Illegal NFF: Why Gusau, Other Illegalities Must Go, Quickly – By Ikeddy ISIGUZO

By Ikeddy ISIGUZO

Let me say it again – the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), has been an illegal organisation since 2011. A court judgement that subsists said so. I will quote it elaborately and the role of the National Assembly in enabling the corruption that has allowed an illegal organisation, possibly the first fake federal agency, to draw billions of Naira from national coffers and millions of Dollars from FIFA which it spends most irresponsibly since it is not accountable to anybody.
So, the Ibrahim Musa Gusau led board which must go, is actually a minor part of the humongous problem before football, by extension sports with the equally illegal National Sports Commission, which is expending public funds with its two-man joke that calls itself a board. Its members were not screened by the National Assembly which still approves budgets for it.

Back to the court decision on NFF

Justice Donatus U. Okorowo of the Abuja High Court declared the NFF illegal in 2010 while delivering the judgment in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/179/2010.
He clearly stated, ”As set out in the early part of this judgment, the Nigeria Football Association was established under Section 1 of the Nigeria Football Association Act as a body corporate with perpetual succession and common seal with power to sue and be sued.
”By these provisions, it is the only body recognised by Nigerian Law to manage football. The Law did not make reference to it as Nigeria Football Federation. The name under which it is charged to manage football under the Law is Nigeria Football Association. It has no power to address itself as Nigeria Football Federation. And the document titled Nigeria Football Federation Statute, which purports to confer the name Nigeria Football Federation to Nigeria Football Association is not a codified Law under the Laws of Federation of Nigeria. It is therefore illegal for the Nigeria Football Association to answer another name other than the name by which it is created as a legal entity.”
As the heat rose over Justice Okorowo’s judgement, the National Sports Commission, which connived with NFF to sustain the illegalities over the years, sought clarification from the Federal Ministry of Justice.
In a letter dated 2 June 2011, addressed to the Director-General, National Sports Commission, the Federal Ministry of Justice elaborately affirmed that NFF was unknown to the laws of Nigeria.
“The Nigeria Football Association Act 1990 (aka Decree 101) has neither been repealed nor amended, it remains the valid legal instrument for the administration of football in Nigeria.
“In the light of the above recognition of the private status of the NFF, the ordinary implication is that the body is not entitled to the receipt of statutory allocations from the Federal Government.
“As a ‘private association’, the NFF is entitled to raise funds as averred in paragraph 3(vi) of the affidavit for its operations in line with relevant FIFA regulations. However, except the government decides to give grants-in-aid to the federation in the national interest, there will be no legal basis for the NFF to draw funds from the government for its activities.
“The present situation suggests that the structure for the administration of football in Nigeria at the moment is legally unwieldy as the NFA, which is statutorily recognised is non-functional, while the NFF, which is not a creation of our laws, is from all indications running football in the country and receiving public funds albeit unconstitutionally,” the Ministry concluded.
Nothing changed. NFF is still running football illegally and government officials and agencies relate extensively with an illegal body.
Based on the clarification of the Ministry of Justice, NFF’s illegal access to public funds was blocked for four months. There was bedlam. NFF got the money. There has been no inclination to obey the judgement since then.
The National Assembly connives with the elements in NFF to run an illegal organisation that draws money from public coffers contrary to a court judgement that government has refused to implement in 15 years – almost four electoral circles.
Everybody comes and loots as much as he can and on departure imposes another set of like minds who sustain the practice and with an intentionality that the development of our football is the least thing on the agenda.
NFF uses a FIFA ban as immunity for the brigandage that is accessible to its circle. The Sports Committees of the National Assembly through their ‘criminal’ collaboration provide the impunity that confers death on our football with NFF.
Asking Gusau and his board to go should not be because we did not qualify for a couple of World Cups or that the Super Falcons, our biggest global football icons would not go the Women’s World Cup for the first time since the inaugural event in 1991.
The current failures provide windows for the establishment of a legal national football association. FIFA would never be against that.
We should cancel the proposed September election and work with FIFA to resolve the myriads of challenges with our football.
FIFA has used a Normalisation Committee under Article 8.2 of the FIFA Statutes in Chad, Guinea, Tunisia, Maldives, Congo DR, Brunei Darussalam, El Salvador, Egypt, Kuwait, Guatemala, Greece, Argentina, Thailand, Mali, Benin, Madagascar, and Trinidad & Tobago.
Others are Dominican Republic
.Venezuela, Ghana, Uruguay, Cameroon, Namibia, Kenya.
Are their football teams not running better? Were some of them not in the 2026 World Cup? Are they wallowing in the daily mis-governance, administrative ineptitude, and the determined opaque financial accounts we get from NFF?
FIFA will welcome a request for a Normalisation Committee from our government which should stop the activities of the illegal organisation called NFF. It has all the legal requirements from Justice Okorowo’s 15 year-old judgement that was not implemented yet everyone is wondering how we got here.