Nigeria Risk Been Ban From Football

Rivers State Governor, Mr. Rotimi Amaechi | credits:

Governor Rotimi Amaechi of Rivers State on Monday said for the nation to regain its lost glory in football, President Goodluck Jonathan must dissolve the Nigerian Football Federation immediately.

He said the Federation was completely corrupt and deserved to the dissolved urgently.

Amaechi made the call in a paper titled “State government and sports development” which he delivered at a presidential sports sector retreat held at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. The sports sector retreat headed by President Goodluck Jonathan held with the theme “Harnessing the Potential of Nigeria’s Sports Sector: From Playground to Podium.”

The NFF board is headed by Alhaji Aminu Maigari who incidentally was part of the gathering at the Villa on Monday.

The governor said Jonathan should dissolve the NFF and damn the consequence of the Federation of International Football Association banning the country for two years.

He said, “Mr. President should go ahead and dissolve the NFF completely. That Federation is completely corrupt.

“Sack the Federation and let FIFA ban us from international football for two years. Let us come back home and start afresh. We will perform better later.”

This is not the first time that the suggestion to stay off international football has come to the fore. Jonathan had instructed the NFF under the former board to keep Nigerian national teams off international competitions for two years after the Super Eagles performed woefully at South African 2010 World Cup. They failed to win a match and left after the first round. The President changed his stance when many Nigerians spoke up against the decision.

Amaechi said the state governors have been avoiding funding sports because of large scale corruption.

He said as the chairman of the Nigerian Governors’ Forum he knew that state governors are capable of funding sporting activities if there was transparency.

He said it was not right that the public should be mismanaged as currently being done by some sports administrators.

“Those who administer public should do so judiciously and transparently,” he said.

In his earlier statement President Jonathan said that while adequate funding of sports was crucial, efficient and transparent management of resources was key.

He said that was why he had set up a committee under the Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala to work out a strategy for sustainable management funding of the sports sector.