Afolabi Gambari
That Nigerians are passionate about football is not in doubt. The country’s involvement in organised football for more than 80 years has yet to put it consistently on the world football map, although it has also won credible laurels and appeared on the global platform fairly regularly. There is, however, a consensus that Nigeria can do more than it has done in all these decades, thanks to its pedigree that has been earned through great efforts.
Without doubt, more efforts have been expended on only the technical aspect of football in the past and present times, while little or no efforts have been made on the administrative aspect, especially on the African continent. For instance, it is as if Nigeria has ceded the right to be president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to nationals of other countries and is content with playing the kingmaker’s role. How Nigeria has carried on in this situation for many years remains to be understood, even as a lack of greater involvement in the administration of football has shortchanged the country at key times. Specifically, no emphasis is ever placed on electing football administrators who are multilingual in view of the evolution that demands from the administrators a deep understanding of other languages aside from English. This particular lax has shoved Nigeria out of the arena where big politics is on display, notwithstanding that several Nigerian administrators have occupied top posts in CAF and FIFA at different times.
From the foregoing, it has become imperative for Nigeria to seriously consider an urgent shift, suggesting that proven multi-linguists are encouraged to stand in for football positions that would require interface with CAF and FIFA, as well as other football federations across the world. This would not only boost Nigeria’s image but would also underline the need for the country to emphasise its achievements in the sport over the past years and, ultimately, to rub it in that it should by right be among the world’s big players.
Nigeria is never short of multi-linguists that would serve the purpose aforementioned, provided that the current football structure that shuts out those perceived as outsiders but who have greater value to add is discarded and an all-embracing structure is entrenched, especially in tandem with the Renewed Hope mantra of the administration of President Bola Tinubu.
One Nigerian who readily comes to the fore is Ade Adefeko, who has traversed the Nigerian football sector for more than three decades, expounding and shaping policies, mentoring many footballers and analysing the sport with remarkable expertise. Adefeko, who studied Foreign Languages at the University of Port Harcourt, where he graduated in 1990, was by the mid-90s a regular feature in THISDAY and the popular daily, Complete Sports, where he co-wrote numerous articles with his friend and partner, Yemi Doherty, earning accolades from far and near for incisive commentaries on issues around football. He later carried on alone and became a regular face on various television and radio platforms across Nigeria, including DSTV’s Supersport channel, analysing football as his pedigree soared.
There is no gainsaying that Adefeko has acquired the expertise to serve Nigerian football to no limit, having since also earned his stripes across borders in oil services, banking, agriculture and hospitality with renowned outcomes. At another time, he served at British American Tobacco as Area Head of Communications and Regulation for Nigeria, Benin Republic, Niger and Togo. He has served as the Republic of Botswana’s first honorary consul in Lagos from 2020 to 2025 when he voluntarily relinquished the position. The revered appointment reflected a clear resolve to deepen economic and diplomatic ties between Botswana and Nigeria through an individual with expertise on people, policy and business. During his five-year tenure as the consul, he promoted deeper cooperation between Nigeria and Botswana in vital areas such as agriculture, mining, education, ICT, tourism and aviation, even as he also helped businesses on both sides to consistently find common ground.
As a commercial diplomat, Adefeko is currently ex officio of the Nigerian Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture (NACCIMA) where he chairs the NACCIMA Agricultural Trade Group, serving over 3,000 farmers, SMEs and agribusiness operators, while also serving on several trade, export and competitiveness advisory bodies. To NACCIMA, he has brought his vast contacts across the world to bear on positive outcomes resulting from his ability to speak in at least ten languages, including French, Portuguese, German, Spanish, Swahili, Zulu and Ndebele, alongside Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo – all of which he deploys as a diplomatic tool to douse tension, build trust and unlocked doors. If he has exploited all this to achieve greater success in the business circuit, he is sure to exploit it even more for success in football. After all, football itself is a business rather than the base politics it has assumed in Nigeria for many years in the hands of those who have persistently mismanaged it. Fortunately, Adefeko has always placed service above politics, a resolve that has enabled him to serve without being partisan, while contributing his ideas and encouraging positive outcomes devoid of any personal political ambition.
Adefeko has, since 2011, teamed with Olam Agri, unarguably one of the country’s largest agribusiness ventures, and has earned the top echelon position of Director, Corporate & Regulatory Affairs, with direct responsibility to oversee engagement with government, industry regulators and vital stakeholders. It is an understatement that his leadership at Olam has made the company one of Nigeria’s largest contributors to non-oil exports and foreign exchange, reinforcing the role of agribusiness in national development.
Perhaps, it is needless to stress further that Nigerian football can tap from the resources possessed by Adefeko to take its rightful place, not only in African football but in world football as well. But, more importantly, it would require the Nigerian football authorities, and indeed the Nigerian administration in general, to identify this language advantage and maximise it to accord greater respect to Nigerian football.
