One of the reasons for the failure of Nigerian football to rise above the present plateau in world football has to do with administration that has failed to grow side by side with the development of the players and the game. Whereas Nigerian players have become the toast of many foreign leagues as a result of their athleticism, speed and power, the level and quality of our administration has not been complementary. Considering where we are coming from, through the eras and regimes of great men who became accomplished administrators, to where we are now that we can hardly recognise several persons with pedigree within the football firmament, we can only admit and lament our plight! When, where did we go wrong? How can we have an administration in place that has no depth in personal history and accomplishments? We cannot even compare the present with any previous period from 1945 to date!
I try to trace the genesis of this poor state of affairs and every time I end up with the feeling of deja vu that FIFA has done Nigeria in without knowing it. I now believe that Nigeria’s greatest problem is FIFA, Through its unwarranted and contrived interference in matters domestic to Nigeria it has rendered Nigerian football development impotent. I appreciate that this is a very strong statement to make but I stand my ground.

One of the cardinal pillars on which the neutrality and credibility of FIFA stands is its non-interference statute. On paper FIFA forbids itself from interfering in the internal affairs of its members. That way it avoids getting entangled or enmeshed in matters over which it has no business, or may be peculiar to the environment of its member for which it may not have enough understanding to wade into. That way FIFA guarantees its members equity, justice and fair play always and in all matters. it only provides the basic framework, guidelines and a searchlight to ensure that rules are not flouted or manipulated in favour of anyone and used for pecuniary and political purposes.
For some inexplicable reason, in the case of Nigeria, through the past almost 10 years particularly, FIFA has played more than the neutral umpire role in the ‘politics’ of Nigerian football administration. It has been craftily manipulated by some persons to leaning dangerously towards bias, by favouring certain persons, by protecting some particular interests, and in the process becoming complicit in unlawful acts. One example is the support FIFA has given a group that has blatantly disregarded the laws of Nigeria and clung to FIFA’s aprons for protection. This meddling in third party business started with Ibrahim Galadima’s regime in 2004. Galadima attempted to do the ‘right’ thing by wresting football administration from the control of government and placing it in private hands. Unfortunately, the ‘private hands’ in his own case happened to be himself, a beneficiary of a government appointment into football administration, and not an active private sector practitioner in the football business. Although his action was in line with FIFA’s democratic procedure it was also offensive to the powers that put him there to start with. In a few Third World countries government is sometimes the only body involved in domestic football business. In Nigeria, it is almost entirely government business.

Without microscopically x-raying the Nigerian problem and system, and seeking a local solution that would not be offensive to FIFA’s basic statutes, protect government’s interest in the game and not infringe on the sensitivities of government, FIFA put its foot straight into the fray, under the guidance of Nigeria’s master puppeteer, Amos Adamu, who used his influence as a member of the then CAF Executive Committee. FIFA threatened Nigeria by wielding its hammer of an international ban should Nigeria not abide by its directives. FIFA whipped every body into line and foisted on Nigeria an unpopular administration. FIFA may have succeeded in having its way and demonstrating its awesome unchallengeable power but, by so doing, it also created a monster. Untamed it is now giving FIFA a bad name as an authoritarian organisation, with the power to flout its own rules by interfering at will in third party matters.

Along side other issues of accountability, corruption, and transparency in the present crisis FIFA must also be reminded to add to its reforms the issue of ‘non-interference’ in the internal affairs of its members. If it wants to intervene it must fully understand the peculiar nature of member countries so that its intervention will be based on knowledge and not manipulation. In 2004 FIFA stepped into Nigeria’s elections without appreciating its complexities. Since then it has continued to sink deeper like quicksand into the politics of Nigerian football administration so much that today FIFA has become an active participant in Nigeria’s elections into the football association. During the last national elections it inadvertently waded into the elections even at local government level when it failed to make the NFA provide it with approved statutes that reflected all the directives issued by FIFA to it to make the document compliant to FIFA’s basic tenets. FIFA may choose to deny that it is not interfering in the internal affairs of its member, but what do you call sitting in an election process, endorsing the process and collaborating and working, thereafter, with those that ‘won’ the elections when a court had ordered that the elections not hold following a suit instituted by an aggrieved party in the country. If FIFA was not interfering why would the body ‘support’ the disregard of a court order even if it frowns at the idea of members of its family going to normal courts. Is FIFA itself not involved in several law suits in Europe? Does FIFA not consider the nature of the matter taken to court? Are all suits forbidden by FIFA? As corporate organisations (private according to FIFA statutes), are their members not subject to the laws of the country where they are incorporated?

It is irrelevant whether FIFA was aware of the court order suspending the elections or not. Those that were conducting it knew about it. They were later invited to appear before the court where the purported elections were cancelled by the court. The persons appeared, apologised and were reprimanded. Meanwhile, the court had made an order that the elections were annulled and ordered the country’s Inspector-general of Police to ensure that the premises of the Nigeria Football Association were closed to all, and that no persons describing themselves as elected members of the Nigeria Football Federation should be allowed to conduct any business within the territory of Nigeria. FIFA may even not have known about the court order stopping the elections. Since that order has not been vacated what does FIFA think should happen to it? Thats why some persons have gone to court to challenge the illegal body claiming legitimacy by virtue of FIFA’s recognition rather than from the annulled elections. By insisting that the elections were valid FIFA is directly challenging the orders of a Nigerian court. By recognising the product of that election FIFA is taking sides with one of the parties in the dispute before the court. In Nigeria the court order stands. The Inspector-General has a job to do. He knows the implication of not carrying out the specific order of a court. It is a call to lawlessness. Little has happened to uphold the sanctity of the Nigerian court and its order because there is the fear over that FIFA would do!
Well, as things now stand, it is a hard choice. Something just give. What does the country do with its flouted court order? Allow it stand flouted and disregarded? Or carry out the order? The entire country is waiting and watching! Is FIFA going to stand with an illegal body against the lawful judgement of a Nigerian court?

FIFA must stand aside on this matter and allow the law to take its full course. FIFA must take responsibility for the result of its interference. It should allow Nigeria to work out its own problems without imposing itself, taking sides, and taking a posture that challenges the sovereignty Nigeria and the integrity of the country’s judiciary.
For whatever reason, a thousand FIFA’s statutes cannot invalidate the order of a Nigerian court against a Nigerian public organisation. The order was not invalidated by the court itself up till the moment. A superior court had not revoked or invalidated it.
FIFA stands guilty of interfering in the internal affairs of the Nigerian Football Association. Through its inadvertent interference, FIFA has been protecting maladministration and corruption. FIFA gives power to authoritarianism in national associations that should otherwise be answerable to the people through those that the people freely and openly choose to run the game in their country. FIFA does not know how to deal with a situation where all the clubs in a country are owned by government, all the administrators of the clubs are not club owners but government appointees, and yet FIFA insists the member association must be a private organisation! In Nigerian football everything is about government. Until the economic and political situation changes, proper professional football, the sort that will bring up a private organisation as defined by the FIFA statutes, cannot exist in most of Africa. FIFA must understand this.