Nigerian sports have suffered a lot of woes in recent times ranging from corruption to bad leadership, from bad maintenance of facilities to lack of sponsorship of games, to mention but a few.
It is apparent that the game of football is not an exception, and as a matter of fact, it’s the game that has suffered the most because of the number of people that are actively involved.
It is no doubt that football is the major sport that bring Nigerians together despite the odds, but recent acts of officiating in Nigerian football has become so predictable. You need not be a best side to win the game anymore - the home team or one with a lot of money to Greece the referee's palm for a favourable officiating. Now I see reasons why the Nigerian Premier League and other national leagues have refused to grow beyond its current level of mediocrity.
It will interest you to know that bad officiating and officials are not only represented in the national league, but also, a lot of abnormalities were displayed by match officials at the just concluded tertiary institution games - 2012 edition won by the Lagos State Polytechnic, Ikorodu, Lagos.
At the 2012 Lagos state tertiary institution games organised by the Lagos state government, a certain referee told a player of Nigerian Institute of Journalism that he would award a penalty kick to Yaba College of Technology, and he did in a match played at the University of Lagos, Akoka football pitch, Unilag's sports centre, Lagos.
It will interest you to know that the Nigerian Premier League (NPL) has in its records a quite number of referees and officials that have been beaten up mainly because of bad officiating, and yet, this corruption is practically 'dwarfing' the game of football in the country and nobody is lifting a finger to do anything about it, instead, they encourage it by buying referees before the match to officiate in their favour.
That is why they have also refused to make use of the funds generated through the government for the development of the game, but embezzling the fund for their personal development.
Though, bad officiating is everywhere, but not in the magnitude at which it is being practiced in the country.
No wonder no Nigeria referee was invited by Confederation of African Football, CAF, as a centre referee at the 2012 African Cup of Nations, AFCON, hosted by Equatorial Guinea and Gabon. Edibe Peter Elgam was the only Nigerian referee qualified for a spot of an assistant referee at the 2012 AFCON tournament hosted by Gabon and Equatorial Guinea.
Charity begins at home, if we cannot officiate matches without favoritism when the world is watching, then, when will our referees get on the big platforms to umpire world class matches.
Nigerian referees should stop killing the game of football in Nigeria and also stop destroying talents that youngsters work hard to achieve.
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