NFF inducement: What Oneya need to tell us‏

General Oneya caught in the booby trap?

The other day two Generals of the Nigerian Army were celebrating foolery on the pages of the papers until much younger souls who are not Generals had to caution them to keep their lips sealed. Back to one of our Generals of the Nigerian Army in sports. We have them too. We have Henry Adefope, the man who made NOC and IOC a hallmark of his contributions to sports development.
Ishola Williams of the handball, baseball & softball fame is another. The man is too much in terms of character, conduct both privately and publicly. He is of the Transparency International.

We also have Dominic Oneya. Two days ago on this blog I wrote on him. Yesterday, I got scathing rejoinders from his end. As a trained reporter, I respected his rights to be heard in the same platform where he was injured.
I went back to my trenches and opened up to check my facts. Now, I am back. I candidly sympathise with the General for feeling so bad about what I wrote on him. Can he truly and fairly answer these simple questions:

1.     How come his name was on the NFF's list for the first and second Nigeria-Ghana London trips?

2.     Was he not in London for the first trip? Was he not paid estacode? How much was he paid? How much were the others paid?

3.     Assuming the CAF assignment that took him to Congo did not arise, would he not have been to London again for the second trip?

4.     Is it true that he got his estacode for the second trip? Or did someone by the tradition have signed such monies on his behalf without the cash getting to him?

5.     Did General Oneya made these issues open to all the members of the Football Reform Committee of which he is the chairman?

6.     If General Oneya did not meet condition 5 above, has he not put at stake the individual and collective integrities of the members of the committee and the consultants they have?

WHY I SYMPATHISE WITH ONEYA:

The General I want to believe may have walked innocently into the trap of the NFF to lure him on the London trip. He may have seen himself as a football person having been a former Chairman of the NFA without considering the current tasks on his hands. Whereas, I also believe that there was a deliberate plan to mess up the committee if eventually their reports does not favour them.

UNSCHOOLED JOURNALIST AND THE LIMIT OF POWER: Mallam Danladi Bako is one man I have not had any business with at close range. He is one person I so respect from a distance. There it stops.

Reacting to the story I wrote on General Oneya two days ago, he questioned if I went to school and how he can make a single telephone call to stop me from appearing on AIT again. At least, with the posers I raised for his General friend to answer, I have proven that I went to school.

My inner spirit tells me that Danladi Bako may have taken the positions he took against 'an unknown' reporter innocently as against a General he knows and respects.
Two, I am not sure that he is not aware that my appearances on AIT is not a monetary project. Infact, I had been doing AIT a favour if and when I appear there without being paid.

Three, he is not aware that since the NFF-NFA crisis, knowing that the AIT as a house is a pro-NFF stable and I, am on the NFA divide, that I had banned myself from AIT.

I am a well cultured person to know where I should not be at sometimes. Even, he is not aware that I pulled off from a more professional (by the principles of fairplay and balance) NTA for the same reason.

POSER: Danladi Bako was in one of the London matches. Why did I not accuse him as I did the General? When investigating my story, I caught the fact that he was on a trip to the USA during which he stayed to watch the match. Had his name been on the NFF list, I would have mentioned his name on the inducement page too.

I am also aware that Hon. Gbenga Elegbeleye who is on the committee was in London for the first and second game. His name is not on the list meaning he spent his own money to go watch the game. That is why he is not on the “inducement” page.
There were some other members of the Football Reform committee that wanted to be in London for the match. The issue being missed here is this,  I believe that no member of the Reform Committee cannot afford to pay to watch the London game. If all of them had been in London, no one will accuse them as free Nigerians why they are there.

Assuming there is a document that shows the NFF funded their being in London while they serve on this committee, that means they have been "induced".
Must I attend a grammar school to know what inducement means? Na soja school I go but na him English I take practise journalism since June 1985 not as a backroom reporter. At least, I practised in some of the best media organisations in this country.

TOMMORROW: HOW N54m NPL MONEY DISAPPEARED