The Nigeria Football Federation Strategic Committee on Road-map for the development of Nigerian football has allayed fears that their final recommendations would be jettisoned by the Executive Committee of the NFF.

This comes as the committee has earmarked six cities for its planned public sittings, starting May 30 in Benin City.

Speaking during an interactive session with stakeholders yesterday at the National Stadium, Lagos,  Hon Sani Toro, who is Chairman of the committee, which has three months from their day of inauguration to present their report to the football governing body, said their autonomy from any manipulations from the NFF board was guaranteed by the Congress of the federation, which established the body and would receive their recommendations for final amendments and ratification.

Toro, while maintaining that the inputs of all football stakeholders would be sought before their final report is presented to the Congress, said that the committee was different from other bodies set up by past administrations.

“We are different from other committees that were set up in the past because we have the mandate of the Congress, which is the highest legislative body of the NFF and anything that is approved by the Congress becomes law. So we are conscious of our mandate and are confident that our independence is completely  guaranteed”, said Toro, adding that Aminu Maigari, the President of NFF has repeatedly assured that their report would be taken seriously and implemented.

Toro noted that inputs can also be made through the committee’s web address, www.nfftransformation.com, which is already functioning.

“The time to sit on the fence or perfect the art of arm-chair criticism is gone. Nigeria belongs to all of us. We implore all and sundry to be part of this onerous task so that the document we finally produce will be a truly national consensus on how to improve the game in Nigeria”, said Toro

And to achieve the task of collating inputs from stakeholders into the final report, a member of the body Charles Ojugbana, said that public sittings in selected cities across the country would commence on May 30 in Benin City.

The  train of the public sittings will then move to Calabar on June 14-15, before hitting Abuja on July 4-5 and from there to Enugu on July 11-12. The Bauchi leg of the public sittings holds on July 18-19 while football stakeholders in Lagos and the South-West will get their opportunity to make inputs into the final draft report holds on July 25-26.

Toro, who was once a Secretary-General of the NFA, said the committee intends to digest the reports of all former committees that were set up in the past to improve the fortunes of Nigerian football

He added that in doing their job that they would be guided by the relevant FIF/CAF and NFF Statutes.