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.

NFF Crisis: Maigari employs services of Boko Haram?

FIFA President, Blatter...Boko Haram will soon go after him too

NFF Crisis :Boko Haram threatens to invade Abuja 

Newsdiaryonline has received an  e –mail apparently from the Boko Haram group.Though no one signed the statement, the contents show that it might be from the radical Islamic group that has been  responsible for the killings and bombings in Maiduguri.

In this strange e-mail, the group is threatening to take a break from Maiduguri and  “enter Abuja to deal with these idiots who are making Aminu Maigari's tenure in sports  difficult.’’

The statement added ,“That(Maigari) is the only northerner in the sports of Nigeria and yet  they want to remove him. If they do, we will enter Abuja and deal with  them. The useless five people he had made a fatwa should not come near football should beware.’’

Newsdiaryonline could not confirm whether it actually came from Boko Haram or just some disgruntled individual(s)  using the Boko Haram as a decoy.

The timing of this email, just a day before the inauguration of President  Goodluck Jonathan is bound to cause ripples within official circles.

Meanwhile security  has evidently been beefed up in Abuja with all manner of barricades formed to check the flow of traffic as the ceremonies last.

Read the full text of the statement unedited below: 

We are the people that God has given the powers to fight for the  freedom of the northern Nigeria from infidels. This we will deliver  until Allah reigns supreme. Islam and its people must not be touched by  unbelievers and the godless people from the east, south and west.

because they have western education (which they should know is harmful  to them) they think they know. Western education is hamful (boko haram).

it is time we go on a short break in Borno State and enter Abuja to  deal with these idiots who are making Aminu Maigari's tenure in sports  difficult. That is the only northerner in the sports of Nigeria and yet  they want to remove him. If they do, we will enter Abuja and deal with  them. The useless five people he had made a fatwa should not come near  football should beware. 

What is wrong if Aminu Maigari invites General Buhari to the stadium  in Abuja. Are we all not Nigerians? So is Buhari not worth to be invited  or what? Must we work for the monkeys in the PDP? We will deal  ruthlessly with them. Tell them to wait for us.

Tell that animal, Jaret, we will get to him. Those unblievers with  him will soon be in trouble including that 'arne' Ahmed Gara-Gombe. We  have banned them for life. They should leave our brother alone or else.

Expect our next mail. Allah's peace be with you.

culled from www.newsdiaryonline.com 

NSC dashes hopes of Maigari's NFF

Ekeji...dashed hopes of NFF

Both the NFA and the NFF were at the National Sports Commission headquarters early this afternoon for the mediation between the warring parties but from what I gathered it is Nunc Dimistis for the Aminu Maigari board of the NFF in view of the presidential directive to the Inspector General of Police (IGP) to go and carry out the valid court order before him.

According to our sources who was in the meeting, “men, we are simply put, finished. Omo (my guy, in Yoruba language), we have been shot in the wing. ” The Director General of the National Sports Commission (NSC) was not mincing words, he came out boldly to let us understand that the presidential directive was clear and has to be obeyed without any obstruction whatsoever from any quarters.

The Director General said, we should remember that the bail we signed with the police was given on the strength of certain conditions.

Independently, there are insinuations (not confirmed) that there are petitions waiting to be lodged with the EFCC and the police by tomorrow morning on the account of the NFF and the alleged fake FIFA letter by Jarret Tenebe’s NFA. A source inside the camp revealed they could have submitted same today but for the long tenured meeting at the Glass House. A whiff into the letter going to the police by the account of our source involves the embarrassment of the nation by whoever faked the letter.

Football falls victim to Maigari’s dog-whistle

Unique timing for our football

I cheered when Jarret Tenebe and his team came up to announce what I have seen but no one will listen to me because they in the NFF have a clear thinking that borders on “Fashikun is an extremist”. I got it. i had predicted this some six weeks back. Mike Enahoro also predicted it in his piece somewhere. It was coded, yes, for only those who can discern it. 

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS:

Political correctness being what it is, made the President, Goodluck Jonathan, whose government prides itself as one that respects Rule of Law, to insist that the Federal High Court order as delivered by Justice Okon Abang be followed with all respects to the last letter. This is one sift move that will win it applause in months to come. QED.

With so much new football water under the bridge of the Glass House, I’ve had time to reflect on what happened back there and the only conclusion I’ve reached so far is that I heard a dog-whistle long time ago from a far distance and that makes me a dog.

WHERE WE GOT IT WRONG:

The guiding principle for football is straightforward — passionate fans belong to their clubs, not hanging around the game’s wheelhouse trying look after their club. Ask those who followed the IICC, Raccah Rovers, Stationery Stores, Jettimo of Uyo, Leventis United, NEPA, Water Corporations etc

Real Nigerians wanted club officials and their lapdogs kept well away from the wheel, and that  solution is to make football’s governors directly accountable to football’s registered participants: the players, coaches and referees – not clubs.

Tenebe came out with both barrels (probably as a former soldier) describing the structure of football governance in Nigeria as “disjointed, discredited and corrupt." I wholesomely agree with him that without significant change the sport will continue to suffer from the factionalism, infighting and poor management that has bedevilled it in the past leading to the present.

WAYS OUT OF THE WOOD:

1.    Dismantle a voting system that is tarnished by deal-making and selfish interests and replace it with a streamlined electoral process free of vested interests at both national and state level.

2.      Organise a fresh election;

3.      I mean, the big fault with the current system is that people sit there, and there’s nothing wrong with the people or the personalities, but I’m sitting there representing the national league clubs, or I’m sitting there representing a zone or region, so I’m going to make my decision on who the people are who put me there.

4.      Set up an independent commission that would run the game for some time. That will mean both the NFF and NFA (as they are now all have to go). You know that these decisions we have to make are what’s best for the game. That will also mean that the current board of the NFF must all resign enmass.

5.      Who pays the piper calls the tune. By the existing law governing football in Nigeria, NFA Act 1999 as amended 2004.

6.      The Government, and most people inside the game, clearly believe and know that the true stakeholders are the players, coaches, journalists, volunteers, and families of the vast majority of its over 1, 500,000 participants. These are the people Nigeria football should aim to connect withand who the administrators passionately should want to represent at all times;

7.      The stakeholders they [the NFF board] represent are the handful of voters from state federations and clubs (amateur, women, national league and professional league) who vote them into office while the vast majority of the football electorate is either not allowed inside the room, or is looking the other way. It is this culture of vested interest that has created generations of mediocre administrator.

8.      The governors of our football as in the NFF are not legitimate representatives of the football community, and the federations’ staff are appointed by those illegitimate governors, there is a strong argument to turf them out and start again from scratch.

9.      Bigotry and ignorance are no friends of modern soccer management. This crisis is one opportunity we must maximize and correct the fundamental structural errors of our football.

10.  If the entire NFF board is made to resign (as it was done in 2003 in Australia) FIFA will not complain. Then, the independent committee goes ahead to reform the game with earnest zeal delivering specific details and institutionalization processes, we can get it right and find our way back to football greatness.

11.  Option is to set up a National Sports Resolution Chambers. Here, it is the Nigeria Olympic Committee (NOC) that has the powers to so do, house it and make all sports in Nigeria to plug into it. All sports matters goes there. It becomes a special sports court. This chambers will adopt all matters in court that has to do with sports and adjudicate. Its decisions shall be final. This is visible because it will be tailored after the processes of the Court of Arbitration in Sports (CAS) in Lousanne-Switzerland.

Our soccer was an unaccountable, earless leadership that runs its own race while the football community eats its heart out. Our league was killed on the anvil of selfishness of some goons hiding behind the masquerade.

That the Nigerian football community, of all communities, couldn’t tell the difference between ethnicity and constitutional insanity is our biggest cross to bear. We’re the victims of our own pretty prejudices. Goof.

The affidavit that killed the NFF

 The NFF may have created enough grounds to nail itself with an affidavit in support of motion sworn to in a suit at the Federal High Court Lagos with suit number FHC/L/CS/962/2010 where they spurned the relationship with the NFA.

“Sadly, the same confused NFA went ahead to in a release on Friday claim they are the same as the NFA whereas they have forgotten the content of what they swore to in a law court,” said Chikelue Iloenyosi, a member of the new NFA board.

The affidavit was based on the facts provided by Barrister Musa Amadu, the acting secretary general of the NFF. It was sworn to on the 2^nd February 2011 before the Commissioner for Oaths, S. J. Ubaha.

In the affidavit’s sixth deposition, Amadu asserted that, “the revenue of the NFF is generated from private sources and investments and may also receive grant-in-aid from the government of Nigeria.” This means all the appropriations from the National Assembly are grant-in-aid, and by interpretation, they are not liable to account for how same was spent.

In the eighth deposition, he said, “there was a Nigerian Football Association governing board constituted by Decree 101 which included among others, one person representing the Armed forces of the federation, the Nigeria Police Force, the Nigerian Association of Physical and health education and recreation, four Nigerians to be appointed on merit by the minister.” This means the NFA does no more exist.

By the deposition of paragraph nine, Amadu said, “the said Nigerian Football Association governing board is not in existence today”. This further restated that the NFA is moribund and dead.

By the tenth deposition of Amadu, “the Governing Board of Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is significantly different in composition from the Nigeria Football Association as shown above and members of the board of NFF are constituted through election and not by appointment whereas members of the Governing Board of the defunct Nigeria Football Association (NFA) were appointed”

The NFF asserted and agreed by and with itself that the NFA is defunct. How come a defunct body is adopted as same as the NFF in its press statement. This also gives credence to the fact that the minister’s statement disowning Tenebe’s NFA is not guided by the reality of the depositions of the NFF in court.

CAVEAT:

1.        Some sources inside the House of Sodom, the Glass House, revealed to me that I was banned for life from covering football in Nigeria because I have been reporting untruths about the NFF. As it is usual, this is one of the untruths with material evidence.

Every detail I have reported about them since they illegally occupied the Glass House are evidence based. My reports wherever they are published have been unsettling to them. Can someone ask them, is it the job of the NFF to ban a journalist who is not friendly? Do they have the powers? If they do this successfully, then, every reporter who writes what they do not   like surely will be banned until there will not be a reporter.

2.       I can also reveal that since they decided to spurn the Act of parliament, the natural reasonable but logical option is to have registered the name “Nigeria Football Federation (NFF)” with the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC). They did not. A private individual had only last Friday registered the name! so why is the legal basis of the NFF? See why I oft call them illegal and that is exactly what they are.