Loyalists of former Minister of Sports, Bolaji Abdullahi, and his successor, Tamuno Danagogo, are jostling for a place on Nigeria’s delegation list for the Federation of International Football Association (FIFA) World Cup billed for Brazil this summer.
This is even as Super Eagles chief coach, Stephen Keshi, and the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) are still consulting on the players that would represent the country at the global football fiesta.
As at press time, a total number of 75 people have been pencilled down by the Sports Ministry officials for the trip, and most of those loyal to Abduallahi were dropped from the list.
The list, TheNiche gathered, is different from the one being put together by the NFF officials which might be jacked up to over 200 people with support staff from the NFF numbering over 20.
“That is the situation for now, and it is rather sad. In fact, someone that has already resumed as a Special Adviser to the Minister was removed from office last week because he is one of Abduallahi’s loyalists and that scenario will affect most people jostling for the trip,” said our source at the Ministry.
Our source, who informed that not less than 20 sports journalists would be on the list for the World Cup billed to run from June 11 to July 10, added that most people on the list have nothing to do with the tournament.
“The list keeps changing by the day, and at the end of the day, we might be having more officials than the real players as members of the Nigeria delegation to the World Cup.
“From the calculation, we might have three officials to a player at the World Cup as we expect to have 23 players for the team,” he said.
The scramble among sports ministry officials to get on the plane to Brazil started long before Nigeria qualified for the Mundial last year. Some loyalists of the then minister, Abdullahi, who were not staff of the ministry had also lobbied and obtained some form of guarantee that they would make the list. Their hopes were, however, dashed when President Goodluck Jonathan dropped Abdullahi from his cabinet on March 5.
“No sooner was Danagogo appointed than another round of lobbying started,” a ministry official told TheNiche.
We also gathered that the estacodes to be paid by the federal government to each official which varies but ranges between $200 and $500 per day contributed to the battle for people to be on the trip for the World Cup. The assumption is that the longer the team stays at the competition, the higher the estacodes for the officials.
And football pundits have criticised the development, calling on the Federal Government to take action before things get out of hand.
Meanwhile, the NFF is expected to submit a provisional list of 30 players to the FIFA latest by May 10, from where the list will be pruned down to 23 as the final list for the World Cup.
Last week, Keshi submitted a 38-man provisional list to the NFF officials, but the list was turned down on the ground that some players on the list have injuries while some that are supposed to be on the list are missing.
Apart from that, we learnt that the non-inclusion of Osaze Odemwingie, Joseph Yobo and Chinedu Obasi necessitated the rejection of the list.
In as much as Keshi defended the list vehemently and gave reasons – which included injury claims, technical reasons and match fitness – for leaving them out, TheNiche learnt that the NFF officials were not really convinced with the reasons.