By Ikeddy  Isiguzo
ELECTIONS rule and ruin us. Things would remain in that frame for some time. The massive hurricane of poverty sweeping across Nigeria expresses itself through several anomalies.

One of the most profound images of the depth of poverty is the recourse to elected positions as elixir. People resort to elections  where they cannot grab the position by other means  with high expectations that victory would enhance their stature, improve access to national resources and most importantly, place them in a strategically to minimise others’ chances of a meaningful life.

Where the contestant loses the election, he still enjoys the advantage of leading opposition to the winner, who must be stopped from another term, through fierce criticisms of everything he does.

I do not intend to insult anyone. There may be some contestants who want to serve, who can serve, and who know how to serve. They are really few, too few.

The obsession with elections has seeped dangerously into sports. As poverty increases and the value of the Naira takes regular battering, many foresighted Nigerians have anchored their survival on sports. Where survival is the issue, instincts are ferocious, irrational and are delivered with killer punches.

Who would yield his survival to the other? How can anyone suggest suicide to another? Our elected sports officials cannot survive outside the cosiness affinity with sports provides.

The fights over elections  whether in sports or other political spheres  are not about service to Nigerians or any causes. If people do not want your service, why the desperation, unless without a sports office a vital tool is taken off your survival kit?

Professionals have been infected with the election bug. Many would give an arm to be elected into an office. Offices provide enough resources to buy replacement limbs. Offices are lifejackets in the crash of daily lives.

When in office, they are in a commanding position to annex the common good for uncommon greed.
They can amass enough resources in office to compromise the system, decide who does not succeed them, in case they are among those who leave office, once they get into its comfort.

Elections have become an obsession. Many want office to garnish their CV. Others have higher ambitions, election into a national sports position gives them access to foreign trips. The more resourceful ones run travel agencies through this position, helping more desperate Nigerians, of course, for a fee, to flee the suffocating social and economic walls poor policies erect around us.

Sports avails opportunities that some have cornered to serve themselves. Elections put a veneer of credibility to serving the public, this veneer is important to the dubious characters who dip under sports to destroy a part of Nigeria governments have conceded to poor leaders.

The most stunning defence for the corrupt and inept leadership in sports is that sports is not as corrupt as others areas of our lives and what is stolen amounts to a few millions of barrens of oil, and not the billions others steal.

We are meant to accept this position, turn blind eyes to the disruptions irresponsible sports leadership visits on us. The crass despoliation of our sports resources right from the abridgement of the future of our youths, to the personalisation of the country’s international sports rights are stymied in a morass of inexplicable neglect.

Nigerians are discovering that there are no rules. Rather, the rules are made to favour those who have pledged their loyalty and service not to sports or to Nigerians, but to the same decadent masters, who pull the strings and wait at each point for applause from befuddled Nigerians.

Elections would have been great opportunities to improve our sports leadership. They have been reduced to sessions to renew the unstated mandate to stall the development of Nigerian sports.

Does it make sense for the National Assembly to watch askance and later stage public hearing when things go wrong? Why is everyone silent when elections into sports offices are planned outside the laws of the associations?

By Article 21 of the Nigeria Football Assocition, the elections planned for 21 August are illegal. Unelected State FAs cannot elect the NFA Executive Board. We cannot allow this illegality to persist under the guise that FIFA approved the elections.

Article 21 states, 1. A State Football Association shall consist of the local government
Football Councils within the State. 2. Each State Association shall establish, run and maintain a permanent headquarters at the State Capital.

m) Each state Football Association shall have its elective congress in November/December succeeding the elective Congress of the Federation within the senior FIFA World Cup year.

4. Annual General Assembly: a) Each State Football Association shall host its Annual General Assembly before the NFF General Assembly, except the elective congress. 5. State Executive Committee: a) Each State Football Association shall be composed of twelve (12) persons, four (4) elected from each senatorial district made up as follows: – Chairman, 2 Vice Chairmen, 9 Ordinary Members b)

All the above officers shall be elected at the Annual General Assembly of the State Football Association: c) The positions of the State Secretary and the Assistant shall be by appointment by the Association.
Not a single State FA, of the 37 in Nigeria , is qualified to vote at the elections.

Anyone seeking election into the NFA, in violation of the NFA Statutes already shows the type of service he would provide. I suggest that the elections be postponed until the State FAs are elected, in accordance with Article 21, except if some of the reasons for the elections include bringing more fundamental illegality into football.

Please email comments, condemnations, or commendations to ikeddyisiguzo@hotmail.com