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Chairman of Club Owners Association of Nigeria, Davidson Owumi, speaks passionately about the game of football as if his whole life depends on it. Like a fearless soldier, the former Sharks striker, who is noted for his outspoken nature, shot from the hips last weekend during an explosive interview with Sunday Sunsport, revealing that a cabal in the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) headed by the body’s first Vice Chairman, Amanze Uchegbulam, is hell-bent on dragging the country’s game through another major crisis.

The bone of contention here is the 38 proposed amendments of the NFA statutes, which Uchegbulam is planning to forward at the next Congress of the Association in Makurdi this week.

Owumi argued that the amendments would ultimately lead to a full-blown war between the Club Owners and the proponents of that documents, because the items included in the proposed amendments were meant to usurp all the key functions of the Nigeria Football League (NFL).

And the former Rangers CEO, who was few days ago reappointed into the board of the Enugu side by the administration of Governor Sullivan Chime, has vowed that the Club Owners would go into the trenches again to fight any imposition of the proposed amendments, which he said did not follow due procedure.
He also shed more light on why he accepted to return to Rangers as a board member after leaving the club unceremoniously two years ago as the CEO. Excerpt:

How would you react to your recent appointment into the board of Rangers considering the circumstances that led to your exit two years ago?
First of all, I have to thank God for keeping me alive to witness this appointment after the controversy that surrounded my leaving Rangers two years ago. The mere fact that under my tenure as the CEO of Rangers, the team played in a continental championship every year does not mean that I was the only one working for the club at that time. I think the wonderful technical crew I had then should share in the glory. I also had a cohesive squad and my support staff in the office was wonderful. Above all, I had the ears of the government. I also have the good people of Enugu State to thank for their cooperation. Without the supporters and the commissioners who I worked with, I wouldn’t have achieved anything during my time as the CEO of Rangers.

This time, I may not be too much involved in the day-to-day running of the club since there is an executive secretary, who is solely in charge of the club, but I believe that my fellow board members and I will support him to ensure the club achieve her target next season. I may not be physically present because of my work at the Nigeria Football League (NFL), but whatever it will take to put Rangers back to the pinnacle of glory, we will do just that. From my discussions with the new secretary, I am convinced that he will lead Rangers to glory.

Why did you accept the offer to return as a board member having served and left the club under unceremonious circumstances as the CEO?
Honestly, there are things one can’t quantify in monetary terms. Rangers gave me a platform to exhibit whatever administrative skills I had and it was a very good opportunity for me. Such is something you can’t quantify in monetary terms. I will eternally remain grateful to Rangers for that. It explains why I had remained indebted to the club and will not reject any offer that will help to return the club to their days of glory.

On why I left Rangers two years ago, I would just state clearly that I did not leave the club under any controversial circumstance. If my leaving then was controversial, as you alluded, I don’t think the state government would want to reappoint me into the board of the same club.
I was aspiring to become the secretary general of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) and it was obvious that it would be difficult for me to combine my job as Rangers’ C.E.O. with actualising that ambition. So, I had two options then, either to vie for the NFA’s scribe job or to join the NFL (Nigeria Football League) and assume the position of strategic and monitoring director. So, there was no way I could have retained my job as the Rangers’ C.E.O. and as well assume any of those positions at the national level. Because of that, I went and tendered my resignation letter to the state government that appointed me.

I submitted the letter by myself, but unfortunately, somebody came out with a cock and bull story two weeks after I had retired that he sacked me. After setting the records straight, I kept quiet because I don’t need to elevate a nuisance by mincing words and today, Nigerians have known who the nuisance is and who was telling lies between two of us two years ago.
I am grateful to the government of Governor Sullivan Chime for rewarding merit. His Excellency has set the records straight and that is why I said that there was no controversy when I left the club two years ago. The controversy only existed in the self-delusion of the person involved and thank God that man is still alive to see me back to Enugu Rangers.

Poor funding has always been the major problem Rangers had faced even during your tenure as the chief executive officer of the club, how are you and the members of your new board going to find a lasting solution to this problem?
I wouldn’t want to jump the gun, we have to wait and see how it goes after our inauguration. But like I said earlier, there is somebody, who has the club’s mantle of leadership, and that person is Mr Paul Chibuzor. He is the executive secretary of the club at the moment. He has the responsibility of running the day-to-day activities of the club while we, the board members, are purely on advisory position. But by the special grace of God, I think we will succeed.

There was a sort of tug of war between the NFA and the NFL over the appointment of referees for league matches last season. As NFL’s Strategy and Monitoring director, are we going to experience a crisis-free season this time around?
I want to use this opportunity to inform Nigerians that there is a looming crisis that will soon engulf Nigerian football, because a board member of the NFA, Amanze Uchegbulam, has arrogated to himself so much powers that he can now do certain things that are not in conformity with the laws of the Federal Republic of Nigeria neither are they in conformity with the FIFA, NFA or the NFL statutes.

You would recall that about two weeks ago, the NFA board members went for a retreat in Makurdi and at the end of the retreat, they came out with a communiqué. And top on the list, was the proposed amendment of the statutes of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). To put the record straight, I have not indicted the NFA, because Uchegbulam, and not the NFA Chairman, Alhaji Sani Lulu or the Secretary General, Bolaji Ojo-Oba, signed every paper that was issued after the communiqué. The only name that appeared on the proposed amendment documents was that of Uchegbulam. So, I foresee a looming crisis between Nigerian football clubs and Amanze Uchegbulam because he made the proposed amendments.

Under normal circumstances, if a communiqué is to be issued by the NFA, it has to be signed by either the chairman or the secretary general of the FA. In fact, they have 38 proposed amendments in just one statute and what that means is that they are rewriting the entire statute. There are procedures for rewriting the statutes of the NFA and we are going to make sure that due process is followed to the latter if there is need to amend the statutes.

It was the same Uchegbulam that was going about abusing the Hon. Minister for Sports and the Senate for doing their work. In fact, I don’t know where he is deriving his powers. He went as far as saying that if the Senate summons the NFA to the floor of the House, he would ask the chairman not to attend.

In essence, what it means is that Uchegbulam is the one tele-guiding the NFA chairman and I think he owes the Federal Republic of Nigeria an apology for bringing the Senate to public ridicule. And for castigating the Hon. Minister for Sports in the country, I also feel that he has to apologise to the nation.
Uchegbulam, as the first vice chairman of the NFA, has no right to abuse the minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria on the pages of newspapers. And to add salt to the injury, he took former NFA Chairman, Brig. Gen. Dominic Oneya to the cleaners, because he was appointed to chair the probe panel that was set up to investigate the alleged corrupt practices in Nigerian League. Oneya was a General in the Nigerian Army and he was on two different occasions a military governor in two different states in the country. So, who is Uchegbulam to come out and abuse that distinguished Nigerian on the pages of the newspapers, just because he was called upon to head a probe panel? I think it is ridiculous and I feel Uchegbulam should be called to order.

The irony is that this same Uchegbulam got into the NFA board through the machinery that was put in place by the former Minister of Sports, Samaila Sambawa. He came in through Decree 101 and I challenge him to produce the document, which has abrogated Decree 101.
Uchegbulam is my personal friend, but that does not debar me from setting the record straight. All my life, I have always stood for the truth, and that is what I have lived for. And what is the bone of contention here? Some people alleged that the league is corrupt and rightly, before the season started, the controversy was centred on who appoints the referees for the league matches.

The right to appoint referees for league games is under the NFA, while the NFL are in charge of administrative rules. And since some people made allegations of corruption in the league, does it not behoove on a neutral body to come in and ascertain the reality of such allegation? Since the NFA cannot be a judge in their own case, having been involved in appointment of referees, the onus now fell on the sports ministry to set up a probe panel and, instead of allowing the panel to do their job, Uchegbulam has been going about abusing Oneya and the minister.

NFA could not have set up any panel because they cannot be judges in their own case. By logical sequence, it means that if any probe panel was to be set up, it should be an independent body that would be higher than both the NFA and the NFL and at the same time, have a connection to the two bodies. Logically and morally too, the ministry has the right to set up such a panel, mostly when it affects corruption.

Top on the list of the 38 proposed amendment of the NFA statutes, which is going to fuel crisis, is where the NFA are hoping to take over the appointment of match commissioners for league matches from the NFL. Already, the NFA are responsible for the appointment of referees for league games and there are still allegations that our referees are corrupt and so, if we allow them to appoint match commissioners also, it then means that corruption would have been institutionalized in our league. This is one of the proposed amendments and what Uchegbulam is planning is to ensure that states FA chairmen, who were not duly elected by clubs in their zones, should endorse those proposed amendment at the NFA’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) in Makurdi.

I foresee war. I see turmoil in the days ahead if nothing is done to call this man, Uchegbulam to order. The NFA are not monster, they are supposed to regulate the activities of clubs in the country and that is what FIFA expect from them. They are there to respond to the needs of the clubs. That was why FIFA, in their wisdom, said that clubs in their zones must elect the chairmen of the states FA. But what we have here is fraud, because 90 per cent of the state FA chairmen got to their positions through political appointments. They were not elected by the clubs in their zone and so, cannot serve the interest of the clubs in the country. I know about two or three states where elections took place. Plateau State is one of them.

Those FA chairmen who got the posts through political appointments are the ones Uchegbulam is planning to use to endorse the 38 proposed amendments, and if this happens, Nigerian football would be set on fire. It is a collection of illegalities even when you consider the FIFA rules, which they are brandishing. That is why we are asking Uchegbulam to allow the sleeping dog lie.
For the records, no club in both the Premier League and the Professional Division was invited to the retreat in Makurdi were the proposed amendments were tabled and they were not passed to any club in the country to look at and naturally, it cannot be brought to the Congress of the NFA, because it would be an illegal document. Due procedures were not followed and I wouldn’t want to go into the obnoxious aspect of that so-called amendment.

The Club Owners have written to the honourable minister and FIFA that there would be another full-scale war if Uchegbulam and his cohorts were not called to order. We don’t have problems with the NFA as a body, but there is a group headed by Uchegbulam, who are hell-bent on causing another crisis in Nigerian football simply for their selfish interests.
I’m so embittered because I trusted Uchegbulam so much during the days of the Stakeholders’ Forum, but today, I can no longer talk about trust. I’m no longer sure of his stance on the development of football in the country.