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| Keshi and Amaju |
Ever since the board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) was enthroned with Pinnick Amaju as President on Tuesday in Warri, Delta State, the new helmsman has concentrated his efforts on outlining his agenda of who to seamlessly administer the troubled sport.In retrospect, Amaju rose through the ranks in Delta State’s sports administration before taking his position as the Chairman of the football association, where he secured a second term in 2012, emerging unopposed. Before then, he was Vice Chairman of the DSFA in 2003 and has remained a prominent factor in the state’s football fraternity ever since.
Part of his achievements as a football administrator was when he convinced the Delta State Government to set up the Sports Commission in 2007 to ensure that sporting activities are given a professional and institutional platform to leverage their activities. It was this commission that discovered the comparative advantage of every section of the state and, as if to confirm that he was right in this line of thought, for quite some time now, the state has regularly emerged champion in the National Sports Festival.
Under Amaju, during the 2012 National Sports Festival hosted by Lagos State, the Delta emerged overall champions of the competition carting away 114 gold, 99 silver and 75 bronze medals. The state displaced Rivers to second spot with 76 gold, 71 silver and 70 bronze medals, while Lagos and Edo followed in the third and fourth position with just 64 and 25 gold medals respective.
Delta State have won the past four editions of the National Sports Festival, owing to its well-planned sports development programmes aimed at discovering athletes in their area of specialty.
With the benefit of hind-sight, Amaju spent about 12 years administering sports, especially football.
Nigerians are however interested in knowing, whether against the backdrop of his past successes at state level, the new NFF boss has the administrative muscle to solve the myriads of Nigeria’s football problems, chief of which is poor administration and management.
Of particular note, is the perennial crisis that has gradually killed the nation’s once flourishing domestic league, resulting in dearth of interest in the local league among Nigeria’s football lovers, who have since shifted interest and patronage to foreign leagues, particularly the English Premiership and European leagues. One of every three Nigerians can possibly reel out the names of players in the EPL, Serie A and La Liga, just as the German Brondesliga, French League, with many Nigerians purchasing mementos of these clubs as a sign that they identify or are even ardent supporters. But the same cannot be said of the domestic league, whose colours and jerseys are not proudly sold and displayed openly on major streets. The result has been low patronage of the Nigerian league by football lovers, resulting in empty stadiums and disinterest by major brands which would rather proudly support the EPL and Europe, splashing millions of US$ on television rights, while throwing peanuts at the local league.
The situation has over the years led to the death of once thriving Nigerian clubs sides- Abiola Babes, NNB Football Club, Iwuanyawu Nationale, Leventis United, ICC Shooting Stars, Stationery Stores of Lagos, and others that were darling clubs of Nigerians in years gone by. As a result of these problems also, many premiership clubs in Nigeria owe their players and officials several months of salaries in arrears.
The epileptic pace of Super Eagles towards qualification for the 2015 Africa Nations Cup in Morocco, contracting a match-winning coach for the Super Eagles and reconciling football stakeholders divided by election rancor is one task the new NFF helmsman must confront headlong to succeed in his new assignment.
Amaju in his post-election speech extolled his predecessor, Aminu Maigari, who he noted, left a high standard which he would attempt to surpass scientifically.
He also said his immediate task is to decide on the future of Nigeria’s Coach Stephen Keshi, and how to immediately improve NFF finances.
Although, Amaju is expected to take decisions in conjunction with his board members however, his body language has started revealing some of his actions and path of leadership. Many expect that the new leadership would work to reduce government influence and stranglehold on football administration by quickly ensuring it becomes income generating, while gradually attempt to become fully independent in the coming years.
It may however not be out of place to conjecture his mindset about Keshi’s contract deal. While speaking as guest on a television programme during the 2014 World Cup match between Iran and Nigeria, months before his election as NFF president, Amaju said: “I like Keshi as a person but the Eagles run up to the World cup and their first game has proven to me that Keshi has reached his limit.”
He then added; “Keshi is a national hero, I celebrate him for all he has achieved with the team in such a short time but it appears he can’t move the Eagles forward unless he improves on his abilities.”
Not long after, the new NFF boss made a scathing remark of the ‘Big Boss’ in a newspaper, expressing fear about working with competent technocrats for fear of losing his job.
“We failed to go further in Brazil because our coaches did not adopt the scientific approach to winning matches. Football has gone beyond having a coaching crew on the bench.
“The trend now is to have the technical backroom staff, peopled by expert coaches, who win matches from the bench,” he added.
It however remains to be seen if Keshi will receive favourable consideration in the NFF’s new dispensation.
Perhaps, this is what the new NFF boss meant when he stated that his regime would witness a scientific approach to football administration.
Football buffs however wonder whether having administered sports successfully in his home Delta State for so long, can give enough assurance that Amaju can push his policies through the NFF board successfully? How he would deal with opposition at the national level remains to be seen after a long spell of alleged autocratic administration in Delta State sports.
Aside the Super Eagles coach issue, the Nigeria League Management Company (LMC) will be another test case for the new NFF boss and his board.
Like ex-international, Emmanuel Babayaro said recently, the new NFF leadership should not be in a hurry to change things, especially those that seem to be working well, particularly Nigeria’s youth teams and coaches’ selection process.
According to him, they must weigh each policy before actions are taken as they are not expected to solve Nigeria football problems in one swoop.
Babayaro advised the NFF to liaise with ex-internationals to deal with problems confronting the Nigerian league, just as the issue of sponsorship should be key to solving problems in the league.
Also, there are strong indications that the election that threw up the new NFF board may have been compromised in many ways. This may have frustrated a few delegates in taking steps to continue their dodgy attitude towards the new board.
Amaju and his team must work tirelessly to reunite warring factions within the football fraternity in Nigeria and how they would achieve it, remains to be seen.
As a club proprietor, Amaju may have his premeditated ways of dealing with problems affecting the Nigerian league, however, stakeholders believe that popular opinion should not be frustrated for parochialism as the later would limit the board’s crisis resolution ability.
Most ex-footballers however do not see the Nigerian league as major problem for the new board.
Apparently satisfied with the composition of the new board, former Abiola babes player, Tajudeen Disu described the new NFF executive committee as technocrats whose wealth of experience will benefit the domestic league based on their background.
He reasoned that the present board is comprised of people with and good understands of the league and would therefore do better to help address the common issue of players being owed backlog of salaries because of their experience of the league.
“They are people who understand the league and so much wealth of experience. What is happening to all the teams right now isn’t good, because at the end of day, they will still owe their players backlog of salaries and even bonuses.
“I personally feel that we have people on this present board that are more experienced and as a result, will perform better.”
Stakeholders also believe that the new NFF board must aspire to new frontiers to effectively defend the confidence Nigerians repose on them by carrying all stakeholders along. Otherwise, they fear that problems left behind by their predecessors, being huge, could end up haunting and even pulling any narrow minded board down.
(Daily Independence)
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