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NIGERIA FOOTBALL: TIME TO UNBOUND Attention Sports Minister, the time to ‘ADOPT A CLUB IS NOW’!
Let me start this piece by first defining the word ‘Unbound’. It simply means not bound together, release, separate, not fastened together, not confined, freedom and so much more.
In this context, Unbound means freedom, proliferation, opening the space for private investors to come in and operate in an environment that is condusive, accommodating and appreciative.
The Nigeria professional football league as it is today, is a 20-clubs league format that has 95 percent government owned clubs and just 5percent privately owned clubs.
What this means is that government plays a huge impact in what goes on within and around the league, leaving our football at the mercy of some politicians who see football as a political tool that has to be managed by their political loyalists, who inturn know that the only way they can keep their jobs is by getting results at all costs.
Disadvantages of government ownership of Nigeria clubsides
- Poor management.
Most times, the men appointed are political loyalists to the government in power.
Majority of them have never played football, have no managerial skills and lack the basic ideas of running a football club so all they do, is to apply orthodox means of winning matches to satisfy their owners
- The win at cost Syndrome.
These loyalists will want to win at all cost as that is the only way to keep their jobs. It happens every year in the NPFL, before the start of every season, the chairman of Referees appointment committee and Chairman of the Nigeria Referees Association, pay courtesy calls to state governors on the request of the club owners and at such meetings, continental tickets are promised and delivered at the end of the season.
- Poor officiating
This has been the biggest bane of the NPFL. It is no longer news that club owners pay match officials large sum of monies to pick vital points especially at home. The Referees play a key role in helping to actualize the win at all cost syndrome and the reason behind this is well understood. The club owners have no idea of how to run the clubs, how to make money from the sale of players, branding and merchandising in order to meet their overall investments so they are left with just one option, which is to cheat.
4. Crowd Violence
In the last few seasons, football hooliganism has been on the rise in the NPFL. The reason is that, majority of the club owners are under pressure to get results and when that doesn’t come, they insight the fans against the referees which in most cases lead to serious infield and off-field crisis.
SOLUTION
Using the Nigeria Telecommunication model
Over two decades ago, Nitel enjoyed absolute monopoly as the sole distributor of telecommunication network in Nigeria until the federal government thought it wise to allow other interested parties come forward with proposals on how to better the sector. That was how MTN, Econet and later Globacom came on board and today, the country is better off.
Government realized at that time that Nitel has not lived up to expectation and are happy today with the improvement the sector has made so far.
WAY FORWARD
The Adopt A Club initiative
Like the adopt an athlete and adopt a stadium initiative of the Sunday Dare administration which has enjoyed widespread publicity, acceptance and endorsement, many are of the opinion that the federal government through the sports ministry can appeal to individuals, corporate bodies and other multinationals to adopt a football club from their state and sponsor the adopted club in the NPFL.
The likes of Aliko Dangote, Baba Ijebu, Femi Otedola have shown over the years that they have deep passion for football but they are afraid to come forward and invest in the league because of the negative stories that comes out of the system.
Multinational companies like Shell, Oando, AITEO and telecom giants like Mtn, Globacom and Etisalat can all adopt a football club, offer them full and total branding and use same to promote their social responsibility to society.
In the last two seasons, the English Premier League spent over 425M pounds on community development alone. Football in Europe is very big business and the earlier we see the need to gradually take these clubs away from government, the better it will be for our football.
In 2003, Roman Abraham Abrahamovic bought Chelsea for just over 140m pounds and earlier this year, thesame club was sold for 4.25billion pounds out of which, 1.5b pounds will be used to build a new Stadium for the West London Club.
That is how football business has grown and the earlier we key in as a country and a people, the better it will be for all of us.
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Alake Inaugurates Nigeria-US Solid Minerals Committee, Dismisses $700bn Claim, Says No Assets Sold
Joel Ajayi
The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dr. Dele Alake, on Tuesday inaugurated the Nigeria-United States Committee on Strategic Cooperation in the Solid Minerals Sector in Abuja, dismissing reports that Nigeria sold $700 billion worth of solid minerals to the US.
The inauguration followed the strategic cooperation framework established between Nigeria and the United States during the 81st United Nations General Assembly in New York.
In a statement issued on Wednesday by the Head PRESS and Public Relations Department Mrs. Kania Maliki Andeyaba stated that, Alake in the Memorandum of Understanding, MoU, signed with the US is a government-to-government platform to facilitate business-to-business engagements between American investors and Nigerian local operators, not a sale of assets.
Harping on the importance of the solid minerals sector to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s economic diversification agenda, he noted that the administration was committed to reducing dependence on a mono-product economy through the sustainable development of Nigeria’s vast mineral resources.
According to him, the Nigeria–US partnership as a strategic initiative to attract investment, promote technology transfer, strengthen local mineral processing and create employment opportunities.
“There is no sale of any Nigerian asset. There’s nothing exchanging hands,” Alake declared.
“We created a platform to facilitate mingling of US investment ventures with Nigeria’s local operators. It is in the public domain. We signed it in public and published it in four or five national newspapers.”
The Minister said reports claiming the US was coming to take over Nigeria’s minerals and security architecture were untrue at best and products of riotous imagination at worst.
Explaining the policy thrust, Alake said Africa has historically held the short end of the stick in global economic transactions, and Nigeria is determined to change that model.
“We have the resources, the critical elements the world needs to transit to clean energy. So we are creating a new paradigm — you bring your capital, expertise and technology, to match with our natural resources and create a win-win situation . The investor gains, Nigeria gains.’’he said.
Nigeria, he stressed, had operated a mono-cultural economy dependent on oil, while solid minerals were exploited informally — with ores taken “from pit to port” without value addition.
Alake said government has now made local processing mandatory, refusing to grant mineral titles to investors without a clear pathway to processing in Nigeria.
He said the policy led to the springing up of processing factories, including the largest lithium processing plant in West Africa commissioned recently in Nasarawa by the Vice President, and informed the formation of the African Minerals Strategy Group.
Alake noted that investor confidence has returned due to macro-economic reforms by President Bola Tinubu that guarantee security of tenure and repatriation of profits.
He charged the committee to discharge its assignment responsibly, saying its work is strategic to achieving the President’s $1 trillion economy target.
To this end, he told the Committee to ensure effective coordination, identify investment opportunities and translate the framework into measurable outcomes capable of positioning Nigeria as a competitive player in the global solid minerals industry.
In his welcome address, Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Engr. Faruk Yusuf Yabo, said the inauguration translates growing bilateral engagements into a structured framework for practical cooperation and investment mobilization
Economic Officer at the US Embassy, Jonathan Baas, said President Donald Trump has prioritized three areas for US embassies — energy, artificial intelligence/super intelligence, and critical minerals.
Baas said Washington’s direction is to work with partners to secure critical supply chains while ensuring partners capture value.
“We just signed a contract today on looking into building AI data centres in Nigeria at the Nigerian Economic Summit. That’s the direction Washington wants us to go,” he said.
In his vote of thanks, CEO/Managing Director of Nigeria Solid Minerals Company, NSMC said that the committee
is expected to coordinate implementation, facilitate investment and monitor progress towards achieving the objectives of the Nigeria–US cooperation framework.
The inauguration reinforces the Federal Government’s commitment to repositioning the solid minerals sector as a key driver of economic diversification, industrial development and national prosperity under President Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
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