Saturday, 11 March 2017
Chuma Anosike Cricket Cup: Imo, Anambra in final face-off
High scoring Team Imo is to slug it out with Team Anambra in the final of the 7th edition of South-East Cricket championship tagged Chuma Anosike Cup at Saint Paul’s University Cricket Oval, Awka. Anambra today, after defeating Team Anambra 2, by 54 runs. Imo batted first and scored 126 runs for the loss of 9 wickets in 15 overs. Ikpewe Aniekan scored 32 runs off 25 balls in 41 minutes, Onwuliri Chukwudi scored 17 runs off 22 balls in 73 minutes. Anambra’s 13 year-old Ifeakor Makuohukwu took 4 wickets in 3 overs, Omeifeukwu Walter, Diobi Ebuka, Okafor Martins all took a wicket each.
In the second innings Anambra II fizzled out after garnering 72 runs for the loss of 9 in 15 overs. That gave Imo a 54-run victory to propel them to the final.
Captain Ogbue Chukwuka Prince of the victorious Team Imo described their semi final victory against Anambra II, as awesome adding that it was as a result of their hard work and concentration.
Ogbue Chukwuka, who was a former student of the University of Nsuka has not stopped celebrating Imo’s victory over the UNN team in the final group match.
‘’Beating UNN Cricket team was a great joy to Imo team because since the commencement of this tournament Imo has never for once defeated UNN team but breaking the jinx is what will boost our mind by the time we file out against Anambra 1.
‘’ We are battle ready for Anambra 1, nothing will stop us from winning this year’s edition of Chuma Anosike Cup.”
Captain of Anambra 1 team, Ifediora Emmanuel said there was no cause for alarm adding that they were in high spirit.
The post Chuma Anosike Cricket Cup: Imo, Anambra in final face-off appeared first on Vanguard News.
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Saturday, 18 February 2017
Akarigbo stool: ‘Don’t exclude credible candidates’
The late Akarigbo
As the race to occupy the vacant stool of Akarigbo of Remoland, Ogun State heats up, a prominent son of Ikenne, Chief Olufemi Sosanya has decried the alleged exclusion of credible candidates from the list of candidates.
Sosanya, speaking on the heels of a newspaper publication, in which only five names were listed, said the publication tactically omitted qualified, credible candidates, prominent among them; Prince Ibukunoluwa Ademuyiwa Adeniran Alayo from the Famolu branch of Torungbuwa Ruling House.
It would be recalled that Oba Adeniyi Sonariwo, who ascended the throne in July 1990, passed on July 25, 2016.
Sosanya noted that the truth about the Akarigbo succession bid must be tabled, not only to enlighten sons and daughters of Sagamu, but also the generality of the people of the state.
The business tycoon said he was worried that the Olootu, who should uphold the honour bestowed on him as a custodian of the family lineage, has presented himself as a candidate.
He, however, warned those writing about the stool to verify their facts and remain objective so as not to degrade the respected throne.
Sosanya explained that as a stakeholder in Remoland, the process should not lead to upheaval, especially as the five ruling houses: Torungbuwa, Koyelu, Owarodo otutu bi osun, Anoko and Liyangu are not in crisis alleging that the crisis confronting the process is brewing from Torungbuwa Ruling House, meant to produce the next monarch.
He called on the candidates to be understanding and embrace peace reached at any peace meeting, warning if they allowed personal sentiments to jeopardise process, it might cause age long vacuum.
Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2kArqzu
Wednesday, 8 February 2017
CAF vows to improve future Nations Cup pitches
The Confederation of African Football (Caf) says it will take greater control over pitches at future Africa Cup of Nations to avoid poor playing surfaces.
The pitches at this year’s finals in Gabon came in for heavy criticism, with the state of the turf in Port Gentil blamed by then-Ghana coach Avram Grant as responsible for causing injuries to players.
“That is a lesson for us to make sure we have better control of better management in future,” Caf secretary general Hicham El Amrani told BBC Sport.
“We are taking it very seriously.
“One way to do things is to be in touch with the Local Organising Committee way in advance, even before a pitch has been laid, and to provide them with our knowledge in terms of selection of suppliers.
“Of course we would have been happier if certain things had been better managed – and I’m not going to go back on the everlasting issue of the pitch in Port Gentil.
“But overall we are very happy with the tournament and we congratulate the host nation for their tremendous efforts.”The pitches aside, and Caf denied they resulted in any injuries, this year’s finals were largely successful with the focus on the entertaining football rather than any off-field incident.
Gabon was chosen at short notice to stage the finals in April 2015, after the tournament was removed from original hosts Libya the previous year because of civil conflict in the country.
El Amrani says that talks have already started about preparing the pitches for the 2019 Nations Cup in Cameroon, whose team won this year’s finals.Having staged the Women’s Africa Cup of Nations last year, some pitches have been laid long in advance – in stark contrast to the turf in the new stadiums in both Oyem and Port Gentil.
“We just need to make sure we keep offering the best conditions but obviously taking into account the environment in which we operate,” he added.“From a football perspective, we are also very happy. We saw beautiful games.”
Gabon was supposed to be the first men’s Nations Cup to have fan parks – but El Amrani says this was cancelled after the violence that followed August’s disputed presidential elections.
Three people died in street protests according to the government, while the opposition party claimed the death toll was far higher.“Because of some delays that we encountered following some turbulences after the presidential elections, we decided it would be more effective not to deliver the fan parks,” the Moroccan explained.
“We had to focus our energy and effort on delivering the stadiums, which was obviously more important.”Caf plans to have fan parks in Cameroon, where they were a feature of last year’s hugely-popular women’s tournament.
“We cannot have them for the Women’s Cup of Nations in Cameroon and then not for the men’s one,” he said.“I think we need them anyway, not only for Cameroon but also for other teams. People in Cameroon are so crazy about football that we might need stadiums for 200,000 people, which we obviously cannot have.”
On a separate note, El Amrani denied that Caf had removed this year’s Under-17 finals from Madagascar after the country’s FA head, Ahmad Ahmad, chose to challenge long-standing ruler Issa Hayatou in March’s presidential elections.
“It is not true but if the media wants to find links or comment on that, I will not get into that area,” he said.“When decisions are being made to grant a tournament, take it away, delay or whatever decision is being made, it is a collective decision that is made based on concrete factual reports.”
With the exception of Ahmad himself, all others on the Caf Executive Committee decided to withdraw the tournament from Madagascar – citing the ‘reports of inspection teams’ – and move the May event to Gabon.
Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2ktuiNa
Downplay politics of party’s affiliation after elections, royal father advises
President Muhammadu Buhari
To ensure good governance and development especially at the grassroots, politicians should drop all imaginary differences after elections have been won and lost.
The argument is that irrespective of party affiliations, politicians have to join hands together and work for the common good of the electorate. The Olu of Okebukun land, Ige Omonile gave the charge at a quiz competition organized for all secondary schools by the member representing Kabba/Bunu state constituency, Mr. Mathew Kolawole.
The royal father spoke against the backdrop of altercations and acrimony often exhibited by politicians of opposing parties in the country, stressing that the time has come for there to be cooperation and collaboration immediately after elections.
He said that he was encouraged that unlike other politicians, the special adviser on Security to governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi state, Commander (rtd.) Jerry Omodara who though serving with an All Progressives Congress (APC) government, graced the event of a Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmaker.
This gesture, he noted was reinvigorating and makes for oneness, unity and growth of the people. He called on other politicians to emulate Omodara so that inter-party strife could be minimized to the nearest minimum.
The special adviser to the governor on security explained that that his action was informed by the desire to put the people first as it is not only when there is election that the electorate should be remembered.
“Politics is about people and our people must not only be recognized when there is election. Without Kabba/Bunu people there can never be House of Assembly representative or a majority leader in the person of Kolawole. Without the people of Kogi State, there cannot be Governor Yahaya Bello today. Therefore the people must be at the heart of the subject matter they are talking about.”
He said there was no need for such rivalry or politics of party affiliations as all parties work towards the good of the people. He promised to increase the prize money for first, second and third places by N25, 000 each.
On his part, Kolawole said he organised the quiz competition for all secondary schools in his constituency to enhance their knowledge and academic pursuit.
He said he decided to sponsor the Kabba/Bunu All Secondary Schools Quiz Competition because it is meant to encourage the students to perform better academically as well as the fact that education is the pillar of their future endeavours.
“Some of us went for the evening school with personal sponsorship now that I have the opportunity to help people, I have to put in my best to educate these children so they don’t suffer the same fate as myself.
He explained that the best school, its runner up and the second runner up will go home with trophies and cash prizes while the fourth position will get consolation prize along with all other participating schools. The winner is expected to have a scholarship for duration of one year.
Vía The Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2kJsCgW
Monday, 30 January 2017
Strategy mistakes you must avoid
It’s the beginning of the year, and most institutions are either putting final touches on their strategies or just about to start implementing strategies that they developed earlier in the year or late last year. Sadly, in spite of the great effort and cost that often goes into putting together a strategy, the odds are often stacked against the success of most strategies because of some simple, yet powerful mistakes that organisational leaders make in strategy development and implementation.
In the last 15 years, I have been involved in developing and implementing strategies and have found that understanding and avoiding some of these mistakes will enhance the chances of strategic success. I will like to share these mistakes, and hope that it can help you make better decisions regarding your organizational/departmental/team strategy in 2017 and beyond.
Firstly, never believe a consultant can develop a strategy for you to only review and endorse that will work. A company once invited a consultant to develop their strategy, the consultant did his due diligence, wrote a report, submitted his recommendations, took the company’s executives off-site for a couple of days to present their recommended strategy, got the executives to approve, and left them and the rest of the organization’s leaders to implement a strategy that almost nobody internally understood.
During implementation, the company’s leaders struggled first with even interpreting the highfalutin language used by the consultant before they could get to actual implementation. So, use consultants, but get involved in all aspects of strategy development rather than just waiting for their “almighty reports and recommendations”.
Another common mistake that organizations make is reducing the strategic retreat or off-site to a mere beauty contest. Senior Managers and business unit leaders are paraded one after the other to make presentations on their achievements from the previous year and their plans for the New Year. Some people use the opportunity to brag about their achievements and others get torn-down for their failures. There is hardly any creative thinking that happens and even worse the various ideas and plans cannot be harmonized or aligned, so you end up with a plan that only the department head understands and the organization continues to execute in silos, and continues to under-perform.
I have also observed some organizations whose strategy process involves only the very senior leaders. There is no input from the rest of the organization, and the 10-15 people often referred to as the “committee of old-men” assume that they are “all-knowing” Alternatively, while we recognize that not everyone can attend the retreat, you can get the input of all your employees before the retreat. This way the blind spots of the top leaders can be accommodated and implementation is a lot easier since everyone feels carried along, and rightfully so.
Even when some of these costly mistakes above are avoided, organizations make even more subtle mistakes in the strategy process like not allowing creative thinking during their planning or brainstorming sessions. For example, if there are no rules for ideating, many great ideas will be shot down and others bottled-up. There are a number of experiential facilitation techniques and creative thinking tools that enhance contextual focus – ensuring as many ideas as possible, and being disciplined about selecting and narrowing down to the best solutions.
Also, organizations hardly focus on the other very important element: managing the people side of change. The idea is simple, focusing on just the initiatives and projects without ensuring that the people who will implement are carried along can lead to a lot of resistance to change, which could and most likely stifle the success of your strategy. By paying attention to the people side and ensuring that all employees have a heightened level of awareness and desire to embrace the new initiatives, and that they also are provided with the knowledge and ability to implement the initiatives and that there is a leadership commitment and performance management to reinforce the changes and enshrine them in organizational culture, will inch you closer to strategic success.
Some organizations then cascade the strategy in one of two less than perfect ways – they either cascade to the next level of leaders and expect them to further cascade (ignoring how much can get distorted along the way) or they embark on these road shows that end up being monologues where employees never get a chance to give any feedback to the “iron-clad, cast-in-stone strategies that have just come down from the “mountain-top” Organizations should sell the strategy to all across all levels. When doing so, they should explain, engage and set expectations in a participatory conversation with their employees and be flexible to make changes to their strategy if employees give them cogent reasons to do so.
Finally and perhaps the most potentially damaging mistake that organizations make is not building capacity among its managers and leaders at all levels to be strategic. So, if leaders do not really understand the tools for creative thinking, decision making, strategy implementation and managing change, then how can they add value to strategy development and implementation. Such organizations may become too over-dependent on external consultants and may never be truly able to build and implement sustainable strategies without the constant hand-holding of consultants who often are not as knowledgeable about their business and industry as the people inside are. Surely, consultants have a role to play in providing external insights, research and analytical tools and frameworks, but ultimately, there must be capacity within the organizations to continue after the consultants leave.
As you build and implement your strategies in 2017 and beyond, you must be cognizant of these mistakes and pay attention to the alternatives that will enhance your success
Barrow is an Abuja-based Strategy Adviser with Learning Impact NG.
@gbitsebarrow.
Vía The Guardian NigeriaThe Guardian Nigeria http://ift.tt/2kakQg0