Peace as platform for success (1) continue

Naturally, I started by giving kudos to the League Management Company for the work it has done so far, since inauguration. The team was inaugurated in December 2012 as League Management Committee, before the incorporation.Headed by Hon. Nduka Irabor, a man of high integrity and principles, the LMC also has as members eminent football persons […]

Naturally, I started by giving kudos to the League Management Company for the work it has done so far, since inauguration. The team was inaugurated in December 2012 as League Management Committee, before the incorporation.
Headed by Hon. Nduka Irabor, a man of high integrity and principles, the LMC also has as members eminent football persons likes of Hon. Sabo Babayaro (Vice Chairman), Mr. Shehu Dikko, Mallam Salisu Abubakar, Mrs Modele Sarafa-Yusuf, Mr. Mike Enahoro and others.
There has been no doubt about the commitment and capacity of the personalities in the LMC, with the Professional Football League having started on a very good note and excellent organization and results turned in over the past nine weeks of the campaign.
I was in Morocco, at the 10th CAF African U-17 Championship, when I heard about the threat by the Chairmen/Managers of the Clubs to the LMC, to the effect that the Clubs would stop taking part in the League unless the LMC quit. Immediately, I directed those NFF Executive Committee members who were on ground in Nigeria to quickly intervene and get the Clubs to play the midweek and weekend matches that would precede my return from Morocco.
It was interesting listening to Barr. Isaac Danladi, Ag. Chairman of the Chairmen/Managers reel out a host of the ‘sins’ of the LMC, and what the Clubs actually wanted. A lawyer, he was quite articulate and loaded his points brilliantly, and made a number of demands which he said, were conditional to the Chairmen/Managers sheathing their swords.
Of course, it was also interesting listening to Hon, Nduka Irabor, a journalist by training, who had gone on to serve in the Parliament. He addressed the points raised by Danladi and made a point: “What the LMC is doing is not in any way, inimical to the interests that the Chairmen/Managers of the Clubs are advancing.”
And that was exactly the point. The League Management Company had set about its work with a terrific sense of duty and commitment to the cause. Adhering strictly to its terms of reference and given latitude by the mandate to reform, the LMC had been steadfast on the reform process, which included a number of moves that the Chairmen/Managers were not comfortable with.
The terms of reference of the LMC is as follows:
i)      Organise the 2012/2013 League
ii)     Review all contractual obligations of the NPL, including TV and Sponsorship rights.
iii)    Develop strategy and facilitate the reform of the League towards achieving profitability
iv)     Review existing rules and guidelines for the election into Nigeria Premier League Board
v)      Develop new standards for players’ contracts and welfare.
vi)    Any other relevant matters the Committee may deem necessary
To truly reform the League towards achieving profitablity, and review contractucal obligations of the NPL, including TV and Sponsorship rights, the LMC had to incorporate and work very hard within limited time-frame. But in the process, it did not communicate enough with the Chairmen/Managers of the Clubs, and this bred bad blood.
My first admonition was for the LMC to do more to ‘carry along’ the Chairmen/Managers of the Clubs. Of course, you cannot shave a man’s head in his absence (apologies late Chief MKO Abiola). If you are doing some things for my good, I have to be carried along. And knowing full well that man tries to resist change, for one reason or the other, the importance of ‘carrying along’ the beneficiaries of the reforms is underscored.
I made it clear to the Chairmen/Managers that there was no way all of them could be involved with the day-to-day running of the League. Already, two of their members, Hon. Sabo Babayaro and Mr. Mike Idoko, are on the LMC. I am shocked that these complaints could come up with these two respected administrators also in on what the LMC is doing.
Why were they not briefing those they were representing? It is difficult to know. While Idoko insisted that he was not aware of the total operations of the LMC and therefore could not fully brief his group, Hon. Babayaro was absent at the meeting.
All in all, however, I made it clear that we all had to accommodate one another. We have come to a junction in our League that we just had to, according to Hon. Irabor, set in motion processes to ‘Begin Again’.
Since the 2012/2013 season began, I have not heard anyone complaining about organization or general management of the games. Teams have won on away grounds and we have seen a situation that even critics continue to praise the officiating. While other details may need finetuning and communication is improved to ‘carry along’ everyone, we should simply try to see the overriding need for peace, love and reconciliation as platform for the on-going reforms to succeed and eventually make the League much better.
NEXT WEEK: Peace As Platform For Success (2)