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No Rift With NFA Anymore, Says Keshi

Super Eagles’ Head Coach, Stephen Keshi, said on Wednesday that the rift between him and the Technical Committee of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) has been bridged.

Keshi made this known in Abuja at the team’s interactive session with the media.

He said that his intention was to correct the anomalies that would have jeopardised the team’s chances of success at the 2013 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament in South Africa.

``We are all grown up people; we have our own different ideas and opinions and we have our different ways of seeing things; I wasn’t comfortable with what I saw in South Africa and I just let them know and that is it.

``It’s not about an individual, saying that I don’t like you and you don’t like me, it’s all about moving Nigeria football forward; that is it.

``But, we are together, everything is resolved and that is why we are here.”

Keshi said that contrary to what was widely reported, the list of the players invited for World Cup qualifying match with Kenya, did not generate any form of disagreement within the technical committee of the NFA.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) recalls that former members of the Technical Committee Austel Elumelu and Paul Bassey had expressed reservations over the invitation of some players to the camp.

They had argued that the technical committee needed to see a player’s profile before he is invited to the national team.

Keshi, however, said that the NFA had scrutinised the list before it was made public.

``There was nothing like that between NFA and i over the list. We made the list and gave to the NFA and it is there position to let it out to the public and there was never a problem.

``NFA and I don’t ve a problem. We need to be together to move this team forward otherwise there is no rift between us.

``I have watched Babatunde Micheal play; he is going to be a fantastic player and John and we have a lot of them outside there, young ones that are hungry to play for this country that you guys need to help build.

``You guys need to give the courage and confidence that they can do it. We can't keep relying on older players every day and we say we want to move forward; let us have people that will take over when this group leaves.

``We should forget what happened in South Africa, we need to look forward to the game on March 23 against Kenya.

``That is the most crucial match for us now and we need to be focused and make Nigerian proud.

``We have our own strategy. Every player in that squad is good so we need to prepare ourselves in a way that we can be better in the game on March 23.

``The most important thing is for my team to understand and know their role, task or function probably we will be good.’’

Keshi pointed out that the team needed all the support it could get from Nigerians to enable it to pick a 2014 FIFA World Cup ticket.

The Eagles’ handler said his foreign based players had been given up to March 19 to report to the camp.

According to him, the idea is to have few days of training to enable the home and foreign based players to blend before the encounter with the Harambee Stars.

 

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INEC To Sanction Political Parties For Financial Recklessness

Hajia Amina Zakari, the INEC National Commissioner and Chairman Political Party Monitoring Committee, says the commission has concluded plans to sanction political parties for financial recklessness.

She told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Wednesday in Abuja that the recent audit reports indicated that most of the political parties had poor record keeping procedures.

According to her, a summary of the external auditor’s reports on the accounts of political parties for 2010, indicate that most of the parties did not follow financial guidelines.

Zakari said there were strict financial guidelines as stipulated by law and henceforth any party that failed to update their account books would be penalised.

She said the action became necessary before the commencement of general elections.

``Don’t forget that we have to handle the elections within a short time, we are improving the party processes, so we are not pampering the political parties.

``We are still in the process of refining the political parties and we are constantly reminding them about the implication of excessive spending.

Zakari said the commission could not wait any longer to apply the big stick on political parties for financial misconduct.

``We are not shying away from the fact that our internal capacity are not up to the required standard.

``We are in the process of building an internal capacity to be able to manage the process adequately.

``We have de-registered a lot of parties that do not meet the requirements as stipulated by the law, so also there are sanctions for political parties with poor record keeping procedures.

Zakari, however, warned political parties against reckless spending during the forthcoming AMAC elections.

``There must be money in politics but it must not be reckless, and not at the expense of the community,’’ she said.

 According to her, the parties should not use government money for campaign, they should be able to source for their money in a transparent manner.

``That is why the commission is always requiring to check their account books to ensure transparency and financial discipline,'' she said.

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Terrorism: We’re Doing Our Best, Jonathan Tells International Community

President Goodluck Jonathan yesterday assured the international community that his administration is putting intensive effort to curb terrorism and other criminal acts such as kidnapping and hostage taking in the country. Speaking when he received a 45...

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