Let NSC address NFF’s illegality and sponsors 'ill return to Nigeria’s football

Let NSC address NFF’s illegality and sponsors 'ill return to Nigeria’s football

By Uche Onochie, from Abuja

There are strong speculations in Abuja that the National Sports Commission and some concerned football lovers in the Presidency are frenetically lobbying Chinese Cable television, Star Times, to rescind its termination of live telecast of the Nigeria Professional Football League.

Unfortunately, fillers from impeccable sources revealed that Star Times has maintained a no go back stance but erroneously opted for Female League not mindful of the legal imperative that the Female Football League is under the illegal NFF. So the NPFL and the Ladies league are suffering from same illegality.

The same illegal NFF which gave ill- birth to the litany of litigations which have now become albatross on football administration in the country.

As a lawyer who has been in the football circle for decades, my humble opinion is that the NSC and the Presidency shouldn’t look farther than addressing the point at which the rain started beating and stifling Nigeria football. Let them look into the genesis of the problem, the point at which the NFF became illegal and an aberration to Nigeria’s law.

If I must advise them, they have to look into the almighty syndicate or cabal that has held our football by the jugular for ages. These cabal members are in the National Assembly and the Executive.

For example, this group almost smuggled the NFF Act through the Senate for Presidential accent, but for the eagle eye prompt action of Senate President, Bukola Saraki. The same Senate knew that the NFF was/is illegal as long as the NFA ACT exists. Yet the Parliament to this day still approves budget allocation for an illegal body - the NFF and the Defunct League Management Company, LMC. The Parliament passes budgetary allocation in spite of clear illegality. No wonder our football and sports generally are in the downward arena all these years

Making annual public budgetary allocation to LMC at that time was synonymous to making allocation to Lever Brothers or UAC, both PRIVATE SECTOR companies.

Given these ills still continue till today, it loudly signals personal interest or pecuniary motivations at various public levels May be reason why in spite of concerned public outcries to save our football is falling on deaf and dumb ears

To buttress this money sector is the fact that under the last Attorney General of the Federation five criminal cases were filed in court against the regime of Pinnick Amaju. But the AGF filed an ostensibly reasonable point before FHC Abuja and told the court he wished to withdraw the cases since they were all largely same ground, in order to consolidate them under one file, not like EFCC, ICPC et al cases, and the court only adjourned following short adjournment.

I saw it all. I was in court that day and I could smell rat. I was damned right. Today, these cases of alleged abuse of public funds against the Amaju-led NFF never saw the light of legality, seven years after.

So, if Nigeria can bring our football and sports generally under legal structure, half of the problems in football would have been solved.

Again, the legal status of the NFF calls for concern. No matter how you look at it, the NFF is unknown to Nigerian law. What is known is the Nigeria Football Association.

If the NSC and Presidency are serious about final solutions, let them address this issue of legality and it will ensure the smooth administration of football in Nigeria, which had been in an epileptic state.

First step: Let the football body obey the landmark judgment by Justice Donatus Okorowo of the Abuja High Court, which declared the NFF illegal in 2010.

While delivering the judgment in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/179/2010, Justice Okorowo stated: “As set out in the early part of this judgment, the Nigeria Football Association was established under Section 1 of the Nigeria Football Association Act as a body corporate with perpetual succession and common seal with power to sue and be sued.”

The judgment added: “By these provisions, it is the only body recognised by Nigerian Law to manage football. The Law did not make reference to it as Nigeria Football Federation. The name under which it is charged to manage football under the Law is Nigeria Football Association. It has no power to address itself as Nigeria Football Federation. And the document titled Nigeria Football Federation Statute, which purports to confer the name Nigeria Football Federation to Nigeria Football Association is not a codified Law under the Laws of Federation of Nigeria. It is therefore illegal for the Nigeria Football Association to answer another name other than the name by which it is created as a legal entity.”

The judgment also placed a perpetual injunction restraining the NFF from running football in Nigeria either by themselves, their agents, servants, privies, agencies or otherwise from taking any steps or doing anything either in the name of Nigeria Premier League or Nigeria Football Federation in relation to League Football or any aspect of football administration and management.

It may interest the NSC and Presidency to know that following this Justice Okorowo’s judgment, the Federal Ministry of Justice, in a clarification letter to the then Director-General, National Sports Commission on June 2, 2011, noted that the NFF was unknown to the laws of the land, stating, “The Nigeria Football Association Act 1990 (aka Decree 101) has neither been repealed nor amended, it remains the valid legal instrument for the administration of football in Nigeria.”

The letter added: “In the light of the above recognition of the private status of the NFF, the ordinary implication is that the body is not entitled to the receipt of statutory allocations from the Federal Government.

“The present situation suggests that the structure for the administration of football in Nigeria at the moment is legally unwieldy as the NFA, which is statutorily recognised is non-functional, while the NFF, which is not a creation of our laws, is from all indications running football in the country and receiving public funds albeit unconstitutionally.”

Despite this clarification by the justice ministry,that the NFF was not entitled to the receipt of statutory allocations from the Federal Government because of its private association status’.

Who are these cabal ruining our football by diverting funds that could build our football, to obviously dark hands of corruption at the apex of our football?

The controversy over the status of the football body has also had ripple effects on the country’s domestic league, following the January 28, 2022 Supreme Court panel which unanimously declared the League Management Company, organisers of the league, not only illegal but also a monumentally fraudulent outfit.

The judgment ruled that since the LMC was a creation of the NFF — which is unknown to law and is illegal — then the NPFL, being the successor of the LMC, was illegal because it was created by the NFF.

Aside from the above, since the 2013 Warri Congress, all the NFF Board winners, including Amaju, Ibrahim Gusau and the Board members were never in office. They are unknown to law and all they purportedly did while in office is a nullity.

Reason? The Warri elective NFL Congress was stopped by a competent court yet they went ahead with the congress and conducted the election. Another Supreme Court panel headed by Onnogen declared the Amaju victory at the election null and void. Amaju also ignored a whole Supreme Court judgement all his stay in office.

Same Amaju also organised the 2022 Benin elective Congress which ignored court order not to hold That illegal Benin congress ushered in Gusau (product of illegality).

Is it not pitiably clear that out football is now in the doldrums? Now is the time to “SAVE OUR FOOTBALL.”