I am writing this on Thursday night, well past the deadline for submission of my article for this week. I am doing so because earlier today some international footballers presented a few of us ex-international footballers with interest to be part of the next Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Association to the media.  I wanted to report  what happened during the occasion as part of my writing today. As I sit back to do exactly that the speech delivered by one-time African Footballer of the Year, the Prince of Monaco, Victor Ikpeba, on behalf of several generations of footballers in the country, kept nudging at me, distracting me. I had to go back to read the speech again. It is a masterpiece in the content of its message. I decide immediately to reproduce excerpts of the speech as my column today. The message is clear enough, please enjoy!

Victor Ikpeba speaks on behalf of Nigerian footballers!

I speak here on behalf of a segment of Nigerian international football players – retired and active. Many of us have been concerned with developments in Nigerian football for several years now, particularly, since the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.  So poor were Nigeria’s preparations for the World Cup that the Sports Minister had to intervene several times to save the country from what could have turned into very embarrassing international scandals. During the World Cup itself, although the Super Eagles did their very best, their best was good enough considering Nigeria’s antecedents, potentials and abundant football talents.  Immediately after the World Cup, we were not surprised when the President, Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan, GCFR, angrily intervened and ordered that Nigerian football be suspended from all international competitions for two years to enable the country go back and reform its administration. Such was the frustration all around that majority of Nigerians hailed the President’s decision and did not really care if there were any consequences to be borne. In the end, however, we learned that the President was appealed to, and was assured that everything will be done by the sports authorities to reverse the fortune of Nigerian football and establish proper development programmes to ensure Nigeria never suffers this kind of fate again, and to take the country’s football to the greatest heights. It is on the basis of this assurance that Mr. President reluctantly changed his mind and gave directives that the Football House be cleansed of all that had held back its development.

The result of that decision is the removal of some of the principal actors in the administration of football in the past 4 years. The reasons for their removal are best known to the members of their board that spearheaded their impeachment. Since that action was taken Nigerian football has had some respite from poor performances with the fantastic and very impressive performance of the female Under-20 national team at the recently concluded World Cup. But surely that respite is not enough!

The real change will come only when the proper kind of leadership is provided for Nigerian football administration. We must commend all the past leaderships of the NFA through the past 50 years of our country as an Independent nation. Without question every single one of them, through the years that we played under their leadership and direction did their work as best as they could. We saw commitment in very many of the administrators and experienced the pleasure of several achievements of the various national teams.

However, as the main actors in the football theatre, we also have watched how the country could have done and achieved more if the leadership of the NFA had grown at the same pace with the growth of the players. From the 1980s through to the 1990s there was a remarkable growth in football in the country.  This was as a direct result of the exposure of the players to a higher level of the game, particularly, as many of us went to Europe at very young ages to gather experiences that we now can eventually put to  the service of our fatherland. We recall how we won the Africa Cup of Nations in 1980, and 1994 and how we qualified for the FIFA World Cup for the first time in our history in 1994 and went to repeat the feat in 1998 and 2002.  We also recall how we went to the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996 and became the first African country to win the Olympic Gold medal. Those were glorious years of the game and of Nigerian footballers! All the international footballers here are a living testimony of that experience. We, the players, gave our very best to our country, even when we did not have the same level of administration to compliment us. Our friction and conflicts with the leadership of the NFA are well known and well reported.  We often eventually disregarded the issues, went on to play on the basis of raw patriotism,  and won matches and, sometimes, trophies!

Since the year 2000, things have really gone from bad to worse in football administration to such an extent that our football, as a whole, is now in the doldrums. Our domestic leagues are not producing the high quality players that can take our football to the next level. Our preparations before major competitions have dwindled in quality and quantity. Our grassroots football development, particularly, through the schools system, has disappeared from the schools. There is presently hardly any institutionalised developmental programmes for football in the country. We can only blame those saddled with the responsibility to direct the affairs of Nigerian football for this state of affairs.

Administrators have turned their part-time Board assignments into full time jobs and a means of livelihood. We have seen how administrators have fed fat on the success of players; how the welfare of players has been only secondary to the needs of officials; how, as soon as footballers leave the national teams, or even their clubs, they are forgotten and neglected.  Meanwhile, Nigerian players in the domestic league are the poorest footballers in the world, even at a time when sponsorship moneys generated by the Nigerian league have risen astronomically.  In this climate players are left with the pain of knowing that they are owed their miserly salaries for several months; they are not paid their sign-on fees and bonuses; there is no compensation packages or a pension scheme put in place by the football authorities to see them through life-after-football! It is really a pathetic situation and the players have become perpetual victims of this injustice with hardly any major voice, all these years, to champion their cause. Yet it is the player that will play, win the laurels and bring the glory to their country and to all those that benefit from their victories! The situation now is that everything has come to a head with the poor performance of the Super Eagles at the World Cup and the glaring poor state of the game in the country.

Everyone knows that Nigerian football has come of age. So have the footballers. Nigeria now has footballers that have seen it all and done it all in football. There are retired Nigerian international football players that have played in some of the best clubs in the world, played in some of the best leagues in the world, played under some of the best coaches in the world, and have been trained in some of the best football institutions in the world. These players, having retired from active football, now have all their technical experiences to pass on to the next generation as their pay-back to the country.

In other areas of administration, business, football development and training from Nigeria is blessed with former players that have made more than ordinary marks in their chosen field.  Nigerian football, 50 years after Independence, is still suffering from the lack of appreciation and full utilisation of its best resource – the players! Nigerian football players remain the country’s best ambassadors. Yet, no Nigerian ex-international player has headed any major aspect of football administration in the country. No Nigerian ex-international player has headed the technical department of football administration in the country. In fact, in the year 2010, it is hard to believe that some distinguished Nigerian players, having decided to participate in the elections into their country’s football administration, and are made to suffer the indignity of being initially barred in their States of origin, and every single one of them has had to suffer one humiliating treatment or the other. Yet these are the set of people that have served the country the most, made all the sacrifices, paid the price with sometimes painful defeats, debilitating injury, neglect after their careers, unfulfilled  promises, media criticism, public abuse, life-long permanent injuries, abject poverty, and, now, disregard when their services are most needed to bring about the much-needed change that the country needs and is clamouring for. Nigerian players have come of age. They have paid their dues. It is their game. They must be a part of its administration in order for the game to move up to the next level. That is the practise in other parts of the developed football world where Michel Platini, Franz Berkenbuar,  Ben Kofie, Salif Keita, Kalusha Bwalya, and Thuram are good examples!

That is why we have arranged this briefing. To bring to the attention of all Nigerians that the time for change has come. No longer shall we fold our arms and watch others who have done nothing in the game continue to milk it and deny the genuine actors, the patriots, and the heroes their rights! We shall not fold our arms again and watch as people that are nothing in the game, have done nothing in it, contribute nothing to it, now become the game’s greatest beneficiaries! These are people that have ridden on the back of footballers to become stupendously rich, to occupy the best positions, become very fat and become a cancer to the game. They are the people that have become the greatest impediment to football development in the country. They have had their turn. It is now our time to bring about the turn around in our football! It is time for change in the administration of football in Nigeria.

Today, Nigerian players, as a group, are presenting some of our members to represent our interest and that of the game in the next elections. These are all players that have diligently served their country for many years; have contributed their quota to the game; have made significant contributions in other areas through the years in the game;  and have now decided they want to put all of their experiences, knowledge and lives to take the game to the next level. We believe them. We trust them to deliver. And thats why we have decided to bring them before you the media and present them to all Nigerians.