CAN SOMEONE TELL ME:

Davidson Owumi...the sacrificial lamb?

1.      JITI OGUNYE: This human rights lawyer is not a football person. I don’t know if he has football as one of his hobbies. The same issues I once raised on AIT Sports file, with Mike Enahoro and Austin Mgbolu on the set whence some people who feel they own Nigerian football more than some of us called and were insultive about when they signed their out-of-court deal with NANF is what the lawyer generated and asked for interpretation. Yet, there are lawyers in the employ of the NFF and on the board of the NFF. What do you make of these?

2.      HARRISON JALLA: Let the whole world rise and praise this courageous youngman, an original product of Nigerian football. His passion for the game is burning and searing. Wonder how the NFF had struggled to lead to his being crucified. Ask, are the NFF goons facing the real issues informing how and why Jalla has become so relevant to Nigerian football these couple of weeks? If things are done correctly as it should be, would he have been thrown up in our public consciousness today? Jalla is a wonderful creation of the fraud, un-Godly and corrupt NFF. May God strengthen his arm in that direction of the fight.

3.      PATRICK OLUSEGUN ODEGBAMI: In case it sneaks out, we lived on the same West of Mines street in Jos in the early 70s. I had grown under his shadows. I have had reasons to attack him in writing and many times to his face as a journalist but the bottom-line is, I respect him. I am one of those who accused him of not finishing what he starts; The NFF election he’s pursuing in the Court of Arbitration in Sports (CAS) in Lousanne-Switzerland makes me respect him the more till date. The cost of that case in CAS, if converted to Naira shows the worth of his conviction.

4.      DAVIDSON OWUMI: Someone boasted in Abuja at the NFF midwived election for the leagues that a telecoms giant is sponsoring the removal of Owumi as NPL Chairman. He added, “we have so much money to go to the EFCC and make the league ungovernable”. Is this not true now? Some people are getting so rich destroying our game and our league. God help them.

5.      NIGERIA FOOTBALL FRAUD Inc.: Uhm! I warned. I screamed and shouted. May people imbued with the kind of vision that informed the writings of the late Professor Sam Akpabot on the pages of Nigerian Tribune in the 80s be raised. Men who will see the truth and say it as it should be. A Yoruba proverb says, “a dog destined to get lost will never hearken to the hunter’s hoot and horn”. The NFF 2010 statutes is clear on the roles of Abdulhamid Mustapha’s Electoral Committee (See Article 33(2). The same statute is very clear and unambiguous on leagues organising their elections. Not that the NFF should organise and conduct the elections on their behalf.

We are also aware and convinced that Aminu Maigari is the ceremonial NFF president, while the de jure NFF President like the guardian of the masquerade is hidden.

TAKE A CUE:

a.       The NFF President ‘de jure’ we shall call the Emperor. The Emperor swore that all those who participated in his removal as the king from palace in the Glass House will have nothing to do with Nigerian Football again. Like in Yorubaland where he is oft referred to as KABIYESI (or the open call: KA BI O KOSI) meaning in literary parlance: ‘No one queries his authority). The last of them who participated in the impeachment of the Emperor, Princess (Dr) Hannah Ngozi Bola Jegede, who read the impeachment communiqué is gone.

b.       He also swore that ex-players who he called “impostors” who he further denigrated as “those we give monies to and give shirt in the national teams, coming here to beg for jobs. They won’t get to the board.” Count: Odegbami, Chukwu, Iorfa, Okocha etc which of them got there.

c.       Aisha Falode, the Africa Independent Television (AIT) diva who “we made and gave all the opportunities including the CAF committee” was promised won’t get there for daring to “be used by Ibrahim (Isa Bio) in the Hampshire Hotel deal during the World Cup. That was her sin.

RESULT: The NFF has had a fundamental understanding which they reflect in the Electoral Guidelines that each zone be represented by no less than two members and no more than three members on the board. After all manipulations were conducted, the South-East zone has produced 4! They are:

Ø  Mike Umeh, NFF 1st Vice President;

Ø  Emeka Inyama;

Ø  Felix Anyasi-Agwu.

Ø  Ms. Dili Onyedinma;

INDELIBERATE FRAUD: Abdulhamid Mustapha’s Electoral Committee was really transparent. How? They announced cleared candidates for the election with Ms. Dili Onyedinma as from Imo and the South East zone. In the result, the moderated her coming from the North Central zone with no state.

GOVERNMENT INTERFERANCE AND THE FCT FA: The decision of the FCT Director of Sports to set up the electoral committee for the FCT Football Association election, is a clear case of direct government interference. For this, the NFF was written but they kept mute and played deaf by not reacting at least, give the appropriate directive in tandem with the NFF 2010 Statute and FIFA Standard Statutes (FSS). Ordinarily, the task of setting up an electoral committee for the election is strictly the responsibility of the Congress. Congress of the FCT FA are the teams that played in the last season of the FA activities including the six sports officers of the Area Councils. I will seek clarification from FIFA on this in days’ time.

RESOLUTION: Owumi must go! To make the Emperor have his way, a former ally of his, despite standing trial for corruption case before a court of the land, went for the Osun FA Chairman just like his ally in trial, Amanze Uchegbulam which they have ‘won’, they were to be smuggled in because the South West has no strong representation in the current distribution of the NFF, NPL, Amateur, National and Women leagues. His club, Prime of Oshogbo is not in the professional league side. So, we are waiting to see the smuggling formular. Be warned, the more Owumi stands outside of his correct jurisdiction, the more Nigerian football will suffer.