SANI TORO’S NFF COMMITTEE. ISSUES ARISING

Dr. Adamu...mediated but the space was lost

Yes, the impression built in the football world is that I have not and will not see anything ‘good’ due to the legality issue of the NFF. That is true. That does not also remove that if anything looks sensible in their actions it should not be praised or seen from an objective perspective. When Jubril Tahir wrote the story, as the Editor of the sports pages of the national accord about committees being set up, I went out of my way to search for the terms of reference of the committees. One committee that attracted my attention is the one headed by Sani Ahmed Toro.

I read and for once thought inside of me that someone is doing a heavy intellectual development package which is far bigger than the entire NFF board. It was in the course of this investigation I found out there was a Nigeria Football Transformation Summit in the burners to hold sometimes later in the year.

The people behind the seminar have really done a good job of their tasks. My thinking and fears like always has been that Alhaji Aminu Maigari as President of the NFF had all the rooms in the world to have nipped the current crisis in the bud and move to become the best man to have ruled Nigerian football. He fluffed the chances.

He and his team had a legal necklace from day one. They brought in another person I don’t like but you can’t afford not to respect him for the positions he has held in Nigerian sports, Dr. Amos Adamu. There was the silent hand of Dr. Rafiu Ladipo in all these. A short term peace was achieved. After the battle, the NFF people went to town celebrating their victory in a winner-takes-all manner. This opened the door to a new battle in the war.

Had they been honourable and carried out the agreements of that informal peace document, would we be in the same shoes today? For me, the reform would have been on ground. These efforts through the Sani Toro committee is essentially reform agenda. Added to Mr. Bolaji Abdullahi’s moves, does it make a meaning to watchers? Given Toro’s role in the last Senate committee public hearing and the fact that he belonged to the Oneya Committee, how does he achieve these roles in one?

Now, how does this Toro committee get the ‘opposition’ into working out a seamless route into the future? Can this future be trod without the ‘opposition’? Can the NFF achieve the objectives she has set for the Toro committee without working well with all parties interested in Nigerian football?

Review of Toro’s Committee: The 90 days for the committee is simply a manacle. How on earth are the NFF people thinking these events can be concluded in 90 days? Haba! Did the committee members see what I am seeing? I see an error of judgment in the timing there. Two, if the Nigerian Football Transformative initiative is on-going, why is this committee not using that platform to build a bridge of reconnection with all parties?

Maigari, Jalla...can they meet on this? 

Like I said earlier in this platform, can there be peace without justice? How can these brilliant concepts be managed and delivered without peace? That is where the peace committee set up by the NFF becomes deficient and handicapped. Are the members of the committee having the clout to be listened to by any of the aggrieved parties? Or can football development be carried out in the present state pretending that the ‘opposition’ does not exist?

Is the Toro committee not going to be undertaking the core roles that Mr. Tom Saintfiet, NFF’s technical director, is expected to working on? Is Toro’s committee not going to be embarking on foreign trips to say they want to go and learn what exists elsewhere whereas they can get every information from the internet? How will the members make enough money for themselves in 90days while still pretending to be doing what they are expected to do?

Maigari’s board, honour and reform: Some of us cannot trust the current NFF board. We have our friends on board we know and can trust. One fear that gnaws a lot of serious beings who had made secret moves to get peace going in the game is, can this board be honourable and trust worthy to deliver if this Toro committee come up with a correct position acceptable to all?

Will the Maiagari board be honourable to accept and deliver a ‘Glasnost and Perestroika’ in this reform match? What will this committee do outside the Oneya committee tasks? What if they come up with the Oneya option again? Can we trust them all in this their match? Many more questions to answer.