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It is now clear why Nigerian football is in such a mess.

It is now apparent
why, with less three weeks to the World Cup in South Africa, our
national team, the Super Eagles, have yet to play one international
friendly match to put the squad in shape for the Mundial.

While serious
minded leaders of other football federations whose teams will be taking
part in the World Cup have been firming up strategies to ensure
successful performance of their squads, our own Sani Lulu, president of
the Nigeria Football Federation, has been busy seeking and receiving
awards.

Last week, Lulu and
his henchmen; Amanze Uchegbulam, Taiwo Ogunjobi, and Bolaji Ojo-Oba
were in Benue to receive an award from the that state’s chapter of the
Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN).

There they were
reportedly given the Tiv’s traditional weapons of war, which as the
association put it, would be used “to go to the 2010 FIFA World Cup in
South Africa and conquer.”

Presiding over rot

It would have
sounded comical having an effete body like the Benue SWAN empowering an
equally lethargic quartet to go and conquer. But the situation on the
ground certainly does not permit laughter. And it is a situation that
Lulu and his men have created. The NFF president has contrived a
situation where Nigerian football has been dragged to the very nadir,
and has become the butt of jokes locally and internationally.

How has he done it?
Put simply, through mind-boggling incompetence. From the moment he took
office in 2007 till now, there has been zero progress in terms of the
development of football either at the grass roots or at the elite level
in the country. The senior national football team, the Super Eagles,
which he inherited from his predecessor, has gone from listless to near
moribund. It is thus no surprise that on the eve of the biggest global
football event, one that is taking place on our very own continent, the
faith of Nigerians in their national squad is almost nil.

From day one,
Lulu’s concern has been nothing other than taking steps to ensure that
he gets a second term as FA boss, and he has gone about it in quite a
brazen manner. The way he rushed through the amendment of the
federation’s statutes and some of the absurd provisions contained
therein speak of nothing but raw ambition. After he had craftily
manufactured ‘amendments’ to the statutes, he promptly forwarded them
to his patrons in FIFA as if that would put a seal of finality on his
return to the glass house.

Naked ambition

It is this naked
ambition of Lulu that has paralysed the activities of the NFF,
particularly its World Cup programme. Somehow, the NFF president has
managed to make an otherwise serious-minded professional like Lars
Lagerback, look like a rank amateur. Deep down, Lagerback must be
wondering what led him to do business with men like Lulu and
Uchegbulam. The only comfort he can derive from the whole sordid affair
is that he is been handsomely paid even to while away time.

It does not matter
to Lulu what Nigerian football fans who invest their time, money, and
emotions in the support of the Eagles think. Right now what gladdens
the heart of the NFF boss is that he has received the endorsement of
his lackeys in the South East, North West, North East, South West and
North Central zones. That is what is important to Lulu.

That Lagerback met
the bulk of his players for the first time two days ago in Abuja, means
nothing to Lulu. After all, the way he sees it, the development has no
direct bearing on his plans to return to office. Which is why he did
not feel a twinge of conscience that he chose for our national team’s
World cup base, a road side motel fit only for a budding amateur
football club.

But who can blame
Lulu? With fellows such as the ones in Benue who conferred an award on
him, and his cronies massaging his ego, how can he not think he is
doing good. Quite frankly, individuals like the ones in Benue SWAN give
journalists a bad name. How on earth can we be watchdogs and praise
singers in the same breath? Surely, things can’t get worse than this.