with

Ben C. Abraham.

THE ‘BUSINESS’ OF ATHLETICS

On Friday 12th September 2025, celebrated world 100m hurdles record holder Tobi Amusan jolted citizens when she appeared on Snapchat on the eve of the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo and lamented the shabby treatment Nigerian athletes were subjected to in their quest to bring back medals for the country. Speaking in English and pidgin, Tobi displayed the pack of kits that the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) provided for Nigerian athletes attending the global meet. She bemoaned that the low-quality gear was in contrast with what Jamaica – a top athletics Nation – provided for their athletes. The pack didn’t even come with spike shoes she added. As expected, furious netizens latched onto the video and stung the Government in viral comments. Tobi Amusan didn’t say anything new though; it’s just that as Nigerians were hoping to get some good news from the sports sector to assuage their mood owing to the lackluster Government, the AFN buckled. They didn’t disappoint. They lived true to their character. In rebuttal, AFN through their President Tonobok Okowa, stated that a Sports gear company Hiracer, sponsored athletes of 20 countries to the Championships including Nigeria free of charge. The free sponsorship included free kits, shoes and money for podium finishers. And as if to spite Tobi, the AFN Chief quipped that it was only Tobi that got Business class ticket to Tokyo. Others flew economy class. Mr Okowa stated somewhat tellingly that the pack of gear which Tobi showed in the video was the first batch. Another batch was on the way. There he gave the AFN out. Tobi wasn’t wrong after all. Pray, why should an athlete’s gear come in batches? What kind of cock and bull story is that? And because Hiracer – an obvious newcomer to the highly competitive global sports marketing business – involving Nike, Adidas, Puma, etc – offered to kit our athletes free of charge then nobody should say ‘fem’. Na waa. Beyond Tobi’s lamentations, the AFN Boss didn’t tell us how many officials were on the delegation to Tokyo even as news made the rounds that AFN and NSC sent more officials than athletes to the showpiece. In the process, athletes in certain categories were denied a place in the tournament. The ‘business’ of athletics, nay sports in Nigeria is killing talents, embarrassing the country, and encouraging Nigerians to switch allegiance – the latest being Favour Ofili to Turkey. even while officials smile to the banks. This kind of ‘business’ sha. Unfortunately, nothing will come out of these lamentations because the culture of impunity has been entrenched. Shame.

NOW, TAX MATTERS;

2026 promises to be a magic year; for the Nigerian Government that is. The Chinese and other Orientals name their years after animals. They have 12 zodiac animals from which each year is named. 2025 is the Chinese year of the snake. The snake took over from the dragon. Nigerians don’t name their years in the fashion of the Chinese but if there is an animal that the year 2026 will be named after, definitely it is the Wolverine, scientifically called Gulo Gulo (translated Glutton). This animal’s voracious eating habit gave it its name. So, shall we say 2026 will be the year of the Wolverine? But that is for the Federal Government which has displayed an insatiable knack for taxes, levies, tolls and everything taxing and tasking the citizens; a rare gluttonous trait indeed. Perhaps, the most talked about and anticipated topic in Nigeria today is tax and the impending nationwide taxation of Nigerians. Views on the topic range from the half-true to the outlandish and outright frightful. Well, will you blame the hapless citizens who have been on the receiving end of this regime’s tax chokehold? They have a right to interpret what they hear in any way they feel. After President Tinubu signed 4 new tax bills into law on June 26th 2025, the city and village gong men went to town telling whoever that cared to listen that the era of tax and more tax is here. And because successive Nigerian Governments lack civic engagement, there is plenty room for conjecture and guesswork. It is same in the aftermath of the assent by Tinubu. By the way, this Government has raked in more money from taxing Nigerians in different ways than any other Government before it. Some have called it Renewed shege in place of renewed hope; others say it shege banza. We saw the sudden yanking off of petroleum subsidies, the only thing Nigerians have benefited from; then a new regime of bank charges, customs import duties, etc. This is not mentioning the various taxes imposed by States. So, you don’t blame whoever tells you that, for example, you can’t operate a bank account without a tax ID from 2026. That is how he understands the law. People are already stretched and a stretched man is not right-thinking anyway. The basic thing to understand in all of this is that the constitution gave both the Federal and State Government jurisdictions to legislate on taxes – concurrent legislative list. So, while the President can sign into law National Assembly bills on behalf of the Federal Government area of taxes, the State Governors do same for such taxes controlled by States. Every tax from companies, businesses and the personal income of armed forces and police personnel goes to the Federal Government. Personal income tax for other workers and residents of States goes to the States. Section 4 of the Nigerian Tax Administration Act (NTAA) 2025 signed by Tinubu provides for Tax ID for every taxable person. The ID will be used for every finance-based business – banking, insurance, stock trading, etc. A taxable person is defined in Section 147 as any person doing business. So, it refers to a business account basically. One key point that will define the new tax regime is the sync of various IDs to ascertain income of taxable persons. Whichever way you see it, it is intended that more people will enter the tax dragnet.

……AND ONE OTHER THING:

GUMI, THE PATRON ‘SAINT’ OF BANDITS;

Sheik Ahmed Gumi, popular Islamic cleric recently polluted the National stream when he made a post on social media using a video which showed a helicopter dropping supplies to bandits while incredibly stating that there was no need killing the bandits. Hear him, ‘The truth has come out! Here are the bandits enforcing their support. They are not politicians; they are people of ketare. We are fools, we are just wasting away our brothers’ blood, and we are burning the fire of war. The solution to this is to save the people being used; we show them brotherhood through reconciliation, not war.’ The post quickly went viral drawing all manner of caustic retorts. What Gumi was saying is that the bandits deserve our sympathy and embrace; killing them was out of it even as they went about killing, maiming and pillaging wretched natives. Gumi was directly celebrating the successful supplies which the bandits enjoyed as shown in the video. For him, it was proof that the Government was losing the war against terror and that continuing to fight them was a foolish thing hence his ascription to the Government and the military as fools. Hear him again…’we are fools.’ Meanwhile a check on FactCheckHub, an online fact check portal showed that the video was false having been earlier ascribed to an event in Darfur, Sudan. In May 2025, the Sheik was barred from entering Saudi Arabia to perform the hajj even though he had a valid visa. The Saudi authorities stated that he was barred based on his political views. He returned to Nigeria and continued in those political views. Do we need to be reminded that Saudi Arabia holds the rare privilege of housing the holiest sites of Islam hence the pilgrimage from every part of the world to Saudi? Yet the Saudi Government refused Gumi entry for the hajj even though he is a popular Islamic cleric. The rejection spoke volumes but not for Nigeria to learn from. The extant post was not the first time Gumi would pander to these blood-sucking men. He had visited them in their hideout, advocated for them and now called the President and his men fools. Yet Gumi struts about freely, free from DSS harassment and military squelching. Recently someone called President Tinubu a criminal and all hell was let loose. Definitely Gumi knows a lot more than we do. When you join this to what former Governor now-turned-attack bulldog El-Rufai and ex Labour party vice presidential candidate Datti Baba Ahmed said recently about banditry in Nigeria and the Buhari connection, then you begin to see why Gumi is freer than every felon in Nigeria. It is time we canonized this phenomenon as the patron ‘saint’ of bandits.