The House of Representatives on Tuesday, October 28, resolved to establish a Special Committee to investigate financial grants totaling $25 million advanced to the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) and the Confederation of African Football (CAF).
This resolution was adopted during plenary following a motion of urgent public importance co-sponsored by Lagos lawmaker, Rep. Adedayo Adesola, and his Rivers State counterpart, Rep. 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.
Persecondnews recalls that former Super Eagles captain, Sunday Oliseh, recently accused the NFF of stifling Nigerian football’s growth through misappropriation of FIFA and CAF grants, citing the “questionable handling” of $1 million FIFA funds meant for Super Eagles’ 2002 World Cup preparation.
Between 2015 and 2025, NFF allegedly received development funds in excess of $25 million from FIFA and CAF, with no proportional investment to justify the huge amount of money.
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 Sports Minister, Solomon Dalung, to order an independent audit and asked NFF to account for receipts and disbursements.”
He added: “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 $1.2 million, is the subject of a news item currently trending on social media, which NFF allegedly used to construct Birnin Kebbi Stadium.
“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, however, pointed out the Kenyan Football Federation used the same amount of grant to develop a standard and well-equipped facility to further raise eyebrows on the profligacy in NFF.
He maintained that with another African Cup of Nations round the corner and the World Cup play-off, both involving the Super Eagles of Nigeria, there is 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.
It also resolved to invite the leadership of NFF to appear before the special committee with documents showing receipts and expenditures of grants.
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