•Peter Obi
The 2023 Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, has taken a swipe at the Nigeria Football Federation for allegedly failing to deliver a promised FIFA-funded stadium in Anambra.
In a post on X today, Obi weighed in to recent allegations of fund mismanagement labelled against the NFF.
Some reports alleged that NFF misappropriated FIFA funding intended for grassroots football and stadium development.
To Obi, “officials from the Sports Federation” informed him when he was governor of Anambra that the state’s capital had been selected for a FIFA project.
The former governor said the officials claimed Akwa had been earmarked as “one of six geographical locations for the construction of a FIFA-standard stadium to be fully funded by FIFA”.
“We immediately allocated land for that purpose, and they assured us that the project would be executed through the Federal Ministry of Sports. That was the last we heard of it,” he said.
“Believing that such a major project was underway, we channelled our resources toward constructing mini-stadiums across the state to encourage grassroots sports.
“We commissioned the Chuba Ikpeazu Memorial Stadium in Onitsha, as well as the Godwin Achebe Stadium in Onitsha South, among others.
Obi added that “nothing came of the promised FIFA project” and that his administration had the stadium itself.
The former presidential candidate said he is disappointed by the “blatant squandering of opportunities” for Nigerian youth.
He then added that a further probe into the allegation against NFF “will reveal even worse realities than what we currently know”.
On Friday, the NFF said that all funds received from FIFA and CAF are audited annually by external auditors.
The federation added that the funds are tied to specific purposes “under strict adherence to financial regulations, compliance, monitoring and auditing at every stage of the project or programme”.
