Nigeria’s Sports Minister gives NFF one-year ultimatum to expand Congress

By Wale Mustapha

Sports Minister, Senator John Owan Enoh has directed the leadership of Nigeria Football Federation, to work on modalities to expand its congress in a bid to involve more relevant stakeholders and ensure proportional representation for the good of the game.

In September 2022, the former minister of youth and sports development, Sunday Dare had admitted that he does not have the powers to expand the NFF Congress after the proposed expansion of the Congress of the General Assembly from 44 members to 111 members was an advisory.

In a recent meeting with the executive board members of the NFF, Senator Enoh however, revived the plan and has reiterated that the economic, social and cultural values of Nigerian football require some sacrifices to raise its level.

“There should be an expansion of the NFF’s Congress to accommodate other stakeholders,” Enoh said in a statement.

“NFF’s Congress should be such that it is proportionally representative enough of all interests for the good of the game.”

The former federal lawmaker feels that Nigeria’s football legislation should be adaptive to the uniqueness of the country’s composition and factors peculiar to it.

“If FIFA recognizes the unique situations in each country (as mentioned), then the NFF does not need to wait for the universal statute (of FIFA), as it may not cover those unique situations and we may not have control of the timelines.”

“NFF should submit the action plan leading to the final amended statute with definite timelines to the Office of the Minister of Sports Development as we need to make progress and bring this to a positive conclusion.”