Pinnick: the spoon-fed boy of yesterday

Pinnick

From Pat Omorodion

I don't want to reply Pinnick, a spoon-fed boy of yesterday who has risen to where he never expected, courtesy of his sister being wife to the Governor of Delta State. I wanted to do a few lines on my SportsGuard column on Sunday so that all Nigerians who read his rejoinder twice in the Vanguard, Thursday and today, Tuesday could understand the kind of administrator he is but I felt I'll be making him a hero because more Nigerians will get to know that one Amaju Pinnick exists in Delta State.

Pinnick in reacting to my column insinuated that with people like me, sports journalists will earn an "odious reputation, which is reminiscent of the infamous era of tokenism." I'll like to ask Pinnick how writing the truth will earn someone an odious reputation while someone who uses his advantage of being an in-law to a serving governor would not earn a greedy reputation of grabbing every position available in sports in a state.

Open festival: The issue of Open National Sports Festival was thrown out by the National Council on Sports which met in Lagos a few months to the last festival which Lagos hosted. I was there and witnessed how other states shouted down Pinnick over the issue of inviting foreign-based athletes.

If every other state wanted the festival closed, why was Pinnick and Delta desperate to have it open? Again, I hope Pinnick remembers that after that meeting held at the Durbar Hotel in Amuwo Odofin, he wanted journalists to hear him out and help his campaign for an open festival.

He wanted to buy them over to his side but he knows I was not part of his plot because I can never be bought. It is very clear to even the blind, the trading that goes behind the scene at every festival especially the 2004 hosted in the FCT. The result was not made public until the sports ministry called a meeting of governors of both states, Edo and Delta, Ibori and Igbinedion, I don't know where Pinnick was then.

He was too junior to be in the picture then. Of course, Uduaghan was not governor then and his sister was not First Lady. Igbinedion and Ibori walked into the Abuja stadium smiling, of course, they deceived Nigerians but some of us who knew were not amused.

Sports promotion and sports development: I maintain that while I appreciate what Uduaghan is doing, the state promotes sports more than developing it. Yes, I commend Delta for hosting the African Youth Athletics Championship like they have hosted other events in the past. But can Pinnick beat his chest and say what the state and Nigeria benefited from hosting such events other than some people just smiling to the banks each time?

Some of us know why Nigeria keeps hosting events so let us not waste our time discussing it. I put it to Pinnick that some of the so-called junior athletes they presented at the AYAC in Warri recently would not reign for more that five years because we are being deceived that they are actually young.

How many Delta athletes discovered by Pinnick have won medals for Nigeria as he claims apart from Okagbare who they have overused and has reached her peak and is already declining? They keep mentioning Ogho-Oghene Egwero, what has he really won for Nigeria?

Sunday Mba: They say sports has taken the youths off the streets and minimised crime yet the incident of kidnapping is on the rise. On the Sunday Mba issue, I dare Pinnick to say that it is not criminal for Warri Wolves where he is chairman to pay money for a player's transfer into the private account of another chairman who doesn't own that club.

Even if the receiving chairman is the owner, does he run the club from his personal account? Doesn't the club own an account of its own? He tried to drag the name of our respected octogenarian football administrator, Pa Ojidoh into this to score cheap point but he didn't know that Pa Ojidoh had called me to discuss the issue and I explained to him my position.

I still maintain that had Mba not made an impact at the Nations Cup, Pinnick and Warri Wolves wouldn't have bothered about him. When last did they pay Mba's salary? All the struggle is because Mba's profile has risen and they know more money will come their way.

The scramble for Mba is purely on selfish grounds. Pinnick wrote that I cut the figure of someone on a failed mission and I ask which mission? Is it the fight against Dr Amos Adamu's maladministration which he once spoke to me about on phone for 45 minutes, praising me for being bold to tell Dr Adamu the truth?

Again he said I look like someone deserted by a pay-master, who is that pay-master? Pinnick pays some people for supporting him, right or wrong and he knows I don't belong to that group. I have never gone to Warri or Asaba to see Pinnick who is very junior to me for any favours.

He knows that I don't belong to the group who write against administrators in the day and go to their house at night to collect money. If he believes he is an administrator of repute in Nigeria, why pay people to write about him? He should allow his work speak for him if he thinks he is doing a good job.

To let you all know the kind of person Pinnick is, my first encounter with him was via the analog Nitel telephone of old. GSM was not available then. I just joined Vanguard newspapers then and as usual, as I was made to understand, Pinnick called and I was the one that picked the phone.

He wanted a story planted about him and Delta in Vanguard the following day and I politely told him the paper had gone to bed and the pages could not be recalled. To my surprise, the next thing that came out of his mouth without any courtesy was, "publish the story, I'm ready to pay any amount."

Of course, I told him that our pages were not for sale. He contacted Tony Ubani for the say thing and Ubani told him that what I said was final. He went ahead to report to our superiors but nothing came out of it. So it sounds ridiculous that almost 13 years after when I did not succumb to Pinnick's filthy lucre as a younger and poorer journalist, I could do so now when I'm older and wiser and enjoying the grace of God.

I remember when Pinnick was still struggling, moving from the Fanny Amuns to the Patrick Okpomos for survival. Now because he is closer to the seat of power, he now arrogates to himself, the wisdom of Solomon and the riches of Abraham. While Abraham's riches are not tainted, Pinnick cannot say same for his own. What I will tell him is to continue to enjoy the privilege of government power now but should remember it does not last forever.

Someone told me recently that when God increases you, you have to decrease yourself, otherwise, His grace will depart from you and the consequences will be too great to bear. Remember the story of Lazarus and the poor man.

I rest my case. Thank you all

LMC vs Club owners meeting deadlocked

Hon. Nduka Irabor, LMC Chairman

*As Maigari escapes from meeting to avoid EFCC arrest

By Olajide Fashikun

Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) midwived meeting between the warring League Management Company (LMC) and the Club owners entered into a cul-de-sac as parties stuck to their guns meanwhile, Alhaji Aminu Maigari had to escape from the meeting to avoid being arrested when tipped of the presence of the anti-corruption agency’s officials’ presence within the premises.

At the meeting according to our inside sources, the club owners insisted that the NFF Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Port Harcourt endorsed the sack of former chairman, Rumson Baribote and also endorsed the formation of an Interim Management Committee (IMC).

They asked where the nation’s highest football ruling body, the AGM endorsed the formation of a League Management Company in any of its resolutions. All efforts made to pacify them to shift their grounds mid-way was said to have been rebuffed.

Eventually, both parties went home with their prepared positions on the issues of conflict between them.

While the meeting was going on, a Reporter who is claimed to have his ears on the ground quickly got across to one of the aides of the NFF President that he men of the EFCC were on their way to the secretariat. Maigari who was in the meeting trying to broker peace between the club owners and LMC was said to have sought for an exeunt. As he was driving out of the gate of the Glass House, the EFCC operatives were driving in.

Infact, they had to wait for his vehicle to drive out of the premises when theirs took turn to enter. They missed the premises by whiskers.

However, it could not be confirmed if they actually came for the arrest of Maigari. Efforts made to reach the EFCC spokesman, Wilson Uwugiaren to confirm or deny their presence in the football house could not yield result as at when we went to press.

League reforms are not for the current 20 teams in the Premier League

Mike Enahoro

*Only six clubs are incorporated in the Premier League
*What he has to say on Total Promotion and television coverage

Nigerians would want to know how far the LMC has settled with the club owners. Have you settled?
When you mean settlement, what are you looking at?
Club owners had a meeting in Abuja where the LMC was sacked by a vote of no confidence. In the communiqué of the National Council of Sports, the LMC got a support. This should translate a mediation had taken place. That may mean the LMC is back in business. What is the situation now?
Did you read the pronouncement by the NFF of last week Saturday? The NFF pronouncement was very clear and unambiguous.
The club owners acted after the NFF statement.
Its not for me to discuss actually. The NFF gave a pronouncement. They adjudicate in all matters of conflict between anyone in football. If the NFF say they back the LMC by 100% and dissociate itself from anyone trying to go against that pronouncement. The LMC is focused. The LMC in instituted and is a brain child born with all the right caliber of documentation. The NFF as the sole custodian is saying the LMC is authorized to run football, certainly, different stakeholders will have different opinions so why would the LMC be held by a club owners. Was it instituted and managed by the club owners?
Look at a situation where it was the club owners by their inherent powers in the statutes who sacked the Baribote board. If that Board was not sacked, the LMC would not have been in place.
Does that mean we should go into a circle of violence? And continue a circle of distortion and administrative quagmire because of what? Agitations lead to stuff. When you have an opportunity to do the right thing, you do the right thing. What do you want the LMC to do?
Because somebody agitated and the NFF decided in its wisdom to do the right thing, then, we should go and quarry to a stakeholder’s claims? For the first time, the country has sat down and set a template that are of international standard that says to run the league, here are five or six different parameters that must be in place. The board is constituted as a private entity in line with FIFA statutes, in line with best international practices because FIFA is saying gravitate away from government.
So, Nigeria goes and registers the League Management Company (LMC). The transformation in filling that vacuum created by the previous administration, the League Management Committee is acting in this period of transformation, is acting as the management team. That is the standard anywhere.
If you go back to the first Premier League organization of the five clubs in England. The people that they picked to now become what Nigeria’s LMC is, eventually, when the whole structures were now worked out by the whole 20 clubs, we now had a Board that was selected to run the EPL. That’s where we are today. We are at the period of birth.  That period is a gestation period where we have to put all the structures together in line with international best practices. The process of reform is currently ongoing. We are in the middle of it right now.
We’ve been receiving documentations which are being adapted and are being Nigerianised.
As we speak right now, different sub-committees are working on these documents right now. It is a bit challenging when we are at the birthing period. This is because certain things in the status quo that do not work must be changed.
In the wisdom of the LMC, the NFF and the NSC who have been saddled with the responsibility to adjudicate and administrate football in the country, we have said, don’t stop the game. This is because people’s livelihood are at stake. Investments by state governments are involved, and the fans are aiming to see football played. So you can’t stop.
So, we are having two things happening in parallel. There is an actual physical playing going on as well as, a reform process running parallel. When we see that changes need to be made, they have to be made without disruptions to the game.
Is the LMC likely to conclude its assignment without the period you have given the volume of tasks you have enumerated?
I wouldn’t look at it as concluding work. We are creating a sustainable platform and framework within the mandate that we are given. That is what we are breaking our heads to achieve as quickly as possible. Will the clubs be able to see an LMC visibly that says that it s now ready for them to transition into a new platform? Yes.
So, there are certain types of things that must happen. The clubs themselves getting themselves organized. I mean those templates of what the clubs need to do. The templates will be coming out pretty soon. We shall share that with the club owners, of which the club managers as the operational arm of the ownership structure will have to go and make sure that they implement within the same period of time. These are administrative things that can be done sharp. Today is the 21^st century and we need to align ourselves with that.

Part II of this interview will run tomorrow

Scandal! NSC in criminal deception of the Nigerian public

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Bolaji Abdullahi, Sports minister...new explanations for this fraud?

*Communique of National Council of Sports prepared 12 days before meeting

We can reveal that the 19^th National Council of Sports meeting that took place for almost a week is afterall a grand project to pilfer the tax payer’s monies, deceive the Nigerian public and make Nigerians believe that it was the genuine interest of Nigerian sports that was discussed and agreed at the meeting.

A four-page communiqué was issued supposedly at the end of the meeting. www.gongnews.net can also reveal that all the said decisions in the released communiqué were pre-determined. The Directors of Sports from the 36 states and FCT were rather pawns in the chess board of the National Sports Commission. The implication is that, that communiqué may not be a true reflection of the disucssions or that the Directors of Sports were simply railroaded after being paid their financial dues to just key into the preconceived decisions presented to them.

The communiqué claimed the meeting took place on the 25^th April. That is not true. The meeting started on 21st and was supposed to end on the 26^th April by the original statement the same NSC issued earlier which was published.

The second obvious lie which gave the NSC away was the date at the last page of the communiqué which boldly read April 13, 2013 meaning that was the day the communiqué was finally prepared. That means 13 clear days ahead of the conclusion of the meeting.

According to one of the Directors of Sports who attended the meeting who was independently asked the key issues discussed and confronted with some other matters, he simple exclaimed, “no, that one? No, we did not discuss that. It did not come up for discussion at all,” yet it was listed in the communiqué as discussed.

The fact is, what sinister objectives does the NSC has in stock to have preconceived a communiqué ahead of the meeting? Does it mean that the meeting was just called just to fulfill all righteousness? Yet, millions of tax payer’s monies had been expended to host and deliver the meeting.

This is fraud in its most simplistic language. Who did this? Somebody should explain to the nation how this great criminal public deception was weaved and delivered to Nigerians as if these were the outcomes of the meeting.

Except if the definition of what is a communiqué has changed.

Three parameters were arrived at to mean communiqué. They are: 1. an official report (usually sent in haste), 2. an official communication or announcement, especially to the press or public, 3. detailed outline of a meeting written in a hurry to capture what were discussed at the meeting.

Save for (2) above which met the action of the NSC but in the context of what was sent out, the first and third which should have applied DID NOT meet the basic demands of what a communiqué is and therefore, a fraud has been committed.

This communiqué was carefully prepared. It was not in haste.  It was not, cannot and should not have been the detailed outline of that meeting as this was prepared before the meeting.

culled from www.gongnews.net 

Northern Football Federation (NFF)

Maigari...leads a northern cabal

Ask an average Nigerian what is the full meaning of the NFF, they are wont to tell you it is Nigeria Football Federation. Haba! You miss am if that is your answer too. Rather, it is Northern Football Federation (NFF). How? See the table below to appreciate what I mean.

The management of the NFF (whichever one you choose) is north. This is a direct affront on the Federal character principle. Before that, there is absolute criminality and illegality of the highest order therein. For how many years is the sitting Acting Secretary General, Musa Amadu, acting? His tenure was extended by the current Board which was to lapse after six months of the tenure of the Board but they kept mute and drove on as if all things are normal.

SN	CANDIDATE	POSITION	STATE	REGION
1.	Aminu Maigari	President	Bauchi	North
2.	Musa Amadu	Acting Sec Gen	Katsina	North
3.	Dr. Mohammed Sanusi	Head, Competition	Sokoto	North
4.	Ibrahim Abubakar	Head, Protocol	Kaduna	North
5.	Idris Adama	Head, Marketing	Kogi	North
6.	Dr. Emmanuel Ikpeme		Cross River	South-south
7.	Mallam Mamza	Head of Administration	Bauchi	North

Were this setting to have been the case with other regions of the country, they would have protested to high heavens to have their quota on board. This discovery have shocked a lot of respected Nigerians we confronted with the facts.

As usual, because many of them don’t want to be counted on such controversial issues like this, since they have a way of living on patronages from these same people, they offered not to talk. Ironically, some people said it openly that they know but resigned to fate because if they talk, what difference would it make?

So, please when next you are communicating and you hear the acronym, NFF, ask which one: Nigeria Football Federation or the Northern Football Federation. They mean the same thing.

LMC: Club owners deserve to sack us – Irabor’s deputy

Irabor…Oh! my deputy accusing me?

Vice Chairman of the League Management Company (LMC), Alhaji Sabo Babayaro has said that the sacking of the body by the club owners has become inevitable as the body has totally derailed from the terms of reference given them at inauguration.
Babayaro, a former member of the Kaduna state House of Assembly, spoke to journalists in Abuja accused the LMC chairman, Hon. Nduka Irabor, of high handedness and overbearing influence on the rest members of the Interim Management Committee (IMC).
He added that “critical decisions were taken without the consent of the other members. The LMC has good intentions and we started on the right track but along the line we veered off the mark and continued going wild in the bush.”
Expantiating his position, the Kaduna United FC boss said, “the LMC derailed because decisions were taken without due consultations. I support the club managers because we are the bonafide owners of the league.

LMC vs. Club Owners: We have passed this path before now

Baribote...sacked by congress but replace by NFF

In 2002, we had a similar route to the attempts to develop our football. We wrote FIFA asking for clarification. The organisation replied us quite well. They opted to address the issues because we ‘are members of the football family’ however, the reservation was, we would get our reply from their affiliate, the NFA. That crisis led to a reply to Ibrahim Galadima, the then Chairman of the NFA. That rested the case. QED.

POWER OF THE MIGHT: A member of the League Management Company had boasted to my ears (just for me alone though) that, they are talking to the governors to remove in one fell swoop the people masquerading as ‘club owners’ and that, in this matter, they are members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Hours later, Amaju Pinick of Delta state, took the vice chairman of Warri Wolves FC, Alex Amudo, to the dry cleaners. He has been suspended for his role in the meeting and a new acting vice chairman in the person of Kenneth Nwaomacha has been appointed to take over from him. Can someone tell them, this single case is enough GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE. QED.

OUTSIDE INTERESTS: I have known that the struggle for the soul of Nigerian League is not in the best interest of the game. It is for selfish reasons. The LMC has gone on the roof to scream that Total Promotion Nigeria Limited marshalled by Niyi Alonge, prodded by MTN Nigeria are funding the club owners. Club Owners in private hush-hush have accused the LMC to be prodded by Globacom Nigeria Limited.

Whatever is the truth beyond this is no other truth. As at today, the underlined but bold truth remains these:

1.            There is a provision for club owners in the FIFA structure which is the Congress of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL). To them FIFA gives the recognition to modulate their league. The FA

Adamu...would have been consulted?

a.    Cannot interfere in the day to day administration of the affiliate (in this case, the League and the State FA)

b.   Shall house all matters of discipline and refereeing;

c.    Shall approve relegation and promotion of teams as well as approve of league dates.

2.            There are genuine rooms for the improvements the LMC has articulated for our football, so both club owners and the LMC are supposed to be partners in progress.

3.            The entire IMC and LMC building is faulty from the very foundation. I remembered I pointed it out but due to what an NSC source told me, “you are acrid and so all your views are seen as against us.” Are we not back there today? They should learn to leave my person but pick my voice.

a.    The Congress of the NPL which sacked the Baribote Board should have inaugurated the Nduka Irabor committee ab initio, otherwise, why did the NFF that inaugurated them not sack Baribote to inaugurate them? It’s a trite legal principle.

Maigari...referee who became player

b.   The minister (who doesn’t know the technicalities of operations in sports management) rail roaded the club owners to make the NFF (which was just to be informed and act as observer) participate in the choice of members and inaugurated same;

c.    If the NSC people had been guided by the realities of the Nigerian football industry, given the illegality of the NFF, they would have avoided that snag, even if the NFF had the power to inaugurate them, would have urged the NFF to defer that power to the Congress (club owners) to do so on its behalf and avoid the legal status;

d.   The NFF was fraudulent signing the incorporation papers as NFA when they know they are not NFA. They swore to an affidavit in court that they are not NFA. This is a criminal offence. It is a means to deceive and take what does not belong to them.

e.    This deception was arrived at in a bid to avoid the illegal status of the NFF twice laid out in judgements of court which were not appealed.

4.            Having been inaugurated by the NFF, the IMC transmuted to LMC without recourse to the club owners.

a.    To the LMC, the LMC are jobbers, loafers, and not-well-to-do illiterates who cannot understand modern football management;

b.   Is there any need for the crisis?

c.    No, I think. The LMC sees itself as superior to the club owners. Whereas, whatever is done, if the seal of the Congress of the League is not there, it will never be acceptable to FIFA. (This is where I fault Salisu Abubakar and Shehu Dikko who are in the inner fold of the LMC). The rules are there. All that needed to be done is to read these rules and see how it operates.

Blatter, FIFA President...will end with you?

d.   “These so-called club owners are political jobbers, errand boys of the governors, conduit pipe for our stolen commonwealth. They are just laundering money”. To me. This is true. I have been there as a Board member of Kwara United FC of Ilorin so I should know. But the fact remains, the law recognizes them in that role. Can they be substituted in the law books? No. so, we must make do with them.

e.     In all these, is football administration primary? No. It is secondary. We have an FA that is by constitution, depth of intellection, delivery, understanding their primary responsibilities and totality a pedestrian. This is better understood by their reaction to objective, constructive, logical and thriving thought patterns. You need to see Emeka Inyama’s response to the last Saturday erudite presentation of former Eagles left winger, Adokiye Amasiemaka to appreciate the decrepit our football administration is located.

f.     I have decided to go to England and see their football chemistry. My verdict? In this one, the club owners are right. A reasonable setting would have offered the FA room to call a truce. Here, the FA is a player already. Minister? It is simply GOVERNMENT INTERFERENCE. He has no business in all of these. Wait till tomorrow.

I did not watch pornography in London –Hon Godfrey Gaiya

Gaiya and his family

*Pornography: Why I did not sue for libel

*NSC gave us a ramshackle accommodation in London

The awards and honours inside the office of Godfrey Ali Gaiya, chairman House Committee on Sports at the National Assembly Complex, would leave no one in doubt that the honourable is the right man for the job. From the emblem of Rangers International Football Club of Enugu to the professional plaque from his field of study, Geology, evidences abound that he has done well with the portfolio he is holding in the house.

Hon. Gaiya x-rays a number of issues, explaining how he became the House Committee chairman on Sports, the problems with Nigerian sports, the endemic budgetary challenges facing the sports sector in Nigeria and above all, the threatening attacks on Nigerian sports. He is explicit in answering questions on whether he truly got involved in an alleged pornography scandal during the 2013 London Olympic Games, and if joining the sports family actually made him promiscuous.

Becoming chairman House Committee on Sports: I was a member of the House Committee on Sports in the sixth assembly and I think that the leadership of the seventh assembly thought it wise to leverage on experience, hence I was appointed to head the committee in the current dispensation. However, when it came to who chairs the Sports Committee, nobody consulted me before the duty was assigned to me. The speaker decided to entrust the responsibility to someone that has been there, who seems to have passion for sports.

Of the above 80 chairmen of the various committees in the house, I knew that I was one of them a week after the speaker was elected. Rt. Hon. (Aminu) Tambuwal simply summoned me and without asking for my opinion, appointed me as the chairman House Committee on Sports. I wanted to complain, but he said that I should accept the appointment as a divine assignment. As a loyal house member, I felt that since my fate has been decided, it would not have been right for me to think otherwise. But in all sincerity, as a professional geologist and an active member of the Water Resources Committee, I would have preferred to chair the Committee on Water Resources to Sports if I had the option to make a choice. Though it is not for any other reason than the fact that I had a cognate training and working experience in that field.

I thought I was more qualified for the Water Resources Committee, but the speaker confided in me that people advised him to appoint me to head the Sports Committee if he wanted to record success in sports. They advised him in that line probably because they felt that since I was in the Sports Committee in the sixth assembly, that I knew the terrain better. I did not lobby for the position and if they had asked for my opinion, I would have asked for something different.

Round peg in a round hole: I don’t really know if I am the best man to chair the House Committee on Sports as people say. But one thing is that I always approach any assignment that is entrusted in my hand with all diligent and the best of my ability. I hate failure and would do anything to avoid it.

Let me however reveal that immediately after the speaker informed me that I would head the Sports Committee, I delved into thinking and planning how to leave my footprints on the sands of time in Nigerian sports. I made friends with the people I felt should know one thing or the other in sports. I visited the archives to understand what has been going on, I refreshed my mind on the things I learnt as a member of the sixth assembly, I consulted the former chairman of the committee and his deputy and I have been developing myself continuously in the line of my duty.

I also took notice of the things we did not get right during the sixth assembly. So, if I have done something, which people think was in tandem with my position and office, the honest thing to say is that it is not because I am an exceptional human being, but because I had approached my work with all diligence. I still listen to people who are knowledgeable in sports.

Let me reveal that I don’t watch league matches in the comfort of my home. Instead, I usually put on a pair of jeans and face cap to disguise myself, and go to a viewing centre to watch actions. There, I listen to opinions of Nigerians of all classes and I have to confess that articulating and applying the diverse opinions have helped my committee in recording resounding successes in some areas of our endeavour.

Agenda for sports: My agenda for sports is simple, to ensure that the sports sector excels, if possibly, more than any other sector in the Nigerian economic. Sports is a competitive business and any time Nigeria wins in any type of sports, every Nigerian would be highly motivated and many would want to share in the glory. If such an attitude could sink into our psyche, I believe that it would propel us towards becoming the best in every other sector of our national economy.

I want to achieve success in sports and also, watch the success to provoke improvement in other sectors of our national life. As the current champions of African football, applying champions’ attitude in the power sector, water supply, industry, health, education among others, will actually reposition our country. For me, Nigeria has all it takes to excel; our only challenge is to develop a winning mentality.

It might sound funny if I say that winning the 2013 AFCON was one of my take homes as the House Committee chairman on Sports. But I think I would be happier if we can take our sports to a higher level. It would be a better take home if we could promote our sports to the level where other sectors would be challenged towards making Nigeria great. We are not there yet, but I am working to see what we can achieve before I leave in 2015.

Challenges: Nigerian sports is faced with many challenges. This is because sports is a passion to most Nigerians. I discovered that every Nigerian wants to be a winner without minding the impediments. We are less concerned with what we will do to win and always take defeat for failure.

My first challenge was to understand why we fail in most competitions. I needed to understand what we ought to do to satisfy the yearnings of Nigerian sports lovers. Then, I discovered that we have not invested properly in sports because we consider it as a mere recreation. I realised that we have negative impressions about sports and our attitude to it is wrong.

Sports has become a weapon for diplomacy, public relations and rating in the comity of nations. If we can get it right in sports, our rating among the comity of nations will definitely appreciate. So, the major challenge before us now is to see how we can make concessions to sports to enable us reach the height we are aiming at.

I also found out that sports is not sufficiently funded. The funds are not really there. It is true that the private sector drive sports in most advanced countries, but businesses that are making good profit out of their investments in Nigeria are very few. So, it has remained a very difficult task to compel corporate bodies to invest in sports in the country.

Considering the current situation, I think that government must be willing to inject money into sports. The current funding pattern does not encourage the growth of sports in the country and it might interest one to understand that the Sports Committee is rated among Grade C committees in the House of Representatives.

Grading of committees informs you about the inflow of resources to different committees based on their categories, and the Sports Committee receives less than N9 billion annually from the federal government. Yet, the sports sector has over 40 federations under its umbrella. It is a sector through which most physical infrastructure are developed. Through that sector, sporting facilities are being developed in each of the 774 local government areas in the country, yet it is being starved of funds.

In a country where greater percentage of the population has the ability to participate in one form of sports or the other, we face a big challenge with the funding. We must provide facilities to engage the youths. But unfortunately, it is not possible with the kind of funding that comes from the government.

As a member of the National Assembly, I would have loved to expand the budget so that more projects could be done in sports, but we are dealing with a system that is complicated. The budget should be dead on arrival at the National Assembly because we represent the people and know where the people want their money to be spent. We know the kind of dividend the people expect at their various constituencies and we are in a better position to advice the executive arm on this matter, but in most cases it does not go that way.

Everything is fundamentally wrong with the budget template and sports is the worst hit. Sports is not rated as a key sector in the country, at least, when you consider the level of funds that accrue to it. If you try to complain, the members of the executive would tell you to stop bringing sports matters up when they have other serious issues to handle. I always feel so bad about it.

There is need for the executive arm to be reoriented so that they could see sports as a critical sector of the economy. The apathy over sports has been the war we are fighting and will continue fighting it till the end of the seventh session.

But even though the allocation to sports is meagre, there is also something fundamentally wrong with the budget template. We cannot correct successfully within a short time what has been part of the system for many years.

In the budget template, we have maintenance, miscellaneous for maintenance, refurbishing of generators even when there are no generators, electricity and telephone bills, but we know that all these are not true. If you attempt to mop up the items for something more productive, they would insist that it came from the budget office and any adjustment to it must as well come from there.

We discovered that about 60 per cent of our budget usually end up in unimplemented project, while only 20 per cent of the remaining 40 per cent is implemented. The capital projects are poorly funded because the priority line is already recorded as overhead. The capital project implementation is only 20 per cent.

Simply put, when for instance N80million is allocated to sports, only N20million will be deployed into productive sectors. Projects could be on in the ministry for many years without any meaningful progress made on it and the money meant for it would end up in few individuals’ pockets. Unfortunately, people think that we are just out to make troubles, but it is not true. Instead, we want things to be done the right way.

Our suggestion is that if you have N1billion for capital project, we must sit down and agree on the projects to allot the fund to. If it involves using the money in starting and completing only two projects within a particular fiscal year, let it be.

Again, we have corrected the fraudulent idea of earmarking a large sum of money for lumped sporting activities. In the past, they would allocate funds on whatever that catches their fancy. What we did in the 2013 budget was to tear the envelop of the amount earmarked for sporting activities and ensured that the items in it were specified. We specified the amounts the federations must get for their activities.

In fact, much is shrouded in secrecy in the budget template. The expenditure has been at the discretion of the members of the executive. They are comfortable with it, but this and many other odds are what the house is working hard to correct.

People have called me names, blackmailed me and wrote all sorts of thing about my committee members and I. For instance, I was in London where the National Sports Commission (NSC) hosted us for only two days during the 2012 Olympics, but on my return, my face and name was all over the social media. They said that I was in London watching pornographic movies when Nigerian athletes were busy sweating it out at the Olympics. They said that I did nothing to enhance the performance of Team Nigeria, but I laughed over it because I knew it came from ignorant fellows.

In all honesty, my two days effort to visit the athletes at the camp in London during the Olympics was not granted because my superior, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, The Rt. Hon. Aminu Tambuwal was there. My deputy in the Sports Committee and the deputy Senate Committee on Sports were equally denied access to the athletes’ camp. On the third day, I decided to leave London because I discovered that I had nothing to contribute to Team Nigeria at the Games, as I was not given access to meet with the athletes.

The NSC arranged for only a two-day accommodation for me in a ramshackle hotel. So, when I heard from the sponsored agents that I was watching pornography in London, I was not surprised knowing that they had done the worst to my reputation before coming up with that story. In fact, one of the writers called for my sack, alleging that I neglected the athletes for pornography.

I was happy because my speaker was also in London and he was even the first to alert me on the issue. I was not bothered about their evil machination because I know where they are coming from. Our job is not done in the spiritual realm where everybody is an angel. Good enough, I had informed my family earlier about the consequences of what I was going to do in my job. I vowed not to steal, ask for bribe or compromise my job, and I thank God that nobody has accused me of defaulting in any of these areas.

For the records, if I had done anything fundamentally wrong, I wouldn’t wait for anybody to ask me to step down. No administrator can accuse me frontally of conniving with him to share money meant for athletes or for any project. But I am surprised that people could go to the extent of accusing me of mundane things like watching pornography in London and I want to state emphatically that I never did any such thing.

Somebody advised me to go to court to clear my name. I was told that I could earn billions of naira in damages if I had sued my detractors, but I turned it down because it would be a distraction to my mission for sports in Nigeria.

My wife was not comfortable with the position I occupy because she believes that it could put me in the public eye. But I don’t clamour for publicity. I am an introvert. I don’t like making troubles. So, I expect people to respect me as such. If doing my best as chairman of House Committee on Sports has made me popular, then I thank God for that.

My detractors might have thought that they could destroy my family with their pornography story, but I want to tell the world that my wife knows that I am the same husband any day. She knows that politicians don’t even have time for himself and she understands my predicaments very well. I thank God for her.

My wife knows that I have unwavering passion for sports. I am a staunch supporter of Kano Pillars and Rangers International Football Club of Enugu right from my youth corps days. My family knows that sports gives me joy and they appreciate it.

Crises and litigations in sports: These are our most daunting challenges. Uncomfortable stakeholders would always go to court to seek redress when the system fails to favour them. On our assumption of office, we met more than 15 pending litigations against the football federation alone. Good enough, the situation is now under control with the intervention of my committee, the sports minister and other stakeholders who want to move the system forward.

But the issue with the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) is still a case in hand. The former chairman of NPL, Rumson Baribote is in court for some reasons, but my committee is intervening in the matter to see the possibility of resolving the case out of court.

Reps Committee on Sports versus its Senate counterpart: I wouldn’t know the arm of the committee that is more vibrant, but all I can say is that the House of Reps is the people’s parliament. We are closer to the people more than those in the senate. I think the House naturally is always more vibrant than the senate because, on a lighter note, sports is for the youths and you don’t expect the assembly of the elderly to make youth games their most important priority.

Ladies as honorarium: I think people usually over exaggerate the moral life of sportsmen. The truth is that an average sportsman is a lively and friendly person, who knows how to unwind. And to unwind does not necessarily mean that there must be a massager in every outing. Sportsmen may be lively but not promiscuous.

Advice to sports administrators: They have to be transparent in their dealings. They must be forthright and look at achievement beyond pocketing fat envelops. If the members of the federation had shared millions of naira among themselves during the AFCON in South Africa without winning the trophy, Nigerians would not have been happy with the administrators.

No AFCON victory largesse for Sports House Committee members: Yes, the presidency shut out a number of persons in the largesse giving to the players of the Super Eagles and their technical team, but I told them that the wealth they missed in naira and kobo, they gained it in reputation and respect. My colleagues equally complained that I would have also been given even the lowest national honour to compensate me for my contributions to the success of the team in South Africa. But for me, I don’t see sports as a place for making money. I follow sports because of the passion and love I have for it. For me, sports is an avenue for relieving tension and stress.

·       This report was culled from www.naija.com