A former chairman of the Nigeria Premier League (NPL) and ex-vice president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Chief Rumson Victor Baribote, has insisted that state FA chairmen must also step aside for the reforms triggered by the resignation of NFF President Ibrahim Gusau and General Secretary Dr Mohammed Sanusi, MON, to be meaningful.
The sweeping changes that hit the football federation also saw the resignation of all board members, as well as the termination of the appointments of directors and chief executive officers of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), Nigeria National League (NNL), Nigeria Women Football League and Nationwide League One (NLO).
They were instructed to hand over the administration of their respective leagues to their Chief Operating Officers (COOs), who are members of staff of the NFF. Where a COO is not an NFF staff member, the Acting General Secretary is expected to deploy a replacement from the federation.
Speaking with our correspondent, Baribote said he was pleased that the government had finally listened to calls for reform and taken steps towards restructuring the federation.
“For me, the best thing is for all the FA chairmen to go so that we can start all over again,” he said.
“We need to start on a clean slate because all the FA chairmen are part of the old system, and you cannot keep doing the same thing and expect different results. They are part of the people who brought in those that have resigned, and they must give way for new people who are genuinely interested in proper reform.
“Some of the current FA chairmen are just rubber-stamp individuals who are only interested in sitting down and passing votes of confidence. How do you come together for a Congress and, within 10 or 15 minutes, everything is over? That means they are not doing anything other than coming to collect sitting allowances.
“I am happy that we are now ready for reform, but we need to do the right thing because, apart from that, we will simply be going back to the old ways of doing things.”
Baribote also applauded former international Segun Odegbami for leading the campaign for reform, while calling for the inclusion of more stakeholders, including marketing professionals, members of the media and other relevant groups, in the reform process.
In the same vein, former international Joseph Eyimofe said all the FA chairmen should also step aside.
The former U-23 star said: “I am happy with the latest development because that is the right way to go. What have we achieved since the coming of the present board? Nothing. We are at the lowest level in our football, and it is unfortunate that we did not qualify for the last two World Cups. The women also did not make it to the World Cup, while none of the junior teams qualified for anything.
“I don’t want it to stop there. I want all the FA chairmen to go as well so that we can start on a clean slate and allow people who are genuinely interested in developing football in Nigeria to take over and bring our football back to where it is supposed to be.”
