Ministry Plans NFA Shake Up
By Wale Ajimotokan in Lagos and Juliana Taiwo in Abuja
The Minister of Sports and Social Development, Col Musa Mohammed (rtd) has said a major restructuring is to take place in the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) in the next couple of days.
The Minister disclosed this at fund raising dinner for the Team Nigeria Project organised by both the Team Nigeria and Nigeria Stock Exchange to raise funds for the Athens Olympics.
THISDAYSports gathered that a committee is to be set up that would look at all aspects of the running of the Glass House including the controversial Decree 101. The Minister has also revealed that the Federal Government is no longer willing to fold its arms and watch the country's football fortunes tumbled down the drain, and this would be one of the briefs of the Committee.
The committee would be announced before the end of the week and they would be compelled to put on paper lasting structures that would benefit the country's football.
Mohammed announcement is coming on the heels of a similar attempt by another Sports Minister Ishaya Mark Aku to enhance the fortunes of the nation's number one sport through the restructuring of the Glass House.
Three years ago the late minister had expressed his displeasure with the huge workforce at the FA and the fact that despite this there was nothing to show for it. He subsequently commissioned a fromer Secretary-General Mr. Patrtick Okpomo to take a critical look at the Glass House and come up with recommendations on how to improve its performance and bring it in line with what he saw when he visited the England FA.
At the end of the day, the CAF Instructor recommended that the FA should be run like a corporate body with the key officials applying and being interviewed by an independent body and not by the ministry.
A private firm was then commissioned to screen the prospective applicants from where the present Glass House officials emerged. In continuing with this effort at rejuvenating the soccer house and be extension Nigerian football an election body headed by Pa Ojido was set up to conduct elections into the board.
However, like most things Nigerian as soon as Aku died his vision for the FA was jettisoned with the association virtually reverting to its past where the Ministry was in full control of its affairs.
This has in recent time pitted the Board against the Secretariat with the Chairman Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima complaining that the Secretary-General Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi was working at cross purposes with his Board.
But following the whittling down of Aku's original plan, the scribe now reports to the ministry and not the Board and thus owes more allegiance to the political appointee rather than those elected to pilot the football affairs of the country.
|
