By  Patrick Omorodion
President Goodluck Jonathan impresses me every passing day and I know so many Nigerians, especially those that are passionate about football, one sport that is big business but which our administrators have failed to tap from.

President Jonathan is one Nigerian leader that reads and listens otherwise he would not have known some of the misdeeds of the Sani Lulu-led Board of the Nigeria Football Association, NFA.

Sports Vanguard first broke the news of the jamboree the NFA was embarking on, not for the progress of football but the interest of some top officials who felt it is their birth right to continue to milk the NFA at the detriment of football.

The NFA replied that the over 90 officials it was taking to the World Cup were football people and were in South Africa to study how to run football and organise football competitions, the FIFA way.

Everyone knew that was far from the truth, that the real truth.

But for President Jonathan, the truth would not have been told or better still our campaign for sanity in the football house would have been ignored and we get called unprintable names. This victory over corruption in football is big victory for the Vanguard family and especially our publisher who has always asked questions on what could be done to stem the sliding tide in our football.

This victory over corruption in football is one of the answers to his questions. The next will be getting good, experienced and result oriented administrators to run the affairs of our football. They abound in our country and should be fished out.

With President Jonathan now paying attention to every facet of the Nigerian life, Nigerians can get to him through writing, either on newspaper pages or on face book, which he told us influenced his change of mind on the reversal of the Eagles ban from all international competitions.

Now is also the time to let FIFA know that football in Nigeria is run by the government, be it local, state or federal. FIFA should call for the files of all the football clubs in Nigeria and investigate if those who threaten the country with FIFA ban spend a dime of their own money on football.

It is not enough for FIFA to listen to government appointees who run football on its behalf and threaten to ban a sovereign country. FIFA instead should encourage the government to gradually hands off football and allow the people to run it independently and profitably.