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WHY THE NIGERIA GOVERNMENT SHOULD HAVE A SAY ON THE LEADERSHIP OF IT’S NUMBER ONE SPORTING ASSET, FOOTBALL
Without mincing words, it must be stated clearly that anyone who is murmuring that Nigeria Government should not have a say on who becomes the New NFF President is faking ignorance to the stack realities on ground .
The Nigeria Football Federation is a Quasi Government Organisation which is under the supervision of the Ministry of Sports.
For the sake of this piece , Nigerians must understand what a Quasi Government Organisation is.
This is a Government Organisation that is assigned some or more attributes of a private company because of its Peculiar nature.
So it must be noted that the Private outlook the NFF enjoys was given to it by the Nigeria Government and no one else , not even FIFA .
And like any other Parastatals and Quasi Government bodies , the NFF is subject to the Policy Direction of the Nigeria Government.
And for the Government to see this Policy Direction through , it must be Comfortable with the Head of all it’s Parastatals and Quasi organisations, football inclusive .
Anyone can quickly want to say what is he saying, afterall the NFF is a Private organisation.
Yes, it is , because the Government accords it that characteristics.
The NFF is a creation of the Nigerian Government because it wants to play football locally and internationally, hence the need to join the rest of the World to play Association Football with the body that organises football globally, FIFA .
In Nigeria, Football is the Country’s number one Sporting Asset and the Government gives permission to like-minds to run the game as long as they comply with the laws of the land.
This is the reason why the Government is still the number one source of funding for the NFF and that has never changed.
The NFF collects monthly subventions from Government and sometimes also get Special Interventions for its activities.
For such an organisation that is heavily funded by Government, wouldn’t it be total lack of Responsibility and Ignorance of its Supervisory roles for any Government to keep quiet on who heads the organisation?
It is always very easy for those that will criticise to jump into the bandwagon of FIFA Fear and FIFA ban on the excuse of Government Interference.
FIFA does not want the running of football in member countries to be run by Government which is what it should be for the effective governance of the game .
But FIFA recognises the role Government plays in the stability of every Football Federation especially in Africa, but often times FIFA is being used to fight the Government by those running the game to push forward their Agenda, all in the name of FIFA ban and Government Interference.
Those managing the Country’s football often forget the history and chronology of the NFF they are part of.
What Football is to Nigeria as a country is far beyond just a round leather game , it is a unifier for a multi complex country like ours .
This is the reason why failure to qualify for a World Cup will be a big issue for the leadership of those running our football compare to maybe other Countries.
Imagine Nigeria qualifies for the World Cup in Qatar, you can be rest assured that the day Nigeria will be playing , the crime rate all across the country will be reduced and the unity of the country is fostered more.
This alone can give a sitting Nigeria President a return to office if Nigeria does well at the World cup and vice versa.
I give this example to let people understand a serious Government cannot fold it’s hand and just allow anybody to head the NFF.
If the person who heads the NFF is who the Government of the day is comfortable with ,it is the gain of the country’s football more than any other thing .
The person will get full Government support financially and there will be less friction between him and the Minister.
But if not it’s the Country’s football that will suffer big time and the NFF will struggle to get things done while all the blame will still fall back to the Government.
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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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