Nigeria football reform on shaky start, may not be clean break from the past

Nigeria football reform on shaky start, may not be clean break from the past

By Prince Harrison Jalla

Stakeholders and Nigeria football followers were stunned yesterday when they saw a former Nigeria Football Federation president, who destroyed Nigeria football for eight years, remote-controlled and misled the Ibrahim Gusau-led board for another four years, in the Nigerian delegation to Zurich, Switzerland.

The question bothering many Nigerians is that, if a former NFF president must be in the delegation, what is wrong with the immediate past president, Ibrahim Gusau, former presidents Aminu Maigari and Sani Lulu Abdullahi?

What does Dikko want to achieve? Is it loyalty to a friend and gang leader, or loyalty to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who appointed him as NSC chairman on a platter of gold, and to Nigerians?

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu gave a marching order of total reforms and a clean sweep, a complete break from the past. Why include a failed former NFF president that Nigerians have a negative perception of in the delegation?

Dikko should go and gauge the mood of Nigerians on social media about the man he is trying to launder his image.

What is the big deal to approach FIFA by a member country that has settled to invoke Article 8.2 of the FIFA Statutes, which deals with a normalisation process? A simple correspondence with FIFA can close that up. It is the statutory right of every FIFA member association to invoke the normalisation clause when things go south.

Dikko must steer the ship of this transition with caution and without letting President Tinubu down by not provoking another round of crisis with his antics.

Nigerians want his best hands in running its football, and so shall it be. We don’t want to open old wounds.

Dikko was part of the history that brought our football to this sorry state, and now that providence and political connection have given him a second chance, he must not abuse it.

. Prince Jalla is the Chairman Advocacy for Nigeria Football Reform Initiative