Have you ever bitten your tongue in a meeting? Surely, you sit there like a zombie, say nothing and just nod along to proposals. After all, you obviously don’t want to be the (eternal) naysayer.
Moreover, you might not be 100% sure why you disagree, whereas the others are unanimous, and far from stupid. So, as a result, you keep your mouth shut for another day. When everyone thinks and acts like this, groupthink is at work. This is where a group of smart people makes reckless decisions, because everyone aligns their opinions with their supposed consensus.
Thus, motions are passed that each individual group member would have otherwise forthrightly rejected if no peer pressure had been involved. This is the calamity of conformity. The seemingly unending nauseating shenanigans within the toxic corridors of Football House is becoming an embarrassment to each and every confirmed Namibian citizen – in fact, a disgrace to the oath of mankind, so to speak.
What is unfolding is a clear demonstration of an organisation operating without an agenda, ultimately treading a thin line because there seems to be no programme to manage. The love-hate romance between two of the most powerful personalities in the structures of the Namibia Football Association (NFA) – in this case, Ranga Haikali and his supposedly right-hand man, one Franco Cosmos – is uncalled for and has inadvertently brought the integrity of the game into disrepute.
With an already tired image, Namibian football can no longer afford further squabbles, let alone endless infighting. It’s a well-documented secret that Namibian football has a lengthy checkered history as a result of external forces and maladministration.
Without beating about the bush, the current state of our football with regard to administration, management and financial control is clearly a sorry state and regrettable phenomenon. Yours truly has been following, with disgust, the recent unfolding events at Football House, notably the crystal-clear unconstitutional suspension of NFA president Ranga Haikali.
Morals, integrity, accountability and respect for rules and laws are four major ingredients that are very much in short supply when it comes to Namibian football. If there is any truth in the video clip of an interview between Haikali and my buddy Toys Ndjebela of the Namibian Sun – where the NFA honcho accuses his right-hand man, Cosmos, of various acts of serious misconduct, ranging from maladministration, financial mismanagement, insubordination, dishonesty – then one should be excused for shivering like a fired up “boere orkes”.
The latter has a serious case to answer if all these accusations levelled against him are true. But then again, Haikali also stands accused of more or less the same offences. Now the fundamental question is; who’s fooling who here?
It’s very interesting to note how all of a sudden people are advocating for the need to respect the right to be heard – as rightfully enshrined in the Charter of Fundamental Rights, Article 41, which states that every person has the right to be heard before any individual measure, which would affect him or her adversely, is taken.
It’s a scenario of being paid back in own coin.
It’s now common knowledge that there is a third force behind all these squabbles and are we really surprised why these self-styled advocates of progress are now sitting on the fence? I rest my case.