President Bola Tinubu has ordered a “comprehensive reform” of Nigerian football.
In a statement on Thursday, Bayo Onanuga, presidential
spokesperson, said Tinubu made the decision to help the country “overcome
repeated failures to qualify for major regional, continental and world
tournaments”.
The president blamed “structural weaknesses within the
system” for the continuous struggle of Nigerian football “while other sports
had recorded meaningful progress since the reset of the sports sector under the
re-established National Sports Commission (NSC)”.
“The reform must respond to a longstanding need to
strengthen governance, administration, stakeholder representation, development
pathways, domestic competitions and accountability across Nigerian football,”
Tinubu said.
“Football, Nigeria’s most popular sport and the greatest
beneficiary of public support, investment and national attention, has continued
to struggle basically due to structural deficits within the system.”
Tinubu directed Shehu Dikko, NSC chairman, to work with the
Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) secretariat to facilitate a broad,
consultative reform process.
He added that the process must involve appropriate
engagement with FIFA and CAF to protect Nigeria against sanctions for
governmental interference.
The presidential directive comes a few hours after Ibrahim
Gusau confirmed his resignation as NFF president. Muhammad Sanusi also stepped
down as the federation’s general secretary.
Under Gusau’s leadership, the senior men’s and women’s
national teams failed to qualify for the World Cup of their respective genders.
The Super Falcons missed the women’s World Cup for the first time since the
competition’s inception in 1991. The Super Eagles failed to reach the 2026
World Cup, despite Africa getting 10 slots for the first time. The failure also
extended to age-grade football, with the men’s U-17 and U-20 teams missing out
on World Cups.
TheCable understands that the NFF leadership was pressured
to step down after intervention from top federal government officials, from the
National Sports Commission (NSC) to the presidency.
Gusau was elected NFF president in 2022, and his tenure was
supposed to end next month, with an elective congress scheduled for September
27.
The fate of the congress is uncertain as reports claim that
a normalisation committee will be set up to oversee the federation’s affairs
until further notice.
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