Why ‘Boys Scout’ Minister, Dalung Failed In Government

Why 'Boys Scout' Minister, Dalung Failed In Government
Solomon Dalung

Solomon Selcap Dalung is a Nigerian politician who served as Nigeria’s Minister of Youth and Sports from November 2015 to May 2019 under the PMB administration. Before then, he had served as a lecturer in the Nigerian Prisons Service at the University of Jos and as Chairman of Langtang South Local Government in Plateau State.

From all his sojourn into politics, what is of most interest is the controversy that marked his tenure as a Federal minister up to and beyond the time, he was thrown out of office by President Muhammadu Buhari for lack of capacity and focus.

Shortly after his appointment by President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015, Dalung, rather than settling down in his new office towards delivering the dividends of democracy to the teeming youth and sports enthusiasts, abandoned that responsibility to become a revolutionary and an activist in government.

Most of the nation’s sports lovers are resolute that Lalong’s tenure was tragic due to his perceived lack of understanding of the critical sector and the temperament needed to connect and relate with youths and sports enthusiasts among others.

Dalung is yet to reconcile himself with the fact that his time is over. He is no longer in power and cannot ridicule the leader and institution that gave him a unique opening to taste power, glory and fame and make his positive foot prints indelible.

One can vividly recall that Dalung once boasted that ‘no one born of a woman could remove him from office.’ Sadly, PMB despite lobbying refused to reappoint him as Minister during his second term in office in 2019.

His tenure as Minister of a Strategic Ministry did not add any value to the PMB administration due to his incompetence and lack of focus to drive the ministry forward.

Dalung’s incompetence and lack of capacity are reflected in the ways he managed youth activities. His imposition of stooges on associations and federations resulted in stalemates, in-fighting, chaos, and bickering.

Given his penchant for self-delusion and egoism, Dalung watched hopelessly as the National Stadium in Lagos, the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja and Obafemi Awolowo Stadium in Ibadan got dilapidated. He could not even muster the resources for mere routine maintenance of those stadia.

It was under Dalung that Nigeria was subjected to International ridicule for failing to successively qualify for the Nations Cup.

Indeed, his combatant approach repeatedly scared away sponsorship, partnership and also stagnated Nigeria’s Youth and sports Development.

It is on record that Dalung never thought outside the box in steering the affairs of the ministry for lack of resourcefulness, creativity and innovation.

Despite his monumental and disastrous stewardship, Lalong was shamelessly recently quoted ‎as saying that President Muhammadu Buhari has failed Nigerians.

Some of the reasons for which President Buhari removed Dalung as Minister included how he fueled the crisis ridden Nigerian Football Federation, NFF that turned out to be a battle field for its leadership between Amaju Pinnick and Chris Giwa, who almost engaged each other in fisticuffs.

‎Nigerians and the international community were told that Nigeria had engaged the services of Paul Le Guen to manage the Super Eagles but swiftly, the news was discarded. The minister claimed he wasn’t aware about NFF’s decision and the NFF maintained that the minister was aware and insisted that his denial was a shock. That was yet another national embarrassment.

In 2016, files relating to team’s camping and training tours in preparation for the Olympics at the ministry’s offices and ‎that was the beginning of the trouble for athletes at the Olympics largely due to Dalung’s incompetence.

The eventual mismanagement of the Rio Olympics games which became a national embarrassment is another reason President Buhari did not find it worth the while to reappoint him into his cabinet.

Nigeria’s men soccer team got stranded in Atlanta after training and arrived in Brazil few hours before their first match against Japan in Manaus, Brazil due to “logistical mix-up” was another evident indication of lack of capacity.

An online newspaper, 247ureports.com had in late 2016 reported that Minister Lalong assigned to the sports and youths ministry may have been a strong mistake by the Buhari administration by placing a ‘person with a questionable background and shady personality at the sensitive position of youth minister’.

Indeed, records show that Dalung’s tenure as Minister of Youths and Sports Development is the most disastrous era ever in Youths and Sports Development in the country. Regretably, Dalung has turned a blind eye in the direction of his incompetence, lack of capacity and inexperience to point accusing fingers at even fomer President Buhari, former Minister of youths and Sports and other Sports administrators in the country.

Dalung ought to bury his head in shame for abusing the trust and confidence reposed in him by President Buhari and the nation to run a strategic ministry. Sadly, Dalung failed woefully by ending his stay in office with nothing to show as legacy. He made more headlines with his trade mark attire and red beret cap than any known accomplishments.

It will be recalled that it was under Dalung that Nigeria was subjected to International ridicule by failing to successively qualify for the Nations Cup, performed woefully at the Olympics and age group competitions which are the strongest of our National teams.

 

Musa Ilallah,
A public Affairs analyst can be reached at musahk123@yahoo.com

[bravepop id="205917" align="center"]
0 0 votes
Article Rating
Subscribe
Notify of
0 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments