Big kudos to all

The NFF was charged to embrace persons who felt aggrieved in one way or the other, and assuage their feelings, in order that the game could move on in peace. There is no doubt that Nigeria football can do much better. Last year, we failed to qualify for All-Africa Games football tournaments in both male […]

The NFF was charged to embrace persons who felt aggrieved in one way or the other, and assuage their feelings, in order that the game could move on in peace. There is no doubt that Nigeria football can do much better. Last year, we failed to qualify for All-Africa Games football

tournaments in both male and female categories and also failed to reach the 2012 Olympics in both categories. Then, the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2012 African Cup of Nations.

There were distractions and disruptions everywhere, and the truth was that these disturbances did not allow for peace of mind to plan, focus and persevere. We spent more time in the courtroom than in the boardroom, where you fashion out policies for the development of the game.

Continuing from where he started with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi mounted the stage at the two-day Public Hearing by the Senate Committee on Sports and Social Development and exuded his usual candour and unbias. So long a time since we had this kind of Minister/Chairman. He was only interested in solving the problem and he went about it with the kind of honesty that you only find in Holy Men.

I have had opportunities to interact with Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi a number of times since his coming on board as Supervising Minister of Sports, and I have NEVER had any reason to doubt his sincerity of purpose on any given issue. Young and versatile, with the kind of energy he has been able to expend on sports, you would find it difficult to believe that he is actually substantive Minister for Youth Development, and only overseeing sports!

Apart from his opening address, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi virtually pocketed the two-day event when he closed the session on the second day with a passionate plea for aggrieved personalities to sheath their swords and allow those in office to pilot the affairs of Nigeria football with peace of mind. He got a standing ovation when he said that he was even ready to go and beg Segun Odegbami to let peace reign.

My loud applause to Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi for this, and I also wish to commend the President of the Senate, Distinguished Senator David Mark (GCON), the Sports and Social Development Committee of the Senate of the Federal Republic as well as some other persons who made very useful contributions to the two-day Public Hearing, which has enriched us further.

At the opening ceremony on Monday, 26th March, Distinguished Senator David Mark made salient observations and expressed worry about the state of Nigeria sports. For the avoidance of doubt, the theme of the Hearing was ‘Downward Trends In Nigeria Sports Generally And Football In Particular’. The Senate President urged that administrators eschew bickering and bitterness and concentrate energy on driving the nation’s sports forward positively.

It is true that we had a poor last quarter in 2011, I noted, but it is also good to note that it was not an entirely horrible year. People have gone on and on about the poor state of football, simply because a few results went wrong. The same people hailed the U-20 National Team, Flying Eagles, to high heavens when they won the African Youth Championship in South Africa in May 2011.

For me and other members of the NFF Executive Committee, year 2011 was poor in the last quarter but then, it enabled us to start building from the scratch. In 2011, Nigeria played a total of 63 officials matches (all competitions, all National Teams), winning 38 and drawing

7. We lost 18. Failure to reach the All-Africa Games, Olympics and the Cup of Nations exposed the underbelly badly.

But, in reality, it was just mother luck that was abroad. The Super Eagles were heading to Equatorial Guinea and Gabon with only 30 SECONDS left in their game against Guinea in Abuja. The Falcons were on the way to the All-Africa Games with few minutes to the end of their match against Ghana in Accra, and the Falcons then failed to make the Olympics after losing to Cameroon on penalties in Yaounde. In that shoot-out, Cameroon was first to lose a kick, then our girls faltered.

As for the men, Eguavoen’s boys lost the All-Africa Games ticket on the away goal rule to Ghana. After a 3-1 win in Benin City, they lost 0-2 in Kumasi. At the Olympics qualifying tournament in Morocco, our boys would have gone through if Morocco, as expected, defeated Senegal in their last group phase match.

I am not making excuses, but it is clear to see that we simply didn’t have the luck. Anyway, I digress.

The presentations of four former Sports Ministers (Damishi Sango, Hassan Gimba, Sani Ndanusa and Taoheed Adedoja) were useful, as the presentations of Hon. Sani Toro, Charles Ojugbana, Paul Bassey, Shuaib Gara-Gombe and Mrs Grace Yaro, and the interventions of Taiwo Ogunjobi and Bolaji Ojo-Oba.

The principal issues were funding, control and development. For me, there is no probme about governance and control. The Nigeria Football Federation fully recognizes that it is a parastatal under the National Sports Commission, and is always carrying the NSC along in all major

moves/programmes/plans/policies.

Surely, every area of Nigerian life can do with better funding, as I said at the Public Hearing. But football becomes priority, because as Distinguished Senator David Mark (GCON) said in his remark, football is the greatest unifying factor in Nigeria!

That said, more money is needed to run sports. One was uncomfortable learning that the funds for this year’s Olympic Games in London (lessthan four months away) are not ready!

For this year, the NFF will have to do with N1.9 billion (approximately $12 million), to run 12 National Teams and carry out other programmes that have to do with Nigerian football. Apart from continental qualifiers, World Cup qualifiers and camping programmes involving these teams, we also have to fund several other programmes/events/activities.

NEXT WEEK: Answers To A Few Questions