Though the ripples from the 2022 Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Elective Congress that saw the emergence of Ibrahim Gusau is yet to die down, football stakeholders within and outside the country are unanimous that the new board need a lot of re-jigging in order to offer the game a breathing space, OLALEKAN OKUSAN and TUNDE LIADI report.
For most parts of his eight-year tenure as the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick-led board was faced with series of controversies ranging from alleged financial impropriety to lack of transparency in the engagement of national coaches as well as neglect of grassroots football.
None of the coaches employed under Pinnick had their contract made known to the public even some of the indigenous coaches engaged never penned their contract in the public domain.
Apart from these, players from the local league became second class to their foreign counterparts as the European tactician engaged by the federation particularly Gernot Rohr never considered the local players for national senior team rather.
Following the exit of Pinnick after the election of Zamfara -born football administrator Ibrahim Gusau last week, there are lot of expectations from stakeholders within and outside the country on what are needed by the new board to do to restore the glory of the country in the global football space.
Football stakeholders from Lagos to Lokoja; Abeokuta to Abakaliki; Ogbomoso to Ogoja; Makurdi to Maiduguri all revealed what should rank highest among the things to do by the new NFF board.
United States-based former Green Eagles player, Paul Okoku, believed with emergence of new board led by Gusau, all warring parties should sheath their sword and work together for the sport.
Okoku, a member of the 1983 Flying Eagles, which was the first Nigerian team to feature in any FIFA World Cup at the Mexico U-20 World Cup , said the new NFF President must be ready to manage people of diverse backgrounds.
“The new NFF President should have the ability to manage multiple people and have had a previous role that required them to manage multiple resources,” Okoku told NationSport. “The new president should have integrity and also demonstrate prowess in motivating people, conflict resolution and making difficult but important decisions.
“The decisions they make affect the livelihood of many people including the stakeholders across the entire national football administration and industry. Hence, he must have the ability to make difficult unbiased decisions as these are crucial for the success of football in the nation.
“As they say, the buck stops on his desk,” he added.
Yet the 56-year-old also noted that accountability, probity and transparency should be among the watchwords of the new NFF board and that the board should be plain enough to submit themselves to scrutiny to defend how public funds given to them is spent without terming it interference.
Okoku continued: “Accountability is also a key factor of an effective leader’s ability to make sound decisions. If the federation gets financial support from the federal government or private sponsorships, this leader must submit to internal and external audits without seeking protection from FIFA citing government interference.
“The idea that FIFA will subject African nations/sovereign nations to sanctions and suspension is absurd and beyond my comprehension if the government is attempting to hold them accountable for financial abuses.
“FIFA ‘s actions most often than not breeds corruption and encourages contempt for our laws. In fact, it promotes entitlement and exploitation of public resources. FIFA must revisit their rule that explicitly bans government interference in football management in Africa if they expect the government to continue to sponsor the national football teams. Having their cake and eating it too, so to speak.
“They should have the same business models they use in Europe, the USA and other developed countries for African nations.
“In developed economies like the United States of America, the government hands off when it comes to sponsoring the US national football teams financially.
“The private sector companies and other entities/individuals sponsor their national football teams. Therefore, the US government does not interfere when it comes to running football operations.
“I bet you that if the US government ever get involved in the sponsorship of their national football teams, they will interfere if they perceive or suspect any financial wrongdoing or irregularities. It should make sense to FIFA.
“It is proven that if there is accountability in the workplace there’s a direct correlation to higher levels of performance. So, it should make sense for the new leaders to embrace the culture of workplace accountability and maintain financial discipline where every penny spent is accounted for.
“The obvious problem is the lack of accountability in the NFF. Remember what happened to Joseph Sepp Blatter? He was driven out office for the suspicion of corruption.
“The question that begs for an answer is why do Africa countries particularly Nigeria can’t be subject to such financial scrutiny?
“To give FIFA a boost to impose their sanctions on Nigerian government for the investigative activities of its citizen’s financial crimes. We should have dignity and respect for our government. They must be sensitive leaders with capacity for empathy and compassion.
“Therefore the new president’s priorities must include addressing the financial crisis that has plagued the federation so that he can start on a clean slate.
“Above all, he should prioritize restoring public trust and confidence in his NFF-led board.”
Okoku further charged the new board to always make public the deals involving any coach they are engaging and the sponsorships that have are attracted by the board, adding the new NFF board must rejig football in the country in order to make it more appealing to Nigerians.
He added: “The idea of employing coaches without contract as well as contracts shrouded in secrecy must be discouraged. Our coaches must be well catered for and they must have their contracts stated out for them to know what they are getting from their jobs.
“Nigerians are looking for people who have courage, transparency, and transformational leadership approaches. The priorities of the new leader should first be to lead by example, player’s health, their workspace’s (stadiums) safety and security, construction of internationally and FIFA- approved facilities, promoting sustainable maintenance culture, media innovation that embraces social media platforms as a means to promote the growth of football as a business that will be beneficial economically to all involved.
“The new board should shift their focus to bettering football matches that will increase interest and therefore increase public consumption. The football games, national leagues, Challenge cup, Principal cup, etc., once gained popularity in Nigeria and became our favourite pastime.
“Bringing the sport back to its glory days and successfully gaining local and national acceptance as well as aligning with international standards should be a priority for the incoming leader.
“Football is a way of life for us and enhances our wellbeing, our culture and sanity. It is a pre- requisite for our lives which shape our mental and physical health, therefore, it is imperative for the new leadership to be laser focused on strengthening the games.
“As a part of leading by example, hiring of personnel should not be based on federal status but rather on competence, experience, and proven on-the-job-success. This should be intentional.
“There should be absolutely no room for discrimination and favouritism. There should be nothing more satisfying than restoring the reputation of the NFF and all the stakeholders associated with the league. “They should do everything possible not to adopt the principles of their predecessors because that would destroy the public trust.
“ I believe these goals, objectives and values will help restore football in our beloved nation,” Okoku noted.
Another former Green Eagles star, Christian Nwokocha who was one of the first generation of Nigerian player to sign for an European first division team in the early 80’s, based his views on improved competence of personnel in the NFF.
He volunteered: “NFF should allow the plan to implement Total Quality Management (TQM) in football which would give the board the challenge and opportunity of a lifetime.
“This adventure must surely change the NFF organization’s outlook. The TQM’s approach can answer both the supporters’ and fans’ pleas for improving football management as well as addressing organization’s quality and productivity problems.
“Many specialists believe that the key to successful Total quality management in football begins at the top of its executive board of directors. Several scholars pointed out that total quality and management works are essential for the role of leadership in managing quality (German Total Football).
“Quality management is need within the Nigeria football federation since it would meet the expectations of fans, supporters, and the nation to continuously develop its game procedures and football.
“Some principles laid out in the ISO 9000 standard should be increasingly monitored by the leadership and management to facilitate the implementation of total quality management throughout the NFF organization.
“NFF leaders must provide a unity of purpose while establishing the direction of the NFF organization. The responsibility of a leader consists of creating and maintaining the internal environment.
“The use of total quality management will inspire players, supporters, employees, and the nation at all levels of the organizations to participate in resolving the problem of quality and in continual football management improvement and achieving the projected NFF goals,” the University of Phoenix graduate added.
But former First Vice President of NFF Mazi Amanze Uchegbulam who pulled out of the presidential race in last Friday’s election in Benin City, noted that domestication of the football statutes is one of the major solutions to the unending litigations that has bedevilled every election year.
Uchegbulam who is not new to the current trend as a prelude to the previous NFF Elections told NationSport that he had admonished the out-gone President Pinnick at the early stages of his administration, to work towards the domestication of the statutes to forestall incessant court cases that has hindered the growth of Nigerian football.
He admitted that there were moves to get the process done away with when the bill was debated and approved on the floor of the National Assembly some time ago before it was successful sent to the Presidency for its ascent to become a law. President Muhammadu Buhari is yet to sign it.
The long-serving Uchegbulam noted that there a chance to convince President Buhari to sign the bill when FIFA President Gianni Infantino and CAF head, Patrice Motsepe visited Nigeria and paid President Buhari a courtesy call with NFF President, Amaju Pinnick accompanying them.
He said Pinnick should have used the occasion to appeal to the FIFA boss to beckon on President Buhari to help sign the bill.
“Unfortunately, it is happening now(unending litigations) because I had warned Amaju Pinnick when he came in that he should ensure our statutes is domesticated. That would have solved this problem,” Uchegbulam noted in his usual frankness. “We went through the open hearing. I even made a presentation and the issue went through National Assembly and the Presidency. It remains for the President to ascent it for it to become a law and end this court matter.
“They had an opportunity when FIFA President Gianni Infantino and CAF President Patrice Motsepe came to Nigeria and visited President Muhammadu Buhari in the company of Amaju Pinnick. I thought he would have used the opportunity to tell Infantino to plead with the Nigerian President to sign the National Assembly bill concerning domesticating our football as our statutes.
“It would have ended the process of taking football matters to conventional courts. But he was busy doing something else. We lost the opportunity because we were self- serving.”
Similarly , former BCC Lions of Gboko star, Bolaji Douglas toed the same path as the Imo FA boss while highlighting that the distractions caused by the non- domestication of the NFF statutes have somehow stifled the development of the sport in the country.
“Personally I think the first thing that needs sorting out is constitutional reform to prevent this nonsense that always comes up at every election. Those issues need to be resolved once and for all,” Douglas emphasized. “There is a lot of work to be done ,our football has nosedived and because of these distractions we expend energy on the wrong things, while out football continues to suffer.
“These distractions must be laid to rest permanently so that the federation can face squarely its primary duties,” he concluded.
Indeed, the challenge of who runs the Nigeria Professional Football League following the setup of an interim management committee by the sports ministry is another huge task before the current board following the dissolution of the League Management Company by the federal government.
It is however, interesting that the new president of the NFF, the soft- spoken Gusau has pledged an all-inclusive administration of the game under his watch in what was an official statement following his election.
“Administration at every level, that of football inclusive, requires the wisdom to be able to listen to everyone who has an idea and then pick the very best to deal with each situation at hand. Those of us in the Executive Committee are only privileged to be representing the entire fraternity,” Gusau , who served two terms as Chairman of Chairmen and Member of the NFF Executive Committee under the Amaju Melvin Pinnick administration, said in the federation’s official release this week.
“We will run an inclusive administration in which ideas and advice will be welcome from all quarters, and will be guided in our resolutions. It is very important to resuscitate the League and engender a massive football economy from which every stakeholder can benefit and also be happy to contribute to its growth.”
A former Chairman of the Zamfara State Sports Commission, said he was determined to focus hard on the welfare of players and officials of the various National Teams, in order to ginger and motivate them for podium appearances at international competitions to the glory of the country.
“It is important to prioritize grassroots football and youth development, and that we will take to heart. It is also important to win trophies, and both can go side-by-side. Winning trophies is good for our country’s image in the international sphere and also helps to motivate the upcoming stars at the grassroots level,” added Gusau, a member of the CAF organizing committee for youth competitions including U17, U20 and U23.
But as they say, ‘it is early days’ but whether Gusau and his lieutenants would tow this path of honour remains to be seen.