In November 2012, the Nigeria Football Federation had to defend before the legislature its N4.8bn budget request for 2013 which represented about 62.5 per cent increase compared to 2012. Reasons like the cost of furniture for the new NFF secretariat (eventually launched by President Goodluck Jonathan this year), the prosecution of the African Cup of Nations in South Africa, prosecution of World Cup qualifier games among other engagements of the national teams were adduced by the NFF. Unsatisfied, Geoffrey Gaya, Chairman, House of Representatives’ Sports Committee made it clear that the NFF must properly document its sources of revenues, detailed cost estimates for matches played and flight tickets. The budget approved for the NFF in 2013 (the Budget Office still refers to it as the ‘NFA’, Nigeria Football Association) shows a total allocation of N1.9bn with personnel cost totalling about N84.6m.

Finally in January 2013, the month AFCON competition commenced, reports indicated that government only ratified the release of half of the anticipated expenditure. A reliable source disclosed “the NFF is groaning under serious financial problems in South Africa as it only received about half of the budget approved for the tournament . . . The situation is so serious that Nigeria has had to step down on a bonus scheme that would have fetched each player about $100,000 were they to win the ongoing AFCON in South Africa.” The NFF officials further predicted that financial difficulties would linger for the remaining part of 2013.

After 19 years, the Super Eagles won the AFCON tournament in South Africa taking home a prize money of $1.5m (about N240m). Surprisingly to many Nigerians, it emerged in August that the NFF was broke after it had expended about 79 per cent (as of the end of July) of the amount appropriated to it for the year. Not too long after this, Coach Stephen Keshi cried out to the public about his own plight over unpaid seven-month salary.

Apparently, the NFF was not happy with Keshi’s embarrassing outburst as its Chairman, Aminu Maigari, told reporters, “Yes we are owing Keshi, so what? Keshi is not the only employee in the NFF who has not got his salary. We have about 11 national teams and all have coaches. It is only fair that we treat them equally. My management staff have not received their salaries for over a year and nobody is making noise about it . . . “

It is public knowledge that President Jonathan has never hidden his love for Nigerian football so like the Lehman Brothers, NFF was bailed out last week by a presidential approval of N280m (grant) to cover salary arrears of national football coaches. Although termed a “one-off” grant, it is disquieting that the NFF cannot pay her employees – one wonders what the personnel costs in the budget are for.

Recently, a kite has been flying that Keshi may not lead the Super Eagles to the World Cup due to his “technical experience” hence a technical adviser (read “a white man”) may be needed. This pointer only reminds us of two things; one, Nigerians complain about foreigners (particularly Asians) maltreating our citizens who work as their employees. However, we do not treat ourselves the way we ought to be treated before we demand respect by foreigners. Two, the employment of foreign coaches had been more of a conduit to waste funds rather than the need for expertise – an obvious cost saver is investing in our people. It is not new that coaches have remained unpaid whilst carrying out their jobs – former coaches Christian Chukwu and Amodu Shuaibu are a recent sample. Amusingly, Amodu qualified Nigeria to the 2010 World Cup but was replaced a few months to the tournament by a Swede, Lars Lagerback, who hardly lived here but was never owed just like Berti Vogts, another foreigner.

The NFF needs to first work on her transparency and accountability before it can attract the trust of corporate organisations. News of unpaid salaries, missing/stolen money, players disagreeing or complaining about unpaid bonuses (as seen before the Confederations’ Cup), profligacy in spending and bail-outs hamper her credibility. Whilst the NFF must be given kudos for proper preparation of our teams (a factor for our recent successes) compared to past occurrences, the Federal Government must demand accountability from the federation before disbursing funds. The NFF cannot abhor government interference in football administration whilst receiving ‘bail-outs’ from the piper (government)..

Mustafa Yusuf-Adebola,

Lagos.

ROCE: Whilst the NFF must be given kudos for proper preparation of our teams (a factor for our recent successes) compared to past occurrences, the Federal Government must demand accountability from the federation before disbursing funds.

zicky: What is nfa doing with the money they get from globacom, Tom Tom, Guinness and other sponsorship deal, most countries football federation don't depend on govt to run der day 2 day activities

Kairoseki77: Jonathan needs to figure out why the NFF was having problems in the first place.

Somebody in the Ministry of Sports is obviously corrupt. They should be exposed and sacked.

Everything else is only a temporary fix.