The NFF crisis has hovered since the beginning of last month. It assumed a new chapter last week when the minister ordered the return of the ‘impeached ’President of the football federation, Aminu Maigari, to office as demanded by FIFA.
Maigari will resume today and preside over a divided house before the expiration of his tenure in about eight days.
Last week, FIFA Deputy Secretary General, Markus Kattner, reacted to the NFF saga by overturning the impeachment of Maigari by a faction led by Mike Umeh. FIFA queried the ground for his removal which it said did not comply with NFF’s statutory provisions on the convocation of meeting and agenda of such meeting.
Sports Minister, Dr Tammy Danagogo, has justified his role in the logjam that split the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) into factions ahead of the forthcoming congress scheduled for August 26.
Danagogo told reporters at the weekend that he took those steps because he was bound to always respect orders of a court of competent jurisdiction
Danagogo held a closed door with Maigari and two members of the NFF board on Friday. The minister has been fingered as the one who stoked the Glasshouse crisis by removing the executive committee, after Justice P.L Lot of Jos High Court granted an order of interim injunction on July 2 sacking the board and the management.
Danagogo also attended the Extra Ordinary Meeting summoned by a faction led by Effiong Johnson in Abuja on July 5. The congress dissolved the board and installed an ad-hoc management team to superintend over the affairs of the federation.
With an impending FIFA ban against Nigeria, Danagogo queried Maigari for financial mismanagement and organised a delegation led by Amos Adamu to justify government position to FIFA in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
When asked of his role in the seven-week-old NFF crisis, Danagogo said he acted because the laws of the land asked him to do so.
“It is what the laws of the country enjoined us to do. If by tomorrow a court of competent jurisdiction orders me not to come to office I will comply until I get a contrary directive from the Attorney General. We did the same with NFF until the court decided otherwise. If in the course of that period certain actions were taken in furtherance of that order, it is a court order,’’ Danagogo said.
He said the Federal Ministry of Sports was determined to set up a Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) to resolve disputes among sports stakeholders in Nigeria
“It is what the laws of the country enjoined us to do. If by tomorrow a court of competent jurisdiction orders me not to come to office I will comply until I get a contrary directive from the Attorney General. We did the same with NFF until the court decided otherwise. If in the course of that period certain actions were taken in furtherance of that order, it is a court order,’’ Danagogo said.
He said the Federal Ministry of Sports was determined to set up a Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) to resolve disputes among sports stakeholders in Nigeria
According to Danagogo, the establishment of a court of arbitration for sports will curtail the trend where aggrieved parties approach civil courts for redress arising from disputes in sports administration.
The raging feud could undermine the fortunes of Nigerian football given the nature of the crisis and the criticisms that have dogged the electoral processes before the congress billed of August 26.
“To make sure circumstances like that don’t happen again we have discovered that what causes this problem is that a lot of people are involved in sports, particularly in football. But when there is disagreement we don’t have a Court of Arbitration for Sports in the country where they can seek redress. This explains why you see them always running to ordinary court for relief. If there is one legacy I want to leave as minister it is to bring all federations together to make such we set up a viable court of arbitration so that no one will tomorrow accuse me of obeying one court order while disobeying another order,’’ Danagogo said.
The raging feud could undermine the fortunes of Nigerian football given the nature of the crisis and the criticisms that have dogged the electoral processes before the congress billed of August 26.
“To make sure circumstances like that don’t happen again we have discovered that what causes this problem is that a lot of people are involved in sports, particularly in football. But when there is disagreement we don’t have a Court of Arbitration for Sports in the country where they can seek redress. This explains why you see them always running to ordinary court for relief. If there is one legacy I want to leave as minister it is to bring all federations together to make such we set up a viable court of arbitration so that no one will tomorrow accuse me of obeying one court order while disobeying another order,’’ Danagogo said.
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