Question & answer session at national assembly: Sports minister fears implicating Owona

-     -Gives unconvincing reasons for Lions’ Brazil disgrace

By Sylvanus Ezieh Acha’ana in Yaounde

Joseph Owona

 Sports and physical education minister, Adoum Garoua  glaringly gave away a golden opportunity that was offered him in parliament to implicate the chairman of the FECAFOOT Normalisation Committee, Joseph Owona; following Lions’ disgraceful show at the ongoing World Cup in Brazil. 

Adoum Garoua

Media reports had put one of the key responsibilities for the Indomitable Lions’ worst performance at the doorsteps of Owona; not only because he had quarrelled with the players over match bonuses on the eve of their departure to Brazil  but also because of his highhandedness in the selection of “ supporters” who accompanied the team to Brazil. More so, it was reported that instead of galvanising the already weakened team to victory, Owona added salt to an already deepened wound when he took to engaging the sports minister in a war of words over money.

When Adoum Garoua showed up in parliament on July 4 to answer questions from law-makers on the Indomitable Lions’ poor performance, attention was evidently directed to how he would blow Owona’s cover. Surprisingly, the trembling minister not only made sure he avoided mentioning Owona’s name but gave to understanding, from his timid responses that there never existed any conflict between him and the president of the Normalisation Committee while in Brazil. 

One of the MPs had cynically put a question to him with the alleged motive of getting the minister talk on what actually led to the poor performance of the Lions in Brazil which reports say is partly not unconnected to the clash that broke out between him and Owona.

Since the early exit of the Lions from the tournament, both the team’s skipper, Samuel Eto’o Fils and the president of the Normalisation Committee have maintained firm silence. Being the first to appear before a drilling body, anxiety was rife that the minister would use the forum to blow to open some of the hitches that contributed to the Indomitable Lions’ early exit from the competition.

Facing the law-makers during the question and answer session at the hemicycle, the sports minister barely mumbled that the expedition to Brazil constituted a crowded delegation of officials from various administrative departments that made it difficult to control.

“How else could it have been when each administrative department sent officials to represent them in the official delegation that went to Brazil?”. He disclosed that the delegation to Brazil constituted over 73 officials drawn from various ministries and other administrative departments. Adoum Garoua even summoned the courage to disclose that even the national assembly also imposed representatives. “Even you here at the national assembly interrogating me now also sent representatives there,” he mustered the courage to say.

In apparent effort to put off the heat on him, Adoum Garoua waived the response to the enquiry instructed by President Biya on the debacle of the Lions in Brazil. “An enquiry instructed by the head of state is ongoing. I don’t want to give you a partial account. I remain at your disposal for more interrogations at any time you want.”

He bragged that the Lions have been winning on several occasions and that their failure in Brazil was but a normal happening in football. “These are the ramifications that surround football; we have always had past glories. We must not win all the time,” Adoum Garoua said unconvincingly.

Parliamentarians including those of the CPDM left the Glass House unfulfilled with what they described as Garoua’s joking response to their worry. They recommended a probe into the management of the whooping sums of money that was disbursed for the expedition.

Meanwhile political analysts are already likening Garoua’s decision not to implicate Owona to a man who is living in a glass house and so should not be throwing stones. The sports minister, analysts hold, may have had his own share in the Lions’ poor performance and so is careful not to brick Owona’s bilewho in turn may also blow the minister’s own cover.

Even the Indomitable Lions’ captain, Samuel Eto’o, who shortly before their departure from Brazil had promised to let out the can of worms upon their return to the country, has remained mute.