Nigeria’s football house of commotion

The edifice housing the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is an architectural grandeur fitted with glasses hence it was, until last Wednesday when it was gutted by fire, referred to as the Glass House. However, the characters administering the nation’s football ignored the axiom that those who live (or work) in a glass house do not throw stones.
The Nigerian football has known no respite since the leadership of Alhaji Aminu Maigari took over from his predecessor, Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi, following the Super Eagles’ dismal performance at the 2010 FIFA World Cup Finals held in South Africa. However, the Maigari leadership has been characterised by a myriad of crises and litigations. The NFF under him was declared an illegal body by two high court orders on the grounds that the Nigeria Football Association is the only entity recognised by law.
The current storm raging in the NFF is seen as a domino effect of the illegal removal of Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima as NFA boss whose leadership failed to qualify Nigeria for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals held in Germany and subsequent scheming of Alhaji Sani Lulu-Abdullahi to suceed him with the backing of the Federal Government and without recourse to the NFA Statutes.
The unfolding drama in the weeks that followed the 2014 World Cup Finals is a bad augury for Nigerian football. Presently, there are two factions fighting for the soul of the football body. Maigari, who was recently impeached, followed by his purported resignation, lobbied his way back to the saddle, while his successor, Mike Umeh, is leading a parallel executive board in an acting capacity. The Congress of the federation which is scheduled for tomorrow, August 26, 2014, as a prelude to the election two weeks after is mired in intense controversy. It was in the build-up to the exercise that the Glass House went up in flames in mysterious circumstances.
Nigerian football is presently in the pathos. In the past four years, the nation has recorded some appreciable successes among them were the 2013 AFCON Trophy, the qualification for Brazil 2014 where they matched the USA ’94 and France ’98 second round feats as well as the 2013 FIFA U-17 World Cup Finals. However, this vicious circle of crisis needs to be broken. The self-seeking cabal holding the Nigerian football hostage has to be dislodged before sanity can return to the system. The cult running our football has no business being there. They see the federation as a cash cow to be milked for their personal aggrandizement. It is for this reason that the cabal has shut out those who could bring stability, development and growth to the nation’s football. Their cause is helped by FIFA which frowns at government’s interference in the running of the football matters of its affiliated bodies even though the NFF’s programmes at all levels are funded with tax payer’s money.
We do not see the fear of FIFA as the beginning of wisdom. Wisdom begins with taking the bull by the horns. The Ghanaian Government ignored FIFA some years back and withdrew its Football Association from all international engagements over a period of time. The groundswell of that radical decision was the Black Stars’ qualification for the 2006 FIFA World Cup Finals for the first time in that country’s football history and subsequent tournaments, where they gave a good account of themselves. The Ghanaian football eventually got to its apogee when the Black Satellites became the first African country to win the U-19 FIFA World Cup Finals held in Egypt in 2009.
A desperate ailment deserves a desperate cure. The Ghana treatment will be resisted by those who profit from the system but it will open the space and provide a level playing ground for those who have the passion, knowledge, competence and wherewithal to run our football. President Goodluck Jonathan toed a similar path after Super Eagles’ dismal performance at South Africa 2010 but he had no guts to follow it through.