TheCable

Sports Minister, Tamuno Danagogo, spoke to state house correspondents on Wednesday just before FIFA hammer fell on Nigeria on Wednesday night. He said he was in the process of briefing the world football-governing on the crisis in the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).

We are out of the World Cup, can you give us the rundown on our performance?

Well I have said it time and again, Nigeria is a country that has a pool of talents. We have such talents that can take us to the very highest level in football. But, unfortunately, we were unable to break the jinx of the round of 16. We made it to the round of 16, that is not a disgraceful performance but it is also less than our expectations. We expected we should go further than that. But I think we have learnt our lessons from this outing. We are beginning to look inwards. We are going back to the drawing board. I can assure Nigerians that we will come out better and stronger in our next outings.

Following the development in NFF, how safe is Nigeria from FIFA hammer?

Nigeria is safe, I can tell you that. What FIFA wants is for the right things to be done and there should be a high level of independence in what is happening. So far, if you look at what has happened, I think government has been very fair, government has done everything possible not to unduly interfere. As a government, we have constitutional duty to maintain law and order. When factions in football family begin to dispute, we have a duty to see that we don’t allow them kill themselves, we don’t allow them destroy the buildings where they are operating. But beyond that, we have not done anything. What we have done is to see that law and order is maintained.

First, you must understand that the first thing that happened as soon as we returned from Brazil, was the old NFF, that is the Maigari-led NFF on the 3rd of July, wrote to me, informing me that there is a court order saying that they are not the legitimate executive council of the NFF and that a civil servant has been appointed or directed to take over and then urging me to intervene to maintain law and order. And what we did was to ensure that there is law and order. And of course, the group of FA chairmen and stakeholders, who also didn’t want the Maigari government to continue, called their congress and the congress passed a vote of no confidence on that exco. Now FIFA at the beginning thought maybe it was a government action, a court action, but we have gone far beyond that. We are talking about a legitimate congress of NFF, of the football family in the whole country meeting and passing a vote of no confidence. That is not government action. It is strictly a decision of a majority of the stakeholders of football in the country.

One thing you must know ordinarily, the tenure of the Maigari led exco has almost come to an end, by July, August. And it is a routine, even in our national politics, you know that once we get to election season, there is always dispute between parties who are interested. So, what you are seeing is the normal election conflict within NFF. Maigari exco had tried to set up electoral machinery to ensure they are re-elected and majority have come together and say no they don’t want it. And they have said they should step aside for an independent party to be on the saddle while the elections are conducted.

It is not a government interference, FIFA naturally will be worried when they hear that they will be dispute or there is problem but when they are properly briefed FIFA is made up of human beings.

Have they been properly briefed?

That process is on‎.

One major issue that stood out at the world cup is the players not being paid their entitlements. What really happened?

Really is an unfortunate development. It is embarrassing that issues like that keep up cropping up each time African countries go to the world stage. You will see that we did not hear of this kind of things when the European and even the American countries were but there happen with the African countries. You know that right now Ghana and Cameroon governments are probing what happened to the funds. In our case we are also looking at it. It is an unfortunate development. When we got to Brazil and the players were grumbling and the grumbling is not just for this World Cup, these boys are bitter that right from the World Cup in South Africa, the Confederations Cup they had entitlements which they said FIFA paid to NFF that they ought to get their share. But I wasn’t in the know of all these until I got to Brazil. And we did our best to intervene, the senate president did everything to intervene and at the end of it even Mr. President tried to handle it as a father. But is an unfortunate development.

These are some of the things that are undercurrents that you are seeing ‎in some of the things that are happening. A great chunk of the stakeholders feel that things like this should not be happening because we know that the federal government paid every kobo that we needed. Mr. President approved and there were released as at when due. So we don’t need to have any problem. FIFA even gives money for the same things that federal government released monies for and the players should get their money. So there is no reason on earth that players should not get what they should get because Mr. President has done everything and FIFA is saying they have done everything.

You see when FIFA is talking about independence, because they believe every money that needs to be paid‎ they are paying. That is why they keep hammering on independence for the FA and the football managers should be independent. But a situation where these monies in some of these African countries do not really get down to do the football job that is why we always have this internal wrangling in our respective countries.

What are the lessons to be drawn by Nigeria from the Brazil/Germany match and what is the fate of coach Stephen Keshi?

The lesson first and foremost from that match is that we should also learn ‎to appreciate our players. I know that our country wouldn’t have suffered that kind of fate because they are better than that. You know for Brazil to go down that way is embarrassing. I don’t think our players will go that low.

We have a crop of players that are determined to do the country proud if all things were equal. I think we would have gone beyond where we stopped. At least my expectation from everything we saw on ground was that we would get to the quarter-finals. But a couple of things were not right and that is what we are trying to streamline. I want Nigerians drawing from the lessons of the collapse of Brazil on Tuesday, to continue to appreciate our players, all those involved. I think at the end of the day if we are able to resolve all these teething problems it will be better for us.

On Keshi, I believe as a person in encouraging‎ our local coaches but the decision of who will coach our teams is the decision of the NFF and the technical committee. The technical committee will evaluate the performance, the chances of those who want to be coach and at the end of the day come out with their recommendations. But I am not in the position to say Keshi should be the coach or not. What I know is that his contract has expired and he has not said he will not coach the country again and NFF has not said they don’t want him again officially. So what I think should be done at the end of the day is for the football house to organise themselves at the end of the day to be able to sit down and think about what they want. At best what I can do is to advise just like what you do in the media.

In fact, most of what I learnt as soon as I came into office was from the media. It is from the media that I got to know that every country that has won the World Cup did so with their indigenous coaches not foreign coaches. And if that is so then what we should be doing actually is to see how we will prepare and support our indigenous coaches so that they too can get to that level. If what it takes is not just competence but passion and patriotism to get to that level then we should enhance the competence of our coaches. Competence is something that can be developed, passion and patriotism are very personal issues that you cannot send one to courses to developed.

Enyeama has been named among the best four goalkeepers in the world following his performance and he has hinted of resigning from playing for national team. Should he be allowed to go at this time?

‎You see on our part as National Sports Commission, we have seen that most of these players are disillusioned. They believed that they are being shortchanged, their due is not getting to them. That is my personnel observation. And when people like Enyeama talk like that, they are talking because maybe they feel they are not appreciated enough. But you see the new strategy we are trying to adopt will be such that they will have a very high sense of belonging. If the technical people feel they are good enough we will be able to talk to them. When they see changes in the system they will have that sense of belonging that will make them begin to fight to play for the country.

You know some of the things that disturb these players apart from what they said that after the competition what is paid to them they don’t see it, they will even tell you that if they get injured nobody talks about them, nobody will ask them what happened to you. They forget them and then when another competition comes and they have managed to treat themselves then they will say come. But if unfortunately that injury takes them out of play that is also the end for them. And when people feel that is the way Nigeria treats them, they will be frustrated. I mean if you were in his shoes you will say the same thing in frustration. That is why we have tried to do things differently.

Like those who were injured in these competition, apart from directing immediately that ‎NFF should look at it, as soon as we came back I have met with all three of them personally and I have ensured that they are treated in the best hospitals in the world, hospitals of their choice because most of these boys play out of the country. So federal government is footing the bills but the essence is to let every player know that if you are ready to sacrifice for your country the country is also ready to sacrifice for you.

When you see players in the field being too casual, a lot of times if they are casual is because they don’t want to be injured. If you see that tackle that Onazi took, I can tell you some of the big boys would not have brought out their legs because they know it is such tackles that result in big injuries. When you get passes like that in amature football we call it “Igbobi pass” because it is such passes that send you to Igbobi [orthopaedic hospital] so you just withdraw your legs‎. So it takes the highest sense of passion and patriotism for a player to go in when he sees a menacing opponent coming. The only way a player can do that is when he knows that if he does that for his country, his country will stand behind him no matter the circumstance. And I am happy that when I met with them… in fact Onazi told me he is happy if for nothing not that he cannot on his own pay but that his president personally said call this boy, call him. I and the DG SSS were together when Mr. President said make sure these boys are properly taken care of. Two of us met with the boys, spoke and encouraged them and everything possible is being done. And that is the new trend and if that is done people like Enyeama will not say they are retiring. Enyeama is not too old as a goalkeeper compared to others and like you said he is one of the best today in the world. I believe things will change and if it changes some of these players will also change their minds.