This is a clarion call to the Hon. Minister of youth and sports Sunday Dare.
Elections into the executive committee of the Nigeria Football Federation is barely two years away and as the supervising Minister who has statutory oversight functions, he should ensure necessary reforms in the flawed, so-called NFF 2010 Statutes to ensure fair representation in all relevant constituencies that make up the game of football in Nigeria.
A situation where chairmen of the 36 states Football Association including the Federal Capital Territory will sit inside one hall usually called a congress and elect one of their colleagues as president of the NFF is no longer acceptable.
The current NFF board is a disaster Nigerians pray never to happen again.
It is a case study in money laundering, diversion of funds, outright stealing, undue interference in the internal affairs of the states’ football associations,
Complete negligence of the domestic professional leagues and outright disdain for home-based players and coaches.
This NFF board is the most financially reckless since the Nigeria Football Association was founded in 1945.
The solution to the NFF 2022 election is to return to the NFA ACT 2004 the governing instrument of Nigeria Football as today, to expand the congress to its original 101 members, and rejig the composition of the NFF board to accommodate at least four members of the players constituency and also ensure relevant constituencies are accommodated in a pyramid structure down to the states’ Football Association boards.
Henceforth no state Football Association chairman should double as NFF executive member, they must remain in their states to develop football.
The Honourable Minister must come out of his shell, discard his “Siddon look” attitude towards the affairs of the NFF and ensure necessary reforms now.
The players’ constituency has buried the hatchet and as a united front is now ready to declare total war to rescue Nigeria football from leeches, interlopers and the stranglehold of a monstrous gang.
It can no longer be business as usual.
The envisaged crisis from the upcoming 2022 NFF elections including protracted litigations should better be managed now by Honourable Minister Sunday Dare.
BY HARRISON JALLA
