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There is battle raging for the soul of Nigerian football. It is a Manichaean struggle between the forces of good and evil.

At one end of the battle are gladiators seeking maintenance of the status quo and at the other are those seeking change. It is a long drawn battle the end of which cannot be ascertained as of now.

What is clear however is that things are not likely to remain the same within the football community in Nigeria. Since the crisis intensified following the decision of Sani Lulu, former Nigeria football Federation (NFF) President to amend the statutes of the federation, new alliances have been forged and long standing relationships fractured as combatants seek to advance their causes.

At the moment, Nigerian courts have become the theatres of war for members of the football family.

Since the NFF flouted an order, by a Federal High Court in Lagos, that elections into the executive committee of the federation should not hold pending the determination of issues before it, events on the football landscape in the country have proceeded at a dizzying pace.

Since that election, the spurned High Court has annulled the elections and Maigari and Abdulkareem Mustapha, chairman of the electoral committee that conducted the election, have challenged the decision at the Appeal court in Lagos.

It appears that the matter may not end with a ruling by Nigerian courts. Segun Odegbami, one of the candidates who withdrew from the elections in deference to the court and who feels the world football governing body FIFA has meddled in the affairs of the NFF against the provisions of its (FIFA) own statutes has said he will drag FIFA before the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to seek redress.

Statutes of trouble

When former Nigeria Football Association (NFA) chairman, Ibrahim Galadima decided in 2004 to give the federation statutes, to regulate its activities and give it a modern outlook, he could not have foreseen the consequences of that action and could not have imagined that in six years time, members of the football fraternity in Nigeria would be embroiled in a free for all.

In drawing up the statutes, which were approved by FIFA and adopted by the federation, Galadima was driven by a desire to grant the federation autonomy from the sports ministry. At the time he was having troubles with Musa Mohammed then Minister of Sports and he looked to FIFA for solution. The story of how FIFA eventually hung him out to dry is well known and would not be dwelt on here.

Having a desire to be autonomous was one thing and following due process was quite another. Sani Lulu, who succeeded Galadima hit upon the idea that changing the name of the association to federation and the title of chairman to President will put a seal of finality on the matter. And so in 2008, he transmuted from chairman to president and the NFA became a federation. He promptly notified FIFA of the change in status.

However, there was a snag. The new dispensation acknowledged by FIFA and Africa’s football governing body, the Confederation of African football (CAF) existed only in the imagination of the people in the football federation. Legally, the NFF could not and does not exist because the enabling law giving government control over the NFA remained in force.

The controversial Decree 101, which came into force in 1992 after the merger of Decrees 10 and 11, becoming an Act of parliament in 2004 after the transition in 1999 to democratic rule, remains in force even up till today. About five years ago moves were made to repeal the act to pave way for individuals interested in running the game to do so without government involvement. Nothing came out of that move.

In the interim, FIFA was given the impression that given the change in nomenclature that the NFA had managed to free itself from government control.

“It is perhaps as a result of this deception that FIFA repeatedly threatens Nigeria with sanctions anytime they feel that government is interfering in the activities of the FA,” said Harrison Jalla, President of the National Association of Nigerian Footballers (NANF), a body which took the NFF to court over the tinkering with the statutes by its former boss, Lulu.

“The 2004 NFA Act makes the NFA a parastatal under government. That act has not been repealed and until that is done and the Nigerian Football Federation is recognised by law, there will no such thing as NFF because it is unknown to law,” Jalla.