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Anyone who is
surprised that former Nigeria Football Association (NFA) Chairman,
Ibrahim Galadima failed to get on the executive committee of FIFA
clearly did not read the writing on the wall.

The Galadima FIFA
project was doomed at the beginning and this is not because Galadima as
an individual is a bad product. There are far more important reasons why
he failed. The primary reason is simply because the people who were
supposed to drive the project elected to prevaricate and dilly dally.

The biggest culprit
in this regard is none other than our sports minister, Taoheed Adedoja.
The man, who has boasted that as the first holder of a doctorate degree
to head the sports ministry, he will bring a change to our dying sports
establishment, undermined the Galadima project with the way he tried to
burnish Amos Adamu’s image in the hope that the fallen former Director
General of the National Sports Commission would win his appeal case,
which has been thrown out.

While other African
nations busied themselves with strategy on how to push their candidates
and subsequently lobbied hard for their success, Adedoja was telling
whoever cared to listen to him that Adamu’s case was not as bad as it
had been made out by the media to be. When it became clear to him that
he was making an exhibition of himself following criticisms in the
media, he beat a hasty retreat. Unfortunately for Galadima, the precious
time wasted by Adedoja and his team at the National Sports commission
was put to good use by our other African brothers who understand the
important of making hay while the sun is at its zenith.

It is unfortunate,
really that a man like Adedoja who has been sounding off about the
miracles he will do in Nigerian sports in three months can bungle one of
the first major assignments that came his way.

Hard-nosed realists

I am not surprised
really; after listening to his comments on public golf courses, I do not
think I will be surprised any more by any action or utterance that
emanates from him. About two weeks ago when the minister visited Lagos
for a parley with sports journalists at the National Stadium, my friend
Pius Anakali of Daily Independent had asked him whether as a way of
encouraging young Nigerians to take to golf as is the case in South
Korea, government should make available public golf courses.

His response was not
only discouraging but reflected the lack of importance attached by our
sports administrators to grassroots sports development. He said golf was
squarely in the hands of the big men playing golf and they were at
liberty to administer the sport in any manner they pleased. Funny isn’t
it. Anyway, this piece is not about golf but about how the minister and
his men at the National Sports commission bungled an assignment that
required careful planning and strategising.

Aside, the minister
and NSC’s faux pax another reason Galadima failed to get into FIFA is
the fact having been out of the picture for a while he had lost whatever
clout he wielded whilst he was FA boss in Nigeria. This was even one
compelling reason Nigeria as represented by the NSC and Nigeria Football
Federation (NFF) should have engaged in high wire diplomacy on his
behalf. They would have entered into hard negotiations with the would-be
voters offering inducements that would have swayed them to Galadima’s
side.

As we see from the
fate of Danny Jordaan, winning a seat into FIFA is not exactly a
popularity contest. Were it down to popular acclamation, the South
African who led the organisation of the hugely successful 2010 FIFA
World Cup in South Africa, would have glided into the Glass House in
Zurich. Some of the men in the Confederation of African Football (CAF)
like their brothers in FIFA are hard-nosed realists and I might add,
streetwise. The know how to play ball and are not squeamish about doing
business no matter how seamy they may appear. With the way our sports
administrators pussyfooted and with Adamu’s chums in the CAF executive
committee still upset by the treatment meted to him by FIFA, Galadima
clearly didn’t have a prayer.