Amos Adamu – enigmatic paradox!
Categories: General
Written By: Segun Odegbami
Believe it or not, I like Amos Adamu. I like his persona and his rugged doggedness. I don’t like his politics though. He has ‘shot down’ my ambition too many times for me to like his politics and he knows that. But that’s not the issue here.
I happen to listen to several programmes on different radio stations after his redeployment and was shocked at the level of celebration by contributors. I understand the people’s sentiments but not their vehemence. He has been sports most influential person in the past 17 years since he joined the sports ministry. He did his very best even if it is not everyone that agrees that he did what was best for the country. He is as passionately loved as he is despised, depending on who is doing the talking! He has an army of followers (most of them in the media) whose lives he has enriched through the years, just as he has an army of opposition that see him as the greatest obstacle to sports development in Nigeria’s history. As an individual his life looks like one long stretch of blessings for which he must wake up everyday and thank his God. He has risen to Olympian heights in his life, his profession, in his career, and in the field of international sports politics and administration. For one with such unparalled chest of personal achievements, leading what is regarded as an unparalled era of under-development in sports is really a dichotomy. Amos Adamu’s exalted place in the history of Nigerian sports is undoubted and unquestionable. Chroniclers will include those that will point at his personal achievements and praise him to the high heavens, and those that will point to the sports carcasses littering the entire country, plus the unfulfilled dreams of a gifted country languishing in the doldrums of sports development, and condemn him vehemently. It is a great paradox that a man whose personal accomplishments are unmatched by anyone else’s in the history of the country, could find great difficulty in pointing to the source or the product of those accomplishments in the field! Nigeria has put him, either temporarily or permanently, on the sidelines of sports. What now happens after him is what matters.
November 22nd, 2008 at 10:32 pm
Hello Big Seg, Got to know about your website after reading Complete Sports of November 22, 2008. I want to congratulate you on this effort of yours. People like you need it to inform and educate Nigerians not only about your contributions to sports but to journalism also.
I read your piece on Amos Adamu and felt you were just being satirical. Adamu’s negative contribution to sports in Nigeria far outweighs its positive side. How come, like you rightly observed, the man’s profile (including wealth) kept growing but sports development witnessed a nose-dive all through. He saw that people like Okpomo, yourself and even Kojo Williams among many others never progressed on the ladder of sports administration, may be all was to pave the way for his continuous climb. Thank God we have men like President Yar ‘Adua who had the courage to tell him enough is enough. The man is really power hungry, can you imagine going through some Emirs to lobby for a return to sports, barely three weeks of his redeployment. He should accept Yar ‘Adua’s decision on this matter because if he allows God to make the decision Himself, it may not be palatable to him and those who love him. God bless you sir
November 24th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Good riddance to bad nuisance, not just rubbish! He was long overdue for that re-deployment. I would have even preferred a retirement for him.
However, truth must be told. He has achieved what no other individual before him has, but he has also destroyed much more than all those before him. That strikes a balance. Amos Adamu! Thank you for leading our sports back 400 years BCE.
November 25th, 2008 at 1:41 am
I was in Lagos seven months ago, and I got first hand information on how Amos Adamu put the media in his pocket. I even heard that he would record journalists begging for money from him and eventually send the recorded conversation to editors , who were also in the same pocket. Suprisingly, some of my colleagues sports writers confirmed this. ” We now take our in thousands, afterall, they take theirs in milions” a former chairman od Lagos Sportd Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN)told me
December 14th, 2008 at 1:37 pm
Incidentally, this is what I had to say about Amos Adamu, in my article titled “Sleepless and Speechless In Abuja and Other Cities” http://www.championsfornigeria.org (and I have no regrets):
Ah! The best news I have heard in a long time happened on Friday 7th November, when a source called me and told me that the so-called invincible, most powerful man in Nigeria sport for the past 17 years has been unceremoniously removed as the Director General of the Nigerian Sports Commission. Yes, Dr Amos Adamu; that most corrupt of civil servants in Nigeria finally met his Waterloo. He over-climbed the tree when he and others in the Local Organizing Committee for the2009 FIFA U17 World Cup embarrassed the country by inflating the cost of the games from N9 billion to N37 Billion. Can you imagine that? Goddamn thieves! They should be shot. But anyway, Amos Adamu, that Ogbomosho man who pretends that he’s a Northerner to further his career, was told to report to the Head of Service, for re-deployment. This is effectively the end of his civil service career. He should be happy; he is a billionaire civil servant; he is still in FIFA, CAF and he’s currently the President of WAFU. A few months ago, he publicly stated that he was conducting an investigation into corruption in Nigerian sports, and gave the committee he inaugurated 28 days to carry out their investigation and submit it to him. After over 6 months, we are still waiting for that report. He said a few years ago, that when he retires, he will become a priest. I wonder what he will preach to his congregation about corruption. Good riddance.