NFF Lambasts President Buhari
The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has rebuked President Muhammadu Buhari for neglecting the body and withholding funds to enable them attend to special needs.
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In a chat with journalists in Abuja, the NFF board member and the chairman of the Nationwide League, Ahmed Kawu, said that the president is not fair for neglecting the federation:
President Buhari's neglect
"U-17 brought the World Cup without a kobo been given to them but we still tried to make them happy. It is not NFF, people should stop accusing NFF. Those that want to accuse NFF of money matters should have a tangible proof otherwise, we will begin to sue anybody who speaks ill of NFF, even if it is President Buhari, we don't care.
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"The presidential villa he is renovating, is it free? He signs money everyday for fuel and other things, but those that are promoting him, qualifying Nigeria, he can't give them money yet he is shouting, the chief of staff can't even submit the list to Buhari for the boys to be paid."
Find an extract from the interview below:
"The federal government is broke, so we are using the players, competitions, activities, values and derivable and drive money into it, for the past four years, we have been qualifying Nigeria more than 50 times without money. The money coming from the federal government is supposed to come directly into our account, then we will execute it one after the other. But because they want to get something out of the money, they have kept it for themselves, then if the time comes, we'll send them the programme saying the boys need to be in camp, they need to do one thing or the other, so give us money, the same NFF will go and borrow money, do what is needed to support the boys.
On the budget of the NFF:
"NFF budget in a year including sponsorship, it's not up to N5 billon, how much does the ministry of environment pay for a project? For an ecological project in Kogi state, they paid 20 billion to 30 billion, the ministry of information gets more than N50 billion in a year and they do not even do as much as the U-17 in terms of information, promotion, image branding.
"The government cannot address the issue of youth restiveness but we are doing that, we are helping Nigeria because there is no house, street, community where they do not play football, imagine the millions of Nigerians who will turn to crime if we ask Nigerians not to play football, but these people don't do anything, they just sit in the office and spend money at will and later, Nigerians will be shouting NFF, NFF and ministries are getting N20 billion to N50 billion per month.
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Neglect of the U-17
"How much was in the 2015 budget, we do not have up to 2% of what they get and after these boys did all they could, promoted Nigeria, the government cannot provide their money and now people are insulting us.
"The Koran and the Bible say a labourer is worthy of his wages. These boys were given only two bonuses and they came back like beggars, it is not just good at all, any little thing, Nigerians will be shouting NFF, NFF, glass house. Let them show us who brought the money, are we taking women to South Africa, we qualify for all our matches, monkey is working while the baboon is eating, We will sue anyone
who says anything ill of us again.
"We have taken this cup again, back to back. We are doing what we are expected to do, the government is just eating money, moving money in siren everywhere from one hotel to the other, they can't even give these boys moral.
"We took these boys to Argentina for a year and half, I took these boys to Egypt. We went to Togo, Sokoto, Niger, Katsina, South Korea, Argentina, world cup where they won the cup and made Nigeria proud, they are on Skype (Mr. President) in their offices asking 'how are you doing, hope you are fine' can't they ask how they are surviving? Cant he give them N50,000 to their parents? after everything, these boys were only paid N20,000 to N30,000.
Campaigns using football
Speaking about politicians that use football to campaigns, the former SA Sports to the Former Kano State Governor, Ibrahim Shekarau accused politicians of use and dump:
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"They wont come to us now until during the elections, they will buy the whole balls and jerseys, but now that they are in the offices, they have their chambers, the Senate is supposed to call everybody to address this matter, but they have remained silent on the issue because they know that the money is with them, they can't deny their own money but they can deny that of others who made them happy, sometimes, they do get money from Governors like Akpabio and Wike who they want to remove.
"Let people respect themselves, government is busy spending money on the military, buying guns but all that is not working, everyone has left Borno but we are still playing football in the stadium, We have never postponed any league match in that state. So, let them support football if they are wise and smart, the government is supposed to focus on football because that is where the Nigerian youths who voted for him are."
Source: Legit.ng
