Romanus Ugwu, Abuja
He means different things to different people. He is unassuming, calm, calculated, accessible and friendly, but more importantly, the General Secretary of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Dr Mohammed Sanusi, has built himself into an asset to the academic and football family.
Having played, coached and now administering football and coming from the classroom as a lecturer, Dr Sanusi is not among those that can be described as just coming from nowhere.
Speaking to Sunday SunSports in Abuja recently, Sanusi discussed Nigerian football like never before, confessing that the recurring crises have not helped the current executive board to deliver on the untapped potentials of the game.
He also spoke on why he married only one wife, his achievements as the chief scribe of the federation and reason behind thick beard, among many others.
Looking back in the last five years as the General Secretary of NFF, how would you describe the journey thus far?
In retrospect, I have every reason to glorify God that the system is still running, depending on who is taking the stock. It has been turbulent, but we have been able to stabilise the system. I must also confess that it has not been very easy running the secretariat because of the rigours of the responsibilities.
Nigeria is the only country in the Africa continent that participates in almost all FIFA and CAF organised competitions and among the top five in the world. Managing almost 11 national teams is not an easy task, especially where the financial demands are impossible to cope with.
The issues of instability and crisis have not also helped the system. There are certain persons bent on dragging us back from our plans and programmes. It’s either one security agency or the other is after us or we were distracted by certain elements. I must admit that it has not been easy running the federation.
My source of joy, however, is that despite the challenges, significant level of achievements have been recorded, especially, in the area of winning trophies and executing programmes aimed at developing the game at the grassroots.
What are your rough and best moments as the federation’s General Secretary?
The rough moments are many and they started from the day I was appointed as the General Secretary to the present day. One security agency or the other hardly had one or two months of relative peace without inviting us.
There have been cases of certain persons frivolously coming to claim my position as the General Secretary. But the good thing is that as an apostle of destiny, I believe that everything has been programmed ahead of us. As a person, I never allowed it to weigh me down because nobody can unleash anything on me which God did not approve.
However, my concern is the way the distractions have been affecting the day-to-day running of the federation. Where there is no conducive atmosphere, it becomes very difficult to concentrate on the assignment at hand. It pains that instead of planning for competitions, one security agency or the other is inviting you over to Lagos or elsewhere for questioning.
We were usually left with little time to plan and execute our programmes when other federations were fully concentrating on the assignment and competitions at hand. Faced with those challenges, we had to struggle to fair well in competitions.
However, we try to put all the distractions at the back of our minds to concentrate towards ensuring that we feature in all the competitions, and it is worthy of note that we have qualified in almost all the major tournaments and did not do badly in high-profile competitions like World Cups and African Cup of Nations we participated.
Yes, we crashed out of the 2019 Brazil FIFA U-17 championship, but I have always emphasised that underage competitions should be seen as developmental programme. We must look beyond the trophy we have won several times and be bothered about the number of players that graduate to the senior national teams.
The crop of Super Eagles players we have now are majorly products of the underage teams. This is what underage teams are all about. I have seen women football the same way. Gone are the days when we are certain of beating any Africa team, the reality is that those countries are equally staking claims. In fairness to the Super Falcons, significant number of the players in the current team are majorly home-based.
Would it be right to claim that football branded you or you branded football?
Permit me to narrate my journey into football and, by extension, sports, so that one can conclude who made the other. I was born in Birnin Kebbi and I played football from childhood.
I also played other sports like volleyball, hockey, handball and participated in athletics and pole volte. Because my interest was more in football, I played for many clubs, including NIPOST FC which was my last club. Collegiate sports also made me. I was invited to the national team camp but because of injury and my parent’s insistence on education as priority, I could not play for the national team.
The easiest way to describe me in Kebbi is to say ‘caster old spirit or Sanusi spirit’ and these brand names came from my involvement in football. Those familiar with me knew me through football. I got admission at College of Education Sokoto to study Physical and Health Education because of my sentimental attachment to sports.
Having read to Doctoral level, I can boldly say that I made significant impact in academics and sports, having excelled in both. Sports and football have equally helped my incursion into politics, becoming student union speaker and later president. I was also a comrade in active unionism.
It was Amos Adamu who gave me lecturing appointment after being convinced of my competence. He also involved me in many organised competitions. I have also ventured into coaching from my days as a lecturer.
I can boldly claim to have contributed in Sani Kaita’s success story by spotting and recommending him to Samson Siasia. I’m a certified coach after participating in coaching course. I’m a proud holder of Grade B and A coaching licenses.
At what point did you leave lecturing for football administration?
When I sustained the injury, it became very obvious that I could not continue playing football. I was in the Sokoto delegation as an unattached player invited to the camp for the National Sports Festival, but I knew that I had injury.
I got married in 1990 with the only wife I still have, currently lecturing and who gave birth to my nine children. I started lecturing in 1987 and rose to the position of Head of Department and lectured till year 2000, when I was invited to serve in the Organising Committee of the All African Games. I took sabbatical leave for one year and on resumption, went to Ahmadu Bello University for my Ph.D. I obtained my MA Degree from University of Ibadan.
It was after my Ph.D that I saw an advert for the position of Assistant General Secretary, Competition, and I have been with the NFF since 2007, climbing to the position of Director Competition and now the General Secretary.
I’ve not left academics because I still lecture and supervise the projects for MA and Ph.D students free of charge because I just want to give back to the society. It is voluntary because I had to squeeze my time to do it without allowing it affect my job.
Why did you decide to marry only one wife?
I came from a polygamous family, but I resolved to remain monogamous because marrying one or many wives is based on choice not compulsory. I am very comfortable with one wife, especially she is beautiful, intelligent, industrious and a disciplinarian. I never regretted not marrying more than one wife.
How do you appraise the performances of the NFF presidents you have served under?
I won’t be comfortable drawing comparative analysis of their styles of leadership, but I can tell you that they all have good intentions for the game. Compared to the football presidents of other countries, I know that Nigeria is very lucky.
The unfortunate thing is that the pull-him-down syndrome may not have allowed people to notice their achievements or see the best of Nigerian football. Each and every one of them tried their best, but it is up to people to judge.
Take for instance, what Pinnick Amaju has done for the country since breaking into continental and international football family, yet they want to bring him down because of personal interest. We can have our differences, but we should not allow it to affect the progress of the game.
Why has the federation refused to sack Gernot Rohr despite the outcry from Nigerians?
Let me create a scenario to judge us. After Super Falcons participated in the Africa Women football championship and WAFU, some Nigerians demanded the sack of Thomas Dennerby. It again happened after the Women World Cup, but we kept him only for us to come under attack.
But when he decided to terminate his contract, the same people came hard on the federation for allowing him to leave. If we sack Rohr, as people are demanding, the same people will attack us for sacking him. My responsibility is to provide conducive environment for the coaches to do their jobs. The responsibility of sacking coaches rests on the technical department and technical committee.
Have you met the target you set for yourself at NFF?
I would want you to judge if I have done anything meaningful since joining Nigerian football from the classroom. When I was appointed as the assistant secretary general, Federation Cup, one of the most glamorous club competitions of any country, was almost dead.
I created a unit for the department, just as I created international friendly match unit and the women football unit, which was almost dead. The revival ensured proper service delivery. The glamour of federation cup came back and climaxed to what we now call Aiteo Cup.
How long have you kept your white beard and why?
I left it because white beard depicts sage, maturity and wisdom. I kept it because it helps differentiate me from others. I have kept mine for some time when I noticed that my president, Amaju, had coincidentally started keeping his. We never planned to keep such identity.
More importantly, I tried to work in accordance with the dictate of my religion. I’m not an extremist, but I also know that Islam encourages keeping beard. I feel very comfortable keeping it than shaving all the time. It gives me the feeling of wisdom.