Buhari: Anniversary lessons from Real Madrid & Barcelona
As the government of President Muhammadu Buhari clocks one year in
office tomorrow, certainly, the jury will be out for the president and
the men who have helped him to shape the colour of governance so far.
But in the absence of orators and oracles within the governing party and
with the demise of opposition party that can offer quotable quotes for
some comic relief, it is important to share some lessons from business
and governance schools. The two spokespersons of the opposition are
‘special guests’ of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC).
And so they too cannot sing their party’s anniversary song in a strange
land (detention).
Sadly, most of the elders and even courageous clerics that used to
speak like the prophets of old have recoiled into their shells. There is
a conspiracy of silence everywhere you go. Even the elders on the
platform of The Patriots appear tired as we may not get anything from
them for this PMB’s first anniversary. Sadly too, the Nigerian Bar
Association (NBA) that used to be a critical part of the conscience of
the nation has mysteriously disappeared from the people’s radar. Most of
the disciples of Gani Fawehinmi have abandoned the gospel of struggle
according to Comrade Fawehinmi. The last man standing as Fawehinmi’s
disciple, Ebun Adegboruwa who has been arraigned by EFCC, too just
disclosed that some authorities had “warned’ him not to continue to open
his ‘basket mouth’ against the powerful in Abuja lest he would regret
it.
As I had noted in this column recently, neither the original
Afenifeere, nor its weather-beaten renewal group has been heard in
recent time. The Oodua People’s Congress (OPC) too has been allegedly
embroiled in some struggle to collect payments for oil(y) pipelines
security contracts procured from the last administration. Tasting the
forbidden fruits supplied by Abuja can weaken the spirit and open one’s
eyes too much, after all. Even the Ohaneze and Arewa Consultative Forum
(ACF) have lost so much steam. All the civil society organisations
appear to have gone into oblivion. Even as democracy is being muzzled
and scotched, there is hardly any group to analyse democracy in its
present travail and travesty.
That is why, there won’t be robust debate in the news media tomorrow
when the cock crows for the first year administration of PMB. And so,
contrary to my earlier prognosis that the honeymoon would be over sooner
than later, it is clear now that the honeymoon for PMB will continue
till 2019!
However, It is expedient to join other patriots in enjoining the
president not to be carried away by so many merchants of sycophancy who
will influence publications and broadcast of so many patronizing adverts
from tomorrow. They are good sweeteners at such a time like this. But
as I said last week, leaders who embrace sycophants in their courts
would not go far. They can celebrate, but they will not be celebrated
after their tenure. But as legendary Ola Rotimi, a playwright once put
it, that kind of celebration without notable feats, is like “joy, which
has a slender body that breaks too soon”. Therefore, PMB should note
carefully the comments of a few ‘mad men’, mavericks, critics, busy
bodies, who will tell him the truth that he would not like to hear. As
recently noted, the friends and relations who summon up courage to tell
us where we are not doing well are the real friends.
In all modesty, having covered Abuja and the presidency for the past
28 years as a reporter and editor, one should know enough about how
sycophancy has certainly been one of the deadly weapons some members of
the ‘kitchen cabinet’ have been using to lure most past leaders into
political stupor until it is too late to recover. It is not easy to
drive away these evil men called “palace flatterers” but they can be
tactfully ignored by paying more attention to the other side, Mr.
President.
More important is this: The president should remember the imperative
of overhauling the bureaucracy that runs his office. The present
presidential bureaucracy as has been well noted, cannot assist the
president in his quest for operational efficiency. Besides, the civil
service needs some rejig, which will help in institutionalizing
efficiency that can reduce corruption, which has diminished us so
fantastically.
That is why one would like to advertise the business model of some
investors in football in a not-so-fantastic country called Spain. The
paradigm of this business model can be gleaned from how successful,
influential and powerful Spain has been in the world of soccer business.
Let no sycophant disrupt the rhythm of this discussion by pointing out
the prosperity in the famous Premiership in England where they make more
money from TV rights that make them prominent but not so significant.
According to Rick Warren, the author of The Purpose Driven Life, you
can be significant without being prominent. It should be noted here that
in simple terms, only two prominent football clubs have dominated even
global soccer from Spain: F.C Barcelona and Real Madrid. In the last few
years, these two clubs have been producing the World Footballer of the
Year (Ballon d’Or). Not only that, one of them, Real Madrid is the
richest.
It is now closely followed by F.C Barcelona, according to Forbes.
Manchester United (England) is the third on the rich list, (although
KPMG rates Manchester United as No.2); Bayern Munich (Germany) is fourth
while Arsenal (England) is the fifth. Let’s stop at the sixth,
Manchester City. But the discussion point here will be on the six clubs
on the rich list. This is not an expert’s opinion on football. I just
want to discuss the enterprise spirit in the investors in Real Madrid
and Barcelona within the context of strategic human resource management
(SHRM) model that leaders can borrow from. Two players of the two
selected teams, Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo have been the
discussion points every week after soccer competition. They are at the
moment, the most frequently discussed in the world in soccer excellence,
even in contextualizing talent and training.
It is said that Messi is a raw talent while Ronaldo is a
reconstructed phenomenon through robust training. Only good world-class
coaches are employed to maintain the brand equity of the two top clubs
that always produce about 70 per cent of FIFA’s annual Best XI (Eleven
Players in the world. The managers of these two clubs have always been
high performing tacticians. The England’s real brand, Manchester United,
has just recruited Jose Mourinho as a manager. The story of the
“special one” from Portugal’s F.C Porto through Inter Milan & Real
Madrid to Chelsea is well known to followers of football. But it will be
recalled that it was Mourinho that changed the fortune of Real Madrid
in 2011-2013, when they defeated Barcelona before leaving for England.
He also restored glory to Chelsea.
The one that has been associated with the phenomenal rise of
Barcelona in recent time is Pep Guardiola. The man has been hired by
Manchester City to change the face of football competition in England.
And Manchester United has responded appropriately by hiring Mourinho,
the manager Mike Carson, a management expert and author of The Manager:
Inside the Minds of Football’s Leaders calls “handler of outrageous
talent”. Guardiola and Diego Maradona have gone on record as naming him
(Mourinho) the world’s best coach, while Arrigo Sacchi of Italy has
called him ‘phenomenal’. Now attention will shift to Manchester in
England next season because of the presence of the world’s best football
managers in the two clubs there. You can’t take excellence from factors
of country or global competitiveness.
But this is not yet a treatise on football as a science now. This
small note is again to draw attention of our president to the point
earlier made on this page that you cannot rise above the quality of your
team members or workforce. In other words, if you want to be a
high-flying organization, economy or ruling party or government, you
have got to aim for the best brains that can deliver service to the
people passionately. Nigerian political leaders can borrow a leaf from
this model from Spain that England is tapping from.
So, here is the thing: if you want to be great, you should be ready
to finance greatness like Josep Maria Batomeu, the President of Futbol
Club Barcelona (since January 2014) and the President of Real Madrid,
Florentino Perez (since 2000). In the context of political leadership,
what is needed here is that if you want to be like Real Madrid and
Barcelona as I said in a recent article here, you have got to invest in
your Messi and Ronaldo. You can also add your Luis Suarez and Gareth
Bale in a great succession plan. More important in this context is the
fact that in England, they would always love to keep an English man as
manager of Manchester United. But fear of losing their brand has made
them to look beyond ethnicity and ‘Englishness’. First, they went for
Louis van Gaal from Holland. Now they have to do business of sustaining
their brand by hiring Mourinho to remain competitive. So, the lesson: Mr
President, there are still excellent men and women in Nigeria; settle
with even your so-called political ‘enemies’ and look further afield for
men and women who can help in building institutions that will outlive
you.
This is what Mourinho told Carson on leadership: “One of the things
you must remember as a leader is that your people are more important
than you”. This is the contextual issue here: The quality of your team
should not be compromised on the altar of ethnicity and religion. Like
Madrid and Barcelona, get the best anywhere to achieve results. But in
getting this result, Mr.President, you need a Guardiola in your team.
You should look for your Mourinho. Where is Messi in this government?
Where is your Ronaldo? We should reflect on this complexity for a more
dynamic capability in the next one year, Mr President, Happy
anniversary!
Inside Stuff Grammar School:
“Can” Vs “Be Able”:
It has been discovered that most people are careless about how this redundancy can be avoided. We often note that some people write or say: “I ‘can be able’ to help them”. Please, note that it is not good English to write or say the two words together. “Can” in this context, connotes ability. “I can do it”. “I can’t do it”. It is not correct to say: “I can be able to get there in good time”. You can say: “I can get there in good time”. “Be able” is redundant when placed with “can”.
It has been discovered that most people are careless about how this redundancy can be avoided. We often note that some people write or say: “I ‘can be able’ to help them”. Please, note that it is not good English to write or say the two words together. “Can” in this context, connotes ability. “I can do it”. “I can’t do it”. It is not correct to say: “I can be able to get there in good time”. You can say: “I can get there in good time”. “Be able” is redundant when placed with “can”.
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Martins Oloja
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