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The Nigeria
Football Federation elections are getting close; August 21 approaches.
Most importantly, the unfortunate scenario I predicted, as did a number
of other concerned Nigerians, where a few selfish, egocentric Nigerians
are determined to seize control of our football is unfolding before our
very eyes.

For the past couple
of weeks Nigerians have been subjected to brazen display of power, and
contempt for the development of our football by those in charge. The
unfolding charade brings us back to the fundamental predicament of the
seriously flawed laws or constitution, the NFF is based on.

Therefore, until
the constitution of the NFF is rewritten by persons who are genuinely
motivated to develop Nigerian football, and willing to separate its
financing from the Federal Government, these repeated electoral shams
and shot-in-the-arm fixes will keep repeating themselves.

Absolute power corrupts

It is clear that
the existing rules already permit one person (the NFF President) to
exploit constitutional gaps provided by simple opportunities such as
overlapping tenures of previously selected (oh I meant elected)
officials to keep them in office. Or how else can you explain the
former NFF President Sani Lulu turning a blind eye to the fact that
several state FA Chairmen’s terms had expired several months ago? If he
didn’t turn a blind eye to their status, why wasn’t there any call for
a remedy to the anomaly? Or if there was no constitutional backing for
it, shouldn’t that have been one of the erstwhile President’s concerns
while in office? Yes, but not if it was advantageous to him. He rather
allegedly gave state FA Chairmen Greek gifts of N5 million each and
sponsored them to the World Cup in South Africa. Whether the
allegations are true or not, simple logic reasons that keeping them in
office against the law can only be beneficial to both the former NFF
President and state Chairmen who would in turn owe him their loyalty.
More so, as FIFA’s near-absolute hold of national football associations
has given mischievous presidents the power to cry ‘wolf’ to the world
governing body whenever a threat to their fiefdom is perceived. The
power of autonomy given to them by FIFA is near-absolute … except you
have a President like ours who ‘wisely’ found a way round it. The NFF
president has even been dictating how money is spent without recourse
or accountability to the source of funds which is part Nigerian
Government and part FIFA!

Emotionally, the
NFF president also tugs the people’s heart-strings directly and can
easily ride on or manipulate our passionate love for football to colour
mediocre achievements like qualifying for or winning age-group
tournaments with questionably young players instead of attacking the
scourge of age cheating.

So, it is easy to
understand why the tussle for the NFF presidency is comparable to being
the Nigerian President in terms of raw power in the hands of the
holder. I beg to digress slightly. The decision to award scholarships,
rather than cash to athletes who succeed at age group tournaments
represent a welcome return to what really matters.

Timely Facade/Distraction

In light of how
crucial getting it right for Nigerian football at this important moment
is, the record-breaking U-20 Women’s performance in Germany can be
viewed as a timely facade for all those who needed something to
distract attention away from what is at hand. But for President
Goodluck Jonathan’s intervention after the South African debacle,
preparations for the coming elections and the expectation that the
women (or girls) would put up their hitherto usual unimpressive
performances at past global tournaments, the motley crew of NFF members
and party train would have been in Germany to cheer the girls to
victory. The women’s (girls) progress caught them all unawares and
coupled with an empty treasury, all they could do was watch them play
like every other Nigerian resident here. They even almost embarrassed
the nation when the responsibility of accommodating the wo….girls
(why do I keep doing this?) came up prior to being hosted by the
President and First Lady when they couldn’t afford it. It is laughable
to know that the NFF has destroyed any shred of goodwill they had to
deserve the offer of a first-class hotel lodging the girls on credit;
never mind the excuse that the EFCC has rightly frozen their less than
meagre accounts. Remember they declared themselves broke after the
World Cup.

Just as the
euphoria of the women’s performance (oh! There I go again when I meant
girls) is already being used as propaganda material to laud the
“achievement” as the beginning of great things in Nigerian football or
the kick to finally jump-start big-time female football (I hope so), it
can also be used as a weapon to restructure our football from the roots.

Since all we really need is a flimsy reason to oust them at their own game, isn’t the one I am about to give good enough?

The girls (aha),
the NFF is now attaching itself to were more or less maltreated and
abandoned to train in hardship without adequate motivation (apart from
psyching themselves to play well for the possibility of securing
professional contracts abroad) till they departed for the competition
virtually unannounced. Therefore the NFF really had nothing to do with
the girls’ success. So, if they didn’t satisfy one of the basic
responsibilities of adequately preparing Nigeria’s national
representatives for competition and the girls succeeded, this bunch of
administrators is not needed. It is left to the imagination what these
women may have done with adequate preparations.

Please Mr President

It is time to call
upon President Jonathan again to intervene at this point. Though I am
not a politician yet, some astute horse-trading from the President’s
side could be extremely appropriate at this time for a quick-fix
remedy. With national elections scheduled for next year, Mr President
could just use a thorough cleansing of the NFF House starting by
shrewdly cleaning out all existing members of the NFF (state and
federal executives) by using the very constitution they are currently
taking advantage of.

First of all, he
can insist (according to the law) that all state chairmen with expired
tenors must first leave office and an electoral process be conducted or
supervised by an independent body like INEC at all levels to fill the
gaps before national elections take place. Also, tenures should be
amended to align with the national period and simultaneously conclude
prior to the next electoral session. That will buy some time for deeper
structural manoeuvring.

We must discard
that infamous tag of perhaps being the only nation that conducts
elections for the president before regional leaders are known.

Secondly, all
members of the past executive should be advised or encouraged to leave
as they were an integral support system of the deposed five and
contributed to the malaise in our football. They most certainly must
not be involved in any part of the electoral process. Thirdly, a
necessary addendum to the electoral process should immediately be
added. Have you ever wondered how come elections of this magnitude take
place into such sensitive positions as these without most of the
contestants (at least not the ones that win) submitting detailed
manifestoes stating goals and milestones they can be held accountable
by? This must be a requirement for candidacy. It is time for the
President to insist on “unifying the electoral laws of the land and
football” for the purpose of producing credible elections to usher in
freshness into our football administration. FIFA laws allow this so far
there is transparency so no one should attempt pulling wool over Mr
President’s eyes like before.

The clincher should
then be announcing that the Federal Government will begin pulling out
of funding the NFF immediately and conclude the process within one year
and the organisation would be left to generate their own financing
since they are already autonomously (and financially) affiliated to
FIFA and have a product (football) that is a cash-cow worldwide. That
will drastically reduce the glut of those lining up to enter the NFF
for monetary gain. How can FIFA have the audacity to insist that the
financier or shareholder of an organisation has no say in how finances
are disbursed? No more than a handful of football associations in
African countries can claim to be financially autonomous from their
governments, yet FIFA insists on outright autonomy of governance for
them too. Even Sepp Blatter will visit us quickly to lend an ear when
he hears that one. Apart from radically transforming our football
administration by encouraging those with genuine interest to present
themselves, it will guarantee a glut of soccer goodwill votes from
grateful Nigerians who will see Jonathan Goodluck as a ‘soccer
President’ “if” Mr President decides to contest next year’s elections.

To make matters
worse, credible candidates like Segun Odegbami, Festus Onigbinde and
Aisha Falode are being marginalised and pushed out of contention by
politicians without an iota of interest, knowledge or competence of
what it takes to run football professionally and successfully but are
using the system to push their hidden agendas. Should Mr President
decide to take the steps above or similar ones especially the clincher,
most of these imbeciles will quickly withdraw their interest.

Sadly, my slight
hopes of the Minister and his team being agents of change are rapidly
being extinguished if accounts of his involvement in the electoral
charade and recommending billionaires Aliko Dangote or Femi Otedola as
NFF Chairmen are true. So what is next?

Mr President Sir, over to you … AGAIN!