IT’S A FRIEND’S WORLD I DON’T UNDERSTAND

Maigari...beware the ides of March

Aminu Maigari is a Fulani man. My best friend as a player in the early 80s when I was adorning the jersey of Zabgai of Bauchi remains a Fulani shepherd, Rabiu Toro. He once told me in a private moment, many of which we shared that: “kindness is a burden. Never be kind. Pick up a bee out of kindness and learn the limitation of kindness”. This was a lesson way back in 1984.

Chief Jeremiah Obafemi Awolowo did gave his followers instructions that: “only the deep calleth unto the deep.”

A QUICK DETOUR. I started playing in the national handball team in 1979 as a class three secondary school student. By 1984, having been shuttling the senior national teams as a junior, I will have this particular injury three days to an international departure.

My Fulani friend, Mallam Rabiu Toro, (he died at 82 years in 2008) warned me: “Your friends are your biggest enemies. It’s your enemies you need not your friends”.  He told me the “common” things I needed to do when next I return to the national team which I did and I got a different result. Weeks later, I got my jersey back.

In my last visit to Toro, his village in Bauchi State, he volunteered: “who needs an old friend? An old friend served a purpose. That ends it. Search and show me a pauper who is a friend to a rich man, or a fool that is friend to a wise man, or a coward who is friend to a brave man.”

For long minutes I could not answer him. He broke the silence as it is now usual. “I am an old friend you kept for about 25 years because there are things we share. That is the purpose. You have become so rich materially and in other statures, never keep friends who have no good purpose.”

He told me of a certain friend of his who became governor of Bauchi State. Twice, fate brought them together and all he got was greetings. Before he became governor, he frequents his place so well. I felt bad. I was going to use my influence as a journalist to reach my friend’s friend who is not grateful. My Fulani friend laughed: “He needs new friends because old friends will burden him”

“Honesty never strengthens friendship. Never keep friends for work purposes. Keep your friends out of your work place. Never employ a friend for the sake of sympathy because he or she is suffering and you want to help them. Employ ONLY the competent and skillfull not your friends. Friends and ingratitude are the same.”

He continued, “employ the unlikely enemy who has everything to prove as your friend has nothing to prove to you. For every enemy you make a friend, you become so strong. Enemies keep you focused, alert and working hard to get to your destiny.  The wise profits from enemies than a fool from his friends.”

I was richly fed. I returned to Abuja from Toro so happy and fulfilled. Three days later, his daughter, Aminata (so I proudly hail her) called from her GSM phone to say “your friend is dead. He was buried yesterday evening according to Islamic rites. He died in his sleep.”

THE OBJECT:

Uhm! I Presage, Aminu Maigari, the King who rules the empire called Nigerian football, can someone tell him to BEWARE OF THE IDES OF MARCH. The figure three. There are three “friends” in his court. He sleeps with his eyes closed with the three men. The stage is well set. He will, if he does not beware end up with a loud but shrill scream: ”et tu Brutus!” because his McBeth is set to die by the prodding of a woman who will deliver the McDuff plate. It’s a friend’s world which I don’t understand but my enemies’ world is the one I know.

NFF ELECTIONS: THE FRAUDULENT AND INJUSTICE

NFF Boss, Maigari...condoning open but proven fraud?

In every election form a candidate or an aspirant fills, he/she is expected to give all data about him or herself in truth wherein anywhere any such datum is found to be untrue, such a candidate stands disqualified. In some nations they are prosecuted for perjury. This is in view of the fact that the person filling such forms is assumed to have sworn on oath to provide the truth about the self.

Ms. Dili Onyedinma, the ‘elected’ Chairman of the Nigeria Women Football League (NWFL) is certainly not fit to occupy that office. She perjured. She lied on oath. She and her sponsors were too desperate that they moved from mischief to another. From one lie to another.

FRAUDULENT CANDIDATE:

A ‘good’ mother should be so reliable that everything she tells her wards as seen as sacrosanct.  It will be utterly disappointing for Ms. Onyedinma’s children to know that their mummy is a liar. That she does not have a character that is reliable and stable.

The deeper truth is Ms. Onyedinma’s sponsors misled her. So I want to believe. She filled Imo State as her state of origin, thus, she is from the South-East political divide of the football zoning. Upon realizing that her chances may be dimmed by Statutory provisions, they changed her state of origin in the NFF official brochure to FCT and thus, North Central zone.

As a deputy director of sports in the FCT Sports Council, wherefrom Sani Abdullahi Lulu came out to become the NFA President. She is eminently qualified to so emerge. Having earlier filled Imo and hours later changed to FCT smirks of inconsistency and fraud.

In all, she and her sponsors, deserve good commendations. They took 20 rooms, house the delegates for three days, fed them morning, afternoon and evening and atop it N50, 000K for each delegate.

In all, busy-bodies (as Dr Bolaji Ojo-Oba will call Nigerian football fans) say she must have spent about N10m. how come a salaried public servant spent so much money? Where did she get the money? Could it have been her savings? Or were there some forces behind her shadow who provided the money.

EMEKA INYAMA:

Club Chairman and journalist, Emeka Inyama, took the form of the NFF Electoral Committee. He paid. Submitted same and declared he is from Abia State. He went through the electoral process, was elected, sworn-in and given the electoral victory certificate.

Rumours. Yes, rumours. That is what I believe is being peddled about. We were told inside the grapevine that the election is cancelled. Another quality of the rumours say he has been disqualified because of the clause in the statute. That is days after the election has been considered to have been concluded!

My take is at this stage who has the powers to so disqualify him or and cancel the election? The NFF President? The NFF board or Mr. Abdulhamid Mustapha’s Electoral committee? Or better still, the Electoral Appeal Committee? On what grounds? Who is doing the protest? When was the decision taken, where and by who?

In sum, the external forces controlling our football took a gun, shot themselves on the foot and thereafter, want the shot foot back and intact. Haba!

On the election ground, Christian Chukwu was disqualified because Inyama was already ‘elected’ since Inyama’s came before his. This was calculated on the ground that Mike Umeh and Felix Anyasi-Agwu have already been on the board. The powers that be prefer to retain Ms. Dili Onyedinma and wished to sacrifice Inyama. Ask quickly, what does Chukwu want on the board of the NFF. Agreed that those there presently are not better than Chukwu.

Please ask, was the same Electoral Committee not aware that there was a sitting member of the NFF board from Abia State and refuse ab initio to collect Inyama’s money?

Having clearly breached the NFF Statute 2010 violently upon stealing the powers that does not belong to them in conducting the elections (which I have already taken to FIFA in a protest), the NFF needed to use Emeka Inyama as a pawn on their chess board.

It is true that both of them are from Abia State. I have visited the Statute again. I did not see anywhere whence the grund norm mentioned state representation. What the law has is that no zone should have less than two and no zone should have more than three.

I have the same opinion that though the NFF 2010 Statute is jaundiced but then, by its provisions both men (Felix Anyasi-Agwu and Emeka Inyama) can sit on the NFF board.

Imputations cannot be bought into the issues and prescription of law that does not exist. The law says the chairman can come from any state but the members are those it specified where they can come from.

Had Maigari’s board been so responsible and respectable of the NFF  statute, if the leagues had variously conducted their elections, Inyama like Dili will never have emerged. Secondly, since the law says the chairman of the leagues (Professional, Women, National and Amateur) can come from any geo-political zone. By this prescription, their emergence will not be subjected to extraneous interpretations like it is being bandied.

CONCLUSION:

Those who are close to the house of confusion called the Nigerians Feeding on Football (NFF) should please advise them, they have messed up their integrities and honour with the unholy manipulations they’ve been involved in and should find a more responsible way to solve their problems than killing a sound mind on the board.

BREAKING NEWS: MUSTAPHA, COUNSEL FOR NFF VS TOTAL PROMOTION

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) yesterday wrote the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) that they want Abdulhamid Mustapha, the personal lawyer to Alhaji Abdullahi Sani Lulu and an official counsel of the latter who also served as the Chairman of the Electoral Committee of the last November 2009 election that brought in Alhaji Aminu Maigari.

Mustapha was also the Chairman of the Electoral Committee that fouled the NFF Statute 2010 in conducting the election (illegally) of the Women, Amateur and National Leagues.

Now, we can reveal that the NFF has not only instructed the NPL secretariat that Mustapha should represent the NPL in the Total Promotion Nigeria Limited court case in the bidding conflict between Globacom and MTN.

Congratulations NFF and Mustapha for a very fruitful partnership.

CAN SOMEONE TELL ME:

Davidson Owumi...the sacrificial lamb?

1.      JITI OGUNYE: This human rights lawyer is not a football person. I don’t know if he has football as one of his hobbies. The same issues I once raised on AIT Sports file, with Mike Enahoro and Austin Mgbolu on the set whence some people who feel they own Nigerian football more than some of us called and were insultive about when they signed their out-of-court deal with NANF is what the lawyer generated and asked for interpretation. Yet, there are lawyers in the employ of the NFF and on the board of the NFF. What do you make of these?

2.      HARRISON JALLA: Let the whole world rise and praise this courageous youngman, an original product of Nigerian football. His passion for the game is burning and searing. Wonder how the NFF had struggled to lead to his being crucified. Ask, are the NFF goons facing the real issues informing how and why Jalla has become so relevant to Nigerian football these couple of weeks? If things are done correctly as it should be, would he have been thrown up in our public consciousness today? Jalla is a wonderful creation of the fraud, un-Godly and corrupt NFF. May God strengthen his arm in that direction of the fight.

3.      PATRICK OLUSEGUN ODEGBAMI: In case it sneaks out, we lived on the same West of Mines street in Jos in the early 70s. I had grown under his shadows. I have had reasons to attack him in writing and many times to his face as a journalist but the bottom-line is, I respect him. I am one of those who accused him of not finishing what he starts; The NFF election he’s pursuing in the Court of Arbitration in Sports (CAS) in Lousanne-Switzerland makes me respect him the more till date. The cost of that case in CAS, if converted to Naira shows the worth of his conviction.

4.      DAVIDSON OWUMI: Someone boasted in Abuja at the NFF midwived election for the leagues that a telecoms giant is sponsoring the removal of Owumi as NPL Chairman. He added, “we have so much money to go to the EFCC and make the league ungovernable”. Is this not true now? Some people are getting so rich destroying our game and our league. God help them.

5.      NIGERIA FOOTBALL FRAUD Inc.: Uhm! I warned. I screamed and shouted. May people imbued with the kind of vision that informed the writings of the late Professor Sam Akpabot on the pages of Nigerian Tribune in the 80s be raised. Men who will see the truth and say it as it should be. A Yoruba proverb says, “a dog destined to get lost will never hearken to the hunter’s hoot and horn”. The NFF 2010 statutes is clear on the roles of Abdulhamid Mustapha’s Electoral Committee (See Article 33(2). The same statute is very clear and unambiguous on leagues organising their elections. Not that the NFF should organise and conduct the elections on their behalf.

We are also aware and convinced that Aminu Maigari is the ceremonial NFF president, while the de jure NFF President like the guardian of the masquerade is hidden.

TAKE A CUE:

a.       The NFF President ‘de jure’ we shall call the Emperor. The Emperor swore that all those who participated in his removal as the king from palace in the Glass House will have nothing to do with Nigerian Football again. Like in Yorubaland where he is oft referred to as KABIYESI (or the open call: KA BI O KOSI) meaning in literary parlance: ‘No one queries his authority). The last of them who participated in the impeachment of the Emperor, Princess (Dr) Hannah Ngozi Bola Jegede, who read the impeachment communiqué is gone.

b.       He also swore that ex-players who he called “impostors” who he further denigrated as “those we give monies to and give shirt in the national teams, coming here to beg for jobs. They won’t get to the board.” Count: Odegbami, Chukwu, Iorfa, Okocha etc which of them got there.

c.       Aisha Falode, the Africa Independent Television (AIT) diva who “we made and gave all the opportunities including the CAF committee” was promised won’t get there for daring to “be used by Ibrahim (Isa Bio) in the Hampshire Hotel deal during the World Cup. That was her sin.

RESULT: The NFF has had a fundamental understanding which they reflect in the Electoral Guidelines that each zone be represented by no less than two members and no more than three members on the board. After all manipulations were conducted, the South-East zone has produced 4! They are:

Ø  Mike Umeh, NFF 1st Vice President;

Ø  Emeka Inyama;

Ø  Felix Anyasi-Agwu.

Ø  Ms. Dili Onyedinma;

INDELIBERATE FRAUD: Abdulhamid Mustapha’s Electoral Committee was really transparent. How? They announced cleared candidates for the election with Ms. Dili Onyedinma as from Imo and the South East zone. In the result, the moderated her coming from the North Central zone with no state.

GOVERNMENT INTERFERANCE AND THE FCT FA: The decision of the FCT Director of Sports to set up the electoral committee for the FCT Football Association election, is a clear case of direct government interference. For this, the NFF was written but they kept mute and played deaf by not reacting at least, give the appropriate directive in tandem with the NFF 2010 Statute and FIFA Standard Statutes (FSS). Ordinarily, the task of setting up an electoral committee for the election is strictly the responsibility of the Congress. Congress of the FCT FA are the teams that played in the last season of the FA activities including the six sports officers of the Area Councils. I will seek clarification from FIFA on this in days’ time.

RESOLUTION: Owumi must go! To make the Emperor have his way, a former ally of his, despite standing trial for corruption case before a court of the land, went for the Osun FA Chairman just like his ally in trial, Amanze Uchegbulam which they have ‘won’, they were to be smuggled in because the South West has no strong representation in the current distribution of the NFF, NPL, Amateur, National and Women leagues. His club, Prime of Oshogbo is not in the professional league side. So, we are waiting to see the smuggling formular. Be warned, the more Owumi stands outside of his correct jurisdiction, the more Nigerian football will suffer.

  

     

USSF WEBSITE CONFIRMS NIGERIAN FRIENDLIES SCAM

Aminu Maigari's NFF goofed badly

This is the age of information. I remain a very privileged person either as an ex-athlete, as a journalist, as a trained social worker and as an activist. I got the very best of all trainings available to a youngman of my age and time.

I repeat and insist that the Nigerian international friendlies, first with Guatemala and secondly of Pius Oleh’s rechristened Obama Federation Cup are scams. Yes, scams! I mean scams!! I can confirm that the Guatemala game is postponed to the FIFA free day of 29^th March 2011. This will allow the organizers to probably put their acts together and appropriately.

The USSF procedures for applying and approving all international matches in the USA whether friendly or competitive are clear and obvious. Please visit the site: http://www.ussoccer.com/Schedule-Tickets/Schedule.aspx, all matches that are to be played till the end of March 2011 are listed without Nigeria’s.

Or do we ask, is it not true that human beings all over the world love money, will the USSF take fines and waive all the listed premises and processes before the Nigerians acceded to a postponement on the condition that the promoters wanted to see the outcome of Harrison Jalla’s case against the NFF? Why must a football promoter, whose sole essence in the game is profit, wait on his agent to bring in the cash guarantee to setup a friendly?

If the NFF had spurned NANF, organised a renewed discredit of the person and office occupied by Harrison Jalla and not only made the Nigerian judiciary a play stock but quickly returned to amend their public estimation of our court as a result of the scam matches, why should the event of that court be important in their activities?

Were we not made to realize that the 4th February 2011 date with Justice Abang’s Federal High Court in Lagos not a routine court outing for their counsel? Did they not deny that the court papers were sent to them?

More truth will sooner than later still come forth. We should now change focus to the Obama Cup being organised by Pius Oleh if it will hold as the Guatemala friendly has finally proven me as very right and on target! Shame to liars!!