As those that will be the principal actors at next year’s general election continue to reveal themselves and declare for office, we need to take care and not let our support for whoever our preferred candidate is overshadow or cloud which side we are or should be really on. Let us keep at the forefront of our minds the denominators that is common to us all: corruption, unemployment, inadequate infrastructure, inadequate health service, educational sector reform, insecurity, inadequate energy supply, welfare especially for women and the girl child, our North East countrymen etc. It will be a real shame if we lose our civility as we go about campaigning for our preferred candidates.

Whilst the tendency of us not being able to find a common ground can already be noticed on Twitter from reactions to the various declarations. We need to punish and discourage chaos. Celebrate orderliness. Be disagreeable with each other without resorting to insult or violence. The truth is we all have varying levels of intelligence and exposure, so disagreements will happen between those that have more knowledge or information on issues than those that know less. Imparting knowledge with humility should be seen as a privilege. One is far more likely to succeed in imparting knowledge by being patient, gentle and zeal than through “know-it-all” attitude, cynicism or general obnoxious behaviour.

So please know and accept that it’s okay for others to disagree with your point of view as long as such disagreements does not lead to violations of human dignity or a further weakening of our already near comatose institutions.

#OurCommonDenominator

I haven’t read Barack Obama’s book ‘audacity of hope’ yet, but I’ll title this piece that. I’ve chosen this title as it represents a personal turning point for me. I have up till now held on to the belief that there’s little to no hope of a better Nigeria emerging in my generation (I’m in my early 30s) or worse in my children’s. I didn’t take that stance flippantly. So how did I reach the ‘no hope’ stance? Here goes…

I have a few mottos that I try to use to encourage and/or guide my outlook on life. One of it is “the evidence of desire is pursuit”. I can’t remember where I first heard that statement, but ever since I heard it, I’ve held on to it. I, like many others occasionally desire things. I hold on to those desires and subconsciously wait for it to materialise. Sometimes, I take no active steps to ensure the desire comes to life, yet I hold on. After time passes, with said desire not appearing, I ask myself, where’s your evidence that you truly desire this thing? Where’s your pursuit? Cue light bulb moment. If I can’t show the evidence of pursuit, then it must mean I truly don’t desire that thing, and if evidence of pursuit exists, then I assess why said desire remains elusive and if there’s anything I can do about it.

This brings me to Nigeria’s current situation. I read a lot of complaints by Nigerians about Nigeria re politics, economy, elitism, unemployment, insecurity and the general breakdown of a social contract. With twitter and other social media platforms, instantaneous reactions are easily observed on every government move or societal happenings. So in the midst of all these complaints, quite a lot of Nigerian’s express desires on what they want out of Nigeria and how things should be. This often makes me wonder, where’s the evidence that these people truly desire these turnaround or things they complain about?

Is there evidence of the personal sacrifices necessary to actualise these desires? Can a mentality change be assessed or observed? How do ordinary Nigerians interact with each other? Are they peaceful, cordial, and respectful? Does anything in their interactions with each other demonstrate that there’s a sane and humane value placed on the Nigerian life? For example, people with vocational jobs, do they try and fleece their customers with exorbitant and outright criminal quotation for tasks? Do same customers negotiate project cost down to such an extent where it leaves, say, the plumber no other choice but to seek to cut corners? Think about it, do you expect your vocational worker or handyman to be able to survive (feed a family) on the beat down project cost you’ve just negotiated? Would you survive if it were you? To some it is just business and all man for himself, but it isn’t just business. If there’s breakdown of trust with every market participant suspicious of one another with presumptions that the other participant will, on average, fleece you without thought, how is this not clear to all that this attitude erodes value creation? I mean, look around you. Has this attitude improved the average standard of living of Nigerians in the last three decades? No. Is anything being done to change it? No. It’s PDPs fault says APC. It’s APC’s fault says PDP. And on and on the blame game goes, but does anything get done? No, but rice is shared, perfect, our problem is sustainably solved.

You’re a customer service officer at work, are you cordial, respectful, professional in your dealings with your employers customers? Or do you always have a chip on your shoulder with the intent to prove to the customer that just walked in that you’re in an equal class of society regardless of the Cayenne the customer just parked outside or turn your nose up on those deemed of an inferior class? Whilst it may be true that some employers have failed to train their customer service officers appropriately, basic human decency surely need not be trained or basic common sense need not be farfetched? Take Nigerians working at our various airports, it may be true that the FG or whoever does not pay them well enough, but should that stop them from ensuring that travellers don’t experience hell at airports? I get that they don’t earn enough or working environment isn’t always conducive, but is the traveller the cause of it? Should you then exert your discomfort on them? How does that alleviate your own discomfort? That’s right, it doesn’t at least not permanently or sustainably. What ever relief you get from exerting hell is only fleeting or temporary at best. So why do it? Our IQ can’t be so low to not grasp this.

A good nation does not come about by happenstance. Deliberate and active steps have to be taken by all and sundry to make it so. Those in government don’t exist or live in a vacuum. They dwell among us. Some of them are our blood relations, others are within six degrees of separation from us. So those we’ve saddled with the responsibility of making the collective benefit materialise live among us, why then aren’t we communicating with them? Like walk over to their house, knock on the door and have a proper conversation. Why do we find it so difficult to organise/hold/attend community meetings with an objective view of discussing our common ails with a view to agreeing solutions that make our collective lives better? Why do the so called “elites” think it beneath them to be part of these conversations especially when their lives are so impacted by it? In reality, these conversations are happening somewhat, but who has been attending?

We all need to take stock and appreciate where we are as a society. We need to understand how badly our resources have been embezzled in the past. The fact that the misappropriation continues today does not mean we are wealthy and that we should take “wait your turn” stance, our resources are more finite than we care to admit. The cold truth is we all need to make personal sacrifices. If you want something of value, be ready to pay for it.

We need better education. If teachers, lecturers, VC’s and other admin staff don’t first make a personal commitment to be incorruptible, then it’ll be very difficult to improve our educational standard. Increase the budget all you like, improvement will hardly materialise, those that have made the personal decision to steal will steal any increase. Perversely, the society will celebrate them as material wealth automatically confers character worthy of emulation on thieves. Values, warped.

We need jobs to reduce unemployment, so need to encourage entrepreneurs and small businesses, even accidental entrepreneurs. Whilst company registration process may not be the global standard 48hours, ordinary Nigerians that work for the CAC need not sabotage the process to make it difficult for risk takers to register their businesses. Surely they can and need to appreciate the wider impact of their sabotage on the society? No, they only care about themselves, damn the society. Has the sabotage turned them to billionaires? No. Yet they perpetuate the impunity.

We need improvement in security. Both the public and the police force need to make sacrifices to make our nation more secured. Members of the police force should desist from soliciting for bribes before doing their jobs. You’re there in the first place because you (presumably) had a heart to serve. The public also need to do a whole lot more for our security officers. They deserve a lot more than they’re currently getting for putting their lives in harm’s way so that the rest of us will feel safe. If anything is worth mass protesting for, it’s better working environment for members of our security services. We’ve neglected them over the years, is the current insecurity any wonder?

We need better leaders. That can only happen if the followers are better too. The quality of our present leaders reflects the quality of the followers. Bad followers can’t produce good leaders. The kind of change we yearn for starts with self. We need to improve our political consciousness and engagement. We all don’t need to be political experts or be members of a political party but we do need a significant percentage of the population to understand the various political ideologies that exists, their impact and how they can be applied/customised to the Nigerian situation. At a minimum, the bigger political picture should be clear to a significant portion of the public, how the actions and especially inactions of every individual contribute to the whole. We need to appreciate that we the people create the systems and establish the institutions that allows and enables us to live an equitable life. We need to maintain those systems or ensure that those we select to represent us maintain the systems and institutionalise a decent standard of living. Our collective complacency so far has led us to where we are today. We simply cannot continue like this.

Religious intolerance and the illusion of ethnicity. One of the evidences that is currently absent and shows me a lack of desire for a better Nigeria is the lack of depth to our thoughts. Although, in my opinion, there aren’t enough historical and factual books written by Nigerians about our history, we can and should be able to observe (at least in the last 34years) that ethnic and religious intolerance has never served us. Whilst those we have been unfortunate to have been led by have used religious and ethnic sentiments to divide and rule us, I still struggle to accept how easily we’ve made ourselves susceptible to such bile and bigotry. Indeed our educational standard hasn’t been up to scratch, surely it can’t be that bad that graduates are unable to see through the bigotry of ethno-religious sentiments? I mean, what evidence exists to support the superiority of one ethnic over another? Aren’t we all just as insecure, do we not all suffer from inadequate infrastructural development, aren’t we all affected by inadequate health services? Poverty, corruption, mismanagement of national resources and their facilitators remain indiscriminate, yet we continue to let it divide us and worse, shed blood for the illusion? Surely one doesn’t need an OND let alone a PhD to realise this?

A similar argument can be made for religious bigotry. Those that oppress the masses come from the two main religions, clergy included. Yet, the masses, even the educated ones, continue to allow religious sentiments stoked by false clergies and leaders divide us. If you’re all so righteous, prim and proper why is corruption so high? Why is there no evidence of your moral uprightness as influenced by your religion reflected in your everyday life and dealings with others? Why do you “se aloala” on a Friday, sing kumbaya on a Sunday, but steal blindly on a Monday?

Hard work. Why are we so loathing of rewarding the dignity and integrity of hard work? Why have we made cutting corners a national past time, celebrating those that circumvent due process, giving them national honours, pardoning them after completing unfairly short sentences, making them VIPs at social events. It is abundantly clear that on a cost/benefit basis, our politicians aren’t delivering – most are not even trying to deliver, yet we freely refer to them as “honourables and excellencies”. What exactly is honourable by their conduct? Why are we so docile as a people?

So, back to my original point, in observing how Nigerians interact with each other on social media, the intolerances, the far too often lack of depth to thought, the lack of critical thinking, the irony of accusers and accused behaving in the exact same way, the astounding selfishness, the immoralities in all forms of life – none of these suggests the presence of “evidence of pursuit” of a better Nigeria – yet, I have decided to have the audacity of hope. Perhaps I am foolish, I don’t know. What I do know is, I have no other choice.

When I was growing up, whenever my siblings and I needed something like a new toy or an item of clothing from our parents, I recollect that all we really needed to do was get our mum to ‘ok’ it before asking our dad. If mum agreed to it, it doesn’t matter how long daddy says no, his no will always eventually become yes. Yup, mum was gangster like that. Most mums are. The nature of the relationship between my mum, dad, siblings and I isn’t too dissimilar from how I understand what the nature of the relationship between the executive and legislative arms of government and the public should be in a democratic setting.

As most people know, within a democracy, there are three arms of government: Executive, Legislature and Judiciary. The Executive implements policies, the Legislature creates laws that empower the Executive and the Judiciary enforces the laws created by the Legislature. From a procedural standpoint, it makes sense that each arm of government are in regular contact with each other so that the operations of government, for the benefit of its people, can be smooth. Within a democracy and among these arms of government, it isn’t unreasonable to expect that it is the Legislature and Judiciary arms that will be the ones in most contact with members of the public. Necessary for the legislature so that the laws it creates are relevant to the people it represents and the Judiciary as default for settling disputes and enforcing laws to maintain a sense of justice.

The legislative arm to my mind plays the role of mum. So if I, as a member of the public feel strongly about a need that I’d like my government to meet, I should only need to convince my legislative representative in order to have that need met. Of course, I may need to convince other members of my local community to buy into the need so that together we can gain the necessary traction to encourage the local legislative representative to devote energy into consulting with the executive in order to get the need met.

There is no doubt that current members of the Nigerian legislature do regularly meet members of the public in their capacity as public servants. What is becoming increasingly clear is that the calibre and character of those that these representatives meet for regular public consultations is of the class that isn’t driving and/or inspiring the representatives to move in the direction the country requires.

The probability that a nation will be on the right developmental curve and at a reasonable pace is highly dependent on the quality and quantity of its extant middle-income class as well as the quality of its “emerging middle-income” class. These classes must be actively engaged in politics. They must not only talk the talk but walk the talk. These classes must place a higher value on the sanctity of life than what is currently obtainable in Nigeria. Whilst anappearance of active engagement in politics by the “emerging middle-income or emerging-elites” class exists on social media, this engagement is beginning to prove to be mere voltronism – #EkitiDecides confirmed this. Many of thesevoltrons have very clever punch-lines and cute ways of describing current political ails and plagues. This voltronism means absolutely nothing if it isn’t backed by real life voltronism. I define the “emerging” class not on the basis of income, but by this new and pervasive sense of self-entitlement, awakening and rhetoric reminiscent of a middle-class income earner but without the substance of one.

How many voltrons know who their representative is at the ward, state and federal level? Do they know the local office of these representatives? Do they have contact information for these representatives? When these representatives organise local constituency meetings, do these voltrons attend? The truth is, every government and public office holder needs legitimacy. Without it, they cannot hope to remain in public office. So it is in the interest of all members of the legislature to hold these local constituency meetings so that they can stay in touch with their local base and remain legitimate. Make no mistake about it, these meetings are being held and regularly too. The question is who has been attending from the public? Is it safe to guess it is those that are more likely swayed by “stomach infrastructure”? So whilst voltrons continue in their attempt to outdo each other on who has the best punch-lines on social media, their fate is being decided by ignorant politicians and stomach-induced people at constituency meetings. Yet they continue to wonder why things aren’t improving and why the wrong people continue to get into government?

It is this phenomenon that completely befuddles me about Nigeria and its army of social media voltrons. The thought of attending these constituency meetings seems below them. Their time is too precious to be spent onmundane things like local constituency and ward-level political meetings, yet they fail to realise that it is at these meetings that their fates or its direction are decided? This may sound harsh, and I’m a Christian and a man of faith, but why can’t these elites realise that their public office holders, especially their representative through action or inaction have a more than even chance of impacting their destiny than they themselves can?

Democracy is really a very simple system of government. The checks and balances it provides as enshrined in the Constitution are also simple too. If the public desires the executive to act in a certain way, the lever available to it is via the legislature or at general elections. Public protest is good and has its place in a democracy but mostly lack bite. Nothing in the Constitution compels the executive to act on public protest. However, it is compelled to act on leanings of the legislature. What perplexes me even further is despite the claim to intelligence and exposure by the emerging elites, none have thought to impress it on any legislature national or state to join in the myriad of ongoing public protests especially #BBOG or #ChibokGirls. As we are too cowardly to protest Egyptian style, if we desire any protest with bite, surely we must include the legislators? Just recall the limp #OurNASS protest and one will see how easy we’re making it for the legislature. Let’s consider the LASU fees protest, why isn’t any member of the Lagos State House of Assembly saying anything? Why do we find it acceptable that none of them is saying anything? Is it too farfetched for the protesting students to realise they need their rep backing or take their protest to the Assembly? Is Fashola not more likely to act on orders of the Assembly? Just imagine David Mark and the leadership of NASS leading the #BBOG protest in Abuja. Won’t that have more impact than the commendable effort of Madam Oby? Not even the opposition leaders in the legislature are joining the protest.

If the Judiciary fails, it’s not a direct fault of the public. Failure of the executive is an indirect failure of the public whilst failure of the legislature can and should only be laid squarely on the members of the public.

So what’s the way forward? It’s simple really. Get involved. Know your legislator. Be closely involved with your representatives in the legislature. Know their movement. Attend their constituency meetings. Write complaint letters to them. Shame those that refuse to respond. Encourage your neighbours to attend constituency meetings. Share ideas locally. Online interactions only can be ambiguous. Social media is a tool; it should never replace face-to-face conversations. By doing this you help your legislator understand what their constituency needs. You help them write their campaign agendas. Think about it. If, for example, two-thirds of a constituency write their representative about issues with water in the community, will the legislator base their electioneering campaign on beautifying public spaces? You don’t even need to be an official member of a political party to be engaged. Besides, if we want to influence the calibre of those that get to represent us in government this is the direct way to do so. We want godfatherism to be out of politics, what will replace it? Empty chairs at constituency meetings? What is Nigeria’s problem? Look no further than the mirror.

Finally, becoming a well developed country is a deliberate action, never a happenstance. Every Nigerian must decide to commit them self to a new social contract – a personal contract that places the highest of values on the sanctity and dignity of a Nigerian life. We must determine a minimum standard of equity and justice that we must demand of ourselves and from each other. There must be a line that we must agree, nationwide, not to cross when it comes to service delivery from those that represent us in government. We must realise that our action, inaction and ignorance have far reaching consequences. Don’t pay that bribe, neither should you seek it. Stop seeking short cuts. By cheating the system, you’re cheating yourself. Be vigilant and let’s stop making being Nigerian difficult. Live peaceably. Nigeria is where it is today because of the summation of all of our individual negligence. And by God, please educate yourself on citizenship and democracy especially what it means to be a citizen in a democracy.

So Nigeria is in a quagmire. It’s in a state of confusion of what it is, what it wants to be and how it hopes to get there. Previously what we wanted was the end of military rule and a return to democracy. We didn’t spend much time on what democracy means to us and what type of government structure will best suit us. Should we have accepted the Constitution handed to us by the military in 1999 as a perennially binding document to be the basis of an enduring democracy? Should we have clamoured for a clause within the Constitution that compelled the NASS to produce ‘our’ democratic Constitution, under a democratic government before the expiration of its first full term cycle?

In our rush to be rid of military rule and embrace democracy, we didn’t consider the two most important ingredients of a successful democracy: followership and leadership. What do citizens that constitute Nigeria’s followership know about democracy? How does the followership hope to produce good leadership? Do we have the right structures, systems and institutions in place to produce good leaders? If not how do we go about doing so? None of these questions were sufficiently dealt with so we ended up with a mish mash of political parties (rashly formed by strange bedfellows) without distinct and succinct ideologies, largely founded along ethnic divides. In effect our mish mash political structure, unsurprisingly and in hindsight, has largely produced leaders with immense ineptitude and inability with resultant ‘anyhowness’. We are now faced with a catch 22 situation where bad followership is perpetrating bad leadership and vice versa. Nominally, our diversity is and should be our biggest strength, but years of abuse, civil war and military rule have conspired to deny us the trust necessary to benefit from our diversity.

It is clear that we need to rethink our system of government and political structure such that there’s increased citizen education, awareness, engagement and participation with hope that good followers are created and good leaders produced.

What we know is we want a thriving and successful democracy. What should be open to debate is the political structure and system of government that will deliver the kind of dividends of democracy Nigerians desire and ultimately deserve. It is to this end that I’m writing this article, opening and/or throwing my argument into the debate (is there even any debate?). I’m in favour of the federal system of government which Nigeria currently sort of practices. Where I think our current system is failing is that the federal government is too far removed from local politics needs and wants. The federal government I believe has too much power and control over national resources. I believe more resource control needs to be devolved away from the federal level and vest mainly with the local government and then state government. The federal government should largely be focussed on expounding the nation’s interest within the committee of nations, protecting federal borders, harnessing opportunities where Nigeria as a whole has competitive advantage over other nations. The FG’s activities should be similar to that of a Chambers of Commerce and nothing more. The local and state governments should have control over most of the nation’s resources and revenues and should be mainly responsible for directly generating internal revenues as they are the level of government closest to the people.

Since 1999, the FG including the NASS have scarcely initiated policies and created laws that have local impact, directly emancipate businesses locally and create a thriving entrepreneurial business environment. This lack of FG impact is unsurprising as the system that produces public office holders is largely a top-down selection process rather than a bottom up one. A bottom up process ensures that a voice of the people at the local level is what largely drives who gets to serve in public office. Further, a bottom-up process ensures a proper buy-in by the citizenry into the political process. It makes the citizens the ‘elites’ within a democratic structure. Our political structure as currently constituted can’t produce public office holder’s bottom-up.

I am therefore proposing a radical revolution of how we produce aspirants that vie for public office. My proposal makes local politics the focal and entry point for all politicians thereby dispensing with the probability of someone that has never been involved in local politics vying for office at the federal level. The table below shows a summary of the outcome of my proposed political structure.

Full Count	Office	Eligibility	Eligibility Pool	Max Term	Term Cycle (Years)
1	President	Current SenatorQualifying independent	109	2	4
1	Vice President	Current SenatorQualifying independent	109	2	4
109	Senator	Returning SenatorHouse of Rep. MemberGovernor	503	4	4
360	House of Rep. Member	Returning Rep.LG ChairmanState House of Ass. Member	2,176	4	4
36	Governor	Returning GovernorLG ChairmanState House of Ass. Member	1,780	2	4
72	Dep Governor	Returning Dep GovernorLG ChairmanState House of Ass. Member	1,816	2	4
970	State House of Ass. Member	Returning State Rep.LG ChairmanWard Councillor	11,316	4	4
774	LG Chairman	Returning LG ChairmanWard Councillor	10,346	3	4
9,572	Ward Councillor	Any member of the public	c.160m	6	4

Aspirant Criteria:

1. Must have served at least one full term from a qualifying public office. A qualifying public office is any public office recognised by the Constitution which requires the conduct of an election in order to fill such office.

2. Must have a minimum of school leaving certificate.

Notes:

1. For President/Vice President, independent candidates are allowed provided that:

–  they are a current public office holder;

–  have served at least one full term of office in their previous public office post;

–  they were ranked in the top two in a test of nationwide viability through a by-election voted on by the Council of LG Chairmen.

2. Nationwide viability by-election will be a simple majority, first pass the post contest.

3. If a nationwide viability test only consists of two aspirants, then the aspirant that ranks first will run in the general election.

4. Council of LG Chairmen will consist of all current seating LG Chairmen in Nigeria.

5. LG Chairmen running as independents for the post of President/Vice President cannot also seat on the by-election voting Council.

Political Pay & Finance Reforms

1. Salaries and Allowances paid to all public office holders within the Legislative and Executive arm will be the same as that of the Federal Civil Service.

2. Political campaigns can only be funded from:

– grants from the political parties to which the aspirant belongs.

– funds raised by the aspirants electoral campaign office directly from members of the public.

– the maximum amount a member of the public can donate directly to an electoral campaign office is N250,000.

– the maximum amount an individual official member of a political party can donate to the campaign fund of the party is N5,000,000.

– the maximum amount an official individual electoral political party aspirant can donate to the campaign fund of the party is N15,000,000.

– the maximum amount an institution can donate to a political party is N25,000,000.

– no foreign organisation can donate any funds to any political party or electoral campaign office of any political office aspirant.

– no foreign individual can donate any funds to any political party or electoral campaign office of any political office aspirant.

– every donation worth more than N250,000 to a political party or electoral campaign office must be declared and registered with INEC.

– within three months of the end of each general election, INEC is to publish on its website the list of donations registered with it.

3. Members of the legislative arms should be permitted to hold jobs outside of their legislative roles provided that:

–  such jobs do not, in addition, take up more than 25% of their statutory working hours;

–  they declare how much was earned from all outside jobs;

–  they declare how many hours they worked;

–  they declare who paid them;

–  such jobs do not necessarily need to relate to their political role.

Outcome:

1. Politicians are professionalised.

2. Career politicians are known early on.

3. Everyone public office holder starts or joins politics at the ward level and work their way up.

3. There’ll be a verifiable track record of public service.

4. Campaigns will be based mainly on track record.

5. Members of the public will be able to scrutinise political aspirants’ background and record more effectively.

6. Ensures whoever is President would have started from the bottom.

7. Ward level as a starting point for all politicians at all levels should draw democratic power closer to the people.

8. Increased focus on policies that impact at a local level.

9. Quality of the legislative arm of government should improve.

10. Improved legislative arm should have a knock-on effect of improving the judiciary.

11. The quality of the executive pipeline will be clear to the general public from a pool of approximately 28,155 elected public office holders.

12. The pipeline ensures continuity and focus of policy.

13. The pool for Presidential aspirants will be known very early on which will give the public adequate time to vet potential aspirants.

The above proposal can produce a President as young as 36years old should one go into politics straight after leaving secondary school or a 41 year old President should it be straight after obtaining a university degree. One of the arguments a friend made against my proposal was the risk associated with professionalising politics. There are all sorts of professional careers and none without its risk, pitfalls and issues etc. I see no reason why politics cannot be professionalised in the same way that lawyers, doctors and accountants are especially when its decisions and fallouts can impact the lives of the people more directly and with far reaching consequences. We need to professionalise politics in such a way that only those with genuine heart to serve are in politics. Professionalising politics isn’t about raising a “barrier to entry” but about improving the quality of “barrier” so that just like the days of the old civil service, some of our best brains with the right servitude are in politics. Also, professionalising politics does not in any way reduce or impact the fact that the general public and ordinary members of a political party are and should be the ‘elites’ of our democracy.

Of course those in politics are entitled to a dignified and deserve to earn a decent standard of living. So we should adjust our nation’s Constitution so that enabling law is created that allows public office holders within the legislative arm of government to embark on “outside jobs”. However, “outside jobs” need be monitored due to the political power and influence that politicians have. No one in politics should be in it to make money, at least not directly from government disbursements.  Public office holders should certainly not be earning more than their entrepreneurial or business counterparts of commensurate level or experience. If money is your motivation, then politics shouldn’t be the career for you. We should make politics as much a career as it is a calling.

Our political structure need not be expensive. In fact, it shouldn’t be expensive. We should structurally design it to be inexpensive. If our political pipeline process is bottom-up, there’ll be no need for e.g. a “Fashola” in contesting for Governor to spend billions ‘talking’ to me to vote him into office. As he would have started from ward level, his record should already be doing most of the talking. So rather than spend ungodly amounts bribing and cajoling people, his record would do it for him. If he’s performed well, the need to spend a lot will not be there. In fact, the more a political aspirant spends on his campaign, the more people should run away from him.

Hard Truths

Entrepreneurs and small businesses should be the life blood of our economy. We therefore need to promote entrepreneurial spirit and fair competition better. We need our economy biased and favourable to those that take direct economic and market risks. We need to promote an enabling environment that ensures small & medium enterprises thrive. I believe this can be better achieved if the control of political power is closer to the people.

In my opinion, the LG should be empowered to generate, administer and disburse 50% of the revenues/resources of the Government of Nigeria, 30% by State Governments with balancing 20% by the FG. Each level of government should seek to maximise its revenue generation opportunities. The sharing of revenues shouldn’t be heavily top down as it currently is. We need to get resource and revenue control closer to the people whose lives are directly affected by such resources. For example, I believe it will be difficult for a LG chairman/person that was elected through the bottom-up process to be unfair in the discharge of his/her duties and disbursement of resources when 1) his/her track record is known, 2) his/her family and roots are known within the locality and more importantly those that voted him into office are his/her neighbours.

Nigeria and Nigerians need to get real. Rather than be looking towards the federal government for “hand me downs” we should be looking inwards at the resources local to us that we have competitive advantage for and seek to exploit such resources for revenue maximisation and economic development. We need to stop being intellectually and economically lazy as a people. The get rich quick mentality has to be jettisoned. As a society, we need to celebrate and encourage hard work. Our greedy focus on “easy” oil revenue has killed and continues to kill industries. The North could be earning as much from agriculture as the nation is currently earning from oil if it hadn’t abandoned the famous “rice pyramids”. If revenues raised from agriculture by the North are largely left to the LGs and various SGs of the North, imagine the number of people that will be emancipated from poverty, the opportunity to develop economically by establishing world leading educational institutions, invest in infrastructure, healthcare etc.

Let me paint a picture of what my ideal Nigeria is. This picture assumes the above political reforms are in force. I’ll use the North as an example.

Resource control is 100% local. The LGs generate and collect 50% of taxes, SGs 30% and FG 20%. Agriculture and textile industries are thriving all over Northern Nigeria. LGs are able to design policies that encourage and support local SMEs, have constitutional powers to do so as well as the revenue resources to effect sound policies. The implementation of these policies has led to the creation of several small & medium sized farms and textile businesses. The SG with a more central view is able to invest in roads to link major towns as well as establish industrial storage facilities for farmers to store their goods. The Northern states armed with the knowledge of the competitive advantage it has over other parts of the country in relation to agriculture, establish a regional development agency to pool resources together to invest in transportation and storage infrastructures that will enable it move its products to other parts of the country. As a result of revenue earned from oil, Eastern Nigeria has been able to develop world class engineering industries, so it pitches to the Northern Development Agency for its transportation infrastructure development project. The South-west with its world class financial centre is able to assist with financing the project.

I know the above is simplistic, but it paints a picture of how cooperatively and by localising resource control, we can work together to create a Nigeria where all of our needs are met. Lets us get rid of the shackle of having an overpowering federal government. Let each locality have control over its own natural resource. Let us compete fairly with each other by having confidence in our resources and associated competitive advantage. Let us agree amongst ourselves the industries we need to protect from external (non-Nigerian) competition. Let the West and East buy its food from the North, the East supply engineering, industrial and infrastructural needs to North and West, let the West support the East and North with its strong financial centre, educational institutions and port services. Let us use trading amongst ourselves to develop our products, industries and business acumen. Once we’ve attained global standard, let us export to the rest of the world.

Implementation

I believe implementing this reform proposal will be the most difficult part. Laziness (intellectual and emotional), like any bad habit is challenging to shed/overcome. But first, let us agree to a new secular Constitution devoid of all ethnic and religious biases. Let us agree to protect the rights of every Nigerian child to free access to education and health facilities. Let us agree to jettison the “state of origin” parlance from our societal structures and let “residency” be our guiding claim to the locality of our choice. Let us agree to devolve power away from the federal government and transfer most of it to the local government level. Our current structure makes cutting our nose to spite our face too easy. If we localise power, it’ll make it structurally “less easy” for neighbours to spite each other.

Prior to devolving power, there will be a need to establish a “Nation Fund” to help fund the implementation. The Fund could be set-up as loan custodied at and administered by an organisation like, for example, the World Bank. Let us agree that the Fund should only be accessed by LGs at very minimal interest rates as close to 0% as possible to be paid back fully. Let us agree to a timeline, say 100years, by which the World Bank has to pay the Fund back to Nigeria. By setting the Fund up as a form of loan, it hopefully motivates those that access it to see it as a business and developmental tool rather than a “national cake” to be shared without accountability. We could compel the Bank to publish an annual statement of affairs, so that what has been borrowed and by whom is known.

I implore those that read this to, however difficult, try and not waste too much energy finding faults with this article but rather focus on solutions or better ideas that will help move this debate and nation forward.

To say I am disappointed in how David Moyes has started his reign at OT will be an understatement. His tactics so far suggest he is overawed by the enormity of the task he faces at Old Trafford and that he’s worried about deviating and under delivering on the level of success set by his predecessor over a 26 years period.

United have played three big games this season against Chelsea, Liverpool and City where Moyes’ tactics and team selection have been very negative in all or not as daring as you’d expect from a United manager/team. Whilst it will be easy to say he had at least four (2 strikers and 2 wingers) attack minded players in all these matches, his choice of players exposes his caution first attitude. Over the last two seasons, Ashley Young and Tony Valencia have been really disappointing. They have been even more disappointing this season. Except for the Leverkusen game both players have continued to serve up dire football. Moyes’ insistence on picking these players is worrisome. From the first United match Moyes took charge of, our best wingers have been Adnan Januzaj and Wilfried Zaha. All through preseason and at other times we’ve seen them play this season both have really impressed. By full time, against Palace Januzaj had outshone Valencia even though he only had a 25mins cameo compared to Tony that played a full match. Zaha in preseason was equally devastating on the right wing. So I am surprised that Moyes preferred players that had little to no preseason and certainly didn’t set the pitch alight from the first whistle of the season. Adnan and Zaha in particular must wonder what else they need to do to get a look in.

To further buttress my point on negative tactics, Moyes’ insistence at picking Jones/Smalling at full back over Fabio whilst Rafael is unavailable is completely baffling. Fabio is at worst as good a defender at full back as Jones/Smalling and miles better at offering support going forward than both Jones and Smalling. Against City, playing Smalling for his height advantage was wrong as City all season never played like they depended hugely on set plays. They prefer to keep the ball on the ground and pass. At Everton, Moyes had average height full backs in Coleman and Baines so I was surprised of his fixation on height by selecting Smalling ahead of Fabio. Fabio’s surging runs would have given Kolarov (an average defender) something to worry about especially when it was Nasri playing in front of him, a player that hardly tracks back.

Besides, the negative tilt to team selection, Moyes attacking strategy for his United remains unclear. After the opening 6 games, how United hope to break teams down going forward remains indiscernible. United’s best forward plays this season have come from Rooney’s brilliance as a player rather than an unrelenting attacking team play. Against Liverpool when Rooney was out injured, everyone expected Kagawa to start but Moyes didn’t even include him in the team preferring an ageing Giggs and Nani who had had no preseason up until that point. Besides Rooney, United’s best player at finding spaces and playing behind the main striker is Kagawa. I struggle to understand why Moyes is reluctant to play or start with Kagawa especially when one considers that at Everton Moyes had Steven Pienaar who often played a role similar to Kagawa for Everton. Pienaar and Baines combined well on the left for Everton and I can’t see how Moyes can’t replicate similar with Kagawa and Evra. This is despite not mentioning how much better Kagawa is in comparison to Pienaar and that Kagawa offers so much more.

If Moyes selection is based on merit then it is difficult for me to understand how Young and Valencia are starting ahead of Januzaj and Zaha. Both haven’t only played better but are also not scared about taking on an opponent, something Young and especially Valencia have struggled with so far. Valencia is even more frustrating, unless there is yards of space for him to run into, he’s unable to dribble an opponent. Zaha does this time and time again. Moyes needs to realise that at Old Trafford, we’re not scared of putting kids in the starting XI. Besides, with Carrick & Fellaini in CM and Rooney & RvP striking, Adnan and Wilf will have adequate experience on the pitch to guide them through matches. In fact Moyes and his coaching staff can top up with instructions from the sidelines.

Ferdinand has also been poor this season. This was especially noticeable in the game against Palace, Leverkusen and City. He seems to be losing concentration at crucial times which have led to goals. His pairing with Vidic is still our best CB combination so Moyes could persevere for a few more games before dropping Rio if his performances fail to improve. Rio has pride in his game so I’m sure he’ll be hurting from his bad performances and needs to be given time to make corrections. Besides, Jones, the preferred replacement is out injured.

I’d like to think that most United fans know and expect this season to be a transition one and that a top four finish will suffice. A top four finish with a domestic cup win in Moyes’ first season will be an unexpected bonus. So Moyes should be as courageous and brave as he needs to be without feeling under undue pressure. He should avoid pulling back on any instinct that wants him to not play rampaging and attacking football. He needs to ignore the fact that the team he inherited are the defending champions as that feat showcases more of Fergie’s unyielding desire, will and passion to win than the skill in the team. Of course the drop in standard by other teams also helped.

Moyes cannot allow himself to be overawed by the task in front of him. He must always seek to impose himself and United over every opposition and at every time too. He has the full weight of United’s history, success and global fans behind him. He has all he needs to succeed and that’s all he needs to succeed. Now he needs to show his mettle, and show the whole world why it is them that don’t know it yet – that at Old Trafford, nothing has changed.

Congratulations to all those that are connected to Manchester United Football Club – owners, Board, Manager, Coaching staff, non-coaching staff, players and fans for winning the 20th title for the prestigious club.

A special thanks to Sir Alex Ferguson for his distinguished stewardship of the Club we love for 26½ years. His legacy is very much unlikely to be surpassed and we wish him well in his retirement.

Welcome to David Moyes as he begins his reign as Manager of Manchester United Football Club. I hope you go on to achieve as much feat as your immediate predecessor at least in terms of trophies if not in length. It will be important that you be your own man. Your skill, attribute, characteristics and personality got you here. It is important you embrace Sir Alex’s legacy. No need to fight it, ignore it or try to out-do it. Just be you.

Well done to the Glazers for letting Sir Alex be. Whilst I, as a fan, still detest the level of debt you loaded on the Club, I am humble enough to still admit that by letting Sir Alex be, United continued to maintain its success on the pitch. It is important, if not more so, that the Owners do likewise with David Moyes. The Owners have got to back him in the transfer market. The good news is not a lot needs to be changed in terms of structure – but new players have got to be brought in to refresh the squad and replace those that are in need of a new challenge or have become disillusioned at being at Old Trafford for so long. Some even have failed to deliver on their potential.

In my opinion, I believe United need a maximum of five players to come in to either bolster the squad or replace players exiting the club through outright sale or retirement. One deal has already been completed in Wilfried Zaha. The players I will be mentioning in the rest of this post are players already linked to United – very good players in fact. Some may be unrealistic but will only be so limited if the Glazers refuse to come up with the cash needed to conclude the deals. The players I’d like to see join United this summer are: Gareth Bale – £80m, Cristiano Ronaldo – £65m, Thiago Alcantara – £18m and Marouane Fellaini – £24m. I am not jumping on the bandwagon here. I believe each of this players will bring a different dimension to United’s game and will also give the team a very good chance of not just winning a trophy in Moyes’ first season, but should retain the title and get to at least the Semi-final of next season’s European Champions league.

Let me list my full squad for United if these deals are done.

1.Fabio da Silva – 2.Rio Ferdinand – 3.Patrice Evra – 4.Jonny Evans – 5.Nemanja Vidic – 6.Chris Smalling – 7.Phil Jones – 8.Rafael da Silva – 9.Wayne Rooney – 10.Danny Welbeck – 11.Robin van Persie – 12.Michael Carrick – 13. Shinji Kagawa – 14.Tom Cleverley – 15.Wilfried Zaha – 16.Cristiano Ronaldo – 17.Marouane Fellaini – 18.Thiago Alcantara – 19.Gareth Bale – 20.David de Gea – 21.Anders Lindegaard – 22.Ben Amos.

From the above you would have noticed the following departures:

1.Paul Scholes – 2.Ryan Giggs – 3.Bebe Oliveira (£5m)– 4.Kiko Macheda (£5m) – 5.Antonio Valencia (£10m) – 6.Anderson Oliveira (£10m) – 7.Luis Nani (£20m)– 8.Ashley Young (£15m) – 9.Javier Hernandez (£35m).

Getting the four players in I previously mentioned should cost United no more than £187m in transfer fees alone. United should be able to raise some £100m from sales making it a net spend of £87m. Nike will likely contribute to that net spend amount. This should also be the bulk of spending United will need over the next 3 to four seasons with good reserve players coming through in Nick Powell, Jesse Lingaard, Angelo Henriquez, Keane brothers, Davide Petrucci, Larnell Cole and especially Adnan Januzaj.

I agree that £80m for Gareth Bale is definitely too much and that he should cost no more that £60m but with Real Madrid also interested in making him their marquee signing, I’d expect Daniel Levy to create a bidding war and drive up the price. I suspect Gareth Bale will choose staying in the premier league above moving to Spain if he can get into one of the top 4 premier league teams. I doubt he fancies going to another London club for fear of fan backlash making the two Manchester teams his real options. It goes without saying that going to United would be more attractive to Gareth than City if one considers the history and pedigree of both clubs. Choosing United will also mean Gareth can be close to his family (unlike moving to Spain) in Wales whom he visits quite often – rumour has it that he often gets homesick if he doesn’t visit Wales in more than two weeks. If Gareth hands in a transfer request and specifies United to Daniel Levy then that should help with negotiating down the price but we all know Levy to be a hard man to bargain with.

On Cristiano, his public moves so far – refusing to sign a new contract and putting up his villa in Spain up for sale – shows that United have a real chance of getting him. The Club and fans love him and he loves them back, the only issue is if Real Madrid will prefer to risk losing him for nothing and Fiorentino Perez is currently using him as a political pun in his re-election campaign although he is unopposed.

On Thiago Alcantara and Marouane Fellaini – meeting the exit clauses should do the job for United. Fellaini clearly wants to play for a top team and should be willing to follow David Moyes to Old Trafford. At €18m, going for Thiago is a no-brainer. He is unsettled and unhappy at Barca and should settle well at Old Trafford considering the amount of Spanish speaking players United have.

In trying to avoid creating a selection headache for next season, I think Moyes may need to sell one of Javier Hernandez or Wayne Rooney. Those two also represent United’s biggest chance of recouping some of their cash outlay on transfers. United should be able to get at least £35m for either of them. In contrast, Moyes may think having both players in his dressing room is a good selection headache and that he will prefer to deal with the respective players’ ego. But I think he’d want as little headache as possible in his first season as United’s boss so he can get on with matters on the pitch. Wayne offers a lot of versatility that Javier doesn’t. I know Wayne would like to play up front more but what he really wants is to enjoy his football. As long as he’s enjoying his football, where he plays on the pitch matters little to him. It is his versatility that may mean he gets to stay ahead of Chicharito.

Nani and Anderson have not lived up to their respective potential. They may have come to the point where they need a new challenge to jump start their football career. With Nani entering the last year of his contract next season, now is the best time to sell him to get maximum money. Anderson will hardly be a regular starter for United and if he wants to be a part of Brazil’s world cup team next summer, then he’ll need to move away from United.

Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia are both 28 in July and August this year respectively. I’ve proposed they be replaced by Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo – two of current top three world footballers behind only Messi. Ronaldo was 28 in February whilst Bale will be 24 in July. There is no doubt on any football scale or yardstick used that Ronaldo and Bale and infinitely better than Young and Valencia. Besides, Young can be used as a cash plus player in securing Bale although I can’t imagine Spurs not wanting a straight cash deal so they can go after their own transfer targets.

The remainder of the departures are no-brainers in Bebe and Macheda. I can’t see both having a future at United and I suspect Moyes will share my view. Scholes has already announced his second retirement and I think Giggs should do too and become a coach at United.

If my above opinion on transfers pan out, United can easily play a European 4-2-3-1 formation or 4-4-2 and 4-3-3 in the league.
David D G
Rafael Rio Vidic Evra
Fellaini Carrick
Bale Rooney Ronaldo
RvP

Rooney can step up to join RvP with Fellaini and Carrick Stepping up to form a 4-4-2 or Rooney can step into the middle of Fellaini and Carrick with Ronaldo and Bale stepping up to form up in 4-3-3.

The subs will or can contain first class players in: Lindegaard, Jones, Fabio, Kagawa, Alcantara, Welbeck and Cleverley.

The above 18 man squad look like a team full of goals and should trouble any defence on the planet if David Moyes can get them playing together as team. The Midfield core of Carrick and Fellaini should also provide the necessary protection and defensive cover for the offensive players to work their magic. The front four players will need to play very fluid football with great off-the-ball movement and should be energetic enough to press for the ball and win it back high up the pitch thereby allowing for fast transitions.

We all know every David Moyes team is usually disciplined, solid and work as a team.

If the Glazers can bring the above team together and the players respond well to Moyes’ methods – then I have no doubt that United will be favourite to retain the title and perhaps even win the Champions League within the next two seasons.

Follow me on twitter on @grandverve

At the end of last season, following a dramatic end to the game at the Etihad where City clinched the title, Sir Alex said he relished the challenge provided by City and that him and his squad will learn from the disappointment of losing out on the title, especially the manner in which they lost the title. He declared in the press conference following the win over Sunderland that losing on goal difference will never happen again. SAF declared he was angry at losing, he proceeded to speak personally to all the young members of United squad following the loss of the title, telling them never to forget the disappointment they were feeling at that time. SAF’s activity in the summer so far shows he really was angry and that he is going all out to get his trophy back.

Like most United fans, I also have been very buoyed by the transfer activity conducted by SAF so far this summer. It started with securing Shinji Kagawa, then Nick Powell, from left-field the signing Robin Van Persie from Arsenal and now a new left back in Alexander Buttner from Vitesse Arnhem.

The potential combination of Rooney and  v.Persie with Shinji Kagawa behind them got me really excited and looking forward to the new season. Rooney and v.Persie scored 57 league goals between them last season. Having such fire power upfront surely was going to make United firm favourites for the title, Aguero and Tevez at City notwithstanding.

In addition, the return of club captain Nemanja Vidic was also additive to my confidence that surely we’ll win our trophy if he hopefully stays fit for all of the season as his presence and leadership was sorely missed last season. The quality of players brought in coupled with the fact that United won no silverware last season gave me confidence that the team will be really motivated to correct their deficiencies from last season and that the coaching staff would also have learnt from their mistakes. In my mind, we were shoe in to blaze the league.

Cue the first match against Everton and like most United fans I was shocked at how pedestrian our play was. It was like last season all over again. No purpose or penetration to our play. None of the steely determination associated with a United team was on display both from the players and coaching staff. Rooney was sluggish, Nani was headless, Scholes was uninspiring and Valencia was wasted in defence. It was the 4 – 4 at Old Trafford drama all over again. Everton played exactly the same way they played against us at Old Trafford. They preyed on our soft under-belly in midfield again. Marouane Fellaini single-handedly destroyed United once again. He was so dominant it felt like one was watching a play act from a chapter of 50 shades of grey. Didn’t SAF and his coaches learn anything from last season? After the first 20mins, it was clear Everton were repeating the same game plan. Just as United failed to match their intensity last season, they also failed to do so this time. SAF sat down throughout the match, so did his two assistants. No one got up to urge the players to step up their intensity and speed of passing. We were maintaining possession well, meaning Everton were chasing the ball mostly. Passing the ball more swiftly would have made them chase even harder thereby tiring them. Tired players make mistakes, tired players lose concentration, tired players fail to make goal-line clearances. But no, United kept playing and passing in a pedestrian manner – right how Everton wanted them to. By the time Fellaini was substituted, United had lost their game composure and were just playing with desperation.

Last season, SAF flirted with defeat by playing two midfielders in defence (due to injuries) to disastrous consequences. He did same again against Everton even though he had two natural defenders on the bench in Rafael Silva and Scott Wootton. Whilst I can understand why Wootton could not be in the first team owing to his lack of league experience, I fail to understand why Rafael did not start at right back. If he was fit enough to be on the bench, he should have been fit enough to start as his case was unlike v.Persie who had not played many games in pre-season. As bone-headed as Rafael can be sometimes, he is still a better right back than Tony Valencia and would have brought a natural balance to the defence line. That would have freed Valencia to play in his preferred right midfield position and would have spared the team and fans the horror show displayed by Nani. In addition, I dare say that Wootton would have benefited from being paired with Vidic, Evra, Rafael at the back and that Carrick would have provided protection to Wootton had it been needed if Carrick had played in his natural centre midfield position and paired with Cleverley.

It was painful to watch how sluggish United were and how much we wasted Kagawa’s talent and positional sense. He kept making himself available to receive passes throughout the match. Both Kagawa and v.Persie kept making themselves available to receive passes that our old players were neither seeing or just didn’t believe Kagawa and v.Persie could retain possession in such tight spaces.

Following from a disastrous season where we won nothing, United needed to learn how to retain possession better. Games from pre-season and the match against Everton suggests a lot of work has gone into team retention of the ball. What is equally and probably more important is individual player retention of the ball. This is where I believe Barcelona excel above all others. It isn’t every time Barca players (cue Xavi and Iniesta) look for a team-mate when they are being pressed for the ball. Sometimes it is better a player is able to retain possession long enough on himself so as to give his team-mate a moment to run into space to receive the ball and launch an attack. This is where I believe United are failing. Our players don’t yet have the adequate technical ability to retain the ball when placed under pressure. Our players must learn to be fouled rather than lose the ball. This is why Barca players get fouled a lot. We cannot fail where Arsenal has, where they win the possession stats but lose three points. Against Everton we had the larger share of possession yet failed to work their keeper Tim Howard. Even with our possession, our keeper was by far the busier one in the match. Scholes legs just couldn’t match the intensity required to dominate the midfield.

Despite this disappointing start to the new season, I still retain my excitement that United can and should regain their title. Unlike some United fans that already have pronounced the death sentence over the team, one bad and first game of the season wont define our season especially if one considers the fact that we have several new players that need gelling – gelling can take some time. Frankly, it is better we get our early season blues out of the way and find winning momentum very quickly. We have too many good attack minded players not to be excited. The key will be finding a way to accommodate all of Rooney, v.Persie and Kagawa in the starting line-up and that our key defenders don’t get injured all at the same time – leaving us short in numbers at the back as it occurred against Everton.

SAF will also need to show bigger faith in our younger players. We don’t need to play too many of them at the same time like we did to disastrous consequences last season, but we should be comfortable putting the odd one in the starting line-up especially when injury necessitate it. They are in fact Manchester United players after all. Playing midfielders in defence cannot be the best option. It wasn’t last season when we tried it, it hasn’t this season against Everton.

Rumours abound that SAF is still in the market for a combative midfielder. Considering the characteristics and attributes of Marouane Fellaini and how well he’s played against United in the last couple of matches, I am really surprised SAF has not expressed interest in him. In fact, just like United players recommended Cristiano Ronaldo to SAF after playing against him in a pre-season when he was still at Sporting Lisbon, I expected Scholes, especially, to recommend Fellaini to SAF considering how much and how well he dominated Scholes and United’s midfield in the last few matches. In Fellaini, we may well have our solution to the problem posed by Yaya Toure. Fellaini will fit well in a 4-2-3-1 formation for United consisting Rafael, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Carrick, Fellaini, Kagawa, Rooney, Valencia, v.Persie (subs: Lindegaard, Welbeck, Chicharito, Cleverley, Jones, Young, Nani). The defensive discipline of Carrick and Fellaini should give confidence to our attacking players to push forward and do the necessary damage in opposition’s half. Rooney, Kagawa and Valencia are also disciplined enough to track back where necessary and when required. I believe completely that Fellaini may be the final jigsaw missing in the puzzle. At United, Fellaini will develop even better when he plays and trains regularly with other high quality players.

In an earlier post, I mentioned about a gap in our coaching set-up. I still believe firmly that that gap exists. I think SAF still needs an assistant that is better than him. I don’t believe Rene Meulensteen and Mike Phelan are better coaches/managers than SAF. SAF unfortunately is now at an age where he needs to delegate as much as he can to his subordinates – those subordinates in my view need to be either as good as him or better. In Carlos Queiroz, United and SAF had a really good meticulous technical coach. He was absolutely anal with details, so much so that it riled then club captain Roy Keane. He was good enough to attract Real Madrid’s attention and did well there but suffered from the political minefield that the Bernabau is. Are Rene and Phelan good enough to attract Real’s attention? Exactly.

To conclude, I retain my optimism for this season, I think United will do well and should win a few competitions and regain the Premiership. I hope we bid for Fellaini, I think he may well be what we’re missing.

Glory Glory Man United

Love United Hate Glazers

#MUFC

Follow me on @grandverve

After watching Team GB play last night, I am beyond convinced that Stuart Pearce is a below average coach. What he tried to do with the team was obvious enough and good on him for trying, but he failed himself by trying to force square pegs in round holes – by using players not ideally suited to the role. First mistake.

Also, it was clear that he and his coaching team knew nothing about the Senegalese team. Second mistake.

Third mistake is using Daniel Sturridge as point man. As good as Sturridge is, his game currently makes him no point man. He is too selfish and team unaware to be a point man. Better coaches at Chelsea realised this and stuck him on the right. In fact he lost his place at Chelsea when team play became main strategy.

Pearce is trying to get his team to play a high technical game. The technicality of most of the players he selected are not a high as the game he wants them to play. The more reason why he should have used them in manners that best suit their natural game.

Danny Rose plays better as a left-back that ghosts into attack catching his opponents unaware with his pace. By sticking him in left midfield, he lost the element of surprise his pace gave him and was almost violently marked out of the game. One of the players Pearce has that understands the kind of game he wants his team to play is Scott Sinclair. He was Swansea’s topman last season in the EPL. Scott and Rose on the left would cause havoc for any team. In fact this fact was displayed when TeamGB played Brazil before the Olympics started. How Pearce arrived at the decision that Rose was better than Scott in that role is beyond belief especially if one considers that Sinclair did it week in week out in the EPL for Swansea and Rose barely got game time for his club Spurs.

Pearce does not know more about football than Sir Alex Ferguson. If Pearce had studied the Senegalese then he would have realised that Giggs was never going to be a match for the physicality the Senegalese brought to the table. Giggs, besides the free kick for TeamGB’s goal, did nothing in the game. He consistently played passes that were too short to his team mates, most glaring the one that led to Bellamy almost losing his legs from a bad short pass and a savage tackle by the Senegalese left back. Giggs should be used as an impact substitute. Playing 90mins at full pressure is beyond his legs now, sadly.

If Pearce hopes to revitalise the chances of TeamGB – Men’s football, then he needs to change his team selection.

GK- Butland, LB- Rose, CB – Caulker, CB- Richards, RB- Bertrand, MF- Cleverley, MF- Allen, MF- Ramsey, FW- Sinclair, FW- Bellamy, FW- Sturridge.

Bellamy should be used as the point man. He has the experience, pace and skill to trouble any centre back pairing in the world. Bellamy also possesses the touch and temperament to bring other players into the game and be a team player. If Sturridge must be used, he should be stuck right where he starred for Chelsea at the beginning of last season. Pearce should stop with the blind faith of using Sturridge as the leading striker.

Congratulations to City. Like SAF said, whoever wins the league deserves it. I just hope United and the Glazers can rise to the challenge. SAF will need to improve his coaching set-up which is as important as recruiting the right players.

Thank God for the Euros and Olympics, otherwise it would have been a very boring summer.

What next for Manchester United?

I can’t believe I’m about to say this. I don’t actually mind the noisy neighbours winning the league!!!  I am not happy about it, but I can tolerate it for the greater good. Please before you crucify me, hear me out. I have my reasons, you may deem them illogical, but hear me out.

It is no secret that Manchester United has been punching above its weight for the last two seasons. Whilst football pundits sometime talk a lot of tosh, most genuine Man United fans know that the team in the last two years have been the poorest within the last decade – even the 2005-06 team won the League Cup. If we don’t win the league this season, it will be our poorest return in say 20years! I know we got to the final of the champions league last season, losing expectedly to Barcelona, but that really wasn’t due to the brilliance of the teams’ play but more of the winning mentality of SAF and his steely determination not to give up. Similarly this season, his determination and the poor fight put up by the usual suspects is what has left United with a mathematical but improbable chance of still winning the league. Only City put up a fight and were shoe-in to win until the brief exchange of capitulation by both teams resulted into City being in pole position to clinch the title, their first and hopefully last in 44years.

What went wrong with United? The 2006 to 2010 Man United teams have been the most technically gifted United teams in the last decade. Right from 2006, one could tell that there was greatness within those teams and that they were going to achieve something significant. In order to understand what made those teams tick and great in comparison to the present team, one needs to consider the set-up at Old Trafford and what differences exists between both teams or eras.  Between 2006 and 2009, United had a lot of technically gifted players in its first team – players such as Ronaldo, Solskjaer, Tevez, Berbatov, Hargreaves, Vidic, a young Scholes and Edwin VDS etc. As the saying goes, iron sharpens iron, these players pushed each other to be better and to the maximum of their potential/ability at the time. But even more importantly, I would hazard a guess and suggest that the presence of Carlos Queiroz within the coaching set-up contributed immensely to the tactical and technical ability of the United team during this period. Or put another way, SAF had a formidable coach as assistant manager. Queiroz was SAF’s assistant in 2002-03 season and from 1 July 2004 to 11 July 2008. In contrast, the 2010 – 2012 team and coaching set-up, SAF failed to replace the key members of the 06-10 teams or where he replaced them, he failed to replace them with players with similar technical skill. That in itself isn’t all that was less than ideal but SAF also failed to replace Carlos. Whilst Mike Phelan is a good coach, he is no better than Carlos Queiroz. The older SAF got, the more authority (rightfully) he delegated to his subordinates. It was his delegation to Carlos that led to the spat with then captain Roy Keane with Keane expressing his disapproval of Carlos’ apparent power and control over team matters and tactics which in turn led to the sacking of Roy Keane as a Manchester United player and captain. I believe SAF will have given Mike the same authority he gave to Carlos. But Mike Phelan isn’t as good as Carlos Queiroz, this much is apparent. This coaching oversight or gap, in my opinion, is the major failing within the footballing staff at Manchester United.

The team has deteriorated technically overtime. The way they were taken apart by Athletic Bilbao, their struggle against Otel Gulati, Basel and Benfica this season was testament to that. United’s failing in Europe where football is played technically and tactically was painful to watch. They’ve struggled in tactical matches against technical teams in the last couple of seasons. SAF needs to either get more involved in the coaching of the first team or appoint a better technically gifted coach to assist him. This may unfortunately de-motivate Mike, but it is for the greater good of Manchester United and these sorts of decisions must be made. It is akin to letting Paul Ince, Jaap Stam go and replacing them with equally gifted young starts with significant upside for growth given experience subsequently acquired. Carlos Queiroz is currently the manager of Iran’s national football team. I’m sure he’ll be more than happy to receive a call from Sir Alex Ferguson.

Decisions decisions…

Some really tough decisions need to be made this summer. If United somehow win the league, I fear that these decisions may not be made. This is why I said in my opening paragraph that I don’t mind someone else other than United winning the league this season. Of course I wish it wasn’t the noisy neighbours that’ll win it, but that perhaps it may be a blessing in disguise as it will be the biggest of wake-up call needed by SAF and will be good for the long-term. Sheikh Mansour can’t keep spending £1bn every 2 to 3 years, FFP won’t let him.

I believe the following players must leave OT this summer: JS Park, Michael Owen, Dimitar Berbatov, Kiko Macheda, Richie DaLaet, Anderson Oliveira, Ezekiel Fryers (loan), William Keane (loan), Michael Keane (loan), Fabio (loan), Davide Petrucci (loan), Tomas Kuszczak, Rio Ferdinand, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. Whilst Scholes did really well for the team in the second half of this season, same cannot be said of Giggs. Besides their great contribution over the years, the real question should be‘will they have the legs to deliver similar next season’? Giggs will be 39 this year and Scholes 38. They will need to compete effectively and deliver against players such as David Silva, Yaya Toure, Adam Johnson, Podolski, Gareth Bale, Luca Modric, Juan Mata and a host of others (equally gifted) yet to be bought by our rivals next season. Are these two the players United will depend on to regain the premiership? Their continued presence in the team will only serve as a stumbling block to the younger gifted players coming through. SAF must make the objective decision of letting Giggs and Scholes go this summer and not the emotional decision of keeping them for one more season. At various times this, season SAF made emotional substitutions especially in relation to Giggs, as there were a few matches Giggs should not have started nor played in and certainly not when Scholesy’s old legs were still on the pitch. Their experiences are irreplaceable, yet their legs can no longer deliver. They’ve been faithful servants, yet they must go when the ovation and appreciation for their talent is loudest so as to preserve their legendary statuses.

SAF should consider getting these players (age) as replacement: Aly Cissokho (24), Shinji Kagawa (23), Eden Hazard (21), Neven Subotic (23), Javi Martinez (23) and Fernando Llorente (27). In addition SAF must do all he can to ensure United hold on to Paul Pogba (19) – the kid is definitely the future and the next box-to-box midfielder to rule world football and perhaps rival Yaya Toure for skill and athleticism.

Following on from above, the table below details my preferred 25 man squad for Manchester United next season:

GK	RB	LB	CB
1. David De Gea	4. Rafael	7. Patrice Evra	9. Jonny Evans
2. Anders Lindegaard	5. Chris Smalling	8. Aly Cissokho	10. Nemanja Vidic
3. Ben Amos	6. Phil Jones		11. Neven Subotic
RMF	CMF	DMF	LMF
12. Antonio Valencia	14. Tom Cleverley	18. Michael Carrick	21. Ashley Young
13. Nani	15. Paul Pogba	19. Darren Fletcher
	16. Shinji Kagawa	20. Javi Martinez
	17. Eden Hazard
	FWD
	22. Wayne Rooney
	23. Danny Welbeck
	24. Javier Hernandez
	25. Fernando Llorente