These days, it has become boring and dreary to talk or even write about Nigerian football. No thanks to those running the affairs of the game in the country.
Just to be clear, this isn't aimed to be a criticism of the Nigeria Football Federation - even though they haven't exactly acted like they know what they're doing.
But this is aimed at the supervisors of the NFF, the sports ministry.
The fact that the Amaju Pinnick-led NFF have dithered in appointing a substantive coach for the Super Eagles is enough for me to dedicate this piece to them, but I won't be doing that...at least not yet.
I have written severally of how the present NFF board have shown a capacious weakness, and how they have also shown they lack the balls to make some big calls.
But looking beyond the NFF, one is tempted to ask what the sports ministry have been doing to try to put the Glass House back on track.
It is nine months since the Super Eagles last had a substantive coach. It was July last year when Stephen Keshi's contract elapsed and the problems that ensued at the NFF made renewing his contract or appointing a new coach secondary.
I thought the sports ministry would have played a more proactive role in ensuring things were done correctly, but that hasn't been the case.
I wouldn't ever want the sports ministry to interfere in the goings-on at the Glass House in any way, but it should be their responsibility to supervise and ensure things are done properly. That is why they supervise sports in the country, and football happens to be a sport!
The present sports minister, Tammy Danagogo is amiable and probably has the best intentions, but I don't think he has been proactive enough. I don't think he has made more effort to ensure clarity of purpose is returned to Nigerian football.
He was appointed in March last year, immediately Bolaji Abdullahi was sacked, by the Goodluck Jonathan administration. But with President Jonathan leaving office, it is expected Danagogo will also leave his post as sports minister. Already, all federal ministers have been instructed to hand-over the positions on or before the 20th of this month, and going by Nigerian political system, it might as well be expected for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for him to be retained.
Who knows, maybe he needs more time. But I doubt he'll be given that.
And for me, this where the story begins and questions start.
Who is most suitable? Who should be brought in as Nigeria's next sports minister? Who out there can do a better job?
These are some of the questions that must be running through people's minds.
For me I don't have such questions because I know the best man for the job. I know the man that can bring out the best in Nigerian sports, and football to be precise.
You guessed right. Yes, it's him. It definitely has to be him. No other can do a better job at the moment.
When Bolaji Abdullahi became Nigeria's sports minister in December 2011, the Super Eagles had just failed to qualify for the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations, and there was serious befuddlement in the Nigeria Football Federation about the legitimate body to run football in the country.
At that time, there was the Jarret Tenebe led Nigeria Football Association (NFA), and the Aminu Maigari led Nigeria Football Federation (NFF). There was a 'parallel government', with both bodies claiming to be the legitimate football body.
There was also the crises with the running of the Nigeria Premier League.
There was just so much abashment in the air, but it took Abdullahi, a relatively inexperienced head in Nigerian football politics at that time, to quell the grandstanding and grandiloquence that sent Nigerian football to the abyss.
And within months, Nigeria was on her way to qualifying for the 2013 Afcon, and in just over a year, the Super Eagles won its 3rd African championship after a 19-year hiatus!
Adbullahi may not have been a member of the Super Eagles, and neither was he a part of the coaching crew. Heck, he wasn't even a member of the NFF, but he knew his responsibilities. He knew even with the best players and coaches, Nigeria couldn't have succeeded under such a haze that befell the country's football.
His role in ensuring Nigeria's qualification and eventual winning of the 2013 afcon is invaluable.
Within a few months of assuming office, Abdullahi also sorted the administrative problems that bedevilled the league. His intervention was timely, and birthed the League Management Committee, now the League Management Company (LMC). Don't we all agree the league is better organised today than it was four years ago?
Abdullahi was also instrumental in ensuring Nigeria now has a fantastic chance of winning the 2018 World Cup...with better planning of course.
Before 2013, Nigeria had the propensity of fielding 'not so young' players for age-grade competitions.
But his administration was able to work with the NFF in ensuring true U-17 players were picked, most of them from the country's U13 team. The result of that move is not even the success in Dubai, but the potential success in Moscow in 2018.
For me, that is the kind of change I want to see. Positive changes.
And for the betterment of our football, Bolaji Abdullahi holds that hope. He's the change we seek.
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