Eagles Nest Column

February 9, 2010

Eagles Nest Column

When about a year ago I interviewed Austin ‘Jay Jay’ Okocha, retired footballer-turned Lagos businessman, he gave a hint of his ambition to be part of those making decisions on behalf of Nigerian football.

Question: …What of serving on the board of the Nigeria Football Federation, either as the chairman, or maybe a board member? Like the Platinis of this world.

Okocha: Well, that would be more interesting for me. I think that’s something that I can handle … being among the people that make the decisions. That I think I can handle very well.

Last week, ‘Jay Jay’ launched his campaign for a change in Nigerian football with his eye fixed on being elected vice-president of the NFF.

If we are to believe the talk making the rounds, he has very powerful backers, but you need far more than that if you wish to make it to the Glasshouse in Abuja.

Okocha wooed millions at home and abroad with his sleeky ball skills and three years after he hung his boots, Nigeria are yet to get a replacement for this gifted playmaker.

But ‘Jay Jay’ is not your typical politician. He may strike you as a down-to-earth fellow, who loves a laugh or two. Yet, he is a very complicated man who has distanced himself from former teammates and friends as he is a very private person who prefers not to reach out even when you reach out to him.

I bumped into an English freelance journalist during the Nations Cup in Angola who narrated the ordeal he went through trying to get an interview for a special publication ahead of Angola 2010. Even though ‘Jay Jay’ is contracted to Puma and this was a Puma-branded publication, this journalist rang him up almost 80 times. It was only once that Okocha picked his call only to tell the journalist to repeat the call as he was in the middle of a meeting.

With his former teammates, it has been even worse.

As a politician, Okocha would have to relate with the low and the mighty, knowing fully well that he has to give some of himself to get across.

Some officials have already sneered at Okocha’s latest ambition, insisting that he should really go back and study the statutes as it concerns elections to the NFF board.

Besides getting the endorsement of his zone, in this case the south-south, he also has to count on the support of the other geo-political zones or else he does not even stand any chance of getting on the board, not to talk of being elected the second most powerful man in Nigerian football on August 28.

Another official cracked: “I hope he has also dusted his school-leaving certificate…”

I want to believe that Okocha was not at Nike Grammar School in Enugu just because of his football prowess, but also came away with a couple of O’levels before he turned pro.

The bigger worry is that ‘Jay Jay’ may now be used as a cover by the likes of Segun Odegbami, who has never hidden his ambition to lead the NFF even after several disastrously failed bids.

‘Mathematical’ is the articulate ideas’ man, who at a time got his own chance to make a difference in Nigerian football, but sadly did not make the most of this opportunity.

It is therefore very likely that Odegbami and co are now using ‘Jay Jay’ for their own selfish end.

Selfishness on the part of officials was also central at the NFF emergency board meeting in Abuja last week.

While the world waited with bathed breath to know what became of coach Shuaibu Amodu, the NFF board members preoccupied themselves with their own interests as they spent over 10 hours to move for the impeachment of president Sani Lulu following what they described as the “inhumane treatment” they received from the NFF leadership in Angola during the Nations Cup.

The fact is that these aggrieved board members were paid their extacode in full and were even advised to stay back home and not have to “throw away their dollars in expensive Angola”.

I visited the Missionary house in Benguela that the NFF went ahead and rented for these members. It was a very comfortable accommodation, in which a room would go for at least $150 a night.

This meant that the members were saved a substantial amount of their extacode. Rather these self-serving officials were disappointed that they could not be put up at the team’s Hotel Praia Morena, where the room rate had shot from $180 to $375 a night just because of the Nations Cup.

And so, the NFF board spent most of Friday’s meeting, where an official admitted that “tempers and voices rose”, to douse the tension among some very, very unhappy members.

This family meeting would give the first clear indication that Lulu is fast losing the support of his board members as 10 of the 15-man board led by Aminu Maigari and Dominic Iorfa would move for his impeachment.

This is by far the biggest signal that Lulu may not be in full control of his troops as we all head to the polls on August 28.

Expensive Champagne bottles must have popped in the offices of the Sports Commission as well as the Presidential Task Force (PTF) after this impeachment scare.

You can be sure that self-serving, money-grabbing officials will produce far more drama leading to August 28.

Samm Audu