Sometime last year, when I got absolutely exasperated with the ever fumbling NFF led by Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdulahi, I picked my mobile phone and called Chief Segun Odegbami (MON) and asked him if he was still interested in the NFF top spot.

Answering in the affirmative, I urged him to start campaigning and networking in earnest and that he MUST secure the backing of the Presidency. Odegbami set to work and it was not surprising that the former President Umaru Yar’Adua reposed enough confidence in him to make him the arrow-head of the Presidential Task Force set up to galvanize Nigeria’s qualification for South Africa 2010 World Cup. Rivers State Governor, Rotimi Amaechi is the Chairman of the Task Force, but Odegbami’s imprimatur is written all over it.

Since organized football began in Nigeria in 1945, no ex-international has ever been given the opportunity of heading the NFA, now the NFF. The Federal Government, through the NSC, had usurped the power from 1961 and had always ignored former international footballers in favour of people who were friends, relations, hangers-on, political jobbers and civil servants, most of whom had no clue in football administration.

Past NFF Chairmen were well connected with the government of the day, military or civilian, and that none of them served two terms in office, except the Sunday Dakaro regime 1974 – 1980, exposed the incompetence of government choice. Odegbami and his former colleagues, symbolize the new trend in football administration whereby ex-internationals who distinguished themselves in and outside the field, are bestowed with high responsibilities of administering the game. My position remains intact. The ex internationals cannot be gifted the high positions without competing for them.

There are some other Nigerians who are competent in sports administration without necessarily being ex internationals. As at the time of writing, nine contestants have lined up for the NFF top position and as I promised, here is a pen portrait on each one of them. This is done alphabetically.

DIKKO Shehu: I met Shehu Dikko for the first time in 2004 when the Commodore Emeka Omeruah Committee that probed Nigeria’s dismal outing at the Athens Olympic Games toured the north. He came to give evidence before the Committee in which I served. He is a lettered sports marketer of high intellect and integrity. If elected he will surely bring his sports marketing savvy to the advantage of the NFF. Such knowledgeable person is an asset to NFF any day.

LUMUMBA Adeh: Very few Nigerians can put their money where their mouths and interests are, but not Adeh Lumumba, proprietor of J. C. Raiders of Jos, a football club that thrived in the Plateau State. Lumumba and I interacted when we both served on the Organizing and Disciplinary Committee of the Nigerian Football League, 2007-2008 session, and his deep knowledge of football, his humility and general comportment were highly impressive. Having served as Special Assistant to former President Obasanjo means he is bringing additional knowledge of a government insider into football administration.

MAIGARI Aminu: The Acting President who led the impeachment plot against erstwhile President Sani Lulu Abdulahi. The last time I met Maigari was during the WAFU Cup in Abeokuta last year, but he had made a brief appearance in this column two years ago, when he threatened to blow the lid off the cover of corruption in the NFF. He never did. It will be a gamble to put such characters in the saddle of leadership of the NFF.

NDUBUOKE Fan: Here is my younger colleague in sports journalism, who rose to the pinnacle as the President of the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN). Later he acquired valuable experience in sports administration with COJA, the body that organized the Abuja All Africa Games in 2003.

OBASEKI Oyuki: The Edo High Chief who styles himself the Moving Train, a moniker that depicts his style of leadership when he was the Chairman of the NFL. He successfully ran the NFL for four years without collecting a kobo from government and he handled N3.5billion, without any breath of scandal. His main critics were those who made him the head of the NFL, and who also saw to his tumbling from the exalted position. He is accused of being bombastic and ego-centric, but he is an achiever.

ODEGBAMI Segun: “Mathematical” as he was popularly called during his playing days, was the first high profile ex international to gun for the leadership of the NFF way back in 1993, but was upended by the powers that be in the NSC, with whom he had done some business deal. Quickly he learnt his lesson that you cannot combine quest for money with position. Odegbami has devoted almost all to lead the NFF and take Nigeria to the promised land and if the tyranny of democracy does not sting him, he will get there.

OLOPADE Bukola: Sometimes ago I lamented in this column that if the ruling political party, the PDP had not zoned sports Ministry to the North Central zone, with Nigeria suffering from it, two state sports Commissioners, Solomon Ogba of Delta and Bukola “Ozogula” Olopade of Ogun State have proved beyond any doubt that they are both sports administrators per excellence. Olopade, a lawyer who played top football at school, has taken Ogun State from lowly rung of the ladder to number three in Nigeria and that is no mean achievement considering that Ogun is not an oil producing state like Delta and Edo. Olopade has been Ogun State sports Commissioner for eight years; the longest running ever in the Federation, and with his go-getter approach, the energetic and dynamic young man will be an invaluable asset in the NFF.

TORO Sani: The casualty rate of Nigerian football administrators is usually high and their tenure short, but Alhaji Sani Toro defied them all. He is the longest serving Secretary General of the NFA, 1991-99 and indeed the most experienced sports technocrat among all the contestants. I met Toro way back in 1984 in Bauchi when he was working at the Bauchi State Sports Council. At that time Bauchi was the sports destination centre in Northern Nigeria – handball and football – and sports journalists besieged Bauchi ever so often. Toro was groomed, specially, to become the first northerner to occupy the seat of the NFA Secretary General and after understudying the likes of the late Patrick Okpomo and Momodu Kadiri, he took over from Kadiri. At the approach of the fourth Republic, Toro moved over to politics and won election into the Federal House of Representatives. He later served as Sports Commissioner in Bauchi. With that kind of background, Toro may be seeing himself as Nigeria’s version of Sepp Blatter, who served as FIFA Sec. Gen for uncountable years and later moved up as President.

DR. YUSUF Tijani: The first out of two doctorate degree holders to head the NFF Secretariat. Yusuf is an ex international not football but basketball. I have known him for that long and since he abandoned the classroom for sports board-room, he has been a silent achiever. T.J. as I often call him joined the sports Ministry about the same time with Dr. Amos Adamu in 1991 and retired from the Federal Civil service to go back to the University classroom. He was once Director National Institute for Sports. He is an accomplished and thorough academic technocrat.

Who is your choice?  Hope I have succeeded in getting you more interested in who becomes our next NFF President. But we should all appeal to the authorities that nothing should be placed in the way of having a credible election free and fair. If we are looking for competency, let us do away with zoning. Federal character has done enough damage to our sports and if we compound it with zoning, we might as well kiss football success bye bye. The other vexed issue is, should we hold the election on August 21 when majority of those state Chairmen tenure had expired? The most sensible thing is for state elections to hold before the national.