Retired Colonel Abdulmumini Aminu was military governor of Borno State during General Ibrahim Babangida’s administration. He established the El-Kanemi Warriors FC, Maiduguri when he was governor. After his tenure as governor, he became Chairman, Nigeria Football Association and later Chairman, West Africa Football Union (WAFU). In this interview, among other issues, he dwells on the dispute between former Super Eagles Coach, Stephen Keshi and the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF.
As a former Chairman of the then Nigeria Football Association, would you say you are satisfied with the funding of sports, particularly football in Nigeria?
I don’t want to start picking on people. But, you see, to manage Nigeria football or anywhere but particularly in Nigeria is difficult. The expectations are very high. It is just like now; people are expecting President Buhari to answer to all problems of Nigeria overnight. It is not possible. Football in particular is capital intensive and the government of Nigeria cannot fund sports or football in particular. We need major companies to come and invest in Nigeria. You discovery that it is only Glo that is investing in football and what they do is minimal even though they are doing a lot to develop but it is inadequate. Where a lot of money goes is in the area of camping the players. In most cases, the real budget of the NFF is not more than one or two billion Naira. That can’t go anywhere. If you give that to the NFF, it can easily be expended and a lot more would be required. That is just a team at the national level and we have about six or more national teams. Not only that, there are a lot of competitions and Nigeria has been participating in all competitions from regional, CAF to FIFA level. We never withdrew from any completion and that’s a lot of money in terms of preparation, logistics and so on.
Why do you think corporate organisations are reluctant when it comes to investing in football in Nigeria?
I would not blame Nigeria and Nigerians. They say NFF is corrupt and it is not true. There could be some genuine cases but minimal and for you to say a place is corrupt and you want somebody to invest in a place that you call a corrupt place, I think they don’t tally. Nobody would come and invest in a place that is eaten by corruption and you are not the one that would employ the staff. It can’t work. But in any case, by the time football becomes viable, it can fend for itself. But now government cannot hands-off. It is not possible in the third world because when you talk about investors or sponsorship, it is not on the attractive side. Government should endeavour to set-up proper mechanism to ensure that football is properly positioned in such a way that it can woo investors.
Since you left football administration, would you say there is a major improvement in Nigeria football?
You see, improvement is not only by winning trophies alone. Once you are better organized, when you are able to generate more funds, when you are more focused, it is a way forward. Whether we like it or not, as time goes by, the administration becomes better and better. It is much better now than what it used to be. What they are generating as revenue today, 20 years ago, it was not so. So, the situation is changing and you discover now that our coaches are being sent abroad but it was not so in the past. We could not afford it. There are changes. Today, you discover that some local coaches are given the responsibility of running the affairs of our national teams. That is an achievement because in the past, nobody would allow a Nigerian to coach our team because they found it not comfortable to leave the affairs of football to local coaches. I also blame some Nigerian coaches too, because they never take interest in developing themselves. The whole thing revolves around funds.
The Keshi contract has gotten really messy. What is the way out?
I understand there are a lot of legal issues. Going to court and so on and so forth. To me, the National Sports Commission should take the lead in trying to bring all the parties together with a view to solving the problem and not to allow the matter go to court. It is not good. It is not in the interest of NFF and not in the interest of Keshi himself. That is not the end of his career in Nigeria. He would like to get job overseas, but with this experience of taking NFF to court, some other countries would be sceptical. So, I think the NSC should mediate in this matter with a view of reconciling the two parties and I am sure it is a thing that is possible. I respect the National Sports Commission especially the new person at the helm of affairs, Alhassan Yakmut. He is a very excellent person, very brilliant and he loves the job and he knows it.
You established the El-Kanemi Warriors FC in Borno State and also Katsina United FC. Do we see you setting up another club?
I really don’t know, but very remote. I have told you running football it not easy in terms of funds. For an individual to own a football club is not easy. As I told you, in Nigeria today, if you look at the clubs, 95 per cent are owned by government. That is why our football is not developing well. Only very few clubs are owned by individuals. The state governments are the ones running them. The only thing is to provide an enabling environment for people to set up clubs. If you go by the professional thinking, application and requirements for establishing a professional club, I think only one club can make it. To me, if I have the means, I want to establish a club, but my problem here is I would spend a lot of money because I want the best. I always want to go for the best, because I want results. If you want the best, you must be prepared to spend a lot. An individual cannot run football unless you have oil money and that money comes regularly.
