The NFF Has Been Very Transparent – Shehu Dikko

Nigeria Football Federation 2nd vice-president, Shehu Dikko has come out to say that ex-sports minister, Solomon Dalung is giving the NFF a bad name during his tenure as minister.

The federation has received lots of petitions and has endured lots of corruption investigations and court summons during Dalung’s reign at the top office of Nigerian sports and it is becoming a cause of concern for fans and sportsmen in the country.

According to Shehu, Dalung cannot accuse the NFF of misappropriation of funds because he received the breakdown from the federation and is only trying to tarnish the image of football body.

He added that the NFF has been super transparent and they even publish their audited results for the general public to see.

His words, “NFF has been very, very transparent,”

“How many agencies in Nigeria publish their audited results? NFF does that. How many federations in Nigeria have hired a company like PwC for example [to audit their accounts]?

“In fact, this NFF has been over transparent because everything we’ve done [NFF president] Amaju [Pinnick] ensures it is in the public or the worst-case scenario, ensures that information is sent to the government through the minister to say ‘see what we are doing’.”

“Even the last regime [with former sports minister Solomon Dalung], any money that comes from the NFF whether from sponsors or government, [Pinnick] ensures that a letter is sent to the minister informing him that this money has come,”

”One person will wake up and write petitions to all the agencies in Nigeria and if you look at the petitioners, for example, are normally people that lost out politically in the NFF they are just trying to instigate the agencies.

“Have you ever heard any [petition against the NFF] about government money? Everything is about sponsors money, FIFA money, money that we got from the sponsors!

“I went to negotiate with the sponsors, brought the money and then somebody will say that the money is missing.

“If I sign a contract with a sponsor, it’s a contract between NFF and a sponsor that has terms and conditions that have rights and obligations for each party, that have terms if somebody breaches this is what we should do, then a third party isn’t involved with the contract has no business with it. Only the parties to the contract can petition it.”

On Dalung accusing the NFF of misappropriating N1.6bn approved by the federal government for the Super Eagles’ participation at the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, he said, “How can he say that?”

“The NFF gave him the breakdown [of how the money was spent]. All those ones are political talk he knows how much was approved, he knows how much was spent. All those are premeditated talks to give NFF a bad name to hang it.”