By Onochie Anibeze

Baring last minute developments, the Nigeria Football Association elections will hold today.
Aminu Maigari, arguably, the least qualified among the Presidential candidates, may emerge President of the association.

Sani

But he is a compromise candidate who has benefited immensely from the crisis that befell the association following the impeachment of Sani Lulu, Amanze Uchegbulam and Taiwo Ogunjobi. He became Acting President of the FA and also the rallying point among the state association chairmen who were in a battle with the sports ministry.

The ministry wanted the elections postponed so that the states could first hold theirs and produce new chairmen. The tenure of many of the chairmen has expired and the ministry, among many other stakeholders, wanted changes in the states.

The insistence on the state elections holding first was fuelled by the need to destabilise the structure of Lulu’s board which enjoyed support of association  chairmen from the states. Lulu had involved them in football events and many of them felt that he was different from past chairmen who did not consider them as stakeholders.

Lulu was probably going to enjoy their sympathy vote before he was eased off. Maigari was part of the chairmen who benefited from Lulu’s programme to involve more association chairmen in football matters. This was aside the fact that he was a member of the board and chairman of the finance committee.

We gathered that when the chairmen found out that the ministry planned to effect changes at the various states, they came together to fight back and Maigari who is also the chairman of Bauchi State FA, became the rallying point.

The crisis had favoured him as a compromise candidate not that he was the best among the lot contesting with him.
Our findings showed that Maigari had covered a lot of grounds before he sought and garnered the support of some influential hands who recognised the fact that he lacked the pedigree to be President of Nigeria Football Association in the modern times but just wanted the election to take place first.

“You may call Maigari a product of necessity, not that he is the best,” one of the delegates to the Congress said last night. What he said indicated that the coast was almost clear for Maigari unless there was a last minute switch of camp last night.One top stakeholder who will be part of the Congress put his this way: “The un-