Community crisis, they say is but a business venture for the red-capped chiefs, they say. Sometimes also, crisis provides a breeding ground for maleficence in societal activities.

The situation in the Nigeria football right now may not appear gloomy to the outside but to the man in the know of the shenanigans going on in the Nigeria Football Federation, there is no better situation to be lazy than now.

The Opera News came up with this description on its 15 April publication reported that there was one picture that went viral in the early days of the lock-down, or shall we say pictures? Because even though the images were different, they told the same story: it showed the figure of a man lying on the couch, doing nothing. And it was captioned, “In the past when I do this, they tell me I’m lazy and should get out of the house and find work; now look at me, I’m saving the world!”

The message is simple: the whole world is standing still, and unless you challenge yourself, there are no ‘lazy people’ anywhere, all of us are in the same boat – nobody is going to work, and nobody is stressing about “get up and go”. A more classic image that showed dignity in doing nothing, is that of the clock that has stopped working, and is stuck at the same time: even a broken clock is correct twice a day.

That seemed to be the case of the Nigerian Football Federation. The whole world is standing still, and so, no-one can fault the body if ‘nothing seems to be working’, since pretty little is moving in whole world anyway. But the President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, would seem to have over-reached, when said in a Channels Television interview on Monday, that the NFF is working to employ a world class coach for the senior Women’s National Team, the Super Falcons, and that the pandemic sweeping the world has stumped the plans for the sponsored Federation Cup this year.

The case of the NFF and the insistence on a foreign coach, while laudable, is baffling.

The biggest success of the Falcons (which the NFF President mentioned by the way) was achieved under the tutelage of Ismaila Mabo, a local coach. And that milestone – a place in the Quarter Finals of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, was achieved at a time when the Women’s League in Nigeria was arguably one of the best in the world.

Then, the last ‘world class’ foreign coach the NFF employed to work with Falcons fled the job following a series of disagreements that stemmed from what the man described as untenable working conditions. As far as we know, the factors that led to those conditions have not been dealt with, and that is what makes the declaration on a foreign coach baffling.

Most Nigerian coaches – who are used to the way things work, would find ways of dealing with it, get on with the job and probably deliver the same results a (foreign coach who will be paid more) would probably deliver. But that should not be the focus.

While it is a bad workman that complains about the tools he is given to do a job; no matter how good a workman is, bad tools would make him look bad. That is why it those who cut, ensure they sharpen their tools, and it is for the same reason top managers the world over spend a lot of money to get the services of the best players…and it is for this reason we must focus our attention on developing the league, and raising it up to the standard it was when the 1999 team ran Brazil ragged, and almost made it to the semi-finals of the Women’s World Cup.

It is merely wishful thinking and moonlight fables, if we think a ‘world class’ coach can make sense of the shambles we proudly parade as a Women’s League, and deliver the same results that better organized and more advanced league constantly deliver at international competitions.

The case of the Federation Cup is even more straight-forward: a tournament whose quality has belied the millions trumpeted as the sponsorship fees, and has been in steady decline the past two years, was suddenly credited with big-plans-disrupted-by-pandemic…tales of the broken clock. The leadership of the NFF would need to do more than offer clichés and grandiose plans, to revive any serious interest in that once-glamorous competition.   

The other tales by moonlight was delivered by the first Vice President of the NFF and Chairman of the League Management Committee, Shehu Dikko. According to Dikko, who was being interviewed online by journalists, the LMC is working on plans to make the League better, post the pandemic; and most importantly the pandemic scuttled “preparations for commencement of test-runs of the (NEXT TV) broadcast”. Again, tales of the broken clock, a moon light tale powered by the virus outbreak.

But maybe we should not rush to judge.

Maybe we should wait for the pandemic to clear, and see what the NFF and the LMC really have planned for Nigeria football. That, perhaps, is the route to go. But the many false dawn, unfulfilled promises, empty braggadocio and use of well-worn clichés in the past, means that these too will either be taken with a pinch of salt or dismissed out rightly.

The many policy flip-flops, about turns, and seeming general disdain for the growth of the Women’s League and the Nigeria Professional Football League would seem to suggest that (maybe) nobody will take Pinnick and Dikko serious: the pandemic gives everybody who has done nothing an excuse to spread their hands and say, “can’t you see what’s going on?”  

But that time will pass soon enough.

What the virus has done for the whole world, including organizations like the NFF and the LMC, is offer a chance a start again. The post COVID-19 world will have leave impressions that would take some time to heal: the virus has almost levelled almost everything; the whole world is almost on equal footing. It is a chance to start again. And this is where the NFF and LMC have a chance at redemption.

The idea of the league being on NEXT TV sounded exciting when it was first mooted, but many moons have passed without that plan seeing the light of day: what Dikko needs to do, is take that tales by moonlight, firm it up during this pandemic, and shoot an HD movie that can be seen by everyone as soon as the cloud lifts. Then and only then, will some light appear at the end of the tunnel, any delay after the world swings back into action, will lead to an apathy that will further consume the league.

The same goes for Pinnick. The excuses are good as long as long as the world is locked down; those words will become lodestones around the neck of the NFF as soon as the world wheels back to normalcy.     

From Opera News Hub