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It has been a while
since I contributed to the ongoing issues in Nigerian sports. Despite
two crucial issues sharing the same fundamental challenge, I decided to
adopt a ‘siddon’ look approach till now.

Elections into two
of the most important sport structures in the country have been turned
into crucibles of questioning intent, transparency, rule of law and
fair-play. The Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) and Nigeria Football
Federation (NFF) elections have played out like soap-opera stories over
the past few weeks and we have not reached ‘the end’ yet.

The NOC election
being the most recent will be referred to sparingly to until a
conclusion is reached and focus more on the NFF elections before
casting an eye on both.

Both share a couple
of interesting similarities. The highest offices are being contested
for rigorously and seemingly at all cost; those offices come virtually
with dictatorial powers. In fact the IOC (International Olympic
Committee) has stated that it does not recognise last Thursday’s
election and has demanded a re-election.

For me, the whole
election was a charade combined with the federal government’s initial
decree that was expectedly reversed. Included was the diverse
candidature for the NFF Board; the court case and ruling that was
ignored or the court order the was allegedly never received; the Abuja
protests in front of the election venue and FIFA observing the
elections plus the eventual annulment of the elections begs the
question “who’s really got the power?”

FIFA’s growing powers over sovereign countries

I am more than a
little worried that countries have been divided into different,
sometimes more powerful, countries within themselves and those
‘countries’ are exclusively governed by laws outside that of their host
countries. I am more than worried that representatives of those
external countries can dictate to France, a sovereign country, how they
want their laws carried out with little or no regard for the sovereign
laws of the host country. It reminds of a status many of us in this
generation never experienced but read about or heard from our
grandparents-colonialism. Or how else can one explain FIFA’s telling
the two sovereign presidents of France and Nigeria exactly what they
demand and get away with it?

Without a doubt,
the reality biting us today is that FIFA has been allowed to become
bigger than sovereign countries and grown into dictators by riding
under the ruse of upholding democracy and transparency.

For example, I do
not understand why FIFA ignored the federal government and Nigerian
judiciary when serious allegations of financial impropriety were
levelled against officials administering the NFF.

I know FIFA’s
existing rules but do not understand why, or accept that French
President Sarkozy was warned by Sepp Blatter not to intervene in a
serious matter that embarrassed the French nation at a global event.

As proof of who is
actually in charge, Presidents, Sarkozy and Goodluck backed down when
it became apparent that FIFA would mete out punishments on their
countries that could spell political doom. Clearly, FIFA is in charge
of a sizeable proportion of many nations to the detriment of those
nations. That is why the reporting line is directly to FIFA as long as
the top honchos are satisfied; life goes on sweetly for whoever is
lucky to be in office. Is it not absurd that in Nigeria for example, a
government that provides most of the finances for NFF activities has
little control over how the money is spent and cannot even call the
persons responsible to order? There must be a way round this.

The way forward

Rules were made to
improve societal behaviour for the better and not restrict progress,
especially in unique circumstances. First of all, FIFA must recognise
the sovereignty of countries and include clauses that do so without
compromising or ceding overall control to governments. These clauses
must include recognition of offences against the laws of sovereign
countries. FIFA can always come and observe court proceedings like they
came to observe the NFF elections. Second, FIFA must recognise the
financial roles played by governments, especially in Africa. So long as
this is the case, it cannot be justifiable to demand autonomy from
governments. Third, FIFA must stop issuing such offensive demands in
spite of what their rules state. FIFA should also limit the number of
terms elected officials can hold office to discourage sit-in officials
– this is highly unlikely though because I reckon certain current
officials will have to move but it is something we can impose in our
own countries. It is.

Our government also
needs to disengage from direct involvement in sports, especially
financing it. This will serve as a two-edged weapon to discourage those
interested solely for the purpose of personal gain.

Secondly, government can be wise about affecting necessary change.

I expect the current NFF impasse to result in some horse-trading to
remedy the situation without changing the status quo so expect the new
board to continue. After all, the existing laws favour them too – it
will be incredible and shocking to see them go for fundamental changes.
But for now, FIFA has got the power.