By Paul Bassey

Going by the headline of this piece, what I am about to write is no more  news.
I am convinced that perhaps there is nothing I am going to say here that our very intelligent readers have not heard or read and this influenced my earlier decision to dwell extensively on the just concluded Orange African Nations Championship.

My editor feels otherwise. He calls it ANOTHER EYE WITNESS ACCOUNT, and since I came back he has been wanting to know WHAT REALLY HAPPENED.

We all know what happened. That a powerful delegation led by the Sports Minister, Chairman National Sports Commission Professor Taoheed Adedoja and supported by the NFF President Aminu Maigari arrived Khartoum, Sudan to ask the CAF Executive to consider a Nigerian for the CAF Executive position to be vacated by Dr. Amos Adamu.

In doing so the Nigerians were aware of the statutory provisions governing the position, which in the main dictates that should a member of the Executive for one reason or the other is not able to conclude his tenure, the executive Committee had the powers to elect someone to fill that position.

That position was therefore not up for election, and the statute is loudly silent on who is to be considered to fill such, and that is why Nigeria came to town to ask that the vacancy be open to a Nigerian.

In a very warm meeting with the Nigerian delegation, the CAF President Dr. Issa Hayatou acknowledged the diplomatic mien of Professor Adedoja, he said he was happy the minister realized that the position was not a Nigerian position, he  extolled the contributions of Nigeria to Africa’s football development and that for him it is unthinkable for a CAF Executive committee to operate without a Nigerian.

He then delivered the verdict. That Dr Adamu has informed CAF about his intention to take his case to the Court of Arbitration for Sports ( CAS ) and that for that reason, Adamu’s CAF Position was not vacant!

The CAF President added that since Alhaji Galadima was provisionally entered for the FIFA elections he wanted us to give it a shot.

In another meeting with a CAF executive committee member, he also supported the President’s position but insisted that we had a lot of work on our hands since we had arrived the party very late and only proverbial crumbs were left on the table.

On second thought, I wonder why we were shocked by the announcement that  the CAF position was not vacant. Back home we had abandoned the CAF cause on the premise that since Dr. Adamu was appealing his suspension by FIFA it was only logical that he should be allowed to exhaust same.

Immediately after the appeal, Dr. Adamu signified his intention to go to CAS, a higher appeal court  and it was a classic return to status quo.

When the delegation met later that evening, all the prevailing factors were placed on the table and there was   a unanimous view that to start to campaign for a FIFA seat, just four days to such an important election was more than herculean, given our state of unpreparedness, so the only viable option was to ask  Dr. Adamu to resign his CAF position to allow Nigeria step in.

The task was left to the Honourable Sports Minister.

At first attempt and predictably too, Dr Adamu rejected the proposition because it “meant the nation was pronouncing a guilty verdict on him, when he was out to clear his name”.

We sent back the minister, this time to advice that he could still go to CAS, but relinquish his hold on the CAF seat since no one knew how long the process was going to take.

No headway.

By this time, the election was only three days away, so another meeting was convened where it was decided to give the FIFA seat a trial.

Why was this decision taken? Why did we not just pack our bags and go home?

A lot of factors were considered in the very exhaustive meeting. One was the prompting of the CAF President which was translated to mean that as at the time of meeting him, no consensus had been reached on who to support and the reasons were enumerated.

1)    When Dr. Adamu and Cote Divoire’s Jacques Anouma occupied that position, Africa was not very happy that two candidates from the same geo political region could be so favoured and were ready to break the strangle hold.

The same argument extended to North Africa were Egypt’s Abou Rida was already in FIFA and not much of a chance was given to the candidature of Algeria’s Mohammed Raouroua.

2)    The third block in the FIFA election was the South Africa block led by South Africa’s Danny Jordaan, a block that was considered strong only on paper, given the candidature of SIX members for the CAF seat including Danny Jordann and Kalusha Bwalya.

3)      Further investigations revealed that Jacques Anouma had done so much work that he was perceived as a front runner, so we decided to align with him, in the spirit of WAFU to be able to pick up the second votes whenever he was the first on the card.

That was the analysis that made us jump into the fray and what a scare we caused. The moment we went to town to announce the official position of Nigeria, the political equation changed. Most people wanted us to withdraw. That we had come too late, that they would want to come in with us but that they had pitched tent elsewhere……

Our duty was to get them relocate and we had only one night to do that. It was the night in which the FIFA delegation had it town, that Kalusha Bwalya had withdrawn for  Danny Jordan, that political equations produced strange answers.
Then came the morning and the voting.

You can imagine our disposition when the counting started and the very first two votes out of the hat belonged to Jacques Anouma and Ibrahim Galadima!

As the minutes wore on, in typical…Obasanjo… Obasanjo… Obasanjo… Obasanjo… Obasanjo… Obasanjo… Ekwueme… Obasanjo fashion, we had reckoned without the tenacity and the reach of Mohammed Raouaroua, CAF Executive Committee member, first Vice President of the Union of Arab Football Associations.

The rest is now history, even as delegates are wondering how we were able to get five votes and from where.
There was a hug from Galadima for everybody, for “ …The best under the circumstance”
Aminu Maigari said all is not lost.

Mitchell Obi was to say a battle had been lost but the war was still on.

Abba Yola sent out a consolation text which read in part: “ Sometimes Allah breaks our heart to make us whole….”

Where do we go from here?

A TEAR FOR MUSTAPHA

The 33rd Ordinary General Assembly of CAF was punctuated with the award of CAF merit order of honour in Gold to General Seyi Memene of Togo and Mustapha Fahmy long serving Secretary General Of CAF who has moved on to FIFA as Director of Competitions.

It was emotions all through as it finally dawned on th CAF staff and members of the CAF family that a man they had spent over 30 years together has finally moved on.

DISCUSSING NAKED
Given the corruption breeze blowing across the football world, CAF elections was a study in drama. You could only talk to your friends and it had to be in the open. A story was told of a journalist turned football administrator who went to canvass for votes from a fellow delegate and the resultant discussion ensued.

“ You know I am not supposed to discuss with you alone in my room.”
“Presido, am I not your friend again?”

“This is more than friendship my brother. I value my football career. Can you please put off your phone?”
“Ok I have done so”

“Do you mind if I search you?”
“Go ahead, if it has come to this.”

“No I wont search you. I have a better idea. Can we discuss naked. Undress and I will also undress so that both of us will know we are not hiding any gadgets anywhere…..”

Sincerely, I do not know how they progressed with their discussion after that bizarre proposition.
Happy to be back.

See you next week.