Ex NFF President Tells FIFA To Reinstate Him In Meeting With Stakeholders

He is the same man who, many believe, helped create the mess we are dealing with today—the same man who, allegedly driven by personal interests and his well-documented disagreement with the then Chairman of the NPL, Chief Oyuki Obaseki, popularly known as “The Moving Train,” weakened the leagues, by taking away their voting rights and handing it over to the 37 FA chairmen that have now become a bone on our necks.

Today, at a meeting in Abuja between former NFF Presidents, Secretaries and representatives of FIFA, one would have expected a mature and forward-looking conversation about the crisis confronting Nigerian football and possible solutions.

Instead, this former NFF President used the opportunity to revisit the events surrounding his removal from office years ago.

Nobody asked him to recount his personal ordeal.

The question was simple: What, in your view, are the major problems confronting Nigerian football, and what do you believe should be done to move the game forward?

But rather than address the bigger picture, he reportedly launched into a lengthy account of how much he had contributed to Nigerian football, how he believed he was the best president the federation ever had, and how he was prevented from completing his tenure.

At some point, one could almost wonder whether he expected the FIFA representatives to reinstate him as NFF President.

Then came the biggest shock.

He refused to sign either in support of or against the proposed Normalisation Committee, insisting that his mandate must first be returned to him.

His position reportedly angered several of his colleagues and friends, who openly berated him for using a rare opportunity—a FIFA visit intended to address the broader problems of Nigerian football—to reopen a personal battle from more than a decade ago.

There is a time to fight for the future of football, and there is a time to accept the realities of the past.

You cannot continue crying over spilt milk while the entire house is on fire.

Nigerian football needs statesmanship, maturity and solutions—not the resurrection of old personal grievances.