This was one of the highlights of the NFF Extra Ordinary Congress held in Benin City, Edo Stste on Thursday, August 3, 2018.
The Giwa group which has been at loggerhead with the Amaju Melvin Pinnick led NFF Executive Board since 2014, has been told in clear terms by the Congress made up of Chairmen and Secretaries of States Football Association and heads of other critical football stakeholders like the Nigeria Football Referees Association and Nigerian Football Coaches Association et al, to accept the Olive Branch offer to it to end the almost four years impasse.
As a first step, the Congress has mandated the NFF Executive Board to re-register the relegated Giwa Football Club of Jos, a professional team owned by Ambassador Giwa to play in the on-going Nigeria National League (NNL) with the NFF providing part of the expenses involved in the execution of the matches involved.
Also, Ambassador Giwa and members of his group have been asked to present themselves for the next NFF General Election while the ban placed on them for taking Football Matters to the Ordinary Court in Nigeria will be lifted if they withdraw all the court cases they instituted against the current leadership of NFF.
However, the above windows of opportunities to resolving the NFF leadership tussle may however not yield any meaningful results following the utterances emanating from Giwa’s camp since the Congress released its Communique after the Benin City meeting.
No sooner the communique of the Congress was made public than the Giwa camp through the social media and some mainstream media sympathetic to Giwa course clearly rejected the FA Congress and the outcome of the meeting calling it an illegal gathering.
In fact, they claimed that Nigeria’s Sports Minister is solidly behind Giwa group hence he did not attend the FA Congress in Benin City, adding that as far as they are concerned Ambassador Christopher Giwa is the NFF President.
Sadly, this stand by the Giwa group even after the Hon. Attorney General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami (SAN) has conveyed the directive of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari on the vexed issue after the world football governing body FIFA has warned of dire consequences of the continued feud in NFF.
Interestingly, the FIFA President, Gianni Infantino had during a world Press Conference in Moscow on the eve of the 2018 Russia FIFA World Cup final clearly declared that as far as FIFA is concerned, Amaju Melvin Pinnick is the recognised President of NFF and warned that Nigeria will be banned if the leadership tussle continues.
Indeed, the FIFA hammer will fall sooner than later with the recent Vote of Confidence passed on Amaju Pinnick by the FA Congress in Benin City in accordance with both NFF and FIFA Statues.
This means that any other body or authority challenging the stand of the Congress is a recipe for trouble and FIFA will impose a worldwide ban on Nigeria and the damage will be colossal to say the least.
It is therefore important that the man in the eyes of the storm, Ambassador Giwa to take a deep breath, go inside the inner recess of his room, talk to himself, listen to himself and take a decision.
But before taking the decision let him consider his Brand which is Giwa FC. Let him also think about the millions of Nigerian Football players whose livelihoods depend on football and who will suffer huge loss if FIFA bans Nigeria.
Finally, Ambassador Christopher Giwa will become a hero if he ignores all those urging him to still Keep Fighting. He has already lost a great deal-emotional, financial, time and goodwill. Most of the people urging him to still be in the trench against the entire Football Family may not mean well.
He may like to take the option of the Out of Court Settlement after all he has fought like a Lion for almost four years now spending his hard earned money along the way without any reasonable success.
Therefore if he can cash in on this latest overtures by the NFF
especially using the opportunity offered him now to vacate the ban, I believe that he could still bounce back to lead the NFF in future. Ambassador Giwa can however make this decision alone.
Noble Peters is a Public Affairs Commentator/ Mass Communications Expert.
