By Mark Baber
January 5 – The request of Leo Iyke Igbokwe for an arbitration committee to be set up to examine the validity of the September 30 Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) elections is expected to be presented to the NFF Board on January 8, offering another chance for football in Nigeria to bring the current leadership crisis to an end, without the involvement of civil courts.
Igbokwe, one of the losing candidates in the elections which brought Amaju Pinnick and the current board to power, saw his petition in favour of new elections rejected by members of the NFF Electoral Appeals Committee who rebelled against their Committee Head Okechukwu Ajunwa who produced a report annulling the elections.
Driven by a lawyer’s sense of injustice at the lay people on the committee issuing a perverse ruling in favour of those who had been elected on September 30, Igbokwe laid out his case to FIFA, who were also provided with a copy of Ajunwa’s report.
FIFA’s response was a defence of the “majority decision” of the Electoral Appeals Committee, denying any special status for the decisions of the legally trained over the lay members of the committee, but crucially to draw back from what had been perceived as a steadfast support for the September 30 process, arguing the matter was an internal one.
According to Jerome Valcke, FIFA Secretary General’s letter of December 18: “In this respect, FIFA deems that the issue of the validity of the 30 September 2014 elections must be examined by the NFF competent internal bodies since it appears to be an internal matter falling under the competence of the NFF. Consequently, FIFA does not appear to have jurisdiction to examine the merits of the above mentioned decisions as it does not seem to come under its remit.”
The letter added: “Finally, we kindly draw your attention to the fact that this information is only of a general nature and, therefore, without prejudice to any decision that any competent body may be called to pass in this or similar matters in the future.”
The influential NFF General Secretary Musa Amadu, whilst insisting his role in the matter is purely procedural, has confirmed that he will be presenting the NFF Board which meets ahead of the Glo African Footballer of the Year Awards on Thursday with Igbokwe’s petition for an arbitration body to be set up to examine the whole affair.
As Igbokwe points out, Nigeria has set up similar arbitration panels in the past and if the panel is constituted of competent lawyers and state judges and “constituted with all fairness” the prospect of a return to compliance with football statutes and properly organised elections in place of cynical power politics may still be open.
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