Bash Ali Needs Pity Not Prosecution

By Tayo Balogun

I just saw a report claiming that our Sports Minister, Mr Sunday Dare intends to sue Bash Ali for N5billion. According to the report, Mr Dare is to drag the ex(?) boxer to court as soon as practicable. Bash Ali’s offence? “…. he maliciously accused the Minister of wrong doing. The Sports Minister through his lawyers… will seek injunctive and pecuniary damages against Bash Ali and will not hesitate to join any person, medium or organization that published any of the defamatory contents authored by Bash Ali, his agents or proxies as a co defendant to the suit.” The report stated that Bash Ali had launched a campaign of calumny against the Sports Minister because he refused to sign on to Ali’s so-called Guinness World Record Championship fight which readers would remember has been pending for more than 12 years!

I am surprised the Sports Minister has decided to take Bash to court for libel and defamation of character. Surprised in the sense that if Sunday Dare had been abreast of happenings in our world of sports before he became minister, he would have known that Bash has always had issues with almost all Sports Ministers. The current allegations against Sunday Dare are rehearsed versions of earlier diatribes against his predecessors in office. He had always accused them of corruption. Always insisted that they are opposed to him because he refused to give the bribes they demanded before they would pass on his request to have government commit billions of dollars into sponsoring his so-called Guinness World record fight

Along the line, he seems to have accepted that the government could not on its own sponsor his fight and now seeks endorsement of the fight to the private sector which he expects would provide the money needed to stage the fight.

I have been a keen watcher of events about what I call the Bash Ali never ending fruitless effort to stage the most promoted boxing bout in our country- the Guinness World Title Fight. I am not too sure if the idea of the record making event was not first mooted in my ACME Road Office in Ogba Lagos. Thereafter, a first Organizing Committee was formed in Jaiye Ojo’s Prex office. Razak Giwa- Osagie, a fine gentleman who later became a member of the House of Reps, Jaiye Ojo, Toyin Okpaise and I together with Bash were members. The Committee folded up soon after because we could not agree with Bash Ali’s outlandish views which reeks of greed. Needless to say the original concept of Guinness World Record fight became something else that has not been implementable.

That was how Bash’s problem with the Federal Ministry of Sports began. Anytime he failed to get his way, he would resort to blackmail, often accusing officials of government of demanding money from him to push his case. I don’t know how he does it but he has often bulldozed his way to the Presidency where he is invariably referred to the Ministry of Sports. The trouble is that there is no way Ali’s plan would sail through because it is predicated on very false pedestal. In the first place he doesn’t need as much as he is insisting on to stage a World Record Championship. There is no way such a fight would generate as much as zero point one percent of his claim of Pay Per View earnings. His claims that four sporting facilities costing $20million USD each would be built in Nigeria by organizers of the event is pathetically false. Everyone knocks a hole in his presentation for the Guinness World Record

Championship- some state governments including his home state, Edo turned him down. He went to Libya to claim that religious consideration prevented the fight from holding in our country. Perhaps Gaddafi might have eventually hosted the fight but he was ousted .

Outside his shenanigans, Bash Ali has tremendous capabilities that we can help him nurture to do well for himself and our country. I do not think Sunday Dare and his men are right to sue Bash Ali regardless of the provocations. Very early in his tenure, I had warned the Sports Minister not to be drawn into any controversy with Bash. I don’t know if he heeded my advice but the campaign against him are vicious. The luck the Minister has is that no one takes Bash Ali seriously again. His accusations against Sunday Dare are not too different from those against previous ministers. Moreover if the Ministry of Sports wins the suit how will Bashiru Ali pay?

I think that with the daunting task before the Minister, he should have little time for the irritation Bash Ali’s claim would cause. He has a lot to do as Sports Minister and he should concentrate on the rescue mission he should be on. In some quarters, he is being accused of not doing enough to make the various sporting association under him function effectively. He has done nothing on the National Sports Commission bill that had been forever before Parliament. If we can’t win the FIFA World Cup or win some Olympic gold medal what would he refer to as a legacy? Definitely not suing Bash. Olympics is around the corner and there are many questions about the quality of our preparations. Some have suggested we pull out because the Covid-19 pandemic isn’t abating in the host country.

Sports can help our country during these difficult times and Sunday Dare can help our sport get better. Suing Bashiru Ali is not even worth a minute of his time. He is an irritant that had plagued his predecessors. They survived him. He was appointed Minister to make our Sports better.

As for Bash Ali, maybe it is time to rechannel his energy to more realistically profitable ends.