Being conclusion of article by J.K. Randle first published yesterday
These broadcasting rights were not only limited to satellite broadcast but included webcasting, too, and not only on the scope of Egypt and Africa, but throughout the whole world.
Egyptian Competitions Authority asked CAF for quick measures according to article 20 of the Competition Act, which most importantly included the cancelation of the contract between him and Lagardere because of the outcomes these have on Egypt.
The authority also granted an exceptional right for BeIn media organisation in addition to the other company that applied for the broadcasting grants to continue its live broadcasting for the 2017 AFCON, which started on January 14, because of the short time available to perform the needed procedures before the start to preserve the viewers’ rights to watch the championship through a competitive atmosphere that allows viewers to review best prices and grants them more freedom to choose, in addition to re-opening the broadcasting rights and other rights publicly on the official CAF website in advance and CAF will evaluate proposals that will be submitted according to an objective criteria in a way that ensures the protection of competition in these markets and to stop monopolies.
CAF will also have to change the way broadcasting rights for its championships are sold in Egypt, in a manner that divides it into bundles that ensures the creation of conditions that encourages competition in broadcasting championships.
The Competitions Authority stressed that CAF is subject to the Protection of Competition Act and is obliged to apply it according to the second article of the agreement between the Egyptian government and CAF. The Competitions Authority assured that they would be contacting all concerned authorities in the country to ensure the implementation of its decisions and “remove the serious damage that happened to the Egyptian economy as a result of his actions.”
Additional evidence was provided regarding the even more troubling equation of survival when confronted with desperation, no wealth; no power; no status; and no privilege.
Front page report of Daily Sun newspaper of January 6, 2017.
Headline: “BOKO HARAM: WOMEN SELL SEX TO SURVIVE IN LAKE CHAD – Red Cross”
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has said women in the Lake Chad basin have been forced to prostitute to survive.
The ICRC attributed the development to Boko Haram insurgency, which drove millions from their homes and left children to starve.
“The violence has displaced over 2.4 million people across the swamplands of Lake Chad, where the borders of Chad, Cameroon, Niger and Nigeria meet, and disrupted the livelihoods of hundreds of thousands of others,’’ ICRC said.
According to the United Nations (UN), up to a million people have been cut off from humanitarian aid by Boko Haram, in spite of a regional military offensive against the Islamist militants.
“It is extraordinary to see a woman and her family and they have nothing other than what they have been given. The children are clearly malnourished and it is just hopeless,’’ Simon Brooks, head of ICRC’s delegation in Cameroon, said.
According to Brooks, as the head of their households, some mothers were forced to prostitute so they could feed their family, since many no longer have husbands, because of the conflict.
“When you don’t have the means to survive, you’ll go begging for it. It’s loss of dignity when you’re having to resort to something like that just to keep your children alive – fraternising with people who have money,’’ he said.
The unfolding catastrophe in the Lake Chad basin was named the most neglected crisis of 2016 in a poll of aid agencies by the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
“Overshadowed by the wars in Syria and Iraq and the global refugee and migrant crises, Lake Chad has barely made the headlines,’’ Brooks said in an interview in London.
The report said over seven million people lack food “but insecurity makes it hard for aid agencies to reach the most vulnerable.
“This area has suffered from decades of chronic neglect … if it continues to be under-funded and under-reported, then, millions of people will continue to suffer,’’ Brooks said.
In August 2016, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) released a report, which detailed how 1.4 million children were displaced, with at least one million trapped in hard-to-reach areas.
“The Lake Chad crisis is a children’s crisis that should rank high on the global migration and displacement agenda,” declared Manuel Fontaine, UNICEF Regional Director for West and Central Africa.
“Humanitarian needs are out-pacing the response, especially now that new areas previously unreachable in North-East Nigeria become accessible.”
It was President Muhamadu Buhari of Nigeria who delivered an incisive dimension to the violent consequences of destabilisation of the matrix of wealth, power, status and privilege:
“Boko Haram is a typical example of small fires causing large fires … through official bungling, negligence, complacency, or collusion, Boko Haram became a terrifying force taking tens of thousands of lives and capturing several towns and villages covering swathes of Nigerian territory.”
Nobody really knows what Boko Haram insurgents want to achieve by killing everyone and destroying everything. It is just possible that Professor Valmir Dickson-Wright of Cambridge University got it right.
“It is one of the consequences of being excluded from wealth, power, status and privilege. This is a direct contradiction of the acceptance by those staff who work on the vast estate of the Duke of Westminster, of his centuries-long hold on wealth, power, status and privilege.”
It was the front page report of the Saturday Sun newspaper of January 7, 2017, which threw up a most intriguing aspect of the wealth/power equation – especially those who are entirely estranged and alienated.
Headline: “LOVE MADE IN PRISON”
“The Love story of Pastor Darlington and Funmilayo Ajitemisan of Open Channel Bible, is out of this world. They were not attracted to each other at first sight and shared nothing in common, except crime.
“These two ex-convicts found love in the most unusual of places, in the Nigerian prison, where the condemned had no hope.
“But Darlington and Funmilayo made the best of their situation, they found love and Christ. Ever since then, their marriage has withstood 28 years of love, relative hardship and perseverance.”
While working as preacher in Nigerian prisons, Darlington met Funmilayo, first as a counsellor at Kirikiri female prison. Unknown to both of them they were going to end up marrying each other.
Narrating the story of their journey to matrimony to Saturday Sun, Darlington said the tale started and could only be understood from his life history as a female serial killer, which landed him in prison in Bombay, India, to his numerous incarcerations, which contributed to who he was and the love life he later had with his wife.
As a child, from the age of seven, Darlington had become notorious in Mushin, Lagos. He was the head of many notorious criminal gangs.
When he travelled abroad for more studies, he ended up becoming a women serial killer. He took pleasure in killing women, all because he believed he was raised by a bad mother. As a child, he developed hatred for women and only derived pleasure in killing them.
“I ended up in prison outside Nigeria. I was what you called an international hired assassin, a pimp and a gigolo.
“My incarceration started at the age of three in Mushin area. As a child, I would always prefer to go out and get lost, only to be found in the police cells. I found it more comfortable than staying at home.
“Then at the age of seven I was initiated into the world of crime. It was in the days of Omo Pupa and Mighty Joe, who ruled Mushin. They were all notorious criminals and I was their errand boy. I would always deliver their hemp.
“From that age I started doing things my age mates could not do. I can steal a whole stock of anything alone and resell it to the owner. I can enter any compound and brutalise the person. I specialised in brutalising women, because I hated them. It was my hatred for my mother that made me to hate women. As time went by, I travelled abroad. Then I went into hooliganism full-time, and then I became a serial killer of women. As I told you before, it was for the hatred I had for my mother, I don’t know why she hated me first, so I hated her for no reason also,” he said.
In the long run, Darlington was caught and sentenced to death. Miraculously, he was spared and he gave his life to Jesus Christ. He promised never to go back into crime but to serve God through prison evangelism till he dies. Darlington has a Ph.D in criminology and four master’s degrees, but he is not thinking of using them to earn himself a living.
“I didn’t repent here in Nigeria; I repented when I was to be hanged. I was to be condemned to death. I was granted bail. From that I got my freedom. I made a covenant with God that I was going to serve Him with all I have, if He would let me go. I told God that I would preach in the prison all my life and I would not work with my certificates. I have six certificates, which include a Ph.D in criminology and four master’s and one B.SC.”
It was during his ministration in Nigerian prisons that the unusual happened. As at this time, his hatred for women had vanished when he met his heartthrob. The fear of the hangman had melted his hardened mind and he searched for love in usual places. He could not find love without forgiving his mother.
“I met my wife when I kept my vow that I would be preaching in prisons. As I was preaching in all the prisons in Lagos, I told God that I wanted to get married and He should show me my wife. Then the Holy Ghost told me that my wife was in the prison. I questioned it. I asked how I was going to marry a prisoner. Then I was told that I was to marry Funmilayo Smith,” he said.
As a retired dancer and male sex hawker, Darlington had seen many women and he had specific features he wanted from his future wife; Funmilayo did not just fit the description.
“I had been seeing her. She had been coming for counselling but I was never attracted to her. She was fine, but not to my taste. Remember I was a star before, which meant that I have seen beautiful ladies. I never thought I was going to marry her. I was just a messenger to her mother who was then in the military. I was aghast but I had to obey God.
Then she was also placed on bail, then I traced her to her house and told her that the Lord wanted her to be my wife. She tried to dissuade me with her situation that she might be going to jail and be convicted. I accepted what her fate might be and she agreed. Then in 1989 we got married.”
On Funmilayo’s part, the former beauty queen believes she is not different from her sweetheart. She was sent to prison after being charged to court for stealing and illegal possession. She believes that their meeting and relationship have been designed by God and there is nothing she is ashamed of.
“I was not different from him. I was a duplicate of him. I was a professional call girl. I have a tremendous, unusual love for him. I was charged for theft and other things, but I was in remand more than the stipulated period,” she said.
The marriage has not been all sweet and honey, it has experienced some hindrances. Apart from the fact that while they got married, Funmilayo was still standing trial, while on bail, she was almost implicated in another crime perpetrated by her former group.
“She was rearrested for another crime her former group committed in which she was not involved. It was at this period that we had our first twins. It was later that her case was settled and the court said that she had been freed,” Darlington disclosed.
The marriage also suffered family resistance. Funmilayo’s mother did not accept the marriage, she did all she could to frustrate the union.
“There was a time we were separated. My mother in-law did not know why her daughter would decide to marry me. She was always interfering in my marriage. People predicted that we were not going to last long, but now we are 28 years in the union. I love Funmi so much, we are inseparable,” he said.
Now both of them are strong in the Lord and in the ministry, preaching in prisons.
Darling was, however, grateful to the Lord that, despite their past, none of his children took to their criminal ways.”
•Bashorun J.K. Randle is a former President of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and former Chairman of KPMG Nigeria and Africa Region. He is currently the Chairman, JK Randle Professional Services.
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