By Raphael Ekpang
In order to tame what has become a household menace in Nigeria football, the House of representatives Ad-hoc Committee, chaired by Honourable Blessing Onuh on Thursday grilled the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF’s) leadership led by its President, Ibrahim Gusau over the unneccessary delay of payment of Super Falcons’ allowances.
The committee chairperson, Hon. Onuh during the investigative hearing on Thursday expressed concern over the delay in payment of allowances and other entitlements of the Super Falcons.
However, the committee also expressed dismay over the accumulated allowances of local coaches over time while they pay their foreign counterparts regularly. According to the probe panel, “while NFF is owning local coaches allowances, their foreign counterparts were fully paid.”
NFF President, Gusau did unable provide any specific details why they paid foreign coaches 100% allowances but unable to pay the salary and allowance of the local coaches.
The NFF General Secretary, Muhammad Sanusi said his salary and allowance were being paid by FIFA and that he was not affected in the delay of the payment of salary and allowance of players and workers.
On why the NFF delayed the payment of allowances of Super Falcons, Gusau said part of their allowances has been paid last week.
According him, “the Naira component of their allowances has been paid but the dollar component is yet to be paid. He said it takes a longer time to process the dollar component.
Hon. Blessing Onuh, who was the former Secretary of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT’s) Social Development, a department that also oversee sports, said the investigation will still continue because they were out to unravel the cause of the failure of the NFF to pay the Senior Female national team”s allowances and the local coaches , however calls for sincere commitment to the development sports in Nigeria.
The committee had on Wednesday summoned the NFF President, Gusau to unfailingly appear before the probe panel on Thursday.
The committee adjourned to Wednesday next week for further investigation.
Falcons unpaid allowances: Blessing Onuh’s Reps Committee grills NFF leadership
