On the 22nd June, 2021, Samson Siasia had his life ban from football and all football-related activities reduced to a 5-year ban, by the Court of Arbitration for Sports, CAS. It was a welcome development for the man popularly known as Sia-One.
In 2019, FIFA had said that Siasia was “guilty of having accepted that he would receive bribes in relation to the manipulation of matches in violation of the FIFA Code of Ethics” and banned him for life from all football activities in addition to being fined 50,000 Swiss francs ($54,000). He protested his innocence and the case went to the CAS.
In reaching her conclusion in the matter, CAS hinged its decision on the fact that Siasia did not ‘benefit from proceeds of the crime’ so giving him a life ban would be disproportionate. This is a reprieve of sorts to Siasia because in a couple of years, he’d be cleared to return to the game. But it is instructive to note that he was not absolved of the allegations of agreeing to join a match-fixing ring masterminded by the notorious Singaporean Wilson Perumal.
In the wake of the CAS judgment, Siasia was reported to have accused his former teammates and the football association of abandoning him in his ‘trying’ period. This I find very curious!
Did he expect his teammates to write to FIFA saying he was innocent or he wanted them to carry placards on the streets, as we are wont to do in Nigeria, protesting his innocence? Or was it money he wanted them to send to him? Or he planned the deal with them but he was unfortunate to be the only one caught so, they should have rallied round to finance his appeal to the CAS? Would he have shared the proceeds with his teammates, if he started getting them? Remember, it is not because he did not do what he was alleged to have done that he had his ban shortened; it is because he did not benefit from the proceeds.
In spite of my admiration of Siasia right from his Flying Eagles days to his coaching career which peaked with his two Silver Medal achievements at both Under 21 world cup, Holland 1995 and Olympics in Beijing 2008, this has left a sour taste. Looking to blame people for abandoning you during a period you are accused of committing a secret crime is not the best at all. As Ola Rotimi said, ‘when the wood insect gathers sticks, on its head it carries them.’
Siasia should just carry his sticks and not look to blame others for not helping him.
While Siasia was seemingly being set free from his entanglement, a ‘promising’ young undergraduate of the University of Lagos, Chidinma Adaora Ojukwu, was being hurled into limelight for all the wrong reasons. She was alleged to have murdered the CEO of Super TV, Michael Usifo Ataga, in a posh Lekki apartment and withdrawn money from his accounts thereafter.
I do not intend to talk about what a 21-year old girl was doing with a 50-year old married man. I do not intend to talk about her reasons for killing the man either. I am concerned about what her father is reported to have done when policemen went to arrest her in the house.
Mr Ojukwu was said to have vehemently protested the involvement of his daughter in such a dastardly act to the point he became violent with the police. This action landed him in police detention for obstructing the course of justice.
I have read commenteries accusing Ojukwu of failed parenting. But I think it is because the people saying that are looking for someone or something to blame other than the accused.
First and foremost, Chidinma is legally, an adult. And from the father’s reactions, she is an obedient child at home who does all things in a manner that leaves the father with a strong conviction that she is incapable of such heinous crime.
That she left home in Yaba on the premise that she had ‘an ushering job’ to do, went and returned back home, made the father to believe her. Probably, she had been going on such frolicking trips and returning.
Her confession has reportedly humbled and humiliated the father in equal measures. He has come to realise that he acted ignorantly, completely oblivious of the dual lives his daughter was living. He now wears the toga of ‘father of a murderer’.
Many commentators are unaware that even their children/wives/husbands are living double lives. Some children are capons or dons on campuses but prayer warriors at home. Some are ‘runs girls’ away from home but at home, they are choiristers or lead vocalists in the church. Some wives are spinsters once they leave the house just as some men are single and searching once they leave their home. But because they do not breach the eleventh commandment, all is well and good.
And there is nothing you can do to stop an adult from doing what he or she wants to do, as a parent. Chidinma has been found out and she should face the music. Do not bring her father into it.
If someone is accused of committing a crime, the best thing is to allow the person defend himself or herself whichever way. Especially when you are not with the accused when the crime was allegedly committed. You cannot know anyone too well. These two instances are further proof.
– Orngu is a public commentator