Nigeria Content Online

The
ban placed on Nigeria by world football governing body, FIFA on Monday
for government interference in football has continue to generate
reaction from the sports fraternity in the country.

Yesterday in Lagos, a group of concerned former sportsmen, which included Olympians Mary Onyali-Omagbemi,

Yusuf Alli, Falilat
Ogunkoya and Henry Amike, and journalists under the umbrella of
‘Stakeholders in Nigerian Sports’ met to review the ban and decided
that contrary to the belief of FIFA that the minister of sports,
Ibrahim Bio is not responsible for the present crisis but a particular
cabal within Nigerian sports which places its interest above the
national interest.

The group, which
expressed confidence in the manner the NSC, had handled the crisis in
Nigerian football also advised parties with cases in the courts to
withdraw them and take them to the Court of Arbitration (CAS) in
Switzerland.

Speaking at the occasion, Henry Amike, an Olympian and one of Nigeria’s most accomplished hurdlers, said:

“If we have an Amos
Adamu, a FIFA member and we have a problem like this, then why is he
there? Can that happen in Trinidad and Tobago? I think we have to say
the truth and let us die if we have to die. As far as I am concerned,
it is not the National Sports Commission (NSC) that it is the problem.
The National Sports, the minister, the DG are not the problem.

“We all know the
problem and the problem did not start now. If they are not there,
nothing can work. Let us face facts; let us know the truth and say it.
We should allow FIFA to come to Nigeria and decide for us when it comes
to issues of local interest.

Dirty Linen

Amike said the
reason FIFA is intervening is because the sporting community in Nigeria
decided to wash its dirty linen in public, prompting FIFA to come in to
‘assist’ it. He was the only way sports could grow in Nigeria is if
member of the sports fraternity dealt plainly with each other:

“ If we can agree
together inside and tell ourselves the truth, this issue of sports
problems once and for all, the issue of sports problems would be solved
and sports can grow. Onyali and Fali (Falilat Ogunkoya) were talking
about grassroots development. It cannot work. If those people are still
there they will not put the right people there and if the right people
are not there as managers then the right thing cannot be done,” he said.