The House of Representatives has moved to set up a Special Committee to investigate a total of $25m financial grants advanced to the Nigerian Football Federation and the Confederation of African Football.
This follows 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.
Adesola in the motion titled “Motion to sport further misuse of FIFA and CAF grants by Nigerian Football Federation,” 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.
Recently, former Super Eagles captain, Sunday Oliseh, accused the NFF of being responsible for the lack of growth of football in Nigeria, with the misappropriation of grants from FIFA and CAF.
Oliseh cited the handling of $1m the NFF got from FIFA to prepare the Super Eagles for the 2002 World Cup describing it as questionable.
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 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 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.”
“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 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.
It also resolved to invite the leadership of NFF to appear before the special committee with documents showing receipts and expenditures of grants.
