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The Advocacy for Nigeria Football Reform Initiative group pushing for the overhaul of Nigerian football governance has declared that the country’s football administration is entering ‘a new dawn,’ while insisting that anti-corruption investigators widen their probe into missing Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) funds to cover the period from late 2014 to 2026.
In a statement issued by Prince Harrison Jalla, Chairman of the Advocacy for Nigeria Football Reform Initiative, the group said the would be constituted Normalisation Committee must fairly represent all federating units, the private sector and other stakeholders; warning that no one should exploit President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive to tilt the process in their favour.
“We do not want to go back to Egypt,” Jalla said, invoking the biblical warning against regression as he cautioned the National Sports Commission (NSC), led by Shehu Dikko and Bukola Olopade, against favouritism. He described the reform process as one that “must be total, competence-driven, and nothing more.”
The group thanked the NSC and other allies who joined what it called a years-long struggle, declaring: “Nigeria football wins at last.”
Looking ahead, the Initiative said its next campaign would push for the inauguration of the full NSC Board, as spelt out in the National Sports Commission Establishment Act 2023 arguing that the Commission cannot continue operating as a “two-man board” while other statutory members remain excluded.
On the financial front, Jalla called on anti-graft agencies to extend their investigation into NFF finances beyond the current scope, targeting stolen FIFA grants and sponsorship funds allegedly diverted between late 2014 and 2026. He dismissed the ongoing ₦12 billion to ₦17 billion probe as merely “scratching the surface,” insisting that accountability must include prison time.
“People must go to jail for corruption if we are to have a brand-new NFF,” he said.
