think he was good enough for us because he was one of us. He was relegated to assistant coach because we need a foreign coach.
A Foreign and white coach is hired we are on the verge of not qualifying from group level.

Guess what as a Football fan am partly angry, but yet partly happy for this development. May be we may finally understand what guided SANI LULU's decisions, we will understand whether it was simply motiveted by greed.

At this point sacking just Berti Vogts is just not enough, as that amounts to simply replacing your monkey with a dog in which an animal that stoops is still within your neighbourhood.

We must overhaul our NFA, take football out of the hands of politicians like Sani Lulu and Obaseki and hand it over to those who love the game, played the game and served our Nation playing the game.
Even if it means dictatorial myth from the Presidency, someone like Odegbami or his likes should be at the head of NFA.

I want to see a blend of young and experienced players upfront. Ikechukwu Uche should be given a chance to prove his worth.

I watched the South African team today thinking whether we destroyed a chance to build a team for the future

Should we have used a younger team knowing that even if they eventually loose we will be investing in the future of Nigerian football giving the young ones who will play when the World cup will be hosted in Africa the needed exposure?

Did we blow up a chance to consolidate on the efforts of Eguaveon who showed promise in the last Nations cup??

Or perhaps the priority of our NFA is big money signing of new coach where they have concessions.

Delegate Count
State Date Delegates                 Clinton             Obama                Edwards
Total - -                                          236                  152                         50

Super Delegates -   463                 200                   114                         32

Iowa 01/03               57                  15                     16                          14

New Hampshire 01/08 30                 9                      9                             4

Michigan 01/15 0 *                           -                       -                              -

Nevada 01/19 33                            12                      13                           -

At this point it makes more sense counting the delegates awarded after election in each state. Going by that Obama leads 38 against Clinton's 36.

Clinton is leading on that table because she got more super delegates who endorsed her based on the misguided belief before elections that she is the inevitable candidate. That high value of super delegates may erode before National Convention.
One trend you will not overlook is Obama's incremental and one state at a time approach to this election.  See how double digit poll leads by clinton in Iowa, New Hampshire and Nevada many months before election shrunk on the eve of election.

Anything can happen in Febuary 5. (Obama is doing just fine)

The truth of the matter is, these are what make up the so called 35yrs of experience Hillary always lay claim to.

9ja4eva:
Why Anichebe wasnt invited i don't know

it is not clear to me either

Am not too sure how this was a suprise

He deserves the award, he is currently the most complete african player in the Premiership

I will vote sweet boy KAKA.

Handsome by every sense of the word, as a player, as a man, personality and character wise.

I am also not a fan of agbonlahor's style of play, as sometimes I think he is very wasteful

Though I used to think great players are great at birth but Tiery Henry proved to me that players can achieve greatness by learning and hardwork.

Agbonlahor can be great also, but am obviously not missing his not playing for Nigeria as I dont see anything special to him.

people should wait after group phase before they start prediction

Egypt was hot today

Agbonlahor has chosen where his loyalty lies and we should respect his wish. He wants to play for England, we wish him good luck.

How about Anichebe who offered to, he did not even make the Nigerian bench. Is that not shameful Berti Vogts must revive his team and show us what he got in stock.

If it is what we saw against Ivory Coast, forget it we are not going anywhere.

Sani Lulu should tell Nigerians the very essence of a foreign coach

Berti Vogts had no plans whatsoever to create chances, no reasonable coach will pair Yakubu and Martins. They are 2 of a kind, no attacker to make off the ball runs so that midfielders can make through passes.

Even when the game was hopeless Berti Vogts was clueless how to redeem the match.

How is he doing any better than Eguaveon, and why the huge Salary.

I blaim Sani Lulu.

Onyekachi Apam was rubish

Shitu was the only commited player on the pitch.

Obafemi and Yakubu, should never pair in attack in the first place cos they are 2 of a kind. No attacker to make off the ball runs for those defence killing through passes.

Generally I think I blame Sani Lulu, he should explain to Nigerians what Berti Vogts is doing any better than Eguaveon. He should justify the essence of a foreign coach.

Aleksys:
DARFUR/MCREN

Electoral college is antithetical to democracy because democracy thrives on numerics not on some complex political equations. Demoracy must be based on winning the popular vote. There is no justice in giving power to somebody with 8 votes above someone with 12 votes. This goes to show that there is no perfect democracy anywhere. Perfect democracy should not be afraid to expunge some retrogressive rules when it comes to electing a popular president. Electoral college encourages winning election through the backdoor against the popular wish of the people. Population is population whether you live in New York or Idaho.

Accepted but rules should be changed before or after elections but not during election. Rules should not be changed during elections when it does not favour those who made them.

The so called Nevada Democratic Party leader should have gone ahead to state clearly that the Obama camp is lying going by the new rules.

The party leader may not have lied about the number of delegates alocated being formally announced in April but he/she is being economical with the truth on whether the new rules were inconsistent with the projection of the Obama camp.

This whole confusion is For just one reason, to incite hopelessness in Obama supporters.

nope she won 51% of popular votes not elected delegates.

Lets apply common sense here, may be the delegate Maths is becoming complicated lets draw an analogy with ordinary numbers.

Hypothetically: there are 5 villages in a town: A (40people), B(40people), C(20), D(20), E(20).
A & B are obviously densely populated than C,D, and E. But the rules says and have always been you win a village to secure their delegate.

Candidate John gets votes A(25votes), B(25 votes), C( 8 ), D( 8 ), E( 8 )
While Candidate James gets A(15votes), B(15), C(12), D(12), E(12)

John has a total popular vote of 74 of the 140 people  (approx 53%) in the town but won 2 villages and hence 2 delegates
James gets 66 of the 140 people (approx 47%) in the town but won 3 villages and hence gets 3 delegates.

So how is the above rocket science, and why should James have to wait to know that he is expecting to have a larger share of the delegates going by the set rules. Should the rules be changed half way in the electoral process because of this anomally?