By Abdulmalik Abdulwahab
Aminu Maigari, the former president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), was sacked in 2014, following a strong allegation of financial misappropriation, misapplication and mal-administration. Yet, what led to the dismissal of the NFF former leader still ripples among the major problems that battled the preceding administration of Amaju Melvin Pinnick who succeeded his predecessor in the same year. Amaju ruled NFF for eight years, spanning from 2014 to 2022.
For those who are well grounded about the politics of Nigeria football, power tussle is an established custom whenever there’s a need for an appointment of new leadership. The transition of every administration under NFF, has always come with disquiet, especially after the end of each FIFA World Cup tournament.
After the South Africa 2010 World Cup, Alhaji Sani Lulu who craved a second term was thrown out of office, after allegations about corrupt practices were launched against him. He was tried for the alleged offences but found not guilty, and was later acquitted by the Federal High Court in Abuja. Alhaji Aminu Maigari, another NFF president who succeeded Alhaji Lulu, also experienced a similar issue when he showed an interest to retain his position in 2014. The same was the fate of Amaju Pinnick who left office in 2022.
How Pinnick Becomes NFF President
Before the appointment of Pinnick as the president, some football stakeholders held a controversial congress on August 26, at Chida Hotel in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital. The event saw Ambassador Chris Giwa, the founder of Giwa Football Club, as the elected president of NFF.
When the management of NFF under Maigari announced to hold another election congress in Warri, the controversial president Chris Giwa, obtained an injunction order against the election. Despite the court order, the election was held, and Pinnick became the NFF president recognized by the global football board which is FIFA. On 27 April 2014, Giwa appealed to the Supreme Court of Nigeria, where the parties were later referred to the Jos High Court for speedy resolution of the dispute.
Giwa and his group later moved to take over the leadership of NFF after the dispute was finally resolved in their favour. However, the movement was halted by Pinnick and his supporters, with the former suppressing their pursuit fearing FIFA may ban Nigeria from participating in the upcoming World Cup competition.
NFF Revenue Management Under Pinnick Administration
NFF generates allocation from local and foreign sources, every year. The body always claimed the funding to be autonomous. However, it is glaring that its two main sources of funding are money generated from the Nigeria governments and FIFA grants. Apart from its yearly allocation from the federal budget fiscal bill which usually estimated at billions of naira, the NFF receives an annual grant of $1.5M and cash reward from FIFA—the world football governing body, each time Nigeria took part in the World Cup (WC).
Nigeria received $8.4 million for their participation in the 2014 World Cup tournament. The Super Eagles also got $1.5M for preparation for the 2018 World Cup edition, including $8.M for their participation where they could not proceed beyond the group stage. Apart from the two primary sources of funds, NFF also scoops more money by going into partnership with corporate organisations.
In 2014, NFF under Pinnick entered into viable sponsorship deals with multinational organizations. For example, NFF secured a partnership deal worth $4 million with Coca-Cola for five years. Others are the indigenous oil giants (Aiteo), who also sealed a striking deal of N2.5B for five years, Simba Group (two years) for undisclosed amount, Payporte for undisclosed amount, and the Nigerian Breweries’ N2.2B for five years, including NIKE deal in 2015, which was believed to worth $4.7M with a duration of three years.
Prior to the 2018 World Cup, not less than N730M was received by the NFF from various state governments, agencies and even a former senate president. The allocations, which varied in figures, were said to be “donations”, while there are records of some of the aforementioned sums getting into the account of a private established financial company (Financial Derivatives Ltd), which was brought by Pinnick for the warehousing money outside the official accounts of the NFF.
Mismanagement and Mal-administration of Funds
FIFA released a $2.5m grant to Nigeria as part of its FIFA Assistance Programme in 2015. The fund was slated for football development programmes in the country and was disbursed in five tranches between May and October 2015. The spending of the grant raised eyebrows for FIFA board who condemned NFF for lack of transparency, stating that the NFF leadership was unable to prove that the funds were not fraudulently exploited. FIFA also mourned the fact that the funds were not used for the approved programmes.
PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) immediately ran a review about the NFF spending with the FIFA funds and presented its findings to FIFA in October 2016. PwC stated that there are detected situations which may signify or lead to a misuse of funds in many cases. The results indicated that FIFA development funds could not be traced to supporting documentation or failed to align with FIFA prescribed purposes.
The PwC also said that nine cases totalling $801,929 were seen where there was no corroborating evidence to establish the subsequent disbursements. Furthermore, the NFF made payouts in cash and as such was unable to affirm if the final recipient actually received the funds.
In a bid to defend the cash withdrawals, the NFF issued an official response to the PwC report through a letter addressed to the FIFA secretary-general by Sanusi that Nigerian banks are not run in dollars and the NFF had no option than to make withdrawals and exchange to naira at parallel market to make payments to their beneficiaries. Meanwhile, contrary to his claim, Nigerian banks are known to provide the option to debit an account holder in naira, even if the money received is in a foreign currency. Recently, Emefiele noted the parallel market as a tainted market, that is, an illegal foreign exchange transactions operation.
Speaking with the Digest Press, Micheal Odetunde, a reputable football analyst, argued that the probe of corruption in NFF during Pinnick’s administration, hampered the development of Nigeria football activities. He noted that the mismanagement of funds meant for football development and infrastructure, decayed the grassroot programs which are usually organized by the state Football Associations.
Mr Odetunde further emphasized the impact of the corrupt practices on the national teams’ performance. He associated the lackluster performance to the holding of funds targeted to improve young players and the promising talents “who were known as future glories.”
“Meanwhile, diverting the funds meant for career development of players is envious,” Mr Michael noted.
Probe of Corruption
In May 2018, Harrison Jalla, the former president of National Association of Nigerian Footballers, petitioned FIFA to investigate the secretary general of the NFF. The demand focused on the allegations of unethical and corrupt practices which he claimed to have violated the FIFA code of ethics. He accused Sanusi of misappropriating funds, embezzlement and abuse of position. He alleged that Sanusi connived with Pinnick, and the NFF second Vice Presidents, Shehu Dikko. He further emphasized that the $8.4M World Cup participation fee paid to NFF in 2014, was massively diverted to personal gains by the aforementioned three individuals.
Tunde Aderibigbe, former head of protocol at NFF 2014-2018, also said that there were no papers of the contractual agreement entered into for the 16 friendly matches played. He added that there is no firm traceable record revenues pertaining to sponsorship, advertisement, broadcast rights, and ticket sales of the games. His allegations included that the NFF was in the habit of collecting funds from the federal government, state government, FIFA, and CAF for the same event.
The Special Presidential Investigation Panel on Recovery of Public Property (SPIP), established by the Federal Government to investigate the Glass House anomalies where the panel charged Pinnick’s administration with corruption and disappearance of $8.4M, paid by FIFA for participation in the 2014 World Cup and imaginary international friendly matches including failure to declare their assets.
Meanwhile, the panel was later dissolved by Former President, Muhammadu Buhari, following allegations of corruption against the panel chairman before the office of the Attorney-General of the Federation took over the case. But the case was subsequently dismissed by a Federal High Court in Abuja. The Independent Corrupt Practice Corporation (ICPC), later seized the property of the NFF officials involved in the corruption probe.
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), also conducted an investigation into the body during Pinnick’s Era. This centered on fraud allegations on how money generated from sponsorships, domestic league’s television sponsorship and payments from a former kit supplier for all the national teams, which are meant for the development of football in the country has allegedly gone missing. But the efforts of Nigeria’s anti-graft agency didn’t cut water as the alleged individual pleaded not guilty, and was thereby discharged and acquitted.
According to the Transparency Organization, Nigeria scored zero on the table among the worst performing Football Associations (FAs) globally. This made the country to score 42% of FAs that scored 0 to 4, while the scale of corruption allegations rival those exposed elsewhere similar to 69% of African FAs. Unlike Ghana where the FA was dissolved after the 2018 bribery video, implicating 77 referees and 14 officials, meanwhile, 18% referees were caught.
Mr Michael further concluded that FIFA and CAF should step forward in tackling corruption malpractice ravaging Nigeria football sector through sanctioning any erring officials.
He further implores the current leaders and stakeholders of NFF to be transparent regarding corruption, and be objective towards the good governance of Nigeria football.