Minister sets up Eagles bonus panel

JULY 8, 2013 

Minister of Youth Development, Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi

The Minister of Sports Bolaji Abdullahi has set up a panel to probe the crisis that rocked the Super Eagles recently in Namibia over match-win bonus.

The players had rejected the bonus of $5,000 per person approved for them by the Nigeria Football Federation after two away games against Kenya and Namibia in the 2014 World Cup qualifying series. The protest staged in Namibia and comprehensibly monitored by the world football governing body FIFA ensured that Nigeria arrived in Brazil less than 24 hours to the start of the 2013 Confederations Cup. The players refused to board the plane for Brazil until they got $10,000 instead of $5,000. The players subsequently got $10,000 for beating Tahiti at the competition.

The NFF had announced they would pay $5000 for a win and $2500 for a draw soon after the Africa Nations Cup success citing financial constraints as the reason for the decision. The stalemate was reportedly broken by the intervention of the Minister who got additional funds to make up for the shortfall proposed by the NFF.

The panel whose membership was made public on Sunday will be chaired by Mr. Segun Adeniyi. Adeniyi is Chairman of Thisday Editorial Board and former Special Adviser to late President Umar Yar’Adua. He was also a member of the Presidential Task Force, which was set up to ensure Nigeria’s qualification for the 2010 World Cup.

Other members of the panel are Onochie Anibeze (Group Sports Editor, Vanguard); Aisha Falode (of the CAF media committee); Shehu Dikko (member of the League Management Company) and Akin Oshuntokun (a former MD of the News Agency of Nigeria).

The terms of reference of the body include determining the immediate and remote causes of the crisis and develop a code of conduct for players on national assignments. The panel will be inaugurated on Thursday in Abuja and has two weeks to submit its report from that date.

The mode of investigation and interviews with the players were not specified on Sunday. The minister who spoke with The PUNCH after the names were released on Sunday said the ministry is not arranging any trip abroad for the members.

He said, “We don’t have that kind of money that would enable trips abroad to meet with players. In this modern era there are several ways of effectively communicating to get evidences without any trip. I believe the members will use several of these methods to get the facts they need for this job.”