NFF debacle: The fight-back begins

Their sack was largely seen as part of efforts by powerful sports figures to pacify a Federal Government that had responded to the Eagles’ poor showing at the World Cup by withdrawing all  national teams from international competition. FIFA had reacted to this government decision by threatening to ban Nigeria, and key stakeholders including the […]

Their sack was largely seen as part of efforts by powerful sports figures to pacify a Federal Government that had responded to the Eagles’ poor showing at the World Cup by withdrawing all  national teams from international competition. FIFA had reacted to this government decision by threatening to ban Nigeria, and key stakeholders including the now-disgraced Amos Adamu and officials of the National Sports Commission moved quickly to assuage the government and avert the FIFA hammer by shunting aside the three most powerful figures in the NFF executive.

The move against Lulu was preceded by a steady drip of stories and innuendo in the media that slowly created the impression that the NFF leadership was clueless and incompetent. The Super Eagles’s abject display in South Africa was the last straw for incensed Nigerian fans who now wanted heads to roll. Despite the questionable basis of the impeachment, the public seemed not to care so long as they had their scapegoat! Echoes of delight even raced through the media as Lulu, Ogunjobi, and Uchegbulam were charged to court for issues pertaining to their management of NFF finances.

But the supposed scapegoat is not staying mute. It soon emerged that Lulu and the others are challenging their sack, and have filed processes at sport’s global tribunal, the Court of Arbitration for Sports. Then on 3 November 2010, Lulu told reporters that as at 1 July 2010, a balance of N326, 639,514.78 was left in the NFF’s UBA account where the N900million World Cup preparation grant was deposited a month earlier. He further disclosed that the FIFA/LOC  sponsorship fund of $5.5million remained untouched in First Bank. Lulu spoke in reaction to an NFF statement which, while seeking the defreezing of the accounts, had mentioned account balances lower than the situation on the day they were frozen. It is notable that the NFF has not contested Lulu’s version of the account balances.

Further confirmation that Lulu had gotten his groove back was the interview granted newspapers recently, where he was categoric that he deserved respect for his services to Nigeria.

Five months after the events of July 2010, there is a gathering momentum for a rethink of the Lulu years and the events that led to the final debacle. Interviews and conversations with sports figures and available documents suggest that Lulu is a victim of the refusal of senior sports bureaucrats and politicians to respect the autonomy of elected football institutions. At the root of the perennial attraction football governance has for these sports bureaucrats is the monies that the NFF attracts from the national budgets, sponsors and FIFA. “Egged on by the bureaucrats, no sports minister has been able to resist the temptation to usurp the NFF or subject it to direct control, contrary to its statutes,” a source familiar with sports politics in Nigeria disclosed.

Government interference was a looming shadow over the NFF. These pressures from the bureaucrats are persistent, but they assume a new intensity when important competitions loom. They know that the NFF will need money, and they try to ensure that such monies are managed by structures other than the NFF. The anxiety over Nigeria’ qualification for Africa’s first World Cup was one of such moments, and a presidential task force suddenly emerged. It was no surprise that the task force tried to relegate the NFF, triggering tensions. The Super Eagles’ last gasp qualification for the World Cup restored the NFF’s pre-eminence in organising Nigeria’s participation in the tournament as FIFA’s recognised affiliate.

Yet a pattern of obstruction emerged, with important consequences for Nigeria’s finances and its reputation. The FG’s N900m grant to assist the NFF’s World Cup preparations was released barely ten days to the commencement of the 2010 World Cup. There was the orchestrated controversy over the choice of Hampshire Hotel as the team’s base for the tournament. The hotel was selected by then coach Shaibu Amodu who wanted a place big enough for the Nigerian team, and small enough to have the Nigerian delegation as the sole occupants. The NFF accepted the coach’s choice and communicated FIFA which handles negotiations with the hotels on behalf of its affiliates.  The NFF felt the price, the location and the chance to lock-out the unwanted persons that usually distracted the players made Hampshire a desirable base. There was a firm commitment that the hotel would be made ready to the NFF’s expectation before the tournament.

Suddenly stories began emerging denigrating the standard of the hotel, and laced with innuendo that the NFF had done a shady deal. Pronto, the sports minister, Ibrahim Bio places himself as the arbiter of where the team base should be. He flies to South Africa with his mind made up to reject Hampshire. Sources who were present at the meeting said Bio made it an issue of national pride, claiming that Nigeria, Africa’s giant, could not stay in a “cheap” hotel while other countries, such as England, were occupying pricey locations. This argument effectively relieved Hampshire Hotel of its contractual liability to get the hotel in shape, because Bio was rejecting the hotel whether it was ready or not. Bio’s usurpation of the NFF’s role led to Nigeria being asked to pay the $250,000 specified in the contract for breaching its contract with the hotel. FIFA agreed to pay half of the money, and Nigeria is yet to pay the $125,000 owed as compensation to Hampshire Hotel  for  the cancellation, despite Bio’s boast that it would be paid.

This ministerial grandstanding forgot that the World Cup is about footballing grace, skill and efficiency, not grandiose hotels. Said a source who was in South Africa: “Nobody cares how much Ghana’s hotel cost- it is the team’s performance that is remembered. A country’s soccer prowess is shown on the field, not in the expense of its hotel accommodation.”

By 21 June 2010, the shape of things to come began to emerge when Bio wrote a letter to FIFA, requesting that the global football body should withhold any monies due to the NFF, its Nigerian affiliate, until after elections due in August for a new board. Bio, whose letter played to stereotype of Nigerians as corrupt persons, however failed to inform FIFA that he and his ministry’s director-general, Pat Ekeji, were trying to stop the elections, or at least get them postponed. Bio and Ekeji premised their action on the need to ensure that preparation for the NFF elections did not interfere with Nigeria’s World Cup outing.

Correspondence between the NSC and the NFF indicate that Lulu bravely defended the NFF’s autonomy, and rightly rejected NSC attempts to thwart the scheduled elections. He told Ekeji that FIFA, the owners and organiser of the World Cup, holds its elections and meetings during the World Cup. “Of course postponing elections as demanded by the NSC would have been used as an excuse for further crisis and interference as issues relating to the legal status of the NFF board would have arisen after a certain date,” a member of the electoral committee explained.

Investigations revealed that the order to stop the electoral process was the NSC’s design to stop Lulu’s return to office. Lulu had by June 2010 been endorsed by all six zones of the football family, and was running virtually unopposed for reelection as NFF president. More light is certain to emerge on how a successful NFF president was suddenly ousted.

Muyiwa Adeoye wrote  from Festac Town in Lagos