NIGERIAN FOOTBALL ADMINISTRATION NEEDS A CHANGE.

Congratulations fellow football loving men and women of our supposed football loving nation. I will not fail also to congratulate the Minister of Sport for our inability to move beyond this stage in the on going under U-20 youth competition in Egypt, I will also not fail to salute the politician cum self acclaim football technocrat in our glass house in Abuja.

Indeed, change in life’s permanent feature, since no condition, as goes the old cliché is. In business, when profits are low and all other factors for progress fails, change of direction becomes an absolute necessity. In Nigeria where the game of football is a religion, when things don’t work, actions are taken. Nigerian football is no longer what it used to be in the 80s and 90s.The ongoing under-20 in Egypt is the latest proof that Nigerian football need to be salvage.

What do the minister of sport, chairman of Nigerian Football Federation and Nigerian Sport Commission have to tell Nigerians that we last won the Nations Cup 15 years ago when Gen.Sani Abacha was the Head of State? That we failed to qualify for the last World Cup finals held in Germany and are on the verge of another collapse? That in 49years of Nigerian existence we have only managed to take part in World Cup finals thrice and never reached the quarterfinals?

Now, we have reached a point where those who run the country have to take a long hard look at Nigerian football and make bold decisions. The game cannot be left in the hands of novices who called themselves football administrators because is the biggest unifying factor the country has ever known. The present leadership has failed the nation and they need to be changed. Presently we have ex-footballers who played this game with clubs with vast experience like Jay Jay Okocha, Taribo West, Sunday Oliseh, Victor Ikpebah, Stephen Keshi and so on and so fort to take over this game we value so much. Of course, there is nothing in football lexicon to suggest that ex-footballers make the best administrators. But again, we have seen ex-players run the game with successes in the respective countries and international platform. Aside the ex-footballers, there are in every sphere of life Nigerians of highest integrity ready to take the game to the next level. But they have so far been denied by a cabal who sees football as Oil Company and milking cow.

Time has come for a change. Nigerian football cannot afford to play second fiddle on the continent it once ruled with all majesty. You watch our teams play these days and you wince,for,as they struggle against teams like Mozambique,Venezuala,Kenya,you know things have fallen apart and I pray the centre can still hold.