By Augustine Kalu on March 21, 2017

Former Board member of the defunct Nigeria Football Association (NFA), Prince Isidore Oduah, has identified bad football administration as the bane of Nigerian Football.

The Anambra State born football administrator is of the view that if the problem of administration is fixed, Nigerian Football would bounce back to reckoning. He said fixing it means selecting the right calibre of people to administer the round leather game in the country.

He gave example of how the then Military Governor of old Anambra State, Rear Admiral Allison Madueke (retd.), who was serving in the Nigerian High Commission in the United States of America sourced and assembled some of them and charged to administer football and at the same time, source for N10 million to build a stadium in Enugu.

He explained that he was surprised when he was called upon to serve and as a result, he was forced to ask Madueke how he came to know him since all the while he has been away in the United States of America on national service. He said the response he got from the then young Naval Officer was that it was immaterial because people knew what he was capable of doing. Oduah said such method could be applied to fish out genuine administrators to reposition Nigerian football.

Prince Oduah made his view known during an exclusive interview with Daily Sports in his residence in Lagos. He said if only the present crop of football administrators could borrow a leaf from their board, the then Nigerian Football Association led by Sunday Dankaro, the country’s football would once again be a force to reckon with not only in Africa but globally.

“I don’t see passion and commitment on the part of the current crop of football administrators in the country. Where do we start?” the octogenarian questioned.

“I believe that there are many good administrators in this country but they are not given the opportunity to contribute to the development of the game. I mean people who have passion for the game and not people who are seeking for what will go into their pockets.

“If capable hands are allowed to come and administer our football, I believe that Nigerian Football will bounce to world reckoning.

“The problem is that most of the people who want to do the job are not allowed to do so. We have a situation where those who are administering our football are people brought in through proxies, through people they know or that somebody wants them to be there,” Obuah explained.

•Photo shows veteran sports administrator, Prince Isidore Oduah.

Source Daily Sports

Posted March 21, 2017

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