NFF: Justices Kolawole, Auta dragged before NJC

*“keep the stream of justice pure”

CJN Dahiru Musdapher...oh God! This is fresh headache again

Justices Gabriel Kolawole and Ibrahim Auta of the Federal High Court Abuja have been dragged before the Nigeria Judicial Council (NJC) over judgments they delivered in matters of football before them at various times.

In a petition dated 15^th December 2011 by a Lagos-based legal practitioner, Aideloje Belo, the five-page petition addressed to the chairman of the NJC titled: Dubious judgments in suit nos FHC/ABJ/CS/280/2011 and FHC/ABJ/CS/541/11 delivered by Justices G. O. Kolawole and Ibrahim Auta on 2^nd August 2011 and Friday, December 2^nd 2011 respectively – Judicial heists and travesty of Justice” he demanded they are made to retire.

Belo acted as solicitor to the Nigeria Football Association and the National association of Nigerian Footballers (NANF) alleged that Justice Auta wherein three hypothetical questions and five reliefs were raised and sought where the plaintiffs deposed in the affidavit in support of their application that there was an order by Justice Abang on the 7^th September, 2010 in paragraphs 3-7, 17, 20-22 therefore, attempting to give a twisted summary of the facts related to the matter.

He accused the plaintiffs of not discosing that there was an order of court ordering the parties in the suit to maintain status quo ante bellem after hearing the parties.

NFA and NANF are complaining of the judgment delivered on 13^th October 2011 after being refused to join in the matter as interested parties. They applied for the judgment which they are yet to get.

According to Belo, “the news of the judgment was broken vua a blackberry message circulated by one Ademola Olajire on Saturday 3^rd December 2011 first in the morning and later a supposed corrected version released by him. The totality of the message was that the legitimacy of the NFF has been affirmed.”

They questioned how the same NFF that appealed against Justice Abang’s order made on the 6th September and 25^th October 2010 on the 7^th September and 21^st January respectively.

Part of their grouse against Auta is that in the suit FHC/CS/1408/2011 wherein they filed a counter affidavit whose paragraphs 5-7, 11 and 12 they showed they were on appeal on the matter and Justice Auta’s court went on to hear the issues related to the matter.

Auta was accused of sending the impression of being sympathetic to the NFF which played out to be true irrespective of the clear facts of the case. This he premised on the dubious facts that Justice Abang never sat on the suit in question on the 7^th September 2010 as claimed by the NFF.

Auta is also accused cannot sit in appeal over a matter dispensed with by a brother judge, “he ought to have declined jurisdiction to entertain the suit even if there was no appeal on the matter.”

Belo averred further that the affidavit deposed to in the Application was not made in accordance with the Oaths Act and so could not have been relied upon by the court. For delivering judgment without hearing his clients while their application for joinder was pending put his neutrality at stake. Admitting that the applicants misled the court she also averred that the patronizing disposition of the judge contributed to being misled.  

 

…the case against Justice Kolawole

Belo’s clients complained on how the judge had forced them to withdraw from joining the suit before him as interested parties. The judge was accused of identifying in the open court that one of the respondents (Prof. Akin Ibidapo-Obe) was his lecturer and a counsel (Barrister Bozimo) for the defendants was a cousin (aunty’s son).

It was after this admittances that “he anxiously tilted the ante against the claimant even after judgment by refusing to hear applications before him.” He was accused of aiding the coronation of Rumson Victor Baribote as chairman, NPL by the NFF.

The clients added that, “it is self-evident that Justice Kolawole deliberately stalled determining applicants before him until such a time interested parties are forced to accept the change even when justice is trampled upon on several grounds including the partiality of the judge in the instant matter.

In summary, they prayed that justices Ibrahim Auta and G. O. Kolawole should resign as judges of the Federal High Court having serially breached their oaths of office. More particularly, we urge that Justice Ibrahim Auta, having assumed the position of an appeals Court over an Order made by a brother judge has thoroughly embarrassed the judicial hierarchy of our judicial system hence he should resign immediately so as to keep the streams of justice pure.”

Jonathan: Sports alone will deliver 2million jobs

President Goodluck praying. Act first sir.

I sometimes wonder what quality of human minds tender the speeches of our senior government officials. It’s like they have fleeting minds designed to easily forget things and even activities in which they get involved in.

I feel so ashamed that in the President’s budget speech at the National Assembly, he promised that his government will create 100,000 new jobs in 2012. Whereas, I do know that with proper organization, the Nigerian Premier League (NPL) alone will gulp that figure with little or no stress.

I do know well too that the Nigerian sports industry alone which is estimated to be worth N185billion per annum has not yet inkled to 1% of that value. Sports being what is anywhere else is not government business cannot be done well and delivered as a government business.

That informed why the PDP governments since 1999 when democracy returned to the country had set up three panels in the industry where they had told government what needs to be done. These included the Samuel Ogbemudia, Ishola Williams and Samson Emeka Omeruah committees. The reports had shown the government what needed to be done which included having a functional National Sports Commission (NSC) that is thoroughly professional.

As it is, no one is thinking straight to advise the Federal Government that it’s business to stimulate that region and maximize the gains remains what is left.

No one is being altruistic. This is one industry rather than be expending tax payers’ monies is supposed to be a big money earner to the public till. Some goons are used to pilfering the little yearly appropriation and would die to have the status quo retained.

SPECIAL ADVISER ON SPORTS: I recall that I once muted this idea when President Umar Musa Yar’Adua was alive. Then, Dr. Amos Adamu’s name suddenly emerged and there was a consensus to say we don’t want the person. In view of the urgent national interests at stake now, it is obvious that we need the President to consider quickly and appoint a Special Adviser that will deliver the two million jobs with a task-performance and time-line management principle.

I repeat again, sports alone will deliver the two million jobs. This Special Adviser must be one who knows and understands the economics of sports. He will drive the new policy and deliver the two million jobs.

A right direction and depth of delivery of these tasks alone will mobilise no less than 5million children and youths at the level of sports participation. We will be able to inculcate in them the leadership and competitive values and abilities. They will derive greater citizenship, loyalty and faith in the nation.

Haba! Was the President himself not the special guests at a presidential forum where the issues were discussed, trashed and a framework arrived at inside the banquet hall of the Villa last year?

Egg heads and the who-is-who gathered at the one-day event. It was resolved that about 8million jobs can be created. Where are all the government people that attended the forum? Can’t they make these ideas and papers available to their principal?

Methinks and seriously too, our biggest weapon of international diplomacy even before the political independence of the nation is sports. It has been dwindling. It is becoming a dinosaur.

Somebody please wake up the President. His winning gambit in being left out. To reposition back, please scout your database, pick a special adviser on sports, give him a time-line and performance-based appointment.

Take South Africa whose population is about 30% of ours. What their football industry spends per season is far more than what we spend in the entire sports industry here. 85% of their funding comes from the private sector.

Yet, we have a bigger sphere to be more successful. We have more population, a thriving private sector, better human resources and base to utilize these function. We are simply captives of a thieving system that does not want change. A microcosm of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) will show you what I mean.

To take the bull by the horn, the Federal Government and the PDP must know what is correct, right and proper to do. Take a gambit and use sports while you fix the other zones, create two million jobs in sports alone and see how much the Organised Private Sector (OPS) will deliver.

This single move will give hope and a guaranteed future to 5million youths, the volume of crime and criminality will drastically crash.

You, yes sir, you are your own greatest enemy. No one but you can engage the gear, move this vehicle out of the woods and drive on turbo to the Eldorado expected by the millions who invested their votes on you. Remember, time, yes, time is not your friend. This move requires the speed athletes employ in delivering their tasks. You need a greater value of adrenalin to be a radical in the posturing to deliver these gains. Restiveness is high. Pains are much in the economy. Millions of graduates have finished youth service and are roaming the streets looking for work.   

People, including Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, the chairman of the Board of Trustees of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), have expressed fears of an Arab spring type of protestation in Nigeria. We are very close to it.

Mr. President, can’t you prove them wrong? So many Nigerians see you as a man who has no mind of his own. Become a coach sir. Coaches take radical decisions on the spur of the moment that will mar or make the game in their hands. If these efforts must yield dividend, you decide in a jiffy, I can swear that the effects would have started being felt everywhere by March 2012. However, you must decide NOW and TODAY. 

Are your people not worthy of a good life? Why and how did Samuel Ogbemudia did it in the old Bendel State? Did then Colonel George Agbazika Innih not planted the same seed in Kwara? Is China, Jamaica, Namibia, UK, Germany not fully involved in using sports to make their youths have a good orientation and future. That is why their youths are so patriotic.

Mr. President, you can do more. You can employ two million youths in the next 12 months from here practically at no real overhead cost to the government. You can bring happiness and joy to two million families at prime salaries and allowances far higher and beyond what obtains in the pedestrian civil service in the country.

Mr. President, give your people a breathe of fresh air. This requires you to change so many ways of things being done. That way, yes, is the only way the air will change and become fresh. Game over.

Senate and Reps: Sports Committees of shame

Senate President, David Mark

With the shrill voice of Tijani Babangida hitting for a deserved call on the NFF board to buy shame and honour and resign, I markedly looked at my watch and realized this most likely must be the nation’s most unfortunate year since 1960. We have never been this worsted. Measure from football, handball (in Maputo, Angola beat us with a margin of +30?), basketball, weightlifting, boxing, athletics (with a barrage of over-cheating and use of frauds as ‘coaches) or even, wrestling. Scrabble and chess has been one ray of hope.

Fly back to football. If people do not know when to resign, we, the people of Nigeria, the original owners of the game, have an obligation to ask them to leave. If they play the deaf and the dumb, when the patience of the people boil over and decide to protect their commonwealth, who will want to intervene?

Did the wise sage not postulated that, “he who makes peaceful change difficult will make violent change inevitable.” I read of the efforts of a legitimate group, FOOTBALL ALLIANCE OF NIGERIA, that applied to the Inspector General of Police, Hafiz Ringim, of their intention to have a peaceful match on the Glass House. They applied for permission. The police has not deemed it fit to approve or disapprove same. Playing with the emotion of the people?

PARLIAMENTARY HOUSES OF HORROR: In some nations of the world, when a matter is being discussed in the parliament, it feeds you with so much awe and confidence because the discourse will be intellectually stimulating, sound, logical and above all, in the national interest. Alas, it is the reverse in our own nation.

Debates over what to do with football (sports)  from the Senate and the House of Representatives left many of us wondering what manner of people are therein. Not even motor park analysts will make the untutored quality of opinions that were published in the media therefrom. I thought if the members of the committees have no inkling of what is going in in the reality, they are supposed to have researchers who will be in tandem with the realities and best international practices in the industry and options that are firm and good for our nation.

These men reduced the entire issue to the fact that no Nigerian team qualified for any major championship in 2012 and saddled the illegal NFF with ‘commendations’ and slammed Patrick Ekeji (in a most undiplomatic Moroccan interview with a phantom journalist) whilst we also know that the same committee members some months ago sang a different tune when they journeyed to Maputo for the All African games. Is this journeying with Team Nigeria part of their oversight functions? Are they not busy enough with more serious issues in the parliament? Or is it the little cash here and there that is still attractive to them to warrant them speaking like a drunk tun?

The tune of these calls suggest that if we qualified for the 2012 Nations Cup, have the Olympic teams in London, and the numerous age grade teams won laurels, then we would have been a great sports (football) country. Members of the Nigeria Football Association would have been on line for national honours – we would have been happy.

DECEPTION, OUR NATIONAL WAY: We are deceived by a plethora of ‘sports illiterates’ who sit in parliament. We, (the media) deceive our readers the more. Our administrators are trained in the swift art of lying. Deceit has helped us as a people over the years to lose perspectives and face reality. Deceit is and has been our road-map. We are involved in football (like in sports) for the immediate gains of counting medals and making a bountiful living from it (ask the administrators). We fail to understand the motive of the motley crowd that gathers around sports, ever arguing, ever scheming, screaming and deriving joy from the crowd (watching live games and from the television or by the radio or from the pages).

We determine how well sports is doing by how much cash (Naira and foreign currencies) we profit from sports. I know so many people who are presently lamenting the lost opportunities (in terms of monies they will make) if we had qualified to be in London, Libreville and other spots football would have taken them in 2012. The tears are not for the cessation of the game’s growth. Nobody is crying for the millions of young people who can make a meaningful living from sports, but whose future has been twisted by the greed of a few who became full-time workers in the Glass House.

WHERE PARLIAMENT ERRED BADLY:

Who is taking responsibility for the COLOSSAL losses? Yes, colossal. Not just football. The trend is the entire sports industry. Who will fix the future if we are not concerned about the present? Why is the Nigeria Football Association unable to operate by legal standards? What is complicated about being law abiding? Why must judges be sadly manipulated to give orders that made courts a jesters “Crack ya ribs” stage. Oh! Judiciary, this is a sad development.

The football board is an illegal body. We have been at this for many years. An illegal body that calls itself Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) is an affront to all of us, our laws, and our capacity to implement those laws. Yet, the Senate and the House of Representatives are simply blind to these issues. A football board that has a penchance for forgeries. Will it be fair to think whether the parliamentarians were induced to think in a myopic prism?

Anyone who has been a member of the Sports Committees of the National Assembly should be ashamed of his role in this perfidy. How could the National Assembly for years approve funds for a legal NFA and it is spent by an illegal body known as the NFF, yet, it does not mean anything to them?

RULING PEOPLES DEMOCRATIC PARTY AND THE PERFIDY: does it make a meaning to us that the PDP does not have a sound social welfare, youth, women, sports and community development policy? Do they have a philosophy as to the governance of the people of Nigeria? Ask. Think. Review and see my drift.

Have we not wasted 2011 even from the perspectives of not qualifying for any international competitions? Does it not mean anything to our diplomatic and international relations gambit? In view of the situation on ground, are we thinking of stemming the tide against 2012 and beyond? How are we preparing for 2012? What efforts are we putting in place to improve in sports in 2012 and beyond?

If I have my way, the Senate and House of Representatives Committees on sports should sit down, apologise to their electors, admit the error of judgment they passed earlier and magnify their lens’ view to answer these questions and postulate a fresh, statesmanly, distinguished and honourable thoughts which will and should make people have faith in our collective tomorrow. I siddon dey look dem together.

Exposed! NFF’s dubious legitimacy hits snag

NPL boss, Victor Baribote

*How Justice Auta’s court was misled

On Friday 4^th December, 2011 after emerging from the hallowed chambers of the Federal High Court, Abuja the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) went to town with a viciously implied press statement signed and twice-authored by Mr. Ademola Olajire, the Chief Media Officer where she screamed her illegitimacy has been legalized by the court of Justice Auta.

For three days now, efforts to get the said judgment has met with one reason or the other. A last visit there revealed a funny Freudian slip when one of the staff of the court asked, “why are so many interests in that judgment? You are the fourth reporter and three other lawyers, including one based in Lagos have been asking for it. Wetin dey inside that judgment first?”

Anyhow, seven posers have been raised which has to be answered. These include:

1.       The court which the NFF referred to in suit number FHC/L/SC/962/10 did not sit or gave any orders on the 7^th September 2010 as they have claimed before Justice Auta. This is a dubious misleading of the court.

2.       Their prayers before Justice Auta has everything to do with the issues of the 25^th October 2010’s ruling. None has anything to do with setting aside the orders of Justice Okon Abang’s orders, if at all, since both are court of equal jurisdiction;

3.       As against their questions for determination and plea before Justice Auta, no declarative order was given on the 25^th October to remove them;

4.       Given from the foregoing, no order was exhibited nor such allegation was made as a fact in their affidavit;

5.       The NFF even filed a notice of appeal against the order of Justice Abang on the 6^th September which they filed on the 7^th September through their counsel Dr. Joseph Nwobike (SAN). Which other court did they claimed before Justice Auta to have sat on the 7^th?

6.       Nowhere in the entire matter did the plaintiffs as led by Alhaji Aminu Maigari claimed to be members of the Executive Committee of the NFF. They sued the IGP and his CP (Legal) in their private capacities. So, if they got any relief, the NFF (despite it’s non-juristic personality) cannot benefit from a matter where they are extant.

7.       Did they raised questions for determination or asked for reliefs on the issue of legitimacy before Justice Auta?

Traversing through their matter again. It was clear they raised three questions for determination. All three were directed at the police. They are:

a)      Whether an interlocutory order made in the course of a suit survives the dismissal or striking out of the suit?

b)      Whether it is not illegal, unlawful and unconstitutional for the defendants to proceed to the enforcement of the interlocutory orders made in suit no FHC/L/CS/962/10 on the 7^th September 2010 or any other date notwithstanding that the suit was struck out by the trial court on the 25^th October, 2010;

c)      Whether any invitation of the plaintiffs to report to the office of the defendants, or any arrest or threat of arrest of the plaintiffs or any of the defendants…

All the five reliefs sought from the court were against the Police.

We have passed through this path before‏

I received from Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi's Ibadan-based lawyer, Deacon R. A. Morakinyo, a two-page letter dated 7th December, 2011 alleging defamation of character and libel. In the said letter, he is demanding from me N500m or a suit, amongst other conditions.

I think Chief Ogunjobi forgot he did this same thing when he came out to contest for the position of Secretary General of the NFA. He wrote me and ThisDay newspaper. I postulated that he was dismissed from service by a letter signed by Colonel Ahmed Usman (see copy of the letter). When he did it then, I was in Ibadan to get the letter, since my employers then wanted evidence. All the five people who had the letter then showed me but will not give out copy of the letter. They chorussd separately, "Taiwo will kill me". With the threat from his lawyer, I and my colleague, Emeka "Biafra" Enechi, were eased out of the desk via demotion. I wish he was alive today to re-live this event.

He became Secretary General for four years. Went on to become board member for another four years. Thence, I was still searching for that letter. I got it in 2008 but massively circulated it in 2010 here on this blog.

It was after this I went to the EFCC with my complaint. Whether this law suit comes or not, I have new grounds provided to seek for new investigation and demand fresh prosecution.

In this new letter, my avuncular Ijesha brother claimed he voluntarily left the Oyo State government service in 2009. He made a gazette document available.
That means a case of deliberately lying on oath is here. Between when he was dismissed by the letter signed by Ahmed Usman, a Colonel and Military Administrator of Oyo State and his 2009 date, all salaries and allowances he has taken from the public till MUST have been done deceitfully. This included his tenure in Gabros FC and Julius Berger FC. Was he still in service while working in those places?

NATIONAL ACCORD: He joined the National Accord newspaper as a party to make available the N500m. This blog is NOT published by the newspaper. How come the newspaper is a party to a publication she did not publish? He wants me out of job or demoted again as it happened in ThisDay?

Gathered he involved Patrick Omorodion and the Vanguard newspaper. This must be targeted at getting Vanguard to sack Omorodion. Did Taiwo Ogunjobi in line with the principle of "full disclosure" tell his counsel the whole truth that the dismissal letter actually exists?

I can also make available the panel report and the Oyo State governor's speeches when he inaugurated the panel and when the report was submitted to him. His friend, Leye Adepoju, was a member of the panel. I did not manufacture these documents. Is Ogunjobi just being aware of the existence of these documents? What about the clemency he was alleged to have had over the dismissal? More truth will become public in a matter of days certainly.

RATIONALE FOR LEGAL OPTIONS: If like they agreed in the three meetings of November (with some of the NFF members to 'manufacture' legal suits for myself and Omorodion because they claimed we were sponsored by NSC's DG, Patrick Ekeji and that the law suits will be enough to dislodge his 'few and powerful' media friends) and to get petitions to the National Assembly against the latter to buy time to end the NFF tenure in 2014, then, I am not shocked.
As part of the moves, Chris Green 'manufactured' a letter of defamation (a civil matter) to the Police with which our newspaper house was invaded, I was arrested, bailed and till date, the Police detained my laptop and hard disk. Ekeji has according to Hon Gaiya, chairman, House of Representatives Committee on sports, 195 charges before them. Has Ekeji not replied in the papers that he is ready for probe?

Gaiya spoke to a phantom sports journalist, John Adamu, in Morocco. Gaiya and some of his committee members were in Morocco on the bill of the NFF. This a moral burden which splashes mud on the high values expected of the entire House of Representatives whose members are supposed to be Honourable but in private and public, especially morally.

Now this new legal suit initiative. These confirmed the three meetings (including that of Asokoro?). The option they have to resort to, which out of desperation they have to use, is physical assault or death threats. Did their "ban for life" not fall through? Others will soon fall through too.

DOGS THAT EAT DOG: All the poverty stricken sports journalists benefitting materially and financially from all these confusion on ground, I wish them luck. May we all be rewarded by God accordingly by the works of our hands. It is a two-way sword. It is a curse and a prayer. Take yours.

We have a rich history of all that is going on now in mediaeval and contemporary history. Truth, it is an open wound, your consciences will not heal while you join for selfish reasons to kill the ethics of journalism and the good of nationhood.

Olajire: the urchin in the Glass House‏

What Ademola Olajire does not know includes that his return to the NFF was not because he is "good". It is the near depravity that he demonstrated in his first tenure that brought him back. His employers in the meeting where it was decided in Nicon Luxury's room 683 admitted that in terms of competence, Robinson Okosun was better and finer but they needed someone who can abuse his South-West kins when the time comes.

So in my piece on this blog where I talked of a 'hungry journalist', the obviously unschooled Olajire used the Oxford dictionary to measure the content and origin of the word. I had meant and mean intellectual hunger. He repeated the quality of his contextual ignorance in his reply. Candidly, I sympathise with him.

If Olajire had been a wise child, after he was relieved of his job in the NFF in the first instance, he would have noticed celebration. Two, if he wanted to return to journalism, he would have discovered he would not be welcome anywhere including Vanguard.

I thought a youngman like him would have learnt from the feet of worthy predecessors like Austin Mgbolu, who when he left, it was almost like a mourning regime. Mgbolu today is so respected.

I wonder if Olajire's kids respects him. He who can open his mouth and tear up in public Chief Adegboyega Onigbinde, who when he was presenting sports programmes in Radio Kwara, or when he was producing kids from Mount Carmel college, Ilorin Ademola must still be in the loins. He abused Adokiye Amasiemeka, Olusegun Odegbami, Sunday Oliseh etc Why should I be angry?

Respect begets respects. He lacks it all. It is ethical to be responsible and reasonable. All my pieces he gets directly from me. A coward that my friend and brother is, he went into hiding to "hit him hard" thinking I won't get it or what? All to satisfy his myopic bosses!

Maigari: Mistakes were made, some of them horrific, but we are determined to remedy the ills of the past

Alhaji Aminu Maigari, NFF President

Fellow Nigerians, I present updates of our massive failure and reflections that underline our road towards a different NFA. The 120 million opinion leaders from around the nation will witness our determination to remedy the ills of the past and how we intend to improve the way we do business. Clearly, the nation's football governing body, while continuing to take its mandate more seriously than ever - to administer, and successfully administer the game's development - has had a rough time of late: 30 law suits, invading media houses and arresting journalists, dragging the NPL crisis etc.
It would be disingenuous of me not to acknowledge reality and the fact that we have been fighting an uphill struggle to calm nerves, initiate urgently needed reforms and at the same time adhere to a sense of reason during the stormiest of times especially with Harrison Jalla and the Tenebe group. The last 1,000 days were among the most difficult in our football history since 1945.
While we acknowledge that, as well as the need for change and the urgent need for sweeping reforms, we must not jump from one (wrong) conclusion to the next, but review, recognise and reform with care and in depth.
I am quite aware of the ongoing criticism voiced by many, a criticism that occasionally degenerates into personal and below the belt attacks. This led to the Dominic Oneya committee which submitted its report last week.
So be it. I guess we have to live with bad style just like we have to live with our own reality, namely the fact that mistakes were made, some of them horrific. It takes time to shake the tree until all bad apples have fallen to the ground. Even if some of them refuse to fall at first.
What I want to make quite clear, is that, we shall present further facts, this time with names attached, on how we want to tackle the necessary changes in the governance of Nigerian football. We shall seek to remedy past ills lastingly and offer solutions that bite and important improvements that take effect without further ado.
I firmly believe the team members we have selected to help accomplish the job at hand, are not only solid and dedicated but also exceptionally professional people. And I also want you to know that today, we scrutinise everything, no matter where the chips may fall.
The demands of fans, players, clubs, leagues, the NSC, the national assembly and the NFA alike are important to us; they must and will be considered. We owe the public the type of transparency that we have not practiced in all areas in the past. That was wrong.
Within weeks, I shall be presenting factual and practical change that will increase and help remedy NFA's credibility and become a guarantor for better corporate governance, solid compliance and lasting structural improvement.
Having said that, we must recognise that we cannot dictate certain important improvements: NFA's parliament, the Congress, must approve some of the sweeping changes we propose.
NFA must not be reduced to the smallest common denominator: it's President.
Above all, NFA is ultimately nothing but the expression of the will of its members around the 774 LGAs, 36 states and FCT, referees, players, fans, the media etc.
The admittedly urgent changes that must be approved by the NFA congress include a new procedure to elect members to our board, the executive committee, as well as a new procedure to determine a future NFA. Creating sustainable training programmes to develop our boys and girls from Birnin Kebbi to the creeks of Yenagoa, the forest of Idanre etc
Other measures, such as the very substantial organisation of an independent Ethics Committee and the creation of a committee for corporate governance and oversight, can be prepared by the new NFA management to be put in place in days.
And we are in the final stages of doing just that: in a few weeks from now, before the Xmas celebrations this December meeting of the Executive Committee, I shall offer names and new structures to the public, as promised.
In brief: I have initiated relevant and powerful change without "ifs" and "whens".
NFA remains committed to walking the walk and won't get stuck in solely talking the talk. By January 2012, this will become clear for all to see. Until then, I invite everybody to bear with us so that we can clean the house and come back to the public with facts that allow NFA to enter a new era of doing business. And never again revert to doing "business as usual".

Being speech delivered by Aminu Maigari after the U-23 crashed from Morocco. As soon as he finished reading the speech, the crowd were applauding him then, I woke up from my bed. So, it was a dream.

JOSEF GOEBBELS RISES UP AT THE GLASS HOUSE

Speaker Tambuwwal of the House of Representatives

The master of propaganda ever known in human history most likely remains Adolf Hitler’s information manager, Josef Goebbels. His incarnate is a hungry journalist who works inside the Glass House. This is a bald man who has sold his soul for the sake of lucre. He was the one who interviewed another hungry legislthief member in Morocco and circulated the press statement. If you are familiar with the numbered releases issued from the Glass House, it is the same list the NFF uses that our ghost-journalist, John Adamu, used. Let’ leave the Adamu man out for now.

He issued a press statement this time signed as Ademola Olajire reporting the proceedings of the Justice Auta’s Federal High Court, Abuja. Anyhow, certain issues remain germane, true, incontestable and irreversible. These includes amongst others:

1.      Justice Auta and any other court of the land is not a father Christmas that will give you what you do not ask for;

2.      All the 10 plaintiffs/respondents in the suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/541/2011 did not sue as Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) nor as members of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) and CANNOT get reliefs as NFF nor as members of the NFF except if and if the court, since we are in December, decided to play Santa Claus;

3.      How then on eart will Justice Auta, since the parties before him are the Inspector General of Police and the Commissioner of Police, (Legal), Jubril O. Adeniji, give orders in matters and in which the parties are not before him?

4.      When has it become for courts of equal jurisdiction known to issue orders obliterating the orders of another court, as to even determining the relevance or otherwise of the orders of the other court?

I sympathise with the NFF people including their Goebbels for their wishful thinking. They forgot to add that Justice Auta ordered that the Dominic Oneya committee report which declared them illegal is also declared null, illegal and void. Olajire needs a “corrected” version to announce this.

I once read a book titled: LIVING IN FOOL’S PARADISE. It makes me remember how Falcao, the Brazilian and persona of the book dreamt of riding as a horse on the back of cockroach which flew him to the court of power where he is not made rich but got position. We are waiting for how Justice Auta’s court will confer legitimacy on them in matters extant to that court.

Will Justice Auta’s court obliterate the fact that the NFF is not known to Nigerian laws? Will that court make them juristic? Will that court overrule Justice Okon Abang’s court orders which not even the Court of Appeal nor the Supreme Court can change again?

JOHN ADAMU, NFF AND HOUSE COMMITTEE ON SPORTS

This faceless sports journalist who works in and with the NFF wrote the press statement about 195 grounds of petitions lying in Speaker Aminu Tambuwwal’s desk in Abuja. Gaiya, the chairman of the committee, displaying intellectual poverty, had to wait until he got to Morocco where he disclosed this.

Is Gaiya and his cohorts on the trip aware that they were induced with the trip? Are they aware that the NFF is not known to Nigerian law? Are they aware that the conflict in the game had a committee in place which was adjudicating on the issues? Are they aware that the NFF is supervised by the NSC? Are they aware that their sponsors are good as criminals for ‘stealing’ money belonging to the NFA and spending same as NFF? This same NFF cannot sue or be sued in any court of this country.

On John Adamu. He has a language so related in tense chemistry, grammar and plot to the statement with which Mr. Emeka Inyama used in assaulting legendary Olusegun Odegbami. It is so familiar to the same used on my person twice, as well as, the one used in abusing Chief Adegboyega Onigbinde. Is it the wraiths of Jhn Adamu that the NFF houses and pays?

Akin to this, the members of the House of Representatives that went to Morocco should be ashamed that as lawmakers they do not know the boundary of where their privileges should stop. Now, they have joined in the fray. Can they say anything that will be respected again on matters of football in the country?

An arbiter who eats from the plate of a feuding party is definitely circumscribed. What a sad tale? Members of the committee should as a matter of honour, since they are called ‘Honourables’ resign from that committee. They are a part of the problems of our football. Simplicita. It’s a blushy matter.