Patrick Omorodion
27 December 2008
It takes a man to own up to his deficiencies and for that, President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), a name which former Green Eagles winger, Adokie Amiesimaka still detests and describes as illegal, Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi, should be forgiven by Nigerians who are still piqued by the poor performances of Nigerian teams in the out-going year.
It is said that saying he truth will make you free. Lulu may not have thought about this but he was blunt when, in reaction to questions on the issue of corruption in football, either by referees or coaches, said "I'm confused".
He wanted Nigerians to help him in the fight against corruption in football and called for evidence so that those found guilty could be disciplined and may be flushed out of the system.
It however did not matter to the NFF boss that the NFF Board which he heads had set up a panel headed by another former boss of the football body, Brigadier-General Dominic Oneya and that the panel had submitted its report, which we hear proved those who claim that there was corruption in football.
Instead of acting on the report, the NFF has turned a blind eye to the report, or better still confined the report to the place where other reports before it had been put, the trash can of history.
Hear Lulu, "My ears are full with allegations of corruption against our coaches. I get many calls from Nigerians alleging one wrong thing against the coaches. I am on red alert. I have set traps and I will use the first person I catch as an example for others."
He virtually begged Nigerians to join him in setting up traps to track down corrupt people in football stressing that the search is not being beamed on coaches alone but for "everybody in the NFF including me. If you have any corrupt allegations on me or any other member, please, come forward."
Lulu should not look too far. He should contact his predecessor in office, Anthony kojo Williams who first blew the whistle on corruption in our football, be it referees, coaches and even the NFF on the issue of age falsification for the age grade competitions because of the win at all cost mentality.
Apart from Williams, many other Nigerians have cried out over corruption in football.
They can be contacted for facts and not to wait for fresh facts. If all these don't work, then the NFF should dust up the Oneya panel report and implement it without further delay.
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