FA chairmen may meet in Katsina over Nigeria’s football brouhaha
By Abdulgafar Oladimeji
Excluding for last minute changes, state football association chairmen may hold an emergency meeting session in Katsina to deliberate and take a common frontline position on the current crisis bedeviling Nigerian football.
Impeccable sources informed this reporter that , efforts have been mounted to convince a good number of state FA chairmen to travel to Katsina, for the final match of the Ahlan /Gusau pre season cup, where they would be chanced to deliberate and fashion out strategy on how to better confront, what they described as football interference by the National Sports Commission. NSC led by Shehu Dikko.
The source said that “ consultations have been made with friendly and heavy weight state FA chairmen to attend the Ahlan/Gusau preseason football tournament final taking place in Katsina next Thursday, some assigned persons are working on the planned meeting, the responses have been very positive.
The source added that “ I can tell you that a good number of the FA chairmen have been reached out to and they have given their words, that they will be in Katsina for the Gusau cup final, the platform will be used to discuss what is currently going on , in what they said is the moves by Dikko and Olopade to unseat them.
“most of the chairmen are strongly convinced that, if the NSC should put in place the planned Normalization Committee, then they the state FA chairmen were gone for good .
“ let me tell you, majority of the FA chairmen believe that they are been ordinarily targeted by Shehu Dikko, who is bent on paying them back for voting against him, during the last NFF elections , where he lost to the incumbent Ibrahim Gusau . , the Normalization Committee is simply an idea conceived by Dikko and Olopade to send them out and plant their loyalists.
The source warned that “ serious underground efforts and consultation are ongoing within the Gusau camp to bring the chairmen and top football actors especially from the north west and north central axis to meet in Katsina, if not all of them, but those among them, who have a strong voice and command strong influence in the system to meet in Katsina as a show of force and also to strategize on how to stop the storm that is roaring to send them packing out from office.”
When contacted a football power broker in the north west , who spoke under the condition of anonymity simply put “ invitation of state FA chairmen to the opening and closing of the Gusau /Ahlan cup final is a tradition, you journalists may read meanings into it this time, maybe because of the situation we have found ourselves, but let’s keep our fingers crossed, football interference is what nobody is ready to allow it to happen.””
Another source said “ it is true that the idea to see if the chairmen can meet in Katsina was tinkered with, but I doubt if the arrangement is still intact and strong, considering what is happening, since we heard that, NSC has the strong backing of the federal government , Nigerians are also not happy, going to Katsina may not augur well.”
Nigerian football was thrown into turmoil following the quarter final defeat, when the Super Falcons suffered 1-0 loss in the hands of the Lioness of Cameroon at the just ended WAFCON, same day Nigeria’ s U-20 lads the Flying Eagles also failed to book their place in the African Youth championship losing 4-0 to Junior Stallions of Burkina Faso, sparking indiscriminate backlash from millions of Nigerians, including opposition politicians.
The Nigeria Football Federation, NFF were slated to go to polls in September to elect the new set of leaders that will pilot the affairs of the federation for a new term of another four years.
The National Sports Commission, NSC the country’s sports governing body have been widely reported to have directed that the election be put on hold, pending further directives, thus splitting opinions between those who adjudge the directives as government interference in football governance against those who harbor the opinion that there is need for total reforms in Nigeria’s football governance structure.
