The House of Representatives has resolved to investigate the financial grants totalling $25m advanced to the Nigeria Football Federation by FIFA and the CAF.
The resolution of the House followed the adoption of a motion of urgent public importance during Tuesday’s plenary, co-sponsored by Lagos lawmaker, Adedayo Adesola and his Rivers State counterpart, Felix Nwaeke.
Titled “Motion to sport further misuse of FIFA and CAF grants by Nigerian Football Federation,” Adesola noted that the mismanagement of grants by the global football governing body is largely responsible for the poor outings in recent times by the various national teams.
It will be recalled that the former Super Eagle’s captain, Sunday Oliseh recently accused the NFF of stifling the growth of football in Nigeria, through the misappropriation of grants from FIFA and CAF, citing the questionable handling of $1m the NFF got from FIFA to prepare the Super Eagles for the 2002 World Cup.
“Between 2015 and 2025, NFF allegedly received development funds in excess of $25m from FIFA and CAF.”
Speaking on the substance of the motion, the Lagos lawmaker noted that in December 2016, “FIFA sent an audit query over the mishandling of $1.1m development grant to NFF and reported that US$802,000 lacked proper documentation, prompting then Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, to order an independent audit and asked NFF to account for receipts and disbursements.”
He continued, “The House notes that between 2018 and 2019, NFF officials (including the then President, Amaju Pinnick) faced public criticism and were subject to EFCC and ICPC probes and court actions tied to alleged mismanagement of various funds and sponsorship.
“One of these monies, a $1.2m, is the subject of a news item currently trending on social media, which NFF allegedly used to construct a mini-stadium in Birnin Kebbi.
“We are concerned that a physical inspection of the stadium in Birnin Kebbi showed that it is a substandard facility in terms of quality and quantity, which cannot justify the sum of $1.2m claimed to have been spent on the project by the NFF.”
He added that with another Africa Cup of Nations coming soon and the World Cup play-off, both involving the Super Eagles, “There is a need to take decisive action on further misuse of public funds by the leadership of NFF.”
The motion was unanimously endorsed at the plenary presided over by the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, and the House resolved to set up a special investigative committee to probe NFF finances from 2015 to date.