By Paul Basey, in South Africa
I have  in my mind, the image of a stubborn child who refuses to eat and the mother threatens. “ If you don’t eat, I will call FIFA “ and the child quakes and succumbs.

Another example is that of approaching bullies who advance on a skinny child and he screams “If you touch me, I will call FIFA” and the bullies back off.

In the two examples above I have portrayed FIFA in a larger than life status, yet in a very positive way. Unfortunately, the football powers in this country have used the same FIFA to brow beat, blackmail and silence all those who hold a contrary view to theirs.

Unfortunately for us they had mastered the art of FIFA threat that whenever they as much as muttered FIF……we ran for dear lives

If I was not exposed to the workings of CAF and FIFA I would not have been angered by the frequent resort to these bodies by our football administrators anxious to keep every one else at bay.

You could talk to the President of NFF in the morning, by the evening he will be answering your call from Zurich, gone to concoct one story or the other against the very country that put him in charge. Mutiny. Coup.

Whenever members of The NFA ( then ) and NFF ( now ) commit their numerous atrocities, they decide to hide under the canopy of FIFA, forgetting that FIFA does not condone crime.

Worse as they clung to power, they were running down football in this country. For the first time, women football took a dive. The junior national team was disgraced in Egypt just as we could not qualify for CHAN for the second year running.

The only thing that was working in this country was the domestic league and they decided to fight it to a standstill. First it was Chief Obaseki, now they have drawn their swords against Davidson Owumi.

Recently, I heard that the sports minister had written to FIFA asking that world cup monies and other grants due Nigeria should not be paid until after the elections. I thought that was not the right thing to do. I argued that Nigeria as a government had no direct dealing with FIFA. But that the NFF, as a parastatal of the sports ministry and the national sports commission, was answerable to the laws of the land.

I said that all the minister had to do was to wait until the money was paid, then call them to come and account for it. I believed that even the 900 million naira approved by the government was subject to probe  (By the way why do they collect government money when they refuse to be answerable to government? ) Are we saying that we (Nigerians) have no right to know what went wrong with our pride that was dented in South Africa?

It was in Angola that I heard of the white paper on the missing dollars and how the ministry had decided to wait till the world cup was over in order not to rock the boat. That issue alone was enough to send the current NFF board packing, yet we decided to dilly dally giving room for more atrocities.

In a recent article, I did enumerate the various sins of this administration, most of which had cost us billions of naira in tax payer’s money not to talk of the emotions that had been invested in the team.

I did say that the uncompleted hotel saga in Durban, the bungled airplane hire, the botched friendly matches and the eventual premature ouster from the world cup were all grave issues that needed to be handled and decisively too.
Because of FIFA, members of the NFF insulted a governor of the federal republic, a man appointed by Mr. President to oversee Nigeria’s qualification for the world cup.

Because of FIFA the NFF derided a minister of the federal republic, the number one sports servant of this country, sold him a red herring as they clandestinely doctored election statutes to suit their selfish desires. Because of FIFA all of us outside the board of the NFF could go to hell.

Now, a Jonathan has come to judgement the same Jonathan whose administration had queried the bloated budget of the FIFA Under- 17 World cup, threatening not to host, until they were made to reluctantly cave in.

Two years, maybe more. We need enough time to take a deep look at our sports especially football. We need time to develop the game here. Enough lip service, time for action. Let us contact the coaches, look for tested administrators, let us brainstorm on how we can move forward, rescue the game that has been floored.

We must emerge from this auto sanction stronger and fitter, better. Then and only then will this whole exercise have an enduring meaning. For now it is only proper that we write to FIFA, most respectfully, telling them why we took the decision we took, in the interest and for the good of the game in Nigeria.