Coach Aussems must learn to answer ‘stupid’ questions

AFC Leopards coach Patrick Aussems reacts on the touchline

AFC Leopards coach Patrick Aussems reacts on the touchline during their Football Kenya Federation Premier League match against Posta Rangers at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on December 17, 2022. 

Photo credit: Chris Omollo | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • Aussems crossed the line by calling that journalist stupid in the full glare of the cameras, just because he sought clarification on one incident in the match
  • It’s utterly ridiculous that a coach with nothing significant to write home about his current posting carries around such an inflated sense of self-importance
  • Aussems should spare us the unnecessary drama, get the job done on the pitch, and for good measure learn to answer those ‘stupid’ questions from journalists


India's first, and to date, the only female Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, famously said "the power to question is the basis of all human progress."

I’m not quite sure if Gandhi, who was assassinated in 1984 during her second stint as Premier, may have been making a direct reference to journalism, but how apt that those who naturally hold that the power to question are journalists.

Indeed, journalism, as a profession, at its very core, is all about asking questions. Journalists ideally earn a living from asking lots of questions and then writing a story or presenting their findings in various other formats.

What should be stated upfront is that journalists don’t merely ask questions out of ignorance or just for the sake of it. They do so to extract information from those who possess it in the most accurate and factual way. 

If journalists don’t pose questions to their news sources, then the veracity of their handiwork becomes highly questionable. In worst case scenarios, such stories could as well pass off for work of fiction.

That said, there are no “stupid” questions in a journalist’s book. A question may be witty, funny, poorly framed or even irrelevant, but by no means stupid. Any journalist who has been in the industry long enough will tell you that often, questions that appear to be stupid often make for very juicy and solid stories.

This reminds me of an obituary that was recently penned by my senior colleague Emeka Mayaka of the People Daily. In eulogising the late photographer William Oeri, Mayaka recounted one memorable incident when he and the deceased photojournalist interviewed former Gachoka MP Rev Mutava Musyimi.

Mayaka recounted how during that interview, after Rev Musyimi had kept circumventing the heart of his questions, a restless Oeri requested if he could ask a question of his own. Rev Musyimi readily granted the request and Oeri’s question on the MP’s presidential ambitions at the time ended up being the big story of the day. My guess is that had the man of the cloth-turned-politician dismissed the late Oeri’s question as ‘stupid’, then the Daily Nation would have missed out on what I presume was a major scoop.

Which is why AFC Leopards’ Belgian coach Patrick Aussems must be called out for his verbal attack on one hapless journalist during a recent league match. Aussems crossed the line by calling that journalist stupid in the full glare of the cameras, just because he sought clarification on one incident in the match.

It’s utterly ridiculous that a coach with nothing significant to write home about his current posting carries around such an inflated sense of self-importance. What is more annoying is that this tourist of a coach has become a repeat offender when it comes to spewing nonsense at journalists, fellow coaches and even match officials.

I won’t even venture into his latest childish tantrums of fielding questions in French to a largely English-speaking media after Thursday evening’s league match against FC Talanta in Nairobi.

Aussems should spare us the unnecessary drama, get the job done on the pitch, and for good measure learn to answer those ‘stupid’ questions from journalists.

For the benefit of my colleague who was so brutalised by Aussems’ verbal outburst, I will conclude by quoting German physicist Albert Einstein who once said “only the one who does not question is safe from making a mistake.” Keep asking those ‘stupid’ questions my brother.