By Patrick Omorodion & Kate Obodo
The Aminu Maigari Board of the Nigeria Football Association, NFA which prefers to be called Nigeria Football Federation, NFF might be illegal in the eyes of the National Association of Nigerian Footballers and other football Stakeholders but the authorities which have continuously questioned the new name still see the body as authentic.

As a result therefore, any move to dislodge the present Board may be a herculean one and an excercise in futility if words from the both the executive and legislative arms of government as represented by the National Sports Commission, NSC and the Federal House of Representatives are anything to go by.

NANF through its president, Harrison Jalla had said early in the week on a Brila FM sports programme monitored in Lagos that it will in conjunction with some unnamed stakeholders float another football body to administer the country’s football.

The body added that it will prevail on the government not to appropriate money to the NFF because the “current board of the NFA is illegal as it was nullified on the 6th of September, 2010 by Justice Okon Abang of the Federal High Court in Lagos even as the laws of Nigeria has no place for any organization called the NFF.”

In his reaction however, Director General of the NSC, Dr. Patrick Ekeji told Saturday Vanguard sports that NANF and the stakeholders have no right to set up a parallel football body, arguing that the Decree 101 which turned into an Act of Parliament in 1999, which gave life to the NFA,  gave the power to do such to the sports minister.

“They don’t have such right. The decree (Decree 101) which set up the NFA and became an Act of Parliament in 1999 gives the power to set up an NFA Board to the sports minister and only he can do that, nobody else,” he said on phone.

Former Green Eagles winger, Adokie Amiesimaka corroborated Ekeji’s submission but said that the same law only recognises NFA and not NFF as the Maigari-led Board now claims, adding “what I’m saying is that the NFF is not known to Nigerian law. It is our law that gives the football governing body life but this football governing body is  saying that it is known as NFF which is not known to our law. In order words what I am saying is that we have been have running an illegality, the football governing body is running an illegal and unlawful body.”

In supporting the formation of a parallel football body, the former chairman of Sharks Football Club of Port Harcourt said, “My suggestion is that they should  set it up  as a limited liability company  by guarantee under the affiliation of FIFA. Having done that government can support and participate. As far as I am concerned, the NFF is not a body known to law. What is know to the law is NFA.”

However former president of the Cycling Federation of Nigeria, Rev. Moses Iloh cautioned against the formation of another football body, stressing that it would drag the country’s name to the mud.

He argued that rather than form another football governing body which he sees as a wrong step, those behind the action should constitute themselves into a pressure group to keep the NFA in check and fight the ills in the sport’s administration.

“It is not a matter of being legal or otherwise but I think it is wrong. What is required is for them to constitute themselves into a pressure group that will open up the NFF. The NFF has become like a cult. They  should put up a very strong and powerful  pressure group that will open the door for  people so that we can have a  new life there. Forming another NFA is going to bring bad name to Nigeria.

And this group must be  transparent and then it has to be a sporting affair. Forming a new NFA is going  to cost trouble and even bring bad name to Nigeria.

“Honestly speaking, the NFF is like a cult. They are like a secret society in the country that only few people can go in there. This is no longer a sport with  open field but a political affair. With the power they have, they do anything they like and go free.

So I will prefer the people in question form a pressure  group that will expose the NFF rather than forming another NFA. Forming another NFA is an act of indiscipline and it is wrong and will bring bad name to the country,” he stressed.