Facts Emerge How FG’s N17bn Intervention Funding Given to NFF Was Used to Settle Debts
Duro Ikhazuagbe
In apparent reply to claims by the leadership of the National Sports Commission (NSC) that the immediate past board of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) received better funding from the Federal Government than any other previous board of the football federation, a former member of that executive committee insisted yesterday that it will be wrong to treat the N17billion intervention money given to the sacked board in isolation and also as evidence of financial wrongdoings.
Chairman of the NSC, Malam Shehu Dikko, while appearing on AriseNews sports programme at the weekend, made comparison between the funding received by the Ibrahim Gusau-led NFF board with that of his predecessor, Amaju Melvin Pinnick.
Dikko concluded that the N17billion intervention funds released in a single cheque to the Gusau-led board was far greater than the about N15billion in total that Pinnick got in his eight years tenure as NFF president between 2014 and 2022.
The NSC chairman had used the comparison to drum for accountability and the need for reforms in the administration of football in Nigeria.
But a member of that board who craved to be anonymous due to the ongoing investigations into the finances of the NFF by anti-graft agencies, said that
the Gusau-led board inherited huge financial debts from the Pinnick administration.
“I don’t want to dispute that our board received the N17billion intervention funding from the Federal Government. There is a detailed account of how the money was applied, included settlement of prior liabilities,” began the influential member of that immediate board of the NFF.
He listed one of the huge debts inherited by the Gusau-led board to include
the 23-month backlog of Coach Jose Peseiro’s $70,000 USD monthly wage. “Peseiro’s unpaid salary alone gulped over a million dollars,” revealed the source.
Surprisingly, the former board member further alleged that the outstanding Peseiro’s salary was recorded as paid by the Pinnick board when Gusau took over.
“Unfortunately, this was one of the debts that the Gusau board inherited. The Pinnick board claimed that it was bankrolled by AITEO. We met it as debt. It was the Gusau board that settled it,” the source stressed.
While throwing further clarifications on how the intervention funds were spent, our top football source also listed the huge debts inherited from the Pinnick led board to include outstanding match allowances and bonuses due to Super Eagles players, and officials, some dating back to the qualifiers for the 2018 FIFA World Cup that held in Russia.
The former board member said that Dikko who was a second vice president of the Pinnick led NFF board should not be economical with the truth as he is much aware of the huge debt they left for the Gusau board to inherit.
“As it is usually the case, any one seeking equity must come with clean hands. Is Dikko exonerating himself from the huge debts left by the board where he was a vice president?” queried the source.
“I want to make it clear that receiving more funding than a previous administration isn’t, by itself, evidence of anything impropriety. Rather, the question that matters is how the cash were applied. Without any contradiction, the Gusau-led board used major part of that N17bn fund to clear the debts left behind by the Pinnick and Dikko led board.”
He was emphatic in stating that the exchange rate in place during the Gusau era made things difficult for the board. “When Pinnick was in office, dollar exchanged for between N200 to N600 to a dollar. But Gusau got N17 billion at the time one dollar was exchanging to Naira at N1,500. So technically, it will not be wrong to say that the N15billion that Pinnick got during his time as NFF President was greater than the N17billion given to the Gusau led board when dollar was going for N1,500,” concludes the former board member.
