Former President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Aminu Maigari, may have lost out in his bid to return as head of the NFF in the forthcoming elections scheduled to hold on August 26, having been impeached by NFF executive committee members.
Maigari begged the members in vain to stay in office.
Maigari was on Thursday in Abuja impeached by eight votes to five of the 13-man executive committee, as members reconvened to review Nigeria’s participation at the just-concluded FIFA World Cup in Brazil.
After thorough and exhaustive deliberations on the uncalled-for secrecy surrounding all financial dealings of the NFF and failure to call meeting of the executive committee for the past eight months, during which so many weighty decisions on Nigerian football had been taken by a small cabal within the board, the committee passed a vote of no confidence on Maigari.
In view of the above, the committee approved his immediate removal from the NFF executive committee on grounds of financial misappropriation, misapplication and maladministration.
The committee resolved to mandate the First Vice President, Mike Umeh, to act as president, pending the composition of the new NFF executive committee after the elections of Tuesday, August 26, 2014.
The committee commended world football governing body, FIFA, and the Confederation of African Football (CAF) for their keen interest in the development of football in Nigeria, pledging that the country will continue to abide by FIFA and CAF statutes.
It thanked Nigerians from far and near for their patience and understanding during the crisis and reiterated that concerted efforts are geared towards the development of football in Nigeria.
It also expressed deep and sincere appreciation to President Goodluck Jonathan and the federal government for continued support to the NFF and the national teams.
A day before, Maigari had made spirited efforts to shift the meeting that he scheduled, citing ministerial directive; but the members were hell-bent on having the meeting go on.
In attendance were Maigari, Umeh, Emeka Inyama, Mrs. Dilichukwu Onyedinma, Ahmad Muazu Kawu, Effiong Johnson, Christopher Green, Shehu Adamu and Muazu Suleyman.
Others are Ayodeji Tinubu, Yusuf Ahmed ‘Fresh’, Felix Anyansi-Agwu, Suleiman Yahaya-Kwande, and the secretary, Musa Amadu.
And now that Maigari is out, many questions prop up. Will our stakeholders get it right and correct the mistakes of the past? How clean and innocent are those that impeached him? Who are those aspiring to contest elective posts in the forthcoming August 26 elections? What will happen to the structures put in place by Maigari while in office?
These and many other questions are begging for answers as we move forward to repositioning the standard of football in the country.
