Secretariat furnishing: NFF budgets N144m

From ROMANUS UGWU, Abuja

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) has attributed the delay in relocating to its new secretariat, the Sunday Dankaro House to the National Assembly’s failure to approve the N144 million the federation earmarked to furnish the new building in the 2013 capital budget.
The General Secretary, Mr. Musa Amadu, who made the disclosure while addressing the House of Representatives Committee on Sports at the Glass House, in Abuja lamented the zero capital allocation in the 2013 budget, stressing that it was facing a serious dilemma of moving into the building with old furniture.
“I know that last year, we did make a case for us to be given a capital of N144 million and when we came for the defence of that budget proposal, we told you that the money was going to be utilised to furnish our new headquarters,” Amadu said.
“The PTF graciously gave us a new football house, which Mr President commissioned through the Vice President on July 18. This is well over two months now, but we have not been able to move a single chair into the  building because it is a brand new one. It is like when you marry a new wife, you would want to equip her room with the very best of things, instead of moving in the furniture of the one you have divorced into her room,” he added.
“This is the dilemma we are in now because as the leading football governing body on the continent, we need to go in there so that we could give a befitting hosting to prominent visitors like you, with a semblance of what you enjoy in the National Assembly.
“We were surprised that not a single penny was voted for capital in the Federation’s 2013 budget.  So, as much as we want to move into our new football house and conduct our businesses there, we are constrained by the resources to do so,” Amadu said.