NIGERIA IN INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL FRIENDLY SCAM

NFF President, Aminu Maigari

Nigeria versus Guatemala match just like the widely promoted OBAMA FEDERATION CUP tourney in USA are afterall a scam. Checks by this reporter has shown graphically that these events were planned in the imagination of the promoters without following laid out procedures for such games in the United States of America where they are to be played.

It is so authoritative that there is no agreement in place as of yet to play the Guatemalan game on the much advertised 9^th February, 2011. Neither is there any room for the Obama Federation Cup tourney. So the question is, who is deceiving the Nigerian nation in these circumstances?

This reporter contacted the Guatemalan Football FA this weekend and nothing has been arranged or agreed to as of yet. Also, in order for friendly matches to take place in the US, the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) would have to approve the match with other logistics, coordination, planning, hotel, insurance, security, stadium allocation and all before an agreement is reached by both countries.
Also, there is the issue of a match appearance fee which the organisers would have to pay both Nigeria and Guatemala before the game is played. Based on what our sources in the Guatemalan FA said, that has not been discussed yet.

Although, “we won't mind playing Nigeria, but all issues have to be sorted out first before the game takes place. We would need assurances that Nigeria would show if they really want to play the match in Miami. The history of Nigeria not honoring friendly matches in the past is also a factor that will determine whether they are serious about this game or not.”

When we reached the United States Soccer Federation (USSF) on phone Friday, the official who refused to be named said, “here, we have processes that needed to be put in place before such matches are played. The way it is, you cannot definitely play these matches in view of the time constraints. We need to confirm and approve of such matches before the match promoters can even go to town. Now, by this, the promoters have breached our rules because you are already in the public domain without getting approval. Surely that match can’t go on in the United States.”

According to the USSF website, “For all international matches and international tournaments, the Federation approval is required. No public announcement of any international match or international tournament may be made until the Federation grants written approval for the match or tournament. If a Promoter conducts any advertising or makes any public announcement before written permission has been granted by the Federation, the Federation may discipline the promoter, either by fining the promoter a minimum of $1,000 for each incident, by denying approval of the match or tournament, or by levying any other penalty that the Federation feels is just and necessary.”  

For an international match or tournament application must be submitted no later than thirty (30) days before the date of the intended match by submitting a completed application form with an application fee of $75.00, signed hosting agreement and a copy of the rules for the match or tournament.

None of these procedures has been put in place. Therefore, it is clear cut that these two games are definitely not going to be played as the Guatemalan FA neither the Obama Cup can hold in the USA in view of the above;

As a further show that some people are deceiving Nigerians with the promotion of these two games is that, even if like the fire brigade approach known with Nigerians, the application is submitted to the USSF, they will only give conditional approval and “is not finally approved until the Federation has received confirmation from FIFA that it deems the tournament rules acceptable.

The USSF provision also breached by the Nigerian versus Guatemala match involves that where she provided that, “Neither Promoter nor any other private individual shall use the Federation’s name for speculative or promotional purposes.”

Babatunde Epoyun is the FIFA agent credited with organising the Guatemala match while another FIFA agent, Pius Oleh, is also credited by the Nigerian FA with the Obama Federation Cup tourney in Detroit also scheduled for later in the month.

A visit to Epoyun’s website http://soccereventsusa.com/about.html does not even have the Nigerian match on his event list rather, he had a botched match as the only credential he can parade of the Nigerian Olympic team.

I SIDDON LOOK DEY LAUGH O!

Prof. Adedoja, Sports Minister

In Social Work, a helping profession, the practitioner is a resource to the client. The moment she is not seen as such, it is obvious that she has not only lost the case, has become a fodder and a problem to the case.

My thinking is that Professor Taoheed Adedoja, the sitting Minister of Sports/Chairman, National Sports Commission (NSC) may have become a fodder to sports in Nigeria. While Nigerian sports and particularly football is dying and cringing for breathe, the minister was busy inspecting stadia facilities across the nation. That probably is the priority of the Ministry of and the minister.

There is what the Chinese call a sciolist. It is used to describe the one who thinks he knows and refuses to learn from others. Now, I can shout Uhuru! I did warned a colleague who read the minister’s profile when he took over from the Pharmacist, Isa Ibrahim Bio, “do not jubilate. My cue for caution was taken from Engineer Sani Ndanusa (FNSE) who brought an insider 12-year credential as the president of the Nigeria Tennis Federation as minister basking in the euphoria of knowing the terrain. He made promises and could not fulfil even half of one!

No sooner, Ndanusa successfully dislodged Hon Bala Kaoje as Nigeria’s worst ever sports minister. Pronto! He was recycled into the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) to repeat his failures in Tennis and in the NSC.

Adedoja, I hasten to add, is making Ndanusa’s tenure in the ministry look like better after all. This is considering that the man has almost closed one of the four months in his tenure so far. Thank God that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) does not respond to her choice of ministers on performance. For now, he gets my vote, despite that he still has three months plus to go, as Nigeria’s worst sports minister. Can we, in the same tradition, for now, applaud him for the honour?

Agreed, he prides himself as the first core professional, a Professor of Sports Administration, to occupy the office as minister. Methinks, if he sits in there for a day, he should make a stark difference from his ‘unlearned’ predecessors. As a professor, it is assumed that he knows all the theories. He has been in the corridors of sports administration long enough and should know where the shoe pinches but it is like he does not even know the impact of the pinches.

I had thought wrongly that the man was going to perform some magical moves that will make the president, Goodluck Ebere Jonathan, find it extremely difficult and practically impossible than not to beg him saying, “Adedoja, please come back and continue from where we stopped before we won this election.” I had assumed wrongly too that the man was going to set some precedents that will help his principal‘s campaign for election.

RAISON D’ETRE: Children who go to school now are as good as empty. I can swear to that effect. I had the privilege of reading history in my secondary school. At the A’level, I read European history. None of the current children had this quality advantage. For instance, the French would demand for the hubris of your logic on any matter. It is their belief fundamentally that even the mentally ill (which an untrained mind calls “mad”) still has some logia informing his acts. This they call the ‘raison d’etre’. Mine includes the following:

a)      THE PDP (1999-2011): Of the men the ruling party has tossed to sports, it is obvious that the most successful had been outsiders. They are in the top three:

                                                              i.      Late Ishaya Mark Aku: A Water Engineer;

                                                            ii.      Hon. Isa Ibrahim Bio: A Pharmacist;

                                                          iii.      Mr. Abdulrahman Gimba, A Lawyer;

And in my own (myopic?) opinion, the bottom thereof the log, for now (I don’t know how it can look like in the next three months):

i)                    Hon. Bala Kaoje,

ii)                  Engineer Sani Ndanusa, (FNSE) – A professor by Engineering standards;

iii)                Professor Taoheed Adedoja;

b)      Arising therefrom, no one should wonder why the Nigerian sports industry has in the last 12 years period of this party abysmally failed. The last four months of this dozen years portend bad omen, tears, sorrow and blood. The facts include:

1.               The Nigeria Professional League crises;

2.               The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) abuse and rape of its own Rule of Law – The NFF Statutes Edition 2010 par the election into the Leagues which she under Sani Lulu gave autonomy; Like the Bourbons of France who never learnt anything from history and forgot nothing to history;

3.               Hordes of civil cases in various court rooms – a function of the systemic failure of our football and the trust to internally regulate itself. These cases will soon amass;

4.               MTN vs Globacom, the somersaults and home drama which the NPL Congress has rubber stamped to be repeated;

5.               The asphyxiating state of all sports disciplines in Nigeria;

6.               The state of our current sports facilities in the face of increased expenditure and less quality results to show for it and the lack of deliberate structures to train champions. Each time we have ‘accidental discharge’ of a champion emerging by dint of personal hardwork, we “steal” the credits and take the results officially;

7.               The quality and quantity of corruption in the industry. No wonder credible organisations from the Organised Private Sector (OPS) shy away from sports sponsorship despite increasing incentives to sponsor sports in the country;

CONCLUSION: When General Olusegun Obaanjo looked far away into the horizon after his former deputy, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar emerged as the concensus candidate of the northern flank of the PDP to face sitting President Goodluck Jonathan in the party’s primary, the man proverbially retorted to journalistic inquisitions, “I DEY LAUGH O”

When the man with diastema, the oratorical lawyer and journalist, the one we call THE CICERO OF ESA-OKE, Chief Bola Ige was rigged out of the Government House in Agodi-Ibadan by a desperate National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in 1983, the man said, he was adopting the “SIDDON LOOK” approach.

Having presaged the three months left of the tenure of Professor Adedoja in this term as minister from the one month he had spent, I repeat with respect and equanimity, that by the time the PDP and President Goodluck jonathan start the next Olympic type of four-year cycle, ca we ask for a foreigner as sports minister?

Each time our football “fails” and some people who know they know and refuse to learn from others who also know (sciolists), they abuse us for asking them questions as being “busy bodies” since they are “core professionals” and in a jiffy, they tell us we are not properly trained and they bring foreigners to manage our football treating them like kings.

They will then import some fake white skins, pay heavily for his pigmentation, share the loot with him, and when as usual he fails, resort to the likes of Shaibu Amodu to come and clean the Augean stable to recruit another whiteman.

Anyhow, I have spoken, I withdraw into an attic watching and waiting for the calloused soul of Nigerian football. I SIDDON LOOK DEY LAUGH O!

NIGERIA FOOTBALL: OPEN LETTER TO GOD

Maigari...Nigeria's Football Tzar

Dear God, I’m not a righteous man nor a chaste person, but I come to you in supplication because our football is sick. It is dying. The doctors are feeding it with poison! Our football is begging for death (Euthanasia).

God, our football needs prayers. We are worried. We don’t know where to start, even if we declare the whole days in 2011 for fasting and prayers, we will end the year in heavy deficit;

You have honoured our football with great stars. As big as our stars are so much troubles we have. Rescue our game before we enter Egypt! Our football is kidnapped and the ransom is too heavy. Our football is impoverished. Hope has jumped out of a moving train!

CAN YOU ANSWER AMEN?

May those who govern the game say amen if they can to my prayers. If the decisions they have taken on the NPL is in the best interest of the nation, may peace reign in their homes too!

If the decision to organise the election and the media they want to use in electing the representatives of the Women, Amateur and National League is FOR THE GOOD OF THE GAME and is in tandem with the law (NFF Statutes 2010 Edition) may all they ask from you, dearest alpha and omega, be answered.

God of heaven, anyone who rules our football from the ward level to the FIFA level that will not do it for the good of all, in honesty and will do so for selfish corrupt reasons, please, create greater calamities for them to chew. Such things like cancer, High Blood Pressure, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, etc shall be their New Year gift.

Osanobua! I call on you today on behalf of those whose source of joy is being tampered with, remove your hands from the folds of your garment and strike all evil mien in our football. All those who commission any form of evil, corruption or reverse for our common joy, let you anger be their sweater and underwears.

Raise good men and women, people who will fear you in all their decisions. You know that we need credible people in our football, people who will raise the likes of Iniesta, Messi, Eto’o, Enyeama, Kaka etc from Sabon gari, Opo-Malu, Ajegunle, Sabon Line, Aba, Okomu and the innermost recesses of Nigeria.

Let no bad person in our football escape your whip and ferocious anger. Eliminate all our bad administrators from te face of earth. The power with which you are Eledunmare must be exemplified. The fortunes of this nation’s football has to change in accordance t the values that is in agreement with your injunctions.

Lest I forget, dear good Lord, all men and women who enslave Nigerian youths in Europe and America, some have started the same ignoble means in Nigeria (ask Sunday Emeh of Lobi Stars FC of Makurdi), please Lord, let the angels of heaven hit their entirety dry and desolate.

If I have asked these prayers in good faith, may you act faster than allprayers you have ever answered to make your name glorified. Thank you Lord for answered prayers.

LEAGUE ELECTIONS: RAPE OF LAW AND REASON

Prof Adedoja...Reigning King

From aeons, when the time clicks and the clock clangs, there was in a village, two girls from an extremely poor home. They were named Law and Reason. Reason had a middle name, Logic. They will always do things in common like twins. They were a classic work of art so beautiful, cheerful, full of life, enchanting, brilliant, respected, respectful and resplendent. Here comes the Prince of the land. Rich, powerful but empty upstairs.

The Prince has done everything including threats, enticement and pleas. None of this will work. His father, the King, went twice to the home of the pauper parents asking them to intervene of his son’s behalf but the girls stuck to their integrity;

Now, the error? The Prince wants to marry the two sisters. On 11^th January 2011 sometimes written as 11-1-11. Does it look mysterious to you? That was the day the most controversial NFA board in Nigerian history since 1945 released the guideline for the election into the league representation of the NFA.

Wait. Do a quick mathematic. Take the last two of the four figures of the year you were born. Add it to your age now. Add one to it. What did you get? 111? Now, the chemistry of the mystery shows that there is danger in the nearest future. Does it make some logic to you about that day? That was the day the Prince (NFA) raped in the open market centre the two girls in the market.

We had warned the Prince not to let his royalty run into his head. He refused. Alas! He went to the market and ran into the sisters. He ordered his guards to seize the girls who were protesting to high heavens. The Prince sees in himself as above the law. His guards tore the clothes of the girls, forced their legs open for their master to, in turns, desecrate the virginity of the girls. He tore their hymen recklessly. Blood oozing out of their clean thighs. The onlookers were helpless because the royal child is involved.

Uhm! I presage. Look back from your shoulder to the cols of history. You will see Samson. You will see the wisest and suave poet, King Solomon and the gifted Roman general Anthony (Anthony and Cleopatra). A stupid disease called UXORIOUSNESS (the excessive love of women) killed them.

Let it be on record TODAY. The NFA goons took on Davidson Owumi because according to one of the most powerful men in the Glass House today, “he did not support us during the last crises, so he must go!”. The man of power confided in a friend of his high ranking in one of the security forces when asked.

Now, the Women, Amateur and National leagues. It is wrong, an aberration and a blatant abuse of FIFA’s Standard Statutes (FSS), and the NFA 2010 Statutes for Abdulhamid Mustapha’s electoral committee to organise nomination or and conduct the elections. Or for the State FA Chairmen and Secretaries to vote in the elections.

However, I gathered, “we must go it our own way and leave them to react” was the philosophy of the lords ruling the Glass House. The rationale? All those who had a hand in the impeachment of Lulu and his henchmen must be forced out of Nigerian football. Since the Lulu men have smuggled themselves back to the State FAs (except in Lagos where they gallantly lost), nobody can stop them.

I also gathered from my investigations that certain individuals including a polyglot speaking and multi-ethnic name nearing princess, better described as a football goddess, who announced the impeachment of Lulu’s impeachment last year is a reason why the NFA manufactured strange rules into the election. the caveats to smuggle “outsiders” to the league leadership and unto the NFA board has been concluded. Where the club owners refuse to endorse these outsiders, who have no clubs nor had had any business to do with women football but because they are ‘women’ the electoral committee has powers to clear such candidates! This is rape and assault on those who had been spending their money to fund women football clubs over the years.

Let it be on record. The rape and final aberration of Law and Logic happened during the reign of King Taoheed Adedoja.

Paaga! This mourning will go through the night and day. Ruth, where is thy mourning shroud? Cry unconsolably. It is good night as the raped sisters can’t get justice.

Did a lawyer not volunteer that a child beaten must not cry? If you don’t want the child to cry why beat him? All rules are being violently abridged yet you don’t want people to go to civil courts. Do you want them to resort to ‘self help’?

Anon, more court cases will stem up surely with these kind of attitudes of not respecting the existing laws propounded by the same actors. Anon, wild court judgments will stream in like the flood of Tsunami. Soon, we will see deaths occasioned by revenge in Nigerian football if people do not go to ventilate their pains and anger in the court system. We are heading to anomie.

Falcons, hear not the falconer. Centre hold no more the flanks. Whistle do not blow again. Eyes catch no more sleep. The murderer has entered the maternity ripping open the big shrouds harbouring hope. Good night.