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After the dust over
the August 21, 2010, election into the board of the Nigeria Football
Federation (or Nigeria Football Association, if you choose) has
settled, it is pertinent to ask if the controversy was necessary, after
all.

The bone of
contention was the ineligibility ascribed to chairmen of the state
football associations, who were primed to be delegates to the election,
to elect a new NFF executive. Contestants for various positions in the
football house had argued that the tenure of majority of the state
chairmen had since expired and had rendered them ineligible to partake
in the election. Essentially, the contestants were asking that fresh
elections be conducted in the states.

In the quest by the
contestants to have their prayers answered, however, no reference was
made to the NFF Congress in Makurdi in 2008 when it was ratified that
the national election, fixed for August 2010, would precede the states
polls. Neither did the contestants consider that the Congress’ decision
had been communicated to the world football governing body, FIFA, as
well as the continental body, CAF, whose officials had in turn noted
August 21, 2010, in their itineraries.

Indeed, some
members of the outgoing board had reckoned the perceived irregularity
in having the national election precede the state category. Short of
labelling the Makurdi decision devious and deliberately tailored to
suit the interest of certain individuals, the members conceded that the
former board had erred in its decision.

Candidates’ doublespeak

Oyuki Obaseki, a
Vice President in the former board, said the Makurdi decision was
riddled with lack of foresight. Nonetheless, he maintained that
Congress ruling was supreme. “We can only guide against a repeat of
such oversight in the future,” Obaseki counselled.

Yet, the plea failed to hit a target, as aggrieved candidates would rather the state elections were held first.

One of the
contestants for board membership of the NFF, Aisha Falode, was vehement
in her vituperation against the electoral committee. “I have no
confidence in the committee and its leadership and if we must move
forward, the committee should be dissolved to restore the confidence,”
the prominent broadcaster insisted.

In her private
dealings with the committee, however, she was said to have commended
its effort, especially its modification of the earlier stringent rule
that stifled her out of nomination by Edo State, which had preferred
the candidacy of Obaseki.

Another contestant,
Segun Odegbami, had also not been initially nominated by Ogun State,
which preferred the state Sports Commissioner, Bukola Olopade; but had
entered the race for the NFF Presidency through the intervention of the
electoral body which he would later commend in private for its wisdom
to “provide a level playing ground for contestants.” Interestingly,
after Odegbami appeared to view his chances at coveting the top
football job as slim, he had petitioned FIFA, citing what he called
irregularities in the election process and asking the world body to
intervene with a view to impressing the electoral committee to stop the
election.

He was variously
reported as having withdrawn from the race, but was also quick to
refute the story, although his curious late arrival to the venue of the
President Debate in Abuja on August 14 suggested that he could have
only had a change of mind at the last minute.

When news got to
the electoral body with three days to the polls, with Odegbami
featuring prominently as the vanguard of a court injunction purportedly
seeking a stop to the election pending the determination of a suit
filed at a Lagos High Court by former Nigerian internationals, the
presidential aspirant denied his involvement, contrary to his public
utterances.

The electoral
committee dispatched a letter to Odegbami, seeking his stand on the
legal issue and expressing its desire to stop the election in deference
to the court, even as it was not served any notice of an injunction
that was curiously already awash in the media.

Odegbami’s response
was as startling as it was illuminating. It made the controversy that
trailed the election needless and it is pertinent that Nigerians are
aware of the somewhat unwholesome saga that threatened to de-brand
Nigerian football.

“I have absolutely
no knowledge of any such suit,” Odegbami re-assured the electoral
committee in his letter to the body dated August 20, 2010.

“I have given no
one or lawyer any directives to go to court over any matter,” he
further stated, apparently to drive home the point that football
matters are not for the regular courts to adjudicate.

In a bid to
extricate himself from the legal web imposed on the electoral
committee, Odegbami continued, “This is fraudulent and the handiwork of
agents who want to paint me in bad light for their own ulterior and
narrow purpose”.

Determined to
further impress the committee of his innocence, he concluded, “I have
given my lawyers directives to investigate the matter and they have
come back to tell me there is no such suit registered in any court in
Abuja”.

The foregoing
suggests that Odegbami could well have sought the NFF presidency only
on account of his undoubted meritorious service to Nigerian football,
spanning 35 years, and perhaps aware that he could not match the
political savvy of the so-called opportunistic football administrators,
opted to heat up the polity to curry public favour.

Could he not have
tackled the opportunistic cabal that have held Nigerian football
hostage for decades grit-for-grit and tact-for-tact, deploying his
popularity as a veritable edge over his perennial adversaries? Perhaps
it will not be too late for him to provide an answer when the next
election is up in 2014.