The Sun News On-line

At a time like this when sports-loving Nigerians have yet to overcome the wounds the National Sports Commission (NSC) Chairman, Barrister Abdulrahman Gimba, has inflicted on their psyche through his unorthodox policies, former Super Eagles’ coach, Chief Adegboye Onigbinde, has warned that posting mediocre politicians to the Sports Ministry would finally kill sports in the country.

The Modakeke high chief said that the decay and messy situation in our sports today had remained a direct consequence of posting politicians who knew next to nothing to oversee sports in the country, he therefore, called on President Umaru Yar’Adua to redress the issue before Nigeria becomes a pariah in the comity of sporting nations.

He opined that the knotty controversy over an alleged corruption in our football house was an understatement, as corruption, according to him, started with the appointment of wrong persons to manage sports in Nigeria. He added that the monster percolated through the NSC, down to the states where most clubs were not allowed to grow because of government interference.

Chief Onigbinde went down memory lane to point the way out of this deadlock and asked the government to hands off in funding sporting activities. He rather called on professionals to stand up and be counted in sports administration in the country.
"It is amazing to hear that football is developing in Nigeria," Onigbinde began. "What parameters are those saying that football is developing in Nigeria using to fool the whole nation?
"For me, we are going down rather than climbing up the ladder. Nigeria is not developing her football, rather, we are living by the day, trying to win matches at all cost.
"The reasons are not far fetched, because politicians have turned football administration in the country as a way of paying patronage to their political sons who are idle.

"Look at the appointments in local, state and federal governments into sports departments and you will agree with me that if something urgent is not done to change this trend, our sports and indeed, our football will be doomed.
"Take a look at how our football club management boards are constituted, and you will appreciate my fears. Club managements and even the board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) should be constituted from people who are popular at the grassroots.

For instance, in Lagos State, anyone who wants to represent the state in the board should come home and try his or her popularity in any of the local government areas. From there, he should proceed to the state level and finally to the federal.
"This will cause such a person to appreciate the burden of trust heaped on him by the people. But a situation, which allows members of the board to come from anywhere and get appointed, makes them behave like demigods.

"Come to think of it, there is no club in Nigeria that qualifies to be called a club if we really try to give a perfect definition of what a club should be. And for the records, a club is the coming together of like minds to elect their leaders and these like minds monitor the activities of those they had elected.
"So, tell me of any club in Nigeria that elects its chairman by popular votes. It is either the chairman is appointed as compensation for his contributions in enthroning the government in power. Or that he has blood relationship with the man at the helm of affairs in that states. With such arrangements, those chairmen act like sole administrators and take decisions, which only suit their pockets to the detriment of the game. Such individuals cannot be accountable to the people.

"Sincerely speaking, it gives me sleepless nights when I think about the injustices that prevail in our football, all in the name of compensations. Until and unless we do away with those sycophants who are masquerading as agents of change in our sporting circle, it would be difficult for us to make progress.
"Football is now a business venture that attracts patronage from all sectors of human endeavour and serious countries are reaping from the partnerships that exist in those sectors.

Banks, insurance companies, telecommunication outfits all over the world are jostling to out do themselves to have partnerships with clubs, national teams and even academies. But our case is different here, because we like the free money that comes from the government where accountability is not needed.

"It amazes me when I hear club officials saying that they are waiting for government subvention to execute one project or the other when they can talk to a company in their neighbourhood on how their company’s name could be used in their team’s jerseys.

"Away from this sponsorship talk, I want to say that I am happy that the leadership of the NFF were bold enough to change their name. I had proposed the change of name in 1988, but I was shouted down.

"They can go a step further in making themselves relevant if they can remove that tag, which makes them susceptible to the Nigerian public. That tag is over-reliance on government money. And I promise them of my support even if they don’t like my face.
"The NFF and club managers should have listening ears and throw away that notion that suggests that they know football administration better than anyone in the country, because no man is an island or custodian of knowledge.

"And I want to say here again that most countries come to me to get notes on how they could develop their national football, which I voluntarily give them free of charge, but I am treated like a leper in my own fatherland. I would say that a stitch in time saves nine. I will continue to wait until I am approached to offer my own advice," Onigbinde concluded his speech.