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| Suleiman, Sports Minister |
When sometimes ago I called them the Nigerians Feeding on Football (NFF),
a respondent on this blog re-christened them Nigerian Football Fraud (NFF).
They have proven both sobriquets very correct with the latest fraud in the game
vide the ‘selection’ of the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) board.
Sadly, I was not in Abuja to witness the charade myself. My sources, so
reliable, within the Glass House revealed that, “there was practically no
election. Some unknown persons were made to represent some of the middle course
club sides.
HISTORY REPEATING ITSELF: Can you
travel with your minds back to the era of the very foundation of the NPL? Chief
Oyuiki Obaseki, the first chairman of the NPL fought all through his tenure
with the NFF goons led by Alhaji Sani Abdullahi Lulu for the control of the
board and the league. When Obaseki was leaving, Davidson Owumi, an accomplished
player of the game, like Rumson Baribote (a fringe player), won the election.
Owumi’s sins according to a friend of the NFF is that, “he is a graduate.
He knows so much, he is stubborn and is ‘a boy’ of the Benin stubborn chief
(apparently, Obaseki)”.
Litigations were employed. Justice Kolawole of the Abuja High Court gave
a judgment which favoured them. When this judgement came, they forgot that
football matters are not taken to court. Owumi was to appeal. He was prevailed
upon to for the sake of the game, drop his appeal and go for fresh election.
The NPL Congress, the highest decision making body of the League decided
to abide by the decision of Kolawole. They changed the NFF-sponsored division
of the NPL electoral body. Instead, the NFF manufactured non existent powers to
over rule the NPL Congress. They have forcibly imposed their own rules and
imposed Victor Baribote.
Like the Bourbons of France, the dumb NFF led by Aminu Maigari organized
and conducted the election that brought Baribote in against the NFF 2010
Statutes. Definitely, it is not yet over. This interference. I won’t be shocked
if there are fresh legal suits challenging these fraudulent conducts.
Since the election took place in the Glass House, under the NFF’s arm
pit, will Baribote operate from the Olusegun Obasanjo street in Abuja’s zone
seven? Will the illegality of the NFF, which has been established both in law
and out of morality, be overlooked in these matters? Shall we not end up having
two league boards?
I am not interested in exploiting existing issues settled in the public
domain. The current issues has shown that the men who preside over the house of
football from the Glass House are afflicted with cerebral malfunctioning.
They stole these same powers in the election of the lesser leagues and it
is now a subject of litigation, and rather be smarter and show intelligence,
they went back to steal the same powers in the same banal means they stole the
one that is befuddling them in the face. Serious scions of bourbons who learnt
nothing from history and forgot nothing to history.
CANCER EATS FOOTBALL SOUL?: The
cancer of further litigations will spread. The NFF which wants to remain at all
costs in the saddle of managing Nigerian football despite their confirmed
illegality and moral hangover have only used the Baribote ‘selection’ to tell
Yusuf Suleiman, the Sports Minister, “you have become a passed pawn’ because
all the gains of his peace moves which resulted in the Oneya committee is lost.
To underscore this position, read the statement signed by Jarret Tenebe’s
rival NFA in a letter to the minister:
Can you travel with your minds back to the era of the very foundation of the NPL? Chief Oyuiki Obaseki, the first chairman of the NPL fought all through his tenure with the NFF goons led by Alhaji Sani Abdullahi Lulu for the control of the board and the league.
ReplyDeleteJide,I agree with some of the things you said about the NFF but disagree with most of what you wrote about the NPL.Have you gone through the NPL statutes to find out if they are an autonomous body? I guess you havent.Througout the world only one body controls football and it is the NFF in Nigeria.The NPL is affiliated to the NFF by virtue of NFF statutes (clearly stated in NPL statutes).The NPL in its statutes acknowledged that they are under the supervision of the NFF? So what control was Obaseki who spent 80% of sponsorship money on administrative matters and only 20% on the clubs fighting for? We all know how the NPL came into being-through the fiat of the NSC who wanted a body to fight Galadima however illegal the body was. Anyway,the NPL people knew they would be irrelevant if they are not midwived by the NFF and had to do the proper thing by making sure they subject themselves to the control of the NFF like it is done all over the world where the FA decides to delegate some powers.
What control are we even talking about?Referees,disciplinary matters or what? These are the well known issues Obaseki ignorantly fought for.Have you seen where the league body all over the world controls these? Let me ask you this question:If the NPL have control over disciplinary matters,what happens if they suspend a player for a match for getting a ready card but the next match happens to a Federation cup game,will the player stay suspended? This is one of the reasons for centralising disciplinary matters.We are supposed to be educating and enlightening the public.
Jide,
ReplyDeleteI Dont want to be dragged into the details of what you said,but does the NPL has a congress?what is the position of the congress?Was it not the same congress who participated in the process that brought owunmi to office?was it not thesame congress that watched what they did pushed aside in calabar and an opportunist like gusau sold out his chairman an accepted an NFF congress decision to act as chairman,by so doing money owumi refused to cillect but shehu gusau,joe amene and co,collected 350million and squandered it in the absence of owunmi.Now that the money is finished they want owumi to come back and take an empty treasury.
So,weather there is election or not,the first people to cry foul are the npl congress.In as much as they remain silent i will not blame NFF,You can not be more catholic than the pope or cry more than the chief mourner.
On owunmi,i said it several times that his first mis-step was when as chairman of club owners association he allowed sani lulu to remove the entire clubs from the nff congress,till today i never got an explanation and i said to him this will hunt him,and here we are.