The PTF chairman on #Covid19 Mustapha said sports, especially football is not a business in Nigeria. we were thinking @thenff would articulately put forward data that shows the commercial value of football in Nigeria thru the HM @SundayDareSD but everyone is quiet and wishing.

Over the years, we kept pleading with football administrators to stop claiming that they "feed players twice a day" or "the are removing youths from the streets" they thought we were rude and ignorant, well, see your life now. Football is business and it is an over $2b industry.

The football industry is a multifaceted industry that have different tiers like the oil and gas or mainstream entertainment industry. There are over two thousand academies in Nigeria, on the average, each academy caters directly for 30-35 persons, multiply that by 2000.

Scale that number up with the addition of the NLO, NNL, NPFL, all the women league category. There is a $220m tv right deal between the @LMCNPFL and their TV sponsors hanging in the balance, but nobody is drawing the attention of Mustapha to all these reality. @SundayDareSD pls.

Churches and mosques all over Nigeria are already opening, Lagos would make it official on the 7th of August, but nobody is leading conversations for sports. Some people that are claiming that sports is not a business, if we measure their salaries with Rabiu Ali, you will see...

...if they don't steal or appropriate public funds to their personal use, there are footballers earning more than them. Today we talk about Osimhen's move to Napoli but we forget that 4 years ago, he moved from Synergy Ultimate Strikers in Lagos to Wolfburg for $4m. yet they...

...how many of those claiming that football is not business have done any legitimate businesses that earned them and the Nigerian economy $4m. We may never know, if you can open up churches and mosques that don't pay taxes, why not open sports facilities with strict guidelines?

We would not bother @SundayDareSD that much, because since 1960 to date, no Nigerian government have appointed ministers of sports that you can say, they know a pinch of salt about what is required to run the sports industry. Ever wonder why a 60 year old nation don't have...

...a single national sports policy, no single sports hall of fame, no structured document that breaks down the reward system for national sports excellence. The NFF as it is today is still struggling for autonomy in 2020. A country that have 40 million addicted sports/football...

fanatics, in an era and generation that depends on numbers, an industry that have 40 million people to sell to is begging for a corn shop to put a kiosk, when it should be the amazon of the industry. In the music of the Bob Marley, "in the abundance of water, a fool is thirsty"

Must we repeat the same serial mistakes as a people and as a people, with every assets? Must we sign away our national sovereignty at every level of our national lives? We have crude oil, we buy and pay subsidy for petroleum products. We have waterways but poor ports. Tears roll.

MultiChoice pays about $250 million dollars for the rights to the EPL and about 100 million Euros for the UEFA Champions League, another football property. According to a July 1st @THISDAYLIVE publication. Who do you think pays that money? Nigerians, yes you are right!

Do you think if Multichoice didn't see the Nigerian numbers, do you think they would invest that amount of money on the EPL & UCL TV rights? It is about time we raise the bar of expectations on @SundayDareSD and any future sports ministers that gets that appointment.

Enough of using the Nigerian sports ministry as a settlement conduit for party loyalist, an industry that have 40 million dedicated followers, deserve a lot better than lip service, half baked political errand boys as HNIC. We need to put the pedal to the metal and get on speed.

Let us give the @LMCNPFL something to work and thrive with, inconsistency of our political positions and policies on sports have eroded every ounce of confidence that sponsors and investors have in our sports. Let us find how to put that $320m back into our economy and not UK's

I have nothing against Multichoice as a company because, business is about exploiting opportunities and potentials, all we need to do is to create policies that incentivize investment in our sports industry from ground up. The sports industry deserve as much as agriculture too.

Even if we settle for sports as just a PRO tool, we stand corrected, no industry have given Nigeria as much global positives as sports but someone ignorantly believed that football/sport is not business. See how the @victorosimhen9 transfer to Napoli hushed the HushPuppi convo.

Go have a breakfast conversation with people like @Hajjigafar36, @dominionhotspu1 @dannaz_fc or @vandrezzerfc_ owner and find out the cost of keeping their players together or @gbagadafc but you say football is not business? Are you seriously serious? This foolishness must stop.