I have been following the saga of these two men for quite sometime and the matter-of-fact question is- what does Chris Giwa want from football?
And what innovative and positive plan does he have for Nigerian football development?
No doubt I have been very critical of the Amaju Pinnick led NFF and many things are going on within the glass house that I and many other stakeholders are not happy about. And as a passionate football development enthusiast, I often express these via the media – my constituency.
It is rather unfortunate that this same board led us to a back-to-back AFCON miss, when we weren’t able to defend the title we won after 19 years, by systematically frustrating the winning coach before being disgraced and was eventually sacked.
This led to the engagement of a rookie in Sunday Oliseh who rubbished the NFF, media, Nigerians and even players during his short-term sojourn.
That said, the sudden re-emergence of Chris Giwa was nothing but a surprise to me, I have no idea who he was in my ten years of sports administration and journalism. He sprung up from nowhere to quickly become a household name, I really don’t know his antecedents aside owning a football club.
On the way forward, he contested the elections, I was at the Chida hotel with delegates and my colleagues in the media, when just like in a movie plot, the administrators left the scene and conducted a meeting in Asokoro.
Eventually, the congress met and fixed an election for Warri – Amaju Pinnick’s hometown with a possible home advantage, which Shehu Dikko could have won easily if not for debarring him from travelling, he was that popular.
There we go with elections tribunal and now a high court – an endless charade all in the name of football administration.
Giwa and Pinnick are Nigerians with equal rights, but in actual fact, Nigeria’s football doesn’t need this court drama.
While it is commendable that Giwa is spending his personal money to develop football in the land as well as creating employment, Pinnick was opportuned to be in a position to spend Delta state government money on sports in his state, and now taxpayers’ money in the NFF, he has gotten all on a platter of gold – lucky geezer.
The Youth and Sports minister summoned the warring factions to a peace meeting which ended up in a bitter truce.
These men need to sheath their swords and allow peace to reign in the sake of football. I really wish I can call both men together in a room to make peace.
Giwa should face his club, develop it and ensure its entrance into the CAF tournament, and now, the LMC may sabotage his efforts because of this act.
And also, Pinnick should be allowed to focus on the female national teams and the Super Eagles for the FIFA world cup qualifier, we do not need any distraction of any kind at this point. Or else, an emergency congress should be summoned.
Incessant crisis is killing our football, this affects productivity, affects players, coaches and also chases sponsors away.
Let peace reign for the sake of Nigerian football!
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Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNai
Aderonke Ogunleye-Bello is a journalist, public speaker, change agent and a sports enthusiast.
