Dear Super Falcons, Madams,
By way of introduction my name is Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja, I am a lawyer and law lecturer for the past twenty-two (22) years.
For nineteen (19) years out of these twenty-two (22) years, I have specialised in the practice and teaching of legislative law having been awarded a Master of Laws (LLM) in Legislative Drafting degree in the year 2006.
Legislative law is that aspect of the law that deals with how laws are drafted and applied.
Based on my little knowledge of this area of law, I write to inform your good selves, that both by legislation and case law President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (PBAT) is prohibited from making payments to your good selves in any other currency except naira (the Nigerian currency).
For example, CERTAIN POLITICAL, PUBLIC AND JUDICIAL OFFICE
HOLDERS (SALARIES AND ALLOWANCES, ETC.)
(AMENDMENT) ACT, 2008 expressly states the range of salaries and allowances to be paid to certain categories of officials who perform employment for the federal government of Nigeria.
These salaries and allowances are stipulated in the Nigerian currency, namely the naira.
Since as members of the Super Falcons female football team, your salaries and allowances are paid by the federal government of Nigeria, it logically follows that you ought to be paid the promised $100,000 by way of the Nigerian currency (the naira) equivalent.
Also, the Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, 1991 prohibits public officials (who earn salaries and allowances from the federal government of Nigeria) from operating foreign currency bank accounts.
FOREIGN EXCHANGE (MONITORING AND MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS) ACT, 1995 also prohibits the federal government of Nigeria from using any other currency except the naira in federal government of Nigeria’s dealings with Nigerian citizens.
As per case law, in the year 2007, the Court of Appeal of Nigeria had delivered a judgment that stated that it is a violation of the aforementioned legislation for any government official to be paid their salaries and allowances in any other foreign currency other than the naira.
The said case was instituted by the late Chief Gani Fawehimi,SAN against the federal government of Nigeria’s practice of paying salaries and allowances of two former Ministers (Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and another) in foreign currency (United States of America dollars).
However, it is only recently that the Supreme Court of Nigeria, overruled this decision as per it’s judgment of _Okonjo-Iweala v. Fawehinmi & Ors (2025) LPELR-80384(SC)_
It must be noted that the Supreme Court of Nigeria dismissed the lawsuit (originally filed in the year 2004) of Gani Fawehimi on the grounds of locus standi.
However, in recent times, with the enactment of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011, both the courts of law and Nigerian lawyers have found ingenious methods to circumvent the rule of law that applies to locus standi.
In the final analysis, consider your good selves, as fortune that the federal government of Nigeria has offered to pay you the naira equivalent of the said $100,000.
My free legal advisory is that you better take the said money and run before any Nigerian lawyer or Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) files another lawsuit that would prevent the President from payment of the naira equivalent of the promised $100,000 on the grounds that it is a violation of the Nigerian Minimum Wage (Amendment) Act, 2024 which stipulates ₦70,000.
And taking a clue from the lawsuit of the late Gani Fawehimi that originally commenced in the year 2004, such a lawsuit may require 20 YEARS to be finally decided by the Supreme Court of Nigeria.
And the Super Falcons should be praying that the said lawsuit should not be assigned to Justice Binta Nyako who was also the trial court judge that handled the Gani Fawehimi’s lawsuit in the year 2004.
She would be asking herself why young girls like these Super Falcons would be earning $100,000 as allowances for a football game that lasted only 90 (ninety) minutes, while she herself has being earning peanuts in comparison for 21 (twenty-one) years and on the same ring of the judicial ladder!!!
Take my hint, take the naira equivalent of the promised $100,000 and run for your lives!!!
Yours faithfully,
Dr. Tonye Clinton Jaja,
19th August 2025.
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