The politics of NFF elections

The electoral process is said to be fraught with so many contentious issues and irregularities which have cast a huge shadow of doubt over the sincerity of those charged with the responsibility to conduct free and fair elections.No day passes without one complaint or the other emanating from those who are aspiring to join the […]

The electoral process is said to be fraught with so many contentious issues and irregularities which have cast a huge shadow of doubt over the sincerity of those charged with the responsibility to conduct free and fair elections.
No day passes without one complaint or the other emanating from those who are aspiring to join the board of the NFF. The major complaint that has continued to re-echo is the failure of most aspirants to secure forms for the election. It is said getting a form is like the proverbial journey of a camel through the eye of a needle.
Although last Monday was the final day for submission of forms, at least 70 percent of the aspirants were disenfranchised because they could not access the forms. It was said the official charged with the responsibility of selling the forms was nowhere to be found.
In a hide and seek style, the said official continued to switch on and off his phone while the chase for the ‘precious’ forms continued. It was alleged that even with an important assignment to carry out, he was the first NFF secretariat staff to leave for weekend. This was seen by many as a deliberate attempt to get out of the reach of aspirants who had stormed Abuja on Thursday morning for the forms.
Following the hubbub over their inability to procure the forms, the acting president of the Nigeria Football, Chief Mike Umeh, a fell victim of the alleged antics of the electoral committee began moves for the complaints of his fellow aspirants to be addressed.
However, immediately he hinted that NFF would not fold its hands and watch the electoral committee disenfranchise interested aspirants, he was quizzed by one of the security agents.
Curiously, the National Sports Commission, NSC alleged to teleguiding the electoral committee waded into the crisis on Wednesday in attempt to help the NFF and the electoral committee to tackle the myriads of complaints that have greeted the process.
Following the meeting of the NFF executive committee on Thursday, indications are strong that in the end, NFF may have to call a congress to get the election date extended. FIFA allows for normalisation when and where necessary.
Even if the date for the election is extended beyond August 26, the ongoing political intrigues would continue. Investigations have shown that the ongoing hullabaloo and ballyhoo is caused by nothing other than power play and the desperate attempt by certain individuals to get their anointed candidates into the executive committee.
Not fewer than five Nigerians are interested in taking over from Alhaji Aminu Maigari who is said to be effectively out of the contest. The NFF presidential aspirants are in different camps that have sprung up.
It is now an open secret that following the impeachment of Maigari and eventual elevation of Umeh to acting president of the NFF, the executive committee and the congress of NFF have been factionalised. Thursday’s ban placed on two members of the NFF executive committee underscores this fact.
At the last count, there is Maigari, Umeh and NSC camps that have evolved to project candidates for the plum job. Maigari feeling betrayed by members of the executive committee is said to have vowed to go down with his colleagues who ‘betrayed’ him at a critical moment.
Consequently, with control over a reasonable chunk of the congress, he is said to be working hard to ensure that one of his former challengers to the NFF presidency who is from the north emerges the next NFF president. To counter him, it is said Umeh’s executive committee is working towards banning the FA chairmen who attended the congress that nullified Maigari’s impeachment.
Meanwhile, the National Sports Commission which ‘hastily’ obeyed the Jos High Court order by kicking out Maigari before he was reinstated by the order of FIFA is said to be prodding a club owner from the North central to gun for the NFF presidency. However, the said aspirant has a mountain to climb because his aspiration has already run into bad weather. It is said he is enjoying the backing of the sports ministry and a former NSC bigwig but his opponents are brandishing a document to prove that he is not fit to preside over Nigerian football.
Umeh is not enjoying the power of incumbency because his frosty relationship with Maigari is no doubt a big cog in the wheel of his progress. For him to be in the same boat with other aspirants who failed to get a form to buy, Umeh is said to be sinking very fast. Unless he succeeds in putting the elections on hold, he would have to kiss his ambition bye.
In one of the other camps, even as he is yet to be unbanned, a former NFF General Secretary has since bought a form for the presidency and is waiting the lifting of his ban so he would submit it. Meanwhile, those eligible to contest the elections are yet to access the forms.
Meanwhile, as the aspirants and the electoral committee continue to jostle, a former scribe of the then NFA, Dr. Tijani Yusuf has since called for immediate postponement of the elections.
He is of the view that since most of the aspirants have genuine complaints, the NFF leadership should get the grievances treated before the process would resume. In his opinion, anything worth doing is worth doing well.
““ I want to advise the leadership of the NFF to immediately suspend the electoral process and look into the grievances of the aspirants.
“ So many issues that need urgent treatment are on ground. Most of the aspirants are complaining that they have been denied access to the forms. This means they have been disenfranchised.
“ Furthermore the electoral committee is supposed to have seven members but the present committee is having only five members. I tell you an aggrieved person can exploit this loophole in court,” he told SHOT!.
 Another aspirant from the north-central who spoke to SHOT! on condition of anonymity said NFF should suspend the election and set up another electoral committee made up of more credible Nigerians.
“It is a shame that someone like me could not get a form to buy. The electoral committee has been compromised. If the process is not suspended and more credible people appointed to conduct the election, we would have the worst NFF elections,” he said.