15th March, 2012
The board of the Nigeria Football Federation led by Aminu Maigari, was almost at the exit door of Nigerian football were it not for the intervention of Vice President, Architect Namadi Sambo and Senator Pius Anyim, the secretary to the government of the federation.
P.M.Sports reliably gathered that part of the recommendations of the National Sports Commission, NSC, ahead of the scheduled visit to FIFA today was the resignation of the Maigari-led NFF board, based on the judgment of the court declaring the NFF as an illegal body. The NSC was hoping that FIFA will see reason with them on the matter.
But the information filtered to the media, which made the NFF to be on guard, as they lobbied among the top politicians in the presidency and in the national assembly for their support.
Based on this, the NFF board members stood their ground against resigning when they held a meeting with the leadership of NSC on Monday, while the NSC, who had the support of top politicians in the Senate, insisted on the board to vacate office. This led to the meeting ending in a deadlocked.
However, the NFF continued to make contacts with the top politicians and fortunately for the local body, they had the backing of the Vice President, on the matter. By the time the meeting resumed on Tuesday, with the intervention of Senator Pius Anyim, the NFF were unfazed as they have been assured that Senator Anyim will not trail the resignation line of the NSC.
Effiong Johnson, a board member of NFF, informed P.M.Sports that the NFF was optimistic of winning the battle to remain in office before they met Senator Anyim and rest of the stakeholders.
“There is no cause for alarm. I am certain that the NFF will remain in office. We are going to resolve this latest crisis peacefully.” Johnson said.
The office of the SGF invited Dr. Sam Sam Jaja and Bar. Ray Nnaji invited them to Abuja for the meeting, which they honoured and Senator Anyim made a truce in the matter as agreement was reached between the warring parties.
—Francis Achi/Abuja