Oluniyi D. Ajao » Sports

How much are you willing to pay for DStv Mobile?

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 06:00:26 +0000

I have received a lot of angry complaints in the comments area of A review of DStv Mobile and Nokia 5330 Mobile TV Edition from Nigeria, after DStv Mobile removed SuperSports 3 Nigeria (SS3N) from the bouquet of TV channels. SuperSport 3 is a 24 hour soccer channel. SuperSport 3 has the exclusive rights of telecasting the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, the FA Cup and other major soccer tournaments in most African countries.

DStv Mobile offers TV broadcast to select mobile phones in some African cities

I have republished a few of the comments below:

LEKAN from Nigeria: wrote on October 5th, 2010 at 9:58 am

Removing ss3 is absolutely breach of contract i think this people ass mtn,dstv need to be sued,99% 0f nigeria subscribe to it purposely because of ss3 and this the only channel we enjoy the rest are junks,something need to be done fast to stop these cheat and reaping nigerian of thier hard earn money,something they cant do in south Africa. habi

jeffery from Nigeria: wrote on October 2nd, 2010 at 5:40 pm

i wonder why d sudden disapperance of ss3n on my phone does it mean we r nt goin 2 get it back again i c no reason why d channel shld b discarded like dat is the only station i enjoy most on my phone pls guy when is it goin 2 b restord cuz i cn c my self goin 2 lagos o o

Akinbinu Rotimi from Kano, Nigeria: wrote on October 2nd, 2010 at 1:52 pm

I thought i was alone. I was amazed when i could not view ss3 on my Nokia 5330 Phone. Pls,Niyi,how do i subscibe to bring it back. I am ready to pay any amount 2 have access to that Channel.

I shared these sentiments with a top MTN Nigeria official when I met her at a conference recently. Her explanation was thus:

The broadcast rights owners of the European League matches requested to get paid for the matches being broadcast on DStv Mobile. DStv explained that the mobile TV service was on pilot basis and thus temporarily free of charge. EPL broadcast rights owners would have none of that. The result is that the channel was removed from the mobile service.

She concluded by asking me to throw this question out: How much are you willing to pay for DStv Mobile?

South Africa 2010: We can’t play football but we can dance!

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Wed, 07 Jul 2010 08:15:33 +0000

South Africans may not be the best football players but they surely can sing and dance. I watch TV reports about South African workers on strike, with amusement. Labourers who have dropped their tools to make a point often sing and dance as part of their protest marches. Many of the songs might be “war songs” but the mere fact that music is involved, thrills me. This is unlike another African country that I know, where any form of “strike” is usually accompanied by violence and destruction.

So South Africa crashed out early from the World Cup? So what?

Several months before the first whistle was blown to commence the first match in the South Africa 2010 FIFA World Cup, the official South African tourism board had released a TV commercial on some international channels all geared towards attracting the world to the warmth and excitement that can be experienced in South Africa. As usual, music and dance was the key tool. Enter Diski. “Diski” is a local slang South Africa for the game of football.

The Diski dance is a dance which is comprised of a series of choreographed football moves, named from different parts of the country, and was created for the 2010 FIFA World Cup as part of its advertising campaign. The moves are named in Tswana, Zulu, Sotho and English amongst others and include “Tsamaya”, “Heel Extension Mkhari” and “Chester”. The adverts were shown on CNN, BBC, Eurosport and SkySports amongst others. The motivation of the advert was to give soccer fans “a chance to learn the moves and “feel the rhythm of African football”".

The Internet has plenty of Diski dance videos to offer, but I am sharing a carefully selected few with you. Enjoy!

Learn the Diski Dance

South Africa 2010 TV Advert

Where the Hell is Matt in South Africa?

Aki & Pawpaw do the Diski Dance

Diski Dance in Chicago, USA

Should you want to create your own Diski Dance video, just download the Diski Dance MP3 audio file.

South Africa 2010: Will Ghana keep the African dream alive?

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Sat, 26 Jun 2010 17:29:21 +0000

Enthusiasm for the six African countries that qualified to play in the on-going FIFA World Cup 2010 was very high. Considering the tournament was being hosted in Africa for the first time, the general feeling among Africans was that retaining the cup in Africa would be the best way to crown the historical event. It was heart-warming to observe many Africans rally around the South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire and Algeria. However, performance from these 6 countries have been very disappointing. It turns out that only the youthful Ghanaian national team – the Black Stars – qualified to the second round of the competition.

With the Ghana versus USA match being about two hours away, I am compelled to reflect on the abysmal performance of the African teams that have been dropped like a pack of cards from the tournament.

South Africa
Being the host nation, expectations of South Africans was very very high, and justifiably so. President Jacob Zuma was widely reported as saying his hands were itching to touch the World Cup trophy. Considering that South Africa has never been very good with football, I thought President Zuma’s expectations were a bit unrealistic. In South Africa’s first match, they could only manage a draw against Mexico despite the hailing home group and deafening vuvuzelas. South Africa was soon edged out of the tournament by Mexico, on goal difference despite the former’s gallant performance against France.

Nigeria
The Super Eagles’ performance would not come as much of a shock to any close observer of Nigerian football. Nigerian football suffers a myriad of problems that mostly revolve around the football administration, Nigerian Football Federation (NFF). Allegations of bribery & corruption are rife, and the incompetence of the NFF is pretty obvious. Poor planning/organization preceded the South Africa 2010 tournament. Hiring a coach a few months to the world’s greatest football tournament was the final straw that broke the proverbial camel’s back. After loosing to Argentina and Greece, Nigeria was still clinging on hopes of goal difference to stay afloat.

This analysis would not be complete without mentioning the brave efforts of the Nigerian goalkeeper, Vincent Enyeama. His many timely saves kept the goals against Nigeria minimal considering the severe attacks by Argentina’s strikers and the confused Nigerian defenders. In that match, Vincent made six fine saves, four of them from Lionel Messi, and was the major reason for Nigeria coming so close to almost pinching a draw against the two-time world champions. Despite the loss, he was named Man of the Match.

Algeria
Despite beating Angola 2010 champions Egypt at the 2010 World Cup qualifiers, Algeria failed to shine in South Africa 2010. After loosing to Slovenia and playing a goal-less draw with England, a 1-0 loss to the USA nailed Algeria’s exit from the tournament. I can’t help thinking Egypt would have done much better in South Africa if they were luckier to have qualified.

Ghana's head coach Milovan Rajevac (centre R-in red) and his players gather during a training session at Mogwase stadium in Mogwase, north of Rustenburg, on June 10, 2010 ahead of the start of the 2010 World Cup football tournament. Image courtesy: ghanafa.org

Ghana
Despite the fact that Ghana is the only nation proceeding to the second round of South Africa 2010, their performance so far has been short of satisfactory. A 2-1 victory of Australia over Serbia pushed Ghana into the next stage alongside Germany. Ghana qualified based on goal differences despite having the same 4 points as Australia. It is also instructive to note that the only two goals scored by the Black Stars of Ghana so far are based on penalty shots as a result of foul play by Serbia and Australia respectively.

Many Ghanaians lowered their expectations of the Black Stars’ performance following the news that Chealsea-striker Michael Essien was not to take part in South Africa 2010 due to injuries he picked-up during Angola 2010.

Cameroon
The central African nation is currently the highest ranked African national team by FIFA World Rankings. The Indomitable Lions are Africa’s most successful senior national team having qualified to participate in World Cup tournament 6 times and having reached the quarter final in Italia ’90. Despite their enviable records, a stream of losses against Japan, Denmark and the Netherlands saw Cameroon crash out of South Africa 2010 with no single point to their name.

Cote d’Ivoire
In all fairness, The Elephants of Cote d’Ivoire had a little chance of dribbling past Brazil (current best football team in the world) and Portugal (3rd best team in the world) to qualify to the second round. Despite drawing against Portugal in their opening match and beating North Korea 3-0 in the last match, The Elephants were knocked out by Portugal’s overall better performance.

What are your views on Africa’s poor performance in South Africa 2010? Do well to share your comments here and now!

South Africa 2010: Meet AfricaUnited

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 20:20:49 +0000

MTN, the leading cellular network in Africa, is an official sponsor of 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™. They have been leveraging their pan-African presence with ads & promos all geared towards increasing their market share. Since MTN is pan-African, supporting a particular national team would make no sense. Thus, AfricaUnited is born.

MTN is an official sponsor of 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa™

AfricaUnited is MTN’s way of backing all 6 African countries that are competing in South Africa 2010. Incidentally, MTN has a presence in 5 of the 6 countries: South Africa, Nigeria, Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana, Cameroon. The 6th is Algeria.

This will be the first time that the tournament has been hosted by an African nation, after South Africa defeated Morocco and Egypt in an all-African bidding process. This in itself is an acheivement. Expectations are high and many wish any of the 6 African countries would win the tournament so the cup could stay in Africa.

Well, I’d say never say never. Go AfricaUnited!

Which of the participating teams are your favourites? Share your thoughts in the comments area.

3 African Football Websites You Should Follow for 2010 FIFA World Cup coverage

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 20:52:25 +0000

As the Internet penetrates the world’s second largest continent, there is no better way to reach Africa’s youthful population. The Internet is increasingly becoming a medium of sharing information in Africa and leading brands and media houses are in the loop to take full advantage of this medium, in marketing their goods & services.

My personal style of consuming content is to glean information from numerous websites (since I spend an inordinate amount of time online everyday). Though I still watch many of the football matches on TV and still listen to live commentary/analysis on radio, the websites offer me even more insight into the beautiful sport of football. I am thus sharing with you, dear reader, five useful websites you should follow for up-to-date content before, during and after the up-coming FIFA World Cup tournament – South Africa 2010.

MTNFootball.com

MTN is the title sponsor of 2010 FIFA World Cup

This is clearly my favourite and is powered by Africa’s leading telecommunications company, MTN. Due to MTN’s heavy involvement in African football, and their title sponsorship of the South Africa 2010 World Cup tournament, it is only natural that they use a website like mtnfootball.com to leverage their brand whilst sharing useful and timely information with football fans in Africa and beyond.

MTNFootball.com shares general information about African football, 2010 FIFA World Cup, CAF Champions League, Africa Cup of Nations as well as a Fan Zone that includes a very rich Photo Zone. The best part of this website for me, is the live commentary shared on the website during a football match in form of text updates. MTNFootball.com often dedicates a webpage to a live football match. The only downside is that, one has to keep refreshing that webpage to stay updated.

Ahead of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, MTNFootball.com is featuring useful information about some six leading African countries in the football arena. The countries are: Cameroon, Egypt, Ghana, Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria and South Africa. MTNFootball.com shares news, national team details, national league, photo zone and star players for the 6 countries respectively.

For 2010 FIFA World Cup updates from MTNFootball.com, visit http://worldcup.mtnfootball.com/live/index.php

Kickoff.com

Kickoff.com logo

Brandishing itself as “Africa’s Biggest Soccer Site”, Kickoff.com has a lot to offer Africa’s millions of football fans. Kickoff.com is the web version of a football magazine popular in English-speaking African countries. The website covers South African football comprehensively and offers some coverage of Nigerian and Ghanaian football as well as some European league games.

The South African website already has a section dedicated to the 2010 FIFA World Cup.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup section of Kickoff.com is already offering content divided into the following sections: breaking news, upcoming fixtures, top stories, photo gallery, top scorers, opinion poll, a discussion forum, some downloads as well as video content. I am certain Kickoff.com would offer live text commentary when the 2010 tournament finally kicks off.

For 2010 FIFA World Cup updates from Kickoff.com, visit http://www.kickoff.com/2010/

SuperSport.com

SuperSport.com logo

SuperSport is the clear leader in sports broadcasting in Africa. SuperSport is a South African multi-channel on DStv. It also provides sports coverage in other African countries such as Namibia. The channel focuses mainly on the country’s three most popular sports: rugby union, cricket and soccer. The SuperSport package also includes a 24-hour soccer channel and a highlights channel. SuperSport currently runs 14 channels, including a High Definition (HD) channel, all exclusively on the DStv platform.

SuperSport.com itself is a web of sport content, especially rugby, cricket, football, golf, motorsport, cycling, tennis, athletics, aquatics, boxing, climbing.

The 2010 World Cup section of the website already offers the following: fixtures, results, group, team news, ticketing, stadiums, host cities, past winners, news headlines, video content, sports talk (a column by sport journalists), opinion poll and more.

For 2010 FIFA World Cup updates from SuperSport.com, visit http://www.supersport.com/football/channel.aspx?cat=552

Support Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong, the Snow Leopard

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 05:26:12 +0000

I heard about Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong for the first time a few years ago when he was being interviewed on Joy FM’s Super Morning Show about his skiing efforts. It was an odd story and his dreams of setting-up artificial snow scapes in Ghana sounded unrealistic. I remember some listeners sending text messages that appeared to mock the idea of ski training in Ghana.

Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong (born 19 December, 1974) nicknamed “The Snow Leopard”, is a Ghanaian skiier and is the first person from Ghana to take part in the Winter Olympics, at the 2010 Games held in Vancouver, Canada, taking part in the slalom and giant slalom.

Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong training in Italy. Source: ghanaskiteam.com

Kwame, first skied just over six years ago when he got a job as a receptionist at a snow centre in the UK.

Two years later he skied for the first time outdoors on a real mountain in Val D’Isere, France. His talent shone through in some indoor races and that natural skill subsequently took him to competing in FIS races in Europe and ultimately Olympic qualification.

Kwame Nkrumah-Acheampong "the Snow Leopard", is sponsored by Paddy Power. Paddy Power is Ireland’s largest bookmaker. Source: ghanaskiteam.com

However, his quest for Olympic glory has been far from easy with limited funds and the nagging concern about the cost of actually competing at an Olympic games.

Considering his underdog status, he has gained a lot of international publicity. I have seen extensive coverage about him on CNN and CCTV9. What makes his story inspiring is that he grew up in Ghana, (spent years in Nigeria and Zambia too) where there is no snow and only started training about six years ago.

He competes tomorrow 27th February 2010 and needs all the support he can get: moral, financial and prayers.

Angola 2010: Ghana vrs Nigeria match. Who would dominate?

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:00:23 +0000

This year’s African Cup of Nations tournament – Angola 2010 – has not been short of drama. A few underdogs have made a mark by spoiling the chances of football giants while some favourites who even qualified for the South Africa 2010 World Cup tournament (Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Tunisia) have witnessed an early exit.

Last night’s matches were even more dramatic for the “Indomitable Lions” of Cameroon were dominated by the Pharaohs of Egypt. The Egypt vrs Cameroon match was not hard for me to predict. I wrote on Twitter before the match:

Egypt would beat Cameroon. That’s easy to predict. What are you views? #can2010
about 13 hours ago from Gatorpeeps

Unless luck intervenes heavily, I did not see that team that could stop Egypt from reaching the finals. Not even Cameroon, despite Cameroon’s team of experienced players.

Some Nigerian fans lift their flag high just before a group-stage match between Cote d'Ivoire and Nigeria in Ghana 2008. Photo by Oluniyi David Ajao.

The Super Eagles of Nigeria silenced the Copper Bullets of Zambia last night as well. The Nigeria vrs Zambia match was tiring because large expectations were flattened since neither side scored a goal during the 90 minutes of play, nor during the 30 extra minutes. The Zambians put up a good fight but luck was not on their side. Based on the spectacular saves by the Nigerian goalkeeper Vincent Enyeama, I was confident that Nigeria would win the day should the play end up in a penalty shoot-out. It turned out that Vincent Enyeama was the star of the match. He not only saved a penalty kick by Thomas Nyrienda but also scored one himself, sending the Zambian goalkeeper Kennedy Mweene in the exact opposite direction of his kick.

Thursday 28th January 2010 is another historic date in Angola. Arch-rivals would meet again to settle the ever evolving question of “who is the better team?”.

Algeria ruined the chances of Egypt for South Africa 2010. Could Angola 2010 offer a chance for Egypt to demand a pound of flesh from Algeria? The Egyptian team seem like the favourites, considering that they have lifted the African Nations Cup for a record six times and even won in 2006 and 2008. A not-far-fetched win in 2010 would mean they have lifted the Cup seven times and have won 3 times back-to-back.

Ghana’s youthful team is set to meet the more experienced hands from Nigeria at the Estádio 11 de Novembro in Luanda same Thursday.

Some Ghanaian fans dancing during the opening ceremonies of Ghana 2008. Would they still be winding their waists after Thursday? Photo by Oluniyi David Ajao.

The Angola 2010 tournament seemed to be a bleak one for Ghana’s Black Stars. A handful of the experienced players were down due to injury or not called due to disciplinary issues. The Coach Milovan Rajevac thus had no choice than to call-up some of the winning Under-20 players. Despite the low expectations, they have proved their mettle by qualifying to the semi-finals.

The Nigerian Super Eagles has a teamful of professional players. It waits to be seen if they would be able to coordinate properly and play as a real team. That is the only way they could qualify to the finals. Would the Super Eagles be able to beat the Ghana 2008 jinx and beat the Black Stars this time? I think so.

What are your thoughts? Would Egypt beat Algeria this time? Would Nigeria overcome their Ghanaian arch-rivals? Leave your comments.

Angola 2010: Nigeria faces Egypt

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 15:58:52 +0000

The match between Nigeria and Egypt.

Hossam Ghaly (L) of Egypt views for the ball with Uche Kalu (C) of Nigeria as his teammate Etuhu Dickson (R) eyes them during their group C stage match at the African Cup of Nations CAN2010 at the Ombaka stadium in Benguela on January 12, 2010. Photo by Khaled Desouki.

My tweets:

Somebody pinch me. Did Egypt just beat Nigeria? Ouch! That hurts! :-p http://bit.ly/5Eo1ft A well-deserved win for Egypt I guess.
4 extra minutes. The Egyptian keeper is super excited and jumping all over the pitch. What a night. Nigeria 1 – Egypt 3 http://bit.ly/5Eo1ft
Agbena!!! (It’s over!!!) Egypt scores yet again. :-p Shame for Nigeria. Its 86th minute and Nigeria 1 – Egypt 3. http://bit.ly/5Eo1ft
Ball possession: Nigeria 56% and Egypt 44%. If only Nigeria could score more. Kanu is on the pitch! Michell Obi out. http://bit.ly/5Eo1ft
Nigeria’s number 3 just delivered a deadly shot, literally. The Egyptian goalkeeper caught that ball his own risk. He might b substituted.
This match is so full of drama and the Egyptians seem to have a better chance of scoring more and more. http://wp.me/povak-u5 Nigeria 1 – Egypt 2.
Neat catch by the Nigerian goalkeeper. Its Nigeria 1 – Egypt 2 and the Egyptians are not letting-up. They’re pounding the Nigerian defence by the minute. http://wp.me/povak-u5
Oh NO! Egypt scores again!! Their persistence has finally paid off. :-S Trouble looms for the Nigerian team. http://wp.me/povak-u5
These Egyptian cats are so persistent about wanting to score. I guess they came for serious business. http://wp.me/povak-u5
2nd-half of the Nigeria vrs Egypt match commenced about 5 minutes ago and Nigeria has missed two good scoring chances already. http://wp.me/povak-u5
Half-time. Egypt 1 – Nigeria 1. Both teams missed good scoring chances. OMG. http://wp.me/povak-u5
OMG! Egypt scores due to a lousy error by the Nigerian defence. http://wp.me/povak-u5 Sit up boys! Egypt is the defending champion, remember.
9ja nearly scores Egypt again! No shaking. http://wp.me/povak-u5
GOOOOOAAAALLLLL!!! Obasi don score for 9ja ooo. Egypt is in trouble, or so it seems. http://wp.me/povak-u5
Nigeria vrs Egypt Angola 2010. Who wins? Join the debate: http://wp.me/povak-u5

What is your verdict of this match? Share your thoughts.

…and GBS/GTV Closed Shop!

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 19:20:50 +0000

GTV

Shocking news. GTV, has ceased operations citing the effect of the global financial crisis. GTV was a multi-channel digital satellite TV service with active subscribers in 22 African countries but their sudden closure has left millions of soccer fans high-and-dry. London-based GTV, launched in June 2008, used Eutelsat’s W3 satellite from 7 degrees East, and uplinked from Arqiva’s teleport at Chalfont Grove, just outside London.

Thousands of GTV employees across Africa have lost their jobs and subscribers are left with useless decoders. GTV had over 100,000 subscribers but that was not enough to keep it afloat. According to sources, it needed at least 400,000 subscribers to stay in business. Last minute efforts to sell-out to Canal Horizon (a competitor that focuses on Francophone African countries) did not yield meaningful results either as talks were reported to have broken down.

GTV had fast-tracked its growth in Africa by investing in football (soccer). Africa is a football-crazy continent and so GTV’s sponsorship deals in the local leagues of some African countries, as well as its right to broadcast 80% of the English League matches, helped boost it’s subscriber base significantly. Apparently, all its best efforts were not good enough to save it from the hurricane called “global financial crisis” that is blowing across continents presently.

GTV PRESS STATEMENT ON LIQUIDATION

LONDON – 30 January 2009 – Gateway Broadcast Services announced today that its Board of Directors has unanimously approved a plan to liquidate the Company.

The current financial and global crisis has severely interrupted the company’s ability to secure further funding for the continued operation of the business.

The company has worked extensively with external advisors and all internal resources to investigate, evaluate and analyze strategic alternatives for the Company to further continue to operate. In determining to approve the Company’s plan of Liquidation, the board and management carefully reviewed the advice and findings.

Gateway Broadcast Services, suppliers of the GTV service to subscribers across Africa has over the last 2 years invested a total of US$200 million and created jobs and competition in the 22 markets. The economic crisis that has emerged globally over the last few months has caused excessive demands on the business.

With immediate effect the service will be withdrawn.

“Increased instability in global markets interrupted our ability to secure funding on an acceptable timescale and have left us no choice but to cease operations,” said a company spokesman.

“We realise the negative impact this has had on our loyal customers, creditors and staff, all of who have believed in GTV and the revolution in pay TV it had created. We have tried every possible step to keep the company going but we are all the unfortunate victims of the current global economic crisis.”

Thank you.

So long GTV. Rest in Peace.

Re: Jonathan Elendu & Emmanuel Emeka Asiwe’s illegal detention by the SSS

Oluniyi D. Ajao — Sun, 02 Nov 2008 07:56:03 +0000

A Nigerian blogger was arrested over 11 days ago by the SSS and has not been charged but has been left to languish in jail. He committed no crime other than embarrass political officials and write about human rights issues. It is unfair to infringe upon any person.

The furore that followed the arrest and illegal detention of Jonathan Elendu of ElenduReports.com has yet to die down when the news broke that yet another blogger had been arrested by the State Security Service (SSS).

According to Committe to Protect Journalists: NIGERIA: Second U.S.-based Nigerian blogger held

Emmanuel Emeka Asiwe, editor of the Arlington, Mass.-based HuhuOnline, was being “questioned over matters of national security,” according to State Security Service (SSS) spokesman Kenechukwu Onyeogu. The SSS took the blogger into custody today after he arrived from the U.S., he said. But defense lawyer Babalola Akinwumi told CPJ Asiwe was arrested on Tuesday at Lagos’ airport. Asiwe has been held incommunicado and without charge in Abuja ever since, the lawyer said. Nigerian law allows authorities to hold people for up to 48 hours without charge.

“We are concerned that Nigerian authorities are detaining journalists in an attempt to intimidate foreign-based online journalists from reporting on Nigeria,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “We call on President Yar’Adua to ensure that the SSS respects due process and stop these actions that undermine Nigeria’s democratic gains and harken back to the era of military rule.”

Jonathan Elendu of the Lansing, Michigan-based ElenduReports was detained for 10 days and was provisionally released without charge on Wednesday. ElenduReports published often controversial reports on corruption among Nigerian politicians. New York-based SaharaReporters recently published exclusive photos of Yar’Adua’s teenage son, Musa, posing with an AK-47 assault rifle and holding cash.

The SSS, in my opinion, is always about regime security and not necessarily state security. Are they the ones to launder the image of the President and his family? Which policeman gave his AK-47 assault rifle to the President’s son to poise with? What if the little boy had accidentally cocked and shot the rifle? Who took the photograph? Is it possible for a journalist (local or foreign) to enter Aso Rock (residence & office of the President of Nigeria) and take a shot of the President’s son holding an assault rifle? If the answer is no, then who took that photograph?

Why is the SSS hounding bloggers for publishing this photo? Any journalist worth his sort would gladly publish a big scoop like this. About Musa Yar’Adua gleefully holding some Naira notes in another shot, I am confused as to the motive of whoever took the photo. If it was taken by a matured person, the photographer was obviously exploiting the boy’s naivety but why blame bloggers for publishing the photo?

We are in 2008 and with the power of the Internet and citizenship journalism, the media has become much stronger and government secrets are much more difficult to keep. I am sure there would have been much more scoops if General Sani Abacha was Head of State today.

In the words of Sokari Ekine – a respected Nigerian blogger based in the UK: FREE Jonathan Elendu NOW!

[...]With the rise of sites such as Nigerian Village Square and Sahara Reporters as well as the growing number of Nigerian bloggers writing from the Disapora, it has become increasingly more difficult to keep up the pretense of a free press. Whilst the new online media and bloggers are prepared to take on the government, albeit from afar and in most cases anonymously, this does not excuse the failure of traditional media to challenge the government on freedom of speech, through the media itself or the courts.

President Umaru Yar’Adua is fast loosing my trust. Are we not supposed to be in a democratic dispensation? Can anyone tell me the difference between the SSS of today and that of the dark days of Gen. Sani Abacha? Well, anyone who thinks they can cow 140 million Nigerians into morons who would not publicly question the activities of their elected leaders should think again.

Enough of this hounding of journalists and bloggers. It is up to the staff around the Presidency to behave responsibly. Placing an assault rifle in the hands of such a young child is obviously irresponsible. Stop hounding journalists and bloggers who are in pursuit of the truth!

NB. Dear Director of SSS, would you be so kind to return Jonathan Elendu’s personal effects or let us know why you are still keeping them? After all, the SSS is reported to have stating that there is nothing incriminating against Elendu. Thank you Sir.

Related external links:

News blogger detained in Nigeria (BBC News)
THE MUSA YAR’ADUA SERIES (SaharaReporters’ EXCLUSIVE)
Thank you (…note from Jonathan Elendu)
Free Jonathan Elendu now! (Nigerian Curiousity)