Forgery: Maigari, step aside under investigation -Nnodi‏

Musa Amadu...NFF acting Secretary General

*We will sue Jalla, Tenebe, others - NFF

*Why Keshi won't get free hand -Udoh‏

While Channels TV’s Sports This Morning guest analyst, Okonta Nnodi, has called on the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Alhaji Aminu Maigari, to step aside during the investigation of the allegation of forgery of the signature of FIFA President, the NFF has threatened to sue its adversaries and the Super Eagles spokesman, Colins Udoh has shown why new gaffer, Keshi, will not get a free hand to manage the national team.

Nnodi made the call during the presentation of the popular  breakfast programme saying, “If the norms were right, the leadership of the NFF led by Alhaji Aminu Maigari are supposed to step aside while the inquest into the signature forgery is on.”

Sources close to the NFF President, Aminu Maigari and technical committee boss, Chris Green, who were both invited last week by the police following allegations of signature forgery have called on the Police high command to get to the root of the matter and if there was no forgery those who made the allegations should be charged for character defamation and false allegation.” They were silent on what should happen if the forgery is proved.

“We’re shocked at such allegations but we have visited the police to clear our names and they have indeed seen reason with us but those who made the allegations, no matter how highly placed and who is sponsoring them must face the law, because they have impugned our character and that of the NFF.

The source quoting the NFF buffs added, “If at the end of the day, the Police fail to sue them for false allegations we might be forced to handle the case ourselves, because it was a well publicised matter”.

In a related development, Super eagles spokesman, Colins Udoh from his twitter has shown that if the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) were buoyant they may not have employed Stephen Keshi as the coach of the senior national team.
According to Udoh on his twitter handle, "NFF can’t afford foreign coach. Keshi will NOT be given the free hand Siasia got. His confirmation dependent on agreeing those terms." Interpreted, as soon as the NFF gets money, they may bring a white skinned coach to boss Keshi.
However, we are not aware if Keshi agreed to the three-terms that formed part of the conditions Udoh has stated the NFF considered to give the coach the job. Udoh, however, is expected to work with Keshi as media officer of the Super Eagles when he resumes.
 It would be recalled that we had reported earlier the plan to engage Keshi on an interim basis, such that he is programmed to fail and discountenance the competence of local coaches to make way for foreign coaches.
Udoh's revelation may be confirming that the changed positions of the NFF buffs to offer the former Super Eagles captain remains a smokescreen as the aim is still on the burner.

…Which NFF is threatening to sue? – Jalla

President of the National Association of  Nigerian Footballers (NANF), Harrison Jalla, who reported the forgery of the signature of the FIFA President, Sepp Blatter, by the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) to the police has reacted to the threat from the NFF to go to court for defamation and libel.

According to him in a telephone interview, “which NFF are you talking about? They should first of all go and clear the rubbish of the forgery matter. Do they have a corporate personality that can be maligned or and libeled? They are a non-juristic person. The letter from the Solicitor General of the Federation is too clear even for those who never attended school. They are not known to Nigerian laws.”

“Please tell them, they should face some other directions. Not here. Court? They must have woken from the very wrong side of the bed. I beg, my brother, save your credit. They are not worth burning your credit to seek for this reaction.”

NFF consults spiritualists to cleanse Nigerian football

The leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) may have resolved to ask God to intervene in the downward slide of affairs of the game employing the services of some clergymen who have a contract to start praying for the restoration of the game in the country.

Reports asserted that the Aminu Maigari-led Executive Committee has in the last few days met with several men of God at the NFF secretariat in Abuja, with the sole aim of finding a lasting spiritual way out of the quagmire of crises and strings of losses recorded by Nigerian teams in international football.

According to our source, “these men of God have been brought to come and pray and sanctify the Glass House. All enemies of the board were binded with prayers. They have brought both local and international clergymen. One of them is Rev. Edward Ediakorsa, who attended the NFF emergency meeting where the decision to sack Siasia was taken. He came from the United States of America. Two others who are based in Nigeria had also visited. The pastors have been holding series of meeting with the Acting General Secretary of the NFF, Musa Amadu in his office.

One of the home-based cleric, who is always a part of the Super Eagles team to major international tournaments attributed the failure of the immediate past coach of the Super Eagles, Samson Siasia, to his negative disposition to spiritual instructions. Ediakorsa was quoted to have stated that before the 8^th October, 2011 match against Guinea, which cost the Super Eagles a qualifying ticket to the Nations Cup, he had sent a text message to Siasia on what to do, but the coach snubbed the advice.”

The NFF, it was gathered, was not ruling out the influence of evil forces in the litany of woes that has bedeviled Nigerian football.

When contacted on the latest initiative taken by the NFF Secretary General of the Federation, Musa Amadu, was surprised that “consulting God was being made an issue. In anything you do you must pray for God’s guidance” he was quoted to have volunteered.

Nigeria is a nation where spirituality is employed in the management of the game. Recently, when the nation lost qualifying for the 2012 African Nations Cup by playing2-2 home draw in Abuja to Guinea, Lagos-based prophet T. B. Joshua was blamed for prophesying the result of the game earlier. There were news reports that the same NFF then, brought to camp another spiritualist to counter the prediction of T. b. Joshua. The situation is not too different in the clubsides where a whole lot of money is weekly set aside for spiritual consultation called ‘tactical’.

nation’s soccer ruling body has been under intense pressure following failure of the different categories of the national team to qualify for major competitions, the height of which was the inability of the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2012 African Cup of Nations and Super Falcons’ exit from the women’s soccer event of next year’s Olympic Games.