Dr. Christian Emeruwa, the Confederation of African Football’s head of safety and security, claims that for the game to advance in Nigeria, the Nigerian football structure needs to be changed right away.
This was said at a news conference in Lagos on Wednesday by Emeruwa, one of the candidates for the presidency of the Nigeria Football Federation in the election to be held in Benin City next month.
“We need to overhaul the system that led to the current status of Nigerian football; it is not the fault of those in charge of the sport today. Nobody will take you seriously if there isn’t a solid governance system in place. The only solution is a well defined framework that can drive itself. You put out fires inside the NFF building every minute. It’s more than what the eyes can see, according to Emeruwa, a former NFF executive.
He also bemoaned the NFF’s dire financial situation.
“NFF doesn’t give back anything to the society. There’s no CSR, we’ve become a beggarly organisation that keeps receiving and receiving. I’m not saying this because I’m contesting, I know that with the power of football, we can do so many things in the society,” Emeruwa said.
“How much has the NFF been able to generate? I saw the (sports) minister’s speech, when he said N15bn was spent on NFF in seven years.
He cited corruption and nepotism as clogs in the wheels of the progress of Nigerian football that needed to be eradicated.
“Corruption kills development and accountability. Nepotism is here, who you know is more important than what you can do. If we want to employ coaches, let’s go for the best, if it’s players let’s go for the best as well, not the man-know-man that we’ve adopted and has made us a laughing stock in the world.”
“I don’t want to run a local Nigerian federation, I want to run a federation that will compete with the world’s best and now is the time.”
