The great Greek philosopher Aristotle once said that “happiness does not consist in pastimes and amusement, but in virtuous activities “.
By Sunday, 8th August, 2021, hopefully 44 members of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Congress will converge in the ancient city of Benin City, Edo State, for an unlawfully convened Extra-Ordinary General Assembly to dubiously attempt to amend the 2010 NFF STATUTES to suit their bruised egos.
Again, one must also not forget that in the year leading to any NFF Elective Congress, there are always a lot of hullabaloos, scheming, dirty tactics, outrageous exhibition of audacious attacks on the rules of the game and frantic effort to cheat during elections. Mostly and fatally with impunity.
The real problem however is the ominous and deafening silence from the Stakeholders.
Nobody is ready to speak out against the evil machinations of the authoritarians. But that silence could be the one from the graveyard. For when the bubble will finally burst, every Stakeholder will partake in the consequences.
This is why football actors are uncomfortable and asking questions such as, When will the administrative hierarchy be virtuous in their activities and stop cutting corners? When will they come clean from their innocuous, dishonourable and uncharitable manipulations? When will they begin to engage in activities that will make football-loving Nigerians feel that sense of happiness, enthusiasm and that aura of confidence and satisfaction?
Answering the questions is not their major concern, rather their pursuit of personal aggrandizement borne out of inglorious desire to desperately hang on to power is more important.
Otherwise, how else would one explain a decision to hurriedly convene an Extra-Ordinary General Assembly to amend the STATUTES which it’s provisions and clauses are either misinterpreted or disobeyed?
A simple question to any member of the Congress on the aspect of the proposed STATUTES meant for amendment , the answers they would give will be shocking and embarrassing.
None of them have an idea why the Congress was actually called . Yet, they would still attend, but interestingly enough to turn the venue into circus ground for amusement and pastimes.
On the 26th of June, 2021, the Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria, PFAN in a bold move wrote a letter to the NFF in which they complained about unequal representation of the bodies of NFF in the composition of the Congress.
Similarly, few days after PFAN made their position known, the 20 Premier League Clubs in the country also demanded for all the Premier League Clubs to be included in the General Assembly as members with full voting rights.
Pressure is now truly and actually building up, but trust the evil geniuses, characteristically they opted to draw the hammer and kill off any idea that will disrupt the status quo.
Quickly, a machinery was set in motion – The Extra-Ordinary General Assembly is the answer to deliver a knock-out blow to the ambition of the stubborn Players Union and the Premier League Clubs.
But the Players Union are smarter and well prepared to go the whole hog. They are even carrying the world football governing body, FIFA along in the journey.
This sudden twist of events has therefore made the football hierarchy to put on hold the initial idea of using the Congress to fraudulently and unlawfully elongate the tenure of the Executive Board.
Instead, an Ad-Hoc Committee will now be constituted for the amendment of the STATUTES.
Apparently, the committee would then be saddled with the inglorious responsibility to do the hatchet job.
The great concern, however, is if the outcome of the meeting would not be challenged particularly since the premise on which the Extra -Ordinary General Assembly was convened is faulty.
Anyway, time will tell.
By Oyetunde Aderibigbe
