This is definitely not a good time for the President of the Nigerian Chess Federation, Lekan Adeyemi who currently is not enjoying the support of many professional Chess players in the country.
Among the sundry allegations levelled against Lekan Adeyemi was the way and manner he has been running the federation and has turned it into his own personal fiefdom.
He has been accused of undermining the future of young Chess players in the country and has prevented many young Chess players from participating in international tournaments.
Among those that have taken to social media to accuse Lekan Adeyemi of poor handling of the Nigeria Chess Federation, NCF, was Rabiu Olabisi whose unedited letter to the President of the Nigerian Chess Federation is quite revealing and has raised many questions which the President is yet to respond to.
Below are letters written by two of the aggrieved Chess players:
FIRST LETTER
Please Forgive Me For Writing A Long Letter, I Am Sorry I Could Not Shorten It As Much As I Want To, Problem Is I Have So Much To Say, Kindly Help Me To Read Through So That You Can Understand My Plight. Please Try And Overlook The Grammatical Errors You May See In This Letter, And Also Try And Wear A Bullet Proof If You Have One. Thanks
DEAR MR PRESIDENT
Good day sir, hope you are doing good? How is work sir, how is NCF doing under your administration, hope good?
Dear Sir, I am openly appealing to you to forgive the children that participated at the just concluded African youths in Giza, Egypt. I am openly appealing to you to please forgive, please forgive them sir for they wrong you not.
Dear sir, what was their offense that you had to tell the Egyptians not to allow them use the Nigerian flag and enjoy the benefits of being Nigerians? What was their offense that you had to spoil a good tournament for them? What was their offense that you had to spoil their chances of winning the tournament? Sir, please check the final standings of the under 18 category and you see what your actions caused us. They were withdrawn from round 4 and re instated in round 6 through the Grace of GOD. When we heard the news, to say that we were devastated is an understatement, I cannot explain how we felt when they were not paired for round 5, the sadness on our friends faces made me wept, they were asking questions that only you could answer. If not for GOD sir, they would have been removed completely, GOD proved Himself to be ONISE IYANU, OBA AKO MA TI IKA LEYIN. With the barriers in language, GOD raised an army to fight on our behalf and they were reinstated in round 6 and escaped expulsion from the tournament with a zero point in round 5 that they did not play. Dear sir, kindly check the final standing you will see that Tito could have won the tournament or at worst came 3rd and won himself a himself a FM title. The person that came 3rd with 6 points is the same 2114 opponent that he drew with in round 1, Tito ends with 5 points with a rating performance of 2021 and he gained 35.6 rating points. Dear sir, imagine if you didn’t disrupt his tournament, imagine if he played round 5 and won.
Dear sir, I am publicly begging you to let these children be, please don’t ruin their chess career because of your political ambition and unforgiving heart, and if you must destroy young people’s chess career, you have children, and they all play chess.
What was their offense, I need to know, they need to know, other well meaning Nigerians need to know and our Chess Friends from other Countries need to know. Please STOP LYING, I heard that you called Egypt to confirm if Nigerians are indeed participating and told them to remove the players as you Mr President did not know about their been there. Sir, have you forgotten that I told you and sent their names to you to be nominated? When you said that Nigerians will not be participating and did not give reasons for your decisions, myself and Mr Bayo Babalola sent you a plea message. When I heard that you said you have allowed as many Nigerians that wants to play, I sent you a thank you message because you didn’t pick my calls, anyway, you don’t pick my calls, we always have our conversations through text messages. How can you say Nigerians did not know when IM Oladapo Adu, the players’ representative of NCF knew and encouraged us to go, he even came to our house to train him for the event.
Dear sir, kindly tell us the real reasons behind your decisions, is it truly because of the #120,000 that some parents refused to give you last year? But sir, I already told you that these children are not part of the those that refused to pay. You have always been telling us how you have been funding the Federation with your personal money, if indeed you have been running the federation with your money sir, you would not tell the parents to pay extra #120,000 for south Africa’s trip, let me explain to you again, last year when Nigerian youths and their parents were preparing for African youths Chess Championship in South Africa, NCF told the parents to pay the visa fee and processing to NCF, you told us the visa will be processed by NCF and even showed us the protocol officer in charge of getting visa for all Sport Federations in Nigeria, only to do everything by ourselves, ordinary photocopy NCF could not pay for, only thing was we were taken to the VFS center with NCF bus. I have not gotten the #5000 refund promised by NCF till date. When the parents were busy looking for 170 Euros(#71,000), registration fee and airfare, you told us to pay #120,000 extra for each child, you said the money was for 2 NCF officials, the National coach and the secretary to go with them. You held a meeting with us, during the meeting, you told us how you have been funding the federation with your money and you never collected a dime from the federal government since you resumed office. Sir, we all clapped for you and mine was the loudest. How could you expect the parents to have extra 120k to pay, even you didn’t have money to sponsor your own child at that time? E de beru OLORUN. When I was told about the money, I promised to pay 60k as advised by Boyo Paul, but unfortunately my son couldn’t make the trip because NCF could not get his passport from the VFS center though we paid for the service, and we were not told early so that we could get it on time by ourselves, we had to wait till the following Monday and he had already missed 3 rounds. I was very surprised when secretary told me you blamed me for refusal of the parents, kindly tell me sir, how I got through to the parents from Togo, the players are not my students, why not blame their coaches, Boyo and Obinna, why me? I did not pay the 60k I promised because he did not go, because NCF did not fulfill Her part but I did send 10k to the secretary to show my intention of paying.
So, tell me sir, what was their offense? Is it because of your political career? I read on Facebook that two under14s approached and begged you to allow them participate because they will not have the opportunity next year and you refused. Why is that you always don’t want Nigerians to participate in something that will benefits them. In 2014, shortly after you lost the election to become the African Chess Confederation( ACC )President to Mr Lewis Ncube, you said Nigerians will NEVER participate in any event organized by ACC. I suffered greatly from your hands for going to the Zonals organized by ACC in Cameroon, even though I did not know that you want Nigeria players to boycott the event, you did not communicate the boycotting message to many of us, no message on Facebook , Twitter or any social media neither did you publish in any National dailies. Oh, how I suffered for a sin I did not commit, you even went as low as sending a 16 years old to insult me on Facebook, he said, I betrayed Nigerians and stabbed Nigerians at the back for going to that zonals. I am happy and I thank GOD that I went to that Zonals and liberated the players in a way, I introduced the benefits of playing the zonals to my fellow Nigeria players. After that zonal, we had gotten titles from zonals, 5FMs and 1 CM at Togo and 2 FMs and I CM at Ghana, and 1 IM in Liberia which is yet to be reflected, to crown it all, 2 Nigerians had the opportunities of playing at the World Cup, one of us even got the chance to play the World reigning Champion, all because of the zonals. Don’t you think I deserve an award for opening your eyes?
Dear Sir, please permit me to call you a Visionless leader and a Disillusioned politician. According to you, NCF will not have anything to do with ACC just because you didn’t become the ACC President or for whatever other reasons you have. Its just like saying NFA will not have anything to do with CAF. Sir, don’t you know that Oja ta Oja o ta, owo alaru ape, FIDE or ACC will never and can never loose if we choose to be stupid. If Nigeria choose not to participate, the only looser will be Nigerians. You are Pro Kasparov, you contested the election with their ticket, please tell me, how many events have you used your influence to get for Nigerians? The other Pro Kasparov countries has benefitted and still benefiting from ACC, yet you do not want any ACC event in your country even when it was offered to you on a platter of Gold, you made your players to be spending so much on hotels and air tickets to attend events in other countries without assistance from you, but you are quick to claim our achievements. You are Pro Kasparov so you won’t have anything to do with ACC, yet Kasparov Africa is taking tournaments to other countries except Nigeria that they gave the presidential ticket to, all other Pro Kasparov countries are benefitting from President Lewis Ncube’s leadership except you. You are also complaining that he is encroaching on your territory by helping your people. What kind of a man are you? Did you know that in March/ April this year, Kasparov Africa held a tournament in Lusaka , ZAMBIA ( ZAMBIA OPEN), the Home and Country of Mr Ncube, the President of ACC. Mr Ncube showed one of the qualities of a good leader, a leader that wants the best for his people by not rejecting the tournament, you are rejecting tournaments from ACC, I pray you receive sense in JESUS Name. With your permission sir, I can organize fasting and praying sessions for your DELIVERANCE from Negative actions. Because of your political ambition, you destroyed the chance of a Promising Nigeria chess player to become an IM in his teens. Daniel Anwuli was 19 years old last year November and also Nigeria number with rating of 2331 when you made him go to South Africa for an IM tournament organized by KCF instead of a direct IM title tournament plus a GM norm organized by FIDE/ACC in Tunisia. Did you took time to think or you are so blind with your selfishness that you could not see the difference in benefits from the two tournaments?, if he wins in South Africa which was a big IF then, with the calibers of players on display, he would get an IM NORM and needs two more to get the IM title, if he wins in Tunisia, which was over 80%, he would get an automatic IM title plus a GM norm. I was an arbiter there and I saw what they were playing, even Iyanu Olowe, our under 16 female had the chance of becoming a WIM with a WGM NORM from that tournament, but Daniel went to South Africa to lose hard earned 57.8 rating points and drop from number 1 to number 5, please tell me, what kind of a man are you?
Tell us, what are your plans for our youths, how do you want them to improve, how are they going to make progress in their chess career, how can we meet up with other African and the chess world?? We keep saying the Egyptians are good, the South Africans have GM, the Zambians chess is solid etc, do they have two heads? You don’t have any plans for these youths, you won’t support them and you won’t allow their parents to.
Dear sir, I am publicly begging you to let Tantoluwa and Titoluwanimi be, you have punished them enough for a sin they did not commit, you just punished them for having parents that wants the best for them, they did not wrong you in any way, their parents did, please don’t ruin their chess career with your unforgiving attitude.
If I may ask again, what are your plans to move chess forward in Nigeria, is it by rating alone? What have we achieved with the ratings locally and internationally? How are you promoting chess in your neighborhood, state, region and Nigeria as a whole? At least if you cannot help in anyway, please don’t obstruct those who can. We keep saying its difficult to get sponsors, how are you making it easy to get through to them? One of the ways to get to sponsors is to look for chess lover or parent that can help convince, boss, colleagues, friends and families etc to sponsor chess if they cannot do it single handedly on their own, but you are not doing that.
Dear Sir, please permit me to say SHAME ON YOU, shame on you that you could not use your letter writing skill to win sponsors for Nigeria Chess, you are always quick to write complaint letter against your players to be removed from tournament, yet you could not write to potential sponsors. How many letters have you written to Dangote Group, PZ, Nestle Foods etc? you go just sidon for your corner dey write letter and calling Federations against your own, but you no fit do same for the progress of your Federation, SHIO.
Dear sir, I am begging you to let these children be, I know you will be angry that despite the wahala you gave yourself and put us through, they continued the tournament under ACC flag, please forgive us because we didn’t know anything about the decision, it was just GOD on our side.
I remembered that your former secretary told me that you said you will never forgive me for collecting the money meant for the players at Norway OLYMPIAD, I DID NOT SINGLEHANDEDLY COLLECT THE MONEY, ALL THE PLAYERS DID, I was only unfortunate to be the only one with an ID card to sign for the money and I wouldn’t have been there if you my bag was not lost, thanks to your arrangements. Don’t let me even recount my ordeals at Norway, is it the fact that I and four others had to sleep at the airport because we had to wait for you, the head of delegation that had to stay back in Nigeria to wait for his Madam that was not part of the team ni mo fe so ni?
I am the one that wronged you, please continue your punishments with me and leave my Chess Children alone, you have tried severally to frustrate my chess career but because O GBE NI NIJA KERU O BO NIJA is involve in my matter, I have always escaped you. Anytime you removed your tattered mat, Almighty GOD always replace with very expensive and beautiful rug for me. You frustrated me for going to Cameroon for my Arbiter’s seminar and exam, the people that did before me, organized by you, paid #50000 to you for it are yet to become FAs, only one was able to, others are yet to be recognized by FIDE as NAs, the last time I checked in May this year, two of them did not even have FIDE IDs after 3 years of that seminar.
Pastor pikin will not forgive me for choosing to be progressive, you even went as far as denying me the norms I officiated and spent money to get. You removed my name and replaced it with Boyo Paul from NFOC tournament report sent to FIDE in 2015, tournament that I had to pay money for my departure date to be changed forward just to make that tournament. I am used to staying at good hotels for free, free good meals, good room, free air tickets to tournament etc but I had to travel by road to Port Harcourt for the flaming Knights tournament, paid for my own accommodation at one ABE ILE hotel and had to skip meals because of limited funds all for the sake of a norm, I spent more than I was given just to have the norm, and you and your chief arbiter removed my name from the tournament report sent to FIDE. Anyway, it’s not your fault, it’s me that left GOD , my everlasting source and looked up to you. If not for GOD, I wouldn’t be a FA by now, when you rejected me, Almighty GOD showed me mercy, when you said I am not one of your arbiters and that my name should be removed from NFOC tournament in 2016, GOD promoted me and provided my norms internationally.
Ki le tun fe?, I did go very low for the sake of getting a norm in Nigeria, I couldn’t talk when your chief arbiter go wrong, I dare not talk if I want my norms, your chief arbiter will always say “ I am the chief arbiter, I cannot leave the system” and he would be watching movies on the system without using headpiece in the playing hall, talking on the phone like kilode and I could not talk. He is the chief arbiter and cannot leave the system, so that mosquitoes will not suck the blood of his laptop dry and steal it away; he needs it to send the tournament report to FIDE. I know the FIDE rules and am very proud to say it, I know the rules better than your so called chief arbiters and I can INTERPRET the rules better than them. It’s not my fault that they are lacking, I only give myself rooms for improvement, I know am very competent, I don’t manipulate pairings and won’t manipulate pairing to favour anybody no matter who. I had to stomach many wrongs just because I needed a norm, ki le tun fe? I had been insulted and abused just because I was doing what my job as an Arbiter entails and also to cover the INCOMPETENCY of the chief arbiter all for the sake of getting a norm. You use your power at will, even the chief arbiter uses his power anyhow, anyway, GOD DEY. I should not complain because I am enjoying the Almighty GOD victories, I should not complain because Baba GOD has blessed me so much, I am the first Nigerian to have her name on the list of FIDE Arbiters’ in World and Continental events, if there is any other please let me know, the first Nigerian to have all her FA Norms internationally and so on. In fact, I have a lot to thank the LORD for and leave complains and lamentations to you and your people. I can only pray to GOD to open the eyes of your blind worshippers, I pray they will learn how to look up to the AMIGHTY because HE is the only one that can help them locally and internationally. Please , leave me alone, if you cannot help my hustle, please let me enjoy from it in peace.
Dear MR PRESIDENT, kindly tell me and others that may wants to know the reason behind your actions. Thanking you in anticipation of your reply.
Be blessed
GENS UNA SUMUS
SECOND LETTER
Ladies and Gentlemen, in the absence of a statement from Mr NCF President , I went on a voyage of discovery into the controversial matter , we have always known that Nigerian chess is a microcosm of Nigeria itself , I was the chess coach of Ondo state and I have studied how the mind of these people works …. Not just in Ondo or with chess but in all sports and in all states, MOST OF THE PEOPLE IN CONTROL ARE NOT LOVERS OF THEIR SPORT BUT ARE ONLY INTERESTED IN EMBEZZLING MONEY !! #FACT They are also greedy with it , it is okay if you make some money at the sport you love and still get the job done by improving it but these sets of vampires we have all over the place are ONLY interested in their pockets , they do not care about the athletes or the sports ATALL, if you win GOLD and they smile , it could only be because that will make the state Government release more funds so they can steal some more , they do not care about you or your Gold but themselves. #Sad truth. According to an impeccable source , STATE COACHES/ADMINISTRATORS approach NCF , with the explanation that they want to sponsor these KIDS for youth Competition get Millions of Naira released with the help of NCF and then disappear with the Money WITHOUT ACTUALLY TAKING THE KIDS TO THE INTERNATIONAL EVENT . NCF has been used on many occasions like these for fraud by these fraudulent people .
Naturally the NCF will not be happy about these and they resolved not to grant people these kind of letter and according to the SOURCE that NO NIGERIAN WILL GO FOR ANY YOUTH EVENT anytime soon as NCF said they will not give anybody letter again for YOUTH events. NOW in Bisi Rabius case the source said , the normal procedure was not followed and that NCF does not give consent by just been told but in an international event according to STANDARD RULES , it is the NCF’s duty to forward the names of athletes directly to the organizers/host federation.
NCF and NFF (Nigerian Football Federation) are both on the same level (not talking about popularity now but it is same law guiding them) Now you can imagine if in 1996 after the NFF decides to boycott the Nations cup and a Coach decides to take players to the event without NFFs direct letter to the organizers and following standard procedure. (Of course the NCFs decision might not be the best or could even be in BAD FAITH but they still remain the authority )*** so their could be a problem if the Nigerian flag is hoisted in Egypt without official approval thus violating National Sports Commission rules WHO ACCORDING TO SOURCE DID NOT APPROVE THE TOURNAMENT ?!(Blah Blah blah) . LONG AND SHORT OF THE MATTER IS THAT NCF DID NOT APPROVE THE TRIP OFFICIALLY.
MY TAKE ON THIS –
On BISI’s matter , I sincerely believe that her reaction was not based on the tournament alone but on several chain of events and long term differences , her allegations was beyond just what happened in Egypt and she has a right to be angered based on being consistently victimized and denied so many things though in the face of that she had being a warrior who fought for her international Arbiter norms in the face of what she described as constant witch hunting by the powers that be . knowing about the differences and NCF stand on youth event as at now perhaps SHE COULD HAVE USED THE ACC FLAG FROM THE START . for instance when I was to play at the Zone 4.4 in Ghana based on Nomination by African Chess federation president , I ensured the letter was sent by ACC to the Ghana federation and I only informed NCF president out of “respect” though I know the POLITICS going on and all that (I HATE POLITICS IN CHESS) I even interviewed the ACC president and that my interview remained the only one on ACC website till date !!WHY IS NIGERIA STILL FIGHTING ACC BECAUSE OF POLITICAL DIFFERENCE TO THE DETRIMENT OF NIGERIAN CHESS PLAYERS? So perhaps BISI COULD JUST HAVE USED ACC FLAG FROM THE START . Not good for Nigeria but at least you will achieve you aim of helping the kids since the Government agency is “slack “.
As per NCF – I think there should have been better ways of handling things , Why say no more youth events just because of the bad guys using the youths for money making , what about the genuine folks who are interested in developing and exposing this kids, organize TRIALS if need be and ensure these kids follow their dreams, develop a mechanism to check the bad eggs . WOULD THE CASES HAVE BEEN DIFFERENT IF THOSE FRUADULENT COACHES HAS SHARED NCF A FEW MILLIONS?? (I do not know but I sincerely hope NCF also have the interest of the sport at heart, and that can only be seen by POSITIVE ACTIONS and DECISIONS taken in GOOD FAITH. Yes you have the authority, POWER and discretion but that power and discretion must be EXERCISED IN GOOD FAITH and NOT based on SENTIMENTS OR influenced by PERSONAL GROUSE.
PERTINENT QUESTION NOW is why should the youth continue to suffer now?? Why stop youth representing Nigeria because of the reasons above? Is cutting off the head the cure for head ache? Does your decision show you have the interest of CHESS at heart?? let the youths go for tournaments but ensure the thieves from those states do not trick you anymore , there should be a way to ensure the kids actually go for those events though I know many of the thieve will not even apply once they know they will be held accountable but the genuine ones should not be punished. I appeal to CPAN to wade in and do everything possible to ensure these YOUTHS do not suffer!! There are people who love the game , develop the youth and chess in general , they get paid but gets the job done and we know them , , i would like to encourage everyone /chess players not to be discouraged but do everything possible to contribute to this “thing of ours” .!! #saynotodirtypolitics – CM Akinov Akinseye ESQ