It is not news anymore that Kano Pillars Football Club is back to the Nigeria Premier Football League and this was a sequel to their good and superlative performance in their NNL group stage matches which catapulted them to the top of their group.
Another brilliant display by the Pillars boys in Asaba, Delta state during the NNL Super Eight competition also saw them at the top of their Northern conference group ahead of Katsina, EFCC and DMD football teams which gave them the chance to qualify for the finals of the event.
Even with the 0-2 loss in the hands of Heartland FC of Owerri, Kano Pillars, and Heartland together with Katsina United and Sporting FC of Lagos qualified to move to the premier division of Nigeria football this coming season.
This feat is no doubt laudable and worthy of commendation as before their trip to Delta, the message everywhere from everybody was to try and qualify to the premier league and now that the team is back to premier league we must commend and congratulate all of us.
With this positive and commendable development, I will first of all commended and congratulated the former SA on Sports Alhaji Kabiru Baita for leading the team to the victory in group stage of the NNL Group Matches. This is because had it been they failed, by now no one would be talking about the qualification to premier.
Then followed by the Babangida Little led board who with the moral and financial support of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf also stormed Asaba, Delta state and did all they did to qualify the team to the elites football division of Nigeria.
For sure this was not the only time Kano Pillars FC was relegated to the lower division of the Nigeria league. History shows that during the chairmanship of late Hon. Danlami Hamza, Kano Pillars was relegated to the lower division but his successor brought the team back to the senior division the following season.
Similarly, during the era of Alhaji Garba Bello Kankarofi too, the team was also demoted to division two but he too brought it back the following year.
Therefore, it is not something new for Kano Pillars Football Club to go down to lower football and later bounce back to its position.
But it is unfortunate that from the reports going round the football cycle of the state, one will conclude that the Babangida Litte’s management are not thankful with what God gave them.
Because they are busy aforetioning blames on some players and officials of sale out and match fixing.
And unless such grievous allegations of match sellout or fixing of two of its previous matches were put behind and do what is expected, Pillars will go nowhere in the premier.
This is because what we all wanted from the team before its trip to Delta state was to get a promotion which they happily secured.
What and where is the match fixing story coming out from? Was it not the same Katsina United that edged out Kano Pillars from the DSTV Super Eight competition recently?
Or was it the first time that Heartland FC defeated Kano Pillars? If I am right the same Heartland stopped Kano Pillars FC from securing semi-finals ticket of the continental match some years ago.
Babangida Little and his board should be thankful and magnanimous to the victory of taking the team back to premier. They should know that this is not a time of blames or pointing accusing fingers on one another, it is a time of actions and consolidations.
I am sure that their so-called investigation will not yield any positive result but will at the end scapegoat some innocent people in the team who know nothing about the connoted situation at hand.
To me, blame should be put aside and do the right thing. They should come together and review the performance of the team likewise of the players individually.
It is from what they got from their assessment that will make them to properly plan for the next season.
This will assist the management and the technical crew to thoroughly look at the players individually and know who they will drop and who will stay.
It will help the management to find out where the team is lacking and its good sides.
Those players that can make the team to premier should be asked to stay while those that failed should be asked to go or put them on transfer.
But to me, what the chairman is doing now or trying to do will only put his team in a serious crisis because he will not get what he wants to do but create enmity and abhorrence among the players and their coaches.
Because he might end up getting wrong information which if care is not taken will bring more trouble and disunity instead of unity in the team.
The Kano Pillars board should know that the Nigeria Premier Football League is not NNL. It is more rigorous than the NNL. It needs proper planning.
They can asks for the expertise of others to assist them do the right thing.
The management needs to start looking at the ways of adding value to the team by looking for and recruiting more good, quality and experienced players for the team.
Trying to put the blame of the Katsina United FC loss and that of the Heartland on someone or a group of players or coach(s) will not help matters at all.
The two losses must be put behind and move ahead by doing the right thing. And the right thing here is to go for the needed players for the team.
As I stated in one of my previous write-ups, I am happy that the new Kano Pillars management committee is full of people of wisdom, integrity, interest in sports, interest in Kano Pillars and knowledge in sports and its politics in the country.
As the chairman, he is lucky to have these types of people in his committee. All he needs is to coordinate and work with them. He must be honest and transparent to the committee members and carry all of them along.
The vast experiences of people like Naziru Aminu Abubakar Wapa, a staunch supporter of the club, Ali Nayara Mai Samba, a big time supporter of Kwankwasiyya, Sabo Chokalinka, former scribe of the team and others together with the secretary of the board, Coach Sani if harnessed together will bring more positive results to the team.
The chairman must listen to them, as I said before, he should not see himself as a boss or on a mission to get rich but as a leader so that Kano Pillars FC will triumph and secure a continental ticket at the end of the season.
Babangida Little should not see himself as superior to the rest of the members but see them as colleagues working to move Kano Pillars to a victorious season while the members too must cooperate with the chairman and work hard and take Pillars to promising land.
As I pointed out before, the new committee should also work to block all the leakages of Kano Pillars finances so as to reduce its over-dependence on the government.
There is an estate built and named after Col. Dominic Oneya for the team opposite Kano Pillars Stadium, the committee must find out where the money of the rent of that estate is going.
Kano Pillars can get a lot of money through the sales and buying of players, the committee must be vigilant because that is another place the team is losing a lot of money. It is another way used to defraud and mismanage the club’s finances.
On getting players on loan, the management committee must stop getting players on loan from academies or other teams with immediate effect because I see it as another good way of defrauding the team of a lot of money because it is the academies or teams that benefited most leaving Kano Pillars with nothing.
But I don’t see any problem with the sale of players locally or internationally, only that there must be transparency in doing it so that the money realized either Naira or Dollars must be accrued to government coppers, the sole owner and financier of the team.
The era of selling Kano Pillars player(s) and pocketing the money must be stopped. The committee must do something to reduce the team’s overdependence on the government for money.
Allah ya bamu saa, amen.