By Kelvin Olumide
In an era when most Nigerians are living on shoestring budget, it has been revealed that the Secretary General of the Nigeria Football Federation, Dr Mohammed Sanusi, allegedly smiles to the bank with $10,000 as salary every month.
A concerned Nigerian inside the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, revealed this to our reporter recently when the hit of inability to pay the Super Falcons World Cup preparation allowances was raging.
Our source allegedly described the Ibrahim Gusau-led Board as swimming far worse than immediate boards in recent history oblivious of the stormier sea waves it’s in.
Speaking under anonymity, our source said the Gusau regime in the Glass House has rendered the alleged malfeasance under the Pinnick Amaju era a child’s play, angling that the present board have nothing to offer Nigerian football other than to feather their personal nest.
Hear him: “Nothing has changed in NFF. The new executives are ( allegedly)toeing the same line as their predecessors. Check the league’s boards, they are all appointed instead of allowing the club’s to elect their leaders.”
According to him, there is nowhere in the NFF statute that gives the President or Board members the authority to appoint or hand pick board members of the various football leagues in the country.
The NFF recently announced chairmen and board members for the Nigeria National League (NNL) with George Aluo as chairman, former deputy governor of Nasarawa State, Mr Silas Agara as the new chairman of the Nigeria Nation-Wide League One, and renowned marketing expert, Nkechi Nneka Obi to head the Nigeria Women Football League.
.”This is wrong,” our source said. “Gusau has no such powers to appoint board members for the leagues as the statute says they must be in office by election by the congresses of the various leagues. The President is just mounting illegality upon the illegal structure of the football ruling house.”
It has also been revealed that the alleged current level of financial malfeasance in the Glass House has never been witnessed in the past. The Secretary General of the NFF, Dr Mohammed Sanusi is about the highest salary public servant earner in Nigeria with about $10,000 every month!!!!That’s roughly N9 million a month or N108 million a year.
“The Secretary General of NFF who is paid 10,000 dollars as monthly salary still complains that he is underpaid,” the insider revealed.
“Look at the alleged revelations by Super Falcons coach, Randy Waldrum, about the leadership of NFF and how it has failed to utilize money from FIFA for the development of female football , but rather using it as pocket money. The situation is not only embarrassing but also gave room for the continued serious questions surfacing about the treatment of footballers especially in relation to the nonpayment of due allowances and the overall management of the game in Nigeria.”
Waldrum had also allegedly raised the alarm over poor preparation of the Super Falcons for the FIFA Women’s World Cup which begins on Friday accusing the NFF of embezzling a whopping $960,000 (N744m) FIFA’s grant meant for Falcons preparations.
The American coach while speaking on The Whistle Podcast said he would no longer be quiet. “I am not going to be quiet anymore. In October, every country was given $960,000 by FIFA to prepare for the World Cup. Where is that money?” he asked the NFF, stressing that he was owed 14 months’ salary but was recently paid seven months while some players are still owed two years allowances
But in its reaction, the NFF merely tagged the coach the worst for the Super Falcons ever. No word on how the FIFA money was spent.
This development would have led to national embarrassment as the Falcons were poised to boycott the opening match against Canada. But the House of Representatives intervened immediately following the adoption of a motion by Hon Olumide Osoba (APC-Ogun) at the plenary
Our source also revealed that all the monies realised as transfer certificate fees for players that joined foreign clubs could not be accounted for.
“Government needs to look into the administration of football,” he said. “Football is a money spinner even more than petroleum but the administrators are using the monies as pocket entitlements to feather their nest.”
