Bolaji Ojo-Oba’s revelations: Where are Buhari’s anti-graft agencies? News

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Bolaji Ojo-Oba’s revelations: Where are Buhari’s anti-graft agencies?

By Daily Sports on December 26, 2016

Dear reader, I am rest assured you celebrated your Christmas joyfully despite the frustrations, anguish and paradise betrayed, that Nigerians have been subjected to for one year plus now. The reason for the Season lifts our spirit. I still urge for fair play always as we keep sporting!

We will discuss bribery and corruption in our Football by Dr. Bolaji Ojo-Oba. You know that players have been sharply short changed, called indisciplined and other unprintable names by administrators till date. The Super Falcons just concluded struggle against the age long evil remains fresh in our memories. Incidentally, this is the only sport that has kept the country’s name glowing in the sub-conscious of the global community, yet, the self-serving gangsters are hell bent in ruining or snuffing life out of it. God forbid!

As we know, Dr. Bolaji Ojo-Oba is a known name in football administration in Nigeria, Africa and the World. He was also a Commissioner of Sports in Oyo State. He held many positions in NFA and topped it up with General Secretary of the NFF.

He was in charge of international department of the NFA when the Golden Eaglets forgot their passports in Lagos for U-17 World Cup qualifier game in Abuja, which stopped us from participating in that world Cup at the end of the day, in addition to the subsequent penalty imposed by CAF. It was also under his watch that the Super Eagles forgot their jerseys at the Gateway International Hotel, Sango Ota; Ogun State during the US 1994 World Cup qualifier against Burkina Faso at the National Stadium, Lagos. For that costly mistake the Eagles had to cut their track suits to pants size for the game. We were again punished for that gross negligence. It is already known and I won’t border you with that story.

Aside from the above and others, left out, that cast dark spot on his career, he is a seasoned administrator that any issue (s) he raises on the game, carries weight and must be listened to with rapt attention, and not to be swept under the carpet or taken with a pitch of salt. He cannot just wake up to fly the kite because he knows the consequences. Therefore, anything he points at as being wrong in our football holds water. He said point blank that there’s bribery in Nigerian football and used the Nigeria Professional Football League as a peg. He made the exposure at a function in Lagos penultimate week.

He did not stop there; he told the world, how Sports Journalists have also killed the game. He supported his claim thus: “I saw armed police officers inside the dressing room during the last Federation Cup final and I asked them what they were doing there, they said they were with Ifeanyi Ubah. Policemen inside a football dressing room? It was unbelievable. There were Journalists there but there was no report about it till today. We need to stop this,” Ojo-Oba declared.

That was vintage Ojo-Oba. He has finally spilled the beans. What else is left? Truly, he had seen it’s all in sports administration. He voluntarily admitted there is bribery and corruption in Nigeria football and President Muhammadu Buhari's government is believed to be ‘fighting’ corruption. Hypocritical one I guess.

He is not a whistle blower, he was an insider, yet since December 7, he made such dripping revelation and the media both traditional and the new media (online) was awash with his statement of December 8. The EFCC has not invited him for questioning for more facts. He is courageous to have said what he did, after all, it is said that it is better late than never. We should shake and warmly embrace him. He is in the best position to tell us about corruption in NFF and our football. He will graphically showcase them. It’s not hidden that the present FIFA leadership has zero tolerance for corruption. We have seen what has been going on since the new broom took charge in Zurich World Football governing headquarters. FIFA’s crusade is neither selective nor on paper, like Nigeria.

There are overwhelming evidence on how corrupt former FIFA bigwigs have been convicted and are still being convicted. That is what is known as anti-corruption fight, but certainly, not what has been used to disturb our sensibilities since Buhari found his way to power. What manner of ‘fight or war’ is he wagging?

Just look at how the weighty revelations on corruption in our football by Dr. Ojo-Oba are dismissed with a wave of the hand. What else is EFCC waiting for, before swinging into action? On the other hand, what is the Inspector General of Police (IGP) Ibrahim Idris doing to fish out who authortised his men into football dressing room? It is absurd. Football has only one rule in the world. No Nigerian version. NFF leadership must also speak up.

Let me say that Ojo-Oba spoke volumes on the ills plugging Nigerian football for ages now. His revelations are not empty. He knows our football inside out. If you like the good, the bad and the ugly. In short, he is an authority.

He hit the nail on the head on the ill that is Nigerian football. The rot, which has eaten so deep into the fabrics of the game is mind blowing. It has been conspiracy all the way. Fortunately, it was Ojo-Oba that stripped bribery and corruption naked in the highly crowded market square.

Hear a report on bribery and corruption in NFF as exposed by Ojo-Oba: “Former Secretary-General of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Bolaji Ojo-Oba, has lamented the state of the country’s football, alleging that club administrators and coaches bribe referees to win domestic league matches. Ojo-Oba stated this in Lagos at a seminar to herald the 2016 South-West States Pre-season Tournament.”

He said: “All of us are problems of Nigerian football. Teams want to win, the managers know that if they don’t win, they are gone; the coach knows that if he doesn’t do well he is gone too. So, club managers and coaches conspire against the players.

“That is why most clubs can’t pay the wages of their players but they have money to service the referees. Some of the club managers and coaches also conspire against referees. It’s happening in all the clubs. I’m from Ibadan but I don’t watch games there because they say I don’t allow them carry out their plans.

“They wanted Wikki (Tourists) to win the league. And they said Enugu Rangers will not win at Nasarawa United. Rangers scored a goal and it was disallowed. The assistant referee was running to the centre line but the centre referee ordered him back.”

The former Oyo State sports Commissioner said some clubs even influenced the FA not to assign certain referees to officiate their games in their desperation to win.

He added, “Some clubs have lists of referees, which they send to the FA not to use for their games.

“So, what is happening now (in Nigerian football) is cash and carry. And it is due to the level of poverty among referees, because most of them don’t have any other means of livelihood.

“The referee, who officiated the last Federation Cup final (between Ifeanyi Ubah and Nasarawa United) in Lagos, did a good job but some people were angry because they felt he was against the programmed result. Where is our football going?”

The sports administrator stated that the trend won’t end until stakeholders of the game changed their win-at-all-cost syndrome.

Ojo-Oba said: “Football is give and take. If you fraudulently anoint a team here, will you anoint the same team when they play in Morocco? If we want to be there, we need to disabuse our minds. All of us are guilty. I have names but I won’t mention names. There can only be salvation when we sit down to decide how to move our football forward.”

Dear readers, you can vividly deduce the gravity of corruption in our football and Buhari and his cohorts are disturbing our ear drums with mere slogan. His EFCC went to sleep. What manner of man and corruption ‘crusade’. Let’s come to think of it, the persons he has called corrupt before the outside world on imaginary and flimsy reasons different from these ones hanging on the heads of the NFF bigwigs that divert FIFA and government funds.

My submission is that the former NFF chief ought to have been invited to name names. He even said he won’t mention names of club and individuals involved. But when the chips are down, he would. He said everyone is guilty. He was frank to a fault. It is revelation whose time has come which no army in the world could stop. EFCC is headed by the Ibrahim Magu that Buhari’s DSS said has questions to answer. When he could not remove the log in his eyes, how dare him see one in another person’s eyes?

That is the root and crux of the matter so fighting corruption is in the country. Buhari steering the hornets’ nest is very much aware of the above as he is not a saint either. Former President, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo started the fight and we saw how he got enmeshed in the dare devil virus and became its father, grandfather and great grandfather, courtesy of the National Assembly.

The bribery and corruption shout out from Dr. Bolaji Ojo-Oba remains an easy one for the EFCC to investigate and go on to prosecute accused persons. I am not comfortable with all these foot dragging by EFCC; they will readily tell you that they are waiting for the body language of the President. That’s what we hear on the ones the Presidency has vested interest in.

After reading this, you will come to real terms with what has been left of the game in the country. You will further know why our football clubs don’t post sterling result at the continental level. You will have mercy and at the same be ashamed to be called Nigerian. You will not blame my anger boiling over to high heavens. You know why I am not scandalised a hoot because I had often times cried blue murder in the administration of the game even when Ojo-Oba was on the saddle. They all claimed deaf, blind and dumb, turning back to blame this writer and some call him non-conformist. That was the genesis.

I am not in the good books of successive Nigeria Football Federation leadership due to my reports that exposed them full blast. There has been standing order that no NFF invitation must be extended to me. Some of them in the past have boasted that upon your exclusive reports on us (NFF), what has happened, nothing, absolute nothing!

I am not reporting this to curry sympathy from the unsuspecting public, no way. It's just for information sake. Just on Sunday, December 18, a mutual friend of mine, insisted I should follow him to the Annual General Congress of the NFF. I narrated the above to him, he managed a smile, it dawned on him when somebody worked up to me and handed over an instruction from ‘above’ that I my name and medium are not on their list of invites. I just put up a smile and found my way towards the exit door.

Before my friend could say Victor Moses, I was already inside his car. That is Nigeria where if you are still in the circle of saying the truth, you will continue to ‘suffer’ and be isolated even to the high heavens. But they cannot stop me. The other day the bigwigs (Pinnick, Akinwunmi and Dikko) appeared in AIT Sports programme in Abuja to debunk the financial recklessness raised by FIFA which the Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung revealed during the NFF Annual General Assembly in Lagos penultimate week, they succeeded in given the public a huge hush wash. I will react to that next week as facts that contradicted their claim and exposed them the more. That is just a tip of the iceberg, details coming!

For this Reporter, I will continue to stand on the side of the truth because it is the only thing that sets people free. Sadly, it has become number one enemy in Nigeria to the extent that if you are known to always be on the side of the truth, you become a prime target even among your colleagues. I have witnessed such oftentimes especially on this job, where ambush, cash and carry, blackmail and sundry vices have overshadowed ethics.

Of truth is that this is not the Journalism I met. In today’s Journalism, white is black. Shamefully, also it has been turned to the highest bidder. It makes me angry when political jobbers open their gutter to say Buhari is fighting corruption. To them what is corruption crusading is the selective nonsense and media noise he embarked upon for one year plus now without any pointing to practical result.

It is not hidden that except the government’s spirited mission to destroy the major opposition, which though, it has majorly tried but the later has bluntly refused to be intimidated in any guise. There is nothing positive yet about this government in sight. It has been jokes carried too far all the way. Now it has called on whistle blowers to come on with names of ‘corrupt’ people and get five percent. I believe former President, Obasanjo would excuse me on his cliché, ‘I dey laugh’. It is another dead on arrival end of year joke from a government peopled with comedians and clowns.

For instance, corrupt practices in sports sector do not get the attention of the so called anti-graft agencies. We are witnesses to the acute hunger in the land. My utmost worry is the corruption in football house is the root cause of the problems of owing players mere bonuses and allowances which have brought shame to the country before the international community, while none of the executive committee members or staff has even fifty kobo owed them as allowances, salaries and sundry.

Fans must rise up decisively and demand that Dr. Ojo-Oba’s revelation be probed intoto. It must not be rested and forgotten like numerous others. We are sick and tire of all these. The era of hide and seek game on corruption in our football must be over now!

FIFA even queried reckless and receipt less transactions carried out by the NFF recently. Enough of this rubbish. Meanwhile, keep shooting hard. Discussion Continues! Till next week!!

Source Daily Sports

Posted December 26, 2016