By Mark Baber
January 13 – The refusal of the current Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) Executive Committee to set up an arbitration panel in order to bring a sense of legitimacy to football governance in the country, following the disputed elections of September 30, has returned Nigerian football to a full-blown crisis – this time with influential opponents of the Warri-elected NFF President Amaju Pinnick promising to take action simultaneously.
One of the losing candidates in the September 30 elections, Barrister Iyke Igbokwe has been relentlessly pursuing the goal of new elections based on the flawed nature of those elections but his petition for an arbitration panel to be set up was ignored with the Executive Committee of the NFF simply pronouncing that the Executive Committee adopted the majority report of the Members of the NFF 2014 Electoral Appeals Committee, which upheld in its entirety the NFF 2014 Elective Congress of 30t September, 2014.
In line with the provisions of the NFF Electoral Code, which states without ambiguity that the decision of the Electoral Appeals Committee on election matters is final, the Executive Committee declared that all issues arising from the NFF 2014 Elective Congress are now fully rested.
Igbokwe’s response has been to once again urge FIFA take action to ensure the creation of an Arbitration Tribunal saying: “I was utterly shocked when it was announced that the Amaju Pinnick’s Board rejected our request for the setting up of an Arbitration Tribunal, which is properly provided in articles 68 and 69 of the NFF statutes, 2010.”
Describing an Arbitration Tribunal as a statutory and mandatory provision under “our” football statutes, Igbokwe requests FIFA to now intervene and “direct the NFF to set up an Arbitration Tribunal to immediately look into our just petitions into the conduct and processes of the September 30th, 2014 election of the NFF. If FIFA does not wade in now to call Amaju Pinnick and his Board to order, I will be left with no alternative than to seek for help elsewhere.”
The Chris Giwa faction, which had laid low during the internal process of attempting to establish an Arbitration Tribunal and which was persuaded to withdraw civil legal action earlier in the crisis in order to forestall a FIFA ban, has chosen this moment to reassert its own legitimacy issuing a statement to local media saying: “With this show of recklessness and crass violation of the NFF statutes, it is without any iota of doubt that the Amaju Pinnick factional board does not want peaceful resolution to the issues. Having exhausted all available internal mechanisms for amicable settlement of the logjam, our board (Giwa’s board) has resolved that we shall hold our regular board meeting on the 15th January, 2015 at the Glass House to fashion our plans and programmes to reposition our football and get us back on track.”
FIFA’s default position has been that the current imbroglio in Nigeria is a matter in which they are only prepared to interfere if those who oppose the faction who have seized power attempt to take their grievances to a civil court. With matters coming to a head, it will be interesting to see the reaction to the planned occupation of the NFF headquarters and to Igbokwe’s renewed plea – with a return to the civil courts and a renewed ban on Nigeria’s participation in international football still very much on the cards.
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1734904776labto1734904776ofdlr1734904776owedi1734904776sni@n1734904776osloh1734904776cin.l1734904776uap1734904776