I am amazed that the Nigerian media do not appear to know the depth of the crisis within Nigerian football at the moment. They have downplayed the crisis either deliberately or because they truly cannot see the looming cataclysm. Either way, football administration at the national level is at a cul de sac and i see no easy way out. A lot of drama is being played out in the background but I tell you, the only thing that I am now certain of is that the life of the present board of the Nigeria Football Federation is about to be extinguished. The only thing stopping it temporarily is the fear of what FIFA will do if the correct and inevitable decisions are taken, Unfortunately, FIFA is itself facing serious credibility issues and would not want to dive into more murky waters on matters it has no business with in the first place. Without doubt, I see no way out for the survival of the illegal Nigeria Football Federation. Its days are numbered.

My contention is that FIFA got us into the situation in the first place and they will get us out by allowing the country to sort out its own problems. The matter is simple: FIFA should abide by its own statutes by allowing its members to deal with their internal matters themselves instead of involving itself in issues it does not explicitly understand, and is made to interfere in matters against its own principles and statutes.
But let me start by apologising ahead of this piece. It is not my intention to disparage any one or any country. I am simply stating a personal opinion that may not necessarily be defensible in a court of law. In a football game anything is possible even if there are a few things that many would consider unlikely to happen. For example, whereas it is not an impossibility for the Republic of Benin, or any one of a number of ‘weak’ footballing countries to win the World Cup in Brazil in 2014, most people would consider it very unlikely. On that basis they may even wager that Benin Republic will not win the next World Cup, basing their conviction or argument on antecedents, history, achievements, records, prospects, players and a whole number of other considerations that, on paper, would separate the giants of football from the minnows. A cursory look at the World Cup records would reveal that only a few countries in the world have the capacity to win the World Cup, and that is unlikely to change for years to come unless there is a monumental shift in the dynamics of the game. In short the chances of most countries to win the World Cup are ordinarily slim! And, for now, that includes Nigeria. On the other hand one cannot say the same thing about Brazil, Germany, Italy, Argentina, Spain (now) and a few others that have made winning it a real possibility every four years. On that premise, from a safe distance, one can express an equally safe conclusion (without drawing the ire of anyone) that India are as likely to win the football World Cup as Nigeria are to win the Rugby World Cup in the foreseeable future. It is on such a harmless premise, abiding comfortably in football matters, that I can say, without fear, that FIFA have played a major role in creating the present lingering crisis as well as the stagnation of the development of football administration in Nigeria. So, once again, I apologise to all those whose sensibilities may be offended by my postulation even before I start.

Looking at the records, achievements, potentials, resources, history, population, and other demographics, at this stage of our football development, Nigeria should not be struggling against some African countries to qualify for football championships at any level to represent the continent. The country should have been so advanced in the game that, like Brazil and the South America continent, Nigeria’s qualification to represent the African continent in most cases should be a ‘birthright’ – well, almost! The only exception should be when the country is faced with one or two equally strong football giants in the continent like Ghana and Cameroon, but definitely not Madagascar, Ethiopia, Kenya, and several others in that category that have continued, in recent times, to give us unnecessary headache and hypertension. Without being arrogant, Nigeria should be one of the top four footballing nations in the world given our natural athletic and physical attributes and our can-do psychology built through several previous achievements in age-group global competitions. We should not just be in the top four in Africa, which is where we have been stuck for a very long time.