Illegal NFF: Why Gusau, other illegalities must go, quickly

By Ikeddy ISIGUZO 

LET me say it again - the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has been an illegal organisation since 2011. A court judgement that subsists said so. I will quote it elaborately and the role of the National Assembly in enabling the corruption that has allowed an illegal organisation, possibly the first fake federal agency, to draw billions of Naira from national coffers and millions of Dollars from FIFA which it spends most irresponsibly since it is not accountable to anybody.

So, the Ibrahim Musa Gusau led board which must go, is actually a minor part of the humongous problem before football, by extension sports with the equally illegal National Sports Commission, which is expending public funds with its two-man joke that calls itself a board. Its members were not screened by the National Assembly which still approves budgets for it.

Back to the court decision on NFF.

Justice Donatus U. Okorowo of the Abuja High Court declared the NFF illegal in 2010 while delivering the judgment in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/179/2010.

He clearly stated, ”As set out in the early part of this judgment, the Nigeria Football Association was established under Section 1 of the Nigeria Football Association Act as a body corporate with perpetual succession and common seal with power to sue and be sued.

”By these provisions, it is the only body recognised by Nigerian Law to manage football. The Law did not make reference to it as Nigeria Football Federation. The name under which it is charged to manage football under the Law is Nigeria Football Association. It has no power to address itself as Nigeria Football Federation. And the document titled Nigeria Football Federation Statute, which purports to confer the name Nigeria Football Federation to Nigeria Football Association is not a codified Law under the Laws of Federation of Nigeria. It is therefore illegal for the Nigeria Football Association to answer another name other than the name by which it is created as a legal entity.”

As the heat rose over Justice Okorowo's judgement, the National Sports Commission, which connived with NFF to sustain the illegalities over the years, sought clarification from the Federal Ministry of Justice.

In a letter dated 2 June 2011, addressed to the Director-General, National Sports Commission, the Federal Ministry of Justice elaborately affirmed that NFF was unknown to the laws of Nigeria.

“The Nigeria Football Association Act 1990 (aka Decree 101) has neither been repealed nor amended, it remains the valid legal instrument for the administration of football in Nigeria.

“In the light of the above recognition of the private status of the NFF, the ordinary implication is that the body is not entitled to the receipt of statutory allocations from the Federal Government.

“As a ‘private association’, the NFF is entitled to raise funds as averred in paragraph 3(vi) of the affidavit for its operations in line with relevant FIFA regulations. However, except the government decides to give grants-in-aid to the federation in the national interest, there will be no legal basis for the NFF to draw funds from the government for its activities.

"The present situation suggests that the structure for the administration of football in Nigeria at the moment is legally unwieldy as the NFA, which is statutorily recognised is non-functional, while the NFF, which is not a creation of our laws, is from all indications running football in the country and receiving public funds albeit unconstitutionally," the Ministry concluded.

Nothing changed. NFF is still running football illegally and government officials and agencies relate extensively with an illegal body.

Based on the clarification of the Ministry of Justice, NFF's illegal access to public funds was blocked for four months. There was bedlam. NFF got the money. There has been no inclination to obey the judgement since then.

The National Assembly connives with the elements in NFF to run an illegal organisation that draws money from public coffers contrary to a court judgement that government has refused to implement in 15 years - almost four electoral circles. 

Everybody comes and loots as much as he can and on departure imposes another set of like minds who sustain the practice and with an intentionality that the development of our football is the least thing on the agenda.

NFF uses a FIFA ban as immunity for the brigandage that is accessible to its circle. The Sports Committees of the National Assembly through their criminal collaboration provide the impunity that confers death on our football with NFF.

Asking Gusau and his board to go should not be because we did not qualify for a couple of World Cups or that the Super Falcons, our biggest global football icons would not go the Women’s World Cup for the first time since the inaugural event in 1991.

The current failures provide windows for the establishment of a legal national football association. FIFA would never be against that.

We should cancel the proposed September election and work with FIFA to resolve the myriads of challenges with our football.

FIFA has used a Normalisation Committee under Article 8.2 of the FIFA Statutes in - 

.Chad

.Guinea

.Tunisia

.Maldives

.Congo DR

.Brunei Darussalam

.El Salvador

.Egypt

.Kuwait

.Guatemala

.Greece

.Argentina

.Thailand

.Mali

.Benin

.Madagascar

.Trinidad and Tobago

 Dominican Republic

.Venezuela

.Ghana

.Uruguay

.Cameroon

.Namibia

.Kenya

Are their football teams not running better? Were some of them not in the 2026 World Cup? Are they wallowing in the daily mis-governance, administrative ineptitude, and the determined opaque financial accounts we get from NFF?

FIFA will welcome a request for a Normalisation Committee from our government which should stop the activities of the illegal organisation called NFF. It has all the legal requirements from Justice Okorowo's 15 year-old judgement that was not implemented yet everyone is wondering how we got here.

Finally...

.DISCOVERY of another fake federal agency quartered in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation has led to the suspension of three Permanent Secretaries. None of these actions leads anywhere to a knowledge of how it is possible to have these illicit operations in a government that has the means and methods to checkmate them. Credit for fake agencies may not go to the Tinubu administration alone as they have reportedly been a part of government for a longer stretch. Such excuse confirms that beyond unearthing fake agencies, nothing will be done about their promoters.

.WHAT powers does President Bola Ahmed Tinubu have to ask EFCC to move cash recoveries it made to the Students Loans Fund? What manner of appropriation is that? Shouldn't money recovered by EFCC be returned to the Federation Account and subjected to appropriation through the National Assembly? Or has Senate President Godswill Akpabio changed the Constitution while we slept?

.IN the long-running matter of Tinubu versus the rest of us, particularly insinuations in at least two jurisdictions that the man we call Bola Ahmed Tinubu, BAT, is not who will mostly think he is, clarity is becoming more important. This man has served the public, by 2026, four different versions of his academic records for four different elections he is participating in since 1999. What a genius! Didn't we hear he was on the Dean's List at University of Chicago which also changed to Chicago State University? Tinubu is a man of honour. He will soon apologise for the mistakes. Would his strident silence or even a lachrymal-doused apology redeem the fact that Tinubu swore oaths on each occasion that his academic and other records were genuine?

.ANOTHER 25 slaughtered in a week, according to Reuters. It was reportedly the third attack in Plateau State's Mangu within a week. This time they went from house to house, woke people from sleep and macheted them to death. Women and children were counted among the dead. 

Maybe the "artificial intelligence-enabled network of over 5,000 digital cameras to help law enforcement agencies combat insecurity in the State", Tinubu promised on his condolence visit to Jos on Thursday 2 April 2026 have failed to work.

“I promise you that this experience will not repeat itself,” Tinubu said. Has this promise, like most Tinubu promises failed? He also ordered the police and security agencies, to “unearth and find the killers” of innocent Nigerians.

Plateau has been attacked frequently since Tinubu's promise-filled April visit. These days,  Tinubu greets Plateau attacks with silence. Remember, as campaigns start, that the major excuse of Plateau, Benue, Sokoto, Zamfara, Borno, Kebbi, Niger, Kwara, Kogi, Kaduna, Yobe for being in APC is that the government at the centre would protect their people.

Is it late for the 5,000 digital cameras for Plateau to start working?

IN Uba, Borno State, parents protested about their children, at least 96, who were abducted from Mussa, and Lassa. Some of the children were taken in May 2026. They have been hopeful that like in Oyo State where abducted pupils were returned safely, their case will get similar attention. Hope is fading after 100 days in captivity for the students taken in Mussa. Our military is said to be on top of the situation.

NIGERIANS who celebrated the victory of Governor Jackson Adeleke in last week's Osun State cannot understand the "moon walk" dance that credits Tinubu with the victory. The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, the mouthy Nyesom Wike reportedly played a role. What is wrong with Adeleke? What informs his decision? Osun people, said to be Tinubu's relations, have been celebrating the defeat of Tinubu who they see as the major and general cause of the hardship before them. Then, Adeleke decides to honour him with the people's victory. This obeisance is why "power no longer belongs to the people". Exactly what did Tinubu do to ensure Adeleke's victory in Osun against Tinubu's power-obsessed APC?

CONGRATULATIONS to Nigerians who survived another week of flooding, electricity cuts, high food prices, religious deceits, and insecurity. The Almighty will guide us to 2026 when we would decidedly vote to remove the objects of the avoidable depressions, destruction, and deaths that Nigerians have faced since 2023. We made a mistake in 2023, we will correct it in 2027 - so help us, the Almighty. 

ALUMNI of Vanguard newspapers, former staff, on Wednesday made a public presentation of "The Vanguard Chronology: 40 Years of Nigeria’s Leading Tabloid". It was a grand event with Peter Obi, NDC presidential candidate in attendance, as well as Rotimi Amaechi, ADC vice presidential candidate, former Foreign Minister Maj-Gen Ike Nwachukwu, Chief Leo-Stan Ekeh, Inspector-General of Police Tunji Disu, Thisday Publisher Nduka Obiagbena, Prof Pat Utomi. The guest list stretched. Ibrahim Babangida, former President, and Governor of Delta State, Sheriff Francis Orohwedor Oborevwori, were represented.  The ever-effervescent Aremo Segun Osoba was the Chairman of the event that honoured Sam Amuka-Pemu, 91, who founded Vanguard 42 years ago. "The Vanguard Chronology: 40 Years of Nigeria’s Leading Tabloid" is a collection that includes slices of Nigeria's stories over the years.

ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues