NANF, NFA struggles not the same – Tenebe

Maigari (l), Jalla (r) in fresh tango over money

As President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan was being sworn-in at the nation’s federal capital, with the threat of Boko Haram leaving the religio-political into sports, chairman of the break-away football faction, Jarret Tenebe, like President of the National Association of Nigerian Footballers (NANF), Harrison Jalla, released some new insights and revealing sides to the struggle for the soul of Nigerian football.

Caught at President Goodluck Jonathan’s inauguration at the Eagles’ Square in Abuja alongside his first Vice Chairman, Ahmed Gara-Gombe, Tenebe said, “Let me explain this to you. The NANF struggle is one that is not the same as the NFA’s struggle. NANF’s sustained struggle gave us the grounds to start ours. That is the umbilical connection.”

He added, “I want Nigerians to know we are not continuing the fight of NANF. We only used Harrison Jalla to facilitate our entry to the public. We could have entered the public sphere squarely without Jalla and still achieve our aims,” he quipped.

On the current situation so far, he submitted, “the Police were asked to hold on for one week. By tomorrow (Tuesday) it will soon be over. As the complainants in the case, we had to abide by the one week the Police granted is binding on us.”

Asked what Nigerians are to expect from his team hence, the man who this reporter has extracted seven reports in five days said, “we are heading back to the Police with a petition tomorrow asking for the investigation of the fake FIFA letter and the EFCC to make the illegal NFF board account for all the monies the collected on behalf of the NFA. This has to cover all the monies collected and spent on behalf of the NFA.”

“Our desire is sincerely speaking not to manage football with our interim board of the NFA but to set the tone for things to be done right and professionally for the good of Nigerian children. With the possibility of a yearly income in excess of N25billion yearly, and a possibility of employing 80, 000 people without recourse to government if we do it well and right, why must we then allow illegality to thrive?” said the top PDP stalwart.

“If we did not act when we did with all the information available to us and Nigerian football remains in the comatose as it is now, then, the future generations of Nigerians and children yet unborn would have cursed us,” he said philosophically.

... NFF offered me N5m which I rejected –Jalla

President of the National Association of Nigerian Footballers (NANF), Harrison Jalla, has delivered a knock out on the board of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) which tried to settle him with five million Naira at personal level which he rejected.

Speaking at the weekend in the Nnamdi Azikwe International Airport in Abuja on his way to Lagos, the man seen as the enfant terrible of Nigerian football administration to this reporter, “they call me to a secret meeting where they offered to pay me off to the tune of N5million which I tactically rejected.

I have had to say this now given that I now realize that they are aware that they do not have a good case against the battles against them. As drowning people, they will become so desperate and want to blanket issues, turn same upside down and want to drown me along with them.

I told those of them who were close to me amongst them that this struggle is not about Harrison Jalla but about the good of the game in the country. The NFF is illegal. She has not single legal personality. She can’t be earning monies from the federal government saying it is grant-in-aids and spending same as the NFF. That is criminal. Soon, we will open the demand for that criminal investigation. We have to reform the game from scratch and ensure genuine development of football in Nigeria.