By Ikeddy ISIGUZO

ON 23 October 2025, I got an invitation, through WhatsApp, from the national secretariat of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria, SWAN, for SWAN?s 60th anniversary where I had been nominated as a veteran Sports Writer. I am grateful for being so considered.

Let me state quickly that ?a protest against accredited mendacity? is not original to me. Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, President in 1963, when Nigeria became a republic, used the line as the title of a press statement he Issued in 1979 when he was accused of not paying tax. Zik, as he was more popularly known, was the presidential candidate of the Nigerian Peoples Party, NPP, and on the verge of being disqualified from the race. He was allowed to compete in the election.

I spent days ruminating about the SWAN event. What has SWAN learnt in 60 years? Would there be a speech opportunity?

Top on my mind was unity in SWAN, and the national officers providing more leadership to ensure that SWAN returned to fuller attention in managing the skills gaps and ethical issues that hinder professional growth of its members.

These comments were playing in my head when my attention revert to the event?s audience. Among them would be officials of the National Sports Commission, an illegality foisted on Nigeria over a year ago. They would be rated top guests, and maybe ?guests of honour? and would possibly hand certificates and plaques to those being honoured.

I decided that my presence was not worthy of such gathering. Joining them in celebrating the 60th anniversary of SWAN, an association I became a member in 1978 was ruled out. What was particularly dreadful to me was one of the duo that I had distanced myself from after writing about the positions they hold could be the one handing a certificate in recognition of my services to sports to me.

My final vote was to again protest this illegal sports structure that is daily accorded recognition.

I had written on 17 November 2024: Illegal Sports Commission joins football?s 20 years of illegalities

?HAVE you heard the latest claims that a flawed National Sports Commission is better than a Ministry of Sports? There are no limits to ends we travel to justify illegalities, absurdities, and a trending national culture of excellence in doing things badly.

?The national propensity to do things illegally is readily available to those who dare match their fancy with action.

Welcome to the National Sports Commission, NSC, which has been set up without a law. A lawless organisation has been granted access to federal funds approved for the Federal Ministry of Sports. Everyone in the National Assembly knows about this illegality, but would not say anything.

Who set up the Commission without a law? President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has just done that. The army of clappers has filled the air with shouts of joy for the new impetus for sports though the ruse is obvious.

How are appointments to NSC made? What qualifies the appointees? Under what law would they be held responsible for acting on behalf of Nigerians?

?When the NSC Chairman was appointed, I congratulated home. I even called him on phone. I apologise for my mistake. The law should have been in place before his appointment.

?Debates about such a Commission were on when days ago the President firmed up the contraption with the appointment of the Director-General of NSC. Both appointments are illegal because there is no NSC. Could the confusion be the administration?s way of prioritising the unimportance of sports?

?Kenya is exploring the 160-page African Continental Free Trade Area, AfCFTA, agreement to ?expand its sports industry?. A top government official announced that, ?By reducing trade barriers, we can encourage cross-border collaboration, creating more platforms for Kenyan athletes, sports organisations, and even fans to engage with their counterparts across Africa.?

?Can illegal organisations like NSC be part of AfCFTA? Unlikely.

?The President cannot pronounce NSC into existence. A law is needed. Federal funds cannot be expended by people unknown to the law. There should be a limit to our lawlessness. Or should there be?

An organisation called the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, has been illegally running Nigeria?s football for 20 years. Some people got ambitious changed the name from Nigeria Football Association solely for them to determine what to do with Nigeria?s football and its resources. They manage federal funds that are appropriated for Nigeria Football Association, which according to them does not exist. They claim they are a private organisation.

Imagine a private organisation that spends billions of public funds without responsibility or accountability to anyone. NFF takes public funds, gets funding from CAF, FIFA and sponsors. Any suggestions that NFF should be accountable to Nigerians, whose money it spends, are met with wooly assertions that FIFA finds accountability offensive.?

The article continued: "At a joint public hearing of the Senate and House of Representatives Sports Committees in 2010, conversations veered to corruption in football. I accused both Committees of being responsible for the corruption. My point was that the Committees supported the corruption by approving money for a legal body NFA, and handing it to an illegal body, NFF, to spend, knowing fully well that they would not ask an illegal body to account.

?Everyone appeared stunned. You would think a mistake had been unearthed. NFF still spends approvals made for NFA.

?There is no end to the illegalities. The new NSC is merely joining the ride. There may be other illegal Commissions in other sectors of our polity but they are not enough excuse to promote illegalities with pomp.

?Justice Donatus U. Okorowo of the Abuja High Court declared the NFF illegal in 2010 while delivering the judgment in suit number FHC/ABJ/CS/179/2010. He clearly stated, ?As set out in the early part of this judgment, the Nigeria Football Association was established under Section 1 of the Nigeria Football Association Act as a body corporate with perpetual succession and common seal with power to sue and be sued.

?By these provisions, it is the only body recognised by Nigerian Law to manage football. The Law did not make reference to it as Nigeria Football Federation. The name under which it is charged to manage football under the Law is Nigeria Football Association. It has no power to address itself as Nigeria Football Federation. And the document titled Nigeria Football Federation Statute, which purports to confer the name Nigeria Football Federation to Nigeria Football Association is not a codified Law under the Laws of Federation of Nigeria. It is therefore illegal for the Nigeria Football Association to answer another name other than the name by which it is created as a legal entity.?

?The Okorowo judgment still stands. NFF is standing stronger, more illegal with the years. If NFF can be above the law why not NSC to which NFF should be a parastatal?

As the heat rose over Justice Okorowo?s judgement, the Federal Ministry of Sports, which connives with NFF to sustain the illegalities, sought clarification from the Federal Ministry of Justice.

?In a letter dated 2 June 2011, addressed to the Director-General, National Sports Commission, the Federal Ministry of Justice elaborately affirmed that NFF was unknown to the laws of Nigeria.

?The Nigeria Football Association Act 1990 (aka Decree 101) has neither been repealed nor amended, it remains the valid legal instrument for the administration of football in Nigeria.

?In the light of the above recognition of the private status of the NFF, the ordinary implication is that the body is not entitled to the receipt of statutory allocations from the Federal Government.

?As a ?private association?, the NFF is entitled to raise funds as averred in paragraph 3(vi) of the affidavit for its operations in line with relevant FIFA regulations. However, except the government decides to give grants-in-aid to the federation in the national interest, there will be no legal basis for the NFF to draw funds from the government for its activities.

?The present situation suggests that the structure for the administration of football in Nigeria at the moment is legally unwieldy as the NFA, which is statutorily recognised is non-functional, while the NFF, which is not a creation of our laws, is from all indications running football in the country and receiving public funds albeit unconstitutionally,? the Ministry concluded.

?Nothing changed. NFF is still running football illegally and government officials and agencies relate extensively with an illegal body.

?Based on the clarification of the Ministry of Justice, NFF?s illegal access to public funds was blocked for four months. There was bedlam. NFF got the money. There has been no inclination to obey the judgement since then.?

I had suggested that, ?As we cling to any shreds of hope, the President can effect legitimacy of the two organisations. There are no complications in making them legal: the National Sports Commission should be enacted by law and not pretence, then NFF has to be structured to be legal enough to spend public funds?.

Hours after I published a second article on 24 November 2024, in as many weeks, drawing attention to the illegality that Mallam Shehu Dikko, leads as Chairman, Mallam Dikko called, drawing my attention to my ?wrong assumptions?. He affirmed that President Muhammadu Buhari signed the National Sports Commission Act 2023 in his last days in office, so there is a law. And a law cannot foster an illegal organisation.

A summary of our published conversation ? ?For the 15 minutes he spent justifying the office he occupies, he also acknowledged that ?the 1971 National Sports Commission Act? had not been repealed. The President could still have appointed him with that law.

?When I got a chance to speak, I asked him if the 2023 Act had a provision for a two-man board. He explained that more members would be appointed when aspects of the Act had been worked on to reflect the type of Commission that he envisions. He promised it would not take long.

?Nothing is wrong with what has been done,? he said about the board membership. ?The same thing happened with the Students Loans Board. The Chairman was first appointed and then other board members,? he reminded me.

?The present Act proposed a board of about 17 people. It is too much. We will have a smaller number, at most 11. The plan is for us to run the NCC (Nigerian Communications Commission) model where each of the six geo-political zones will have Executive Directors to run sports in the zones. There would be spaces for stakeholders,? he said. He wants a board that would re-position the sports economy as a major contributor to the national economy.

?Simply put, Dikko was appointed to re-work the law with which he was appointed. He explained that was why a full board was not announced.?

Under our Constitution, the National Assembly has responsibility for making laws not Mallam Dikko, not a non-member of parliament.

?Mallam Dikko mentioned that with his position, he was the Minister of Sports and the Director-General Chief Bukola Olawale Olopade, who was appointed three weeks after the Chairman, was the Permanent Secretary. I ignored the comment.?

?National Sports Commission Act 2023 envisaged a Ministry of Sports as it mentions ?Minister responsible for Sports? and has board seats for the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Sports, and the Director responsible for Sports in the Ministry,? I had noted in one of the November 2024 articles.

The responsibility to end the illegal structures called National Sports Commission, and Nigeria Football Federation rests firmly on the Sports Committees of the National Assembly who have indulged their illegalities for 14 years for NFF and a year for the National Sports Commission. There is no law recognising them.

?ISIGUZO is a major commentator on minor issues.

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