AJIBADE OLUSESAN writes that the September 30 election of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) may not throw up the right candidate as the president of the NFF if the structural problems in football governance were not addressed.
The largely unsuccessful tenure of Amaju Pinnick as the president of the Nigeria Football Federation is about to give way to a breath of fresh air as the election into the new board of the NFF takes centre stage in Benin City, Edo State on September 30, 2022. Like virtually all facets of Nigeria’s life, football has been plagued by utter deterioration as poor administration invoked monumental failure of national teams on the global stage while the local league has been left in shambles.
The failure of the Super Eagles to qualify for the next FIFA World Cup intensely evoked a deep sense of dejection among football-crazy Nigerians; there was something like a consensus in the submission that the beauty of the game is fast ebbing away and soccer is in dire need of a man that will arrest the slump, put it on a trajectory of growth with a view to recapturing the old glory.
Only those who are close to the current administration in the NFF will not rate Pinnick’s eight years in the saddle as a monumental failure and genuine lovers of the game are yearning for a change of leadership. Pinnick inherited a football that was basking in the euphoria of success at the 2013 African Cup of Nations which the Super Eagles won in South Africa, a run that was followed up with the Golden Eaglets claiming the 2013 and 2015 FIFA U-17 World Cup.
The senior national team had also returned from the 2014 World Cup where they lost to France in the second round in a respectable way. He also took charge of a league that had both title sponsors and broadcast rights holders but all of these gains filtered away within a few years of his reign. Under his charge, the Eagles failed to qualify for consecutive editions of AFCON; the team couldn’t defend their title in in 2015 and still cpouldn’t make it to the fiesta two years later. Eagles managed to qualify for the 2018 World cup only to crash out in the first round for the second time in the history of the country’s participation in the global football fiesta.
Nigeria also lost its pedigree as one of the powerhouses in cadet competitions in the world as at a time both U-17 and U-20 teams could not make it to continental competitions that served as qualifiers for the World Cups at that levels. The pinnacle of the shame came when the Eagles failed to qualify for the World Cup in 2022 with perennial rivals Black Stars of Ghana knocking them out in a devastating fashion.
Nigerians are understandably angry and critical stakeholders are demanding fresh faces with novel ideas to emerge on the saddle and the country’s football but there are genuine fears the current setup would not serve up the right elements. Expectedly, the build-up is shrouded in confusion as the NFF was yet to vacate an order restraining it from staging the September 30 polls as of the time of filing this report. It has become a norm for litigation to trail the conduct of the federation’s election with stakeholders activating legal suits to protect their various interests.
Deliberate alienation of some stakeholders, failure to adhere to agreements by people in authority, and absence of an arbitration tribunal where aggrieved stakeholders could get their grievances addressed are believed to be responsible for endless litigations slowing down the development of the game in the country.
Pinnick promised to address the problems but rather than keep to his pre-election promises his actions and inactions inevitably exacerbated the issue as he alienated many stakeholders and refused to create an arbitration tribunal where these aggrieved elements could seek redress, hence their resort to seek justice in civil court against the dictates of FIFA Statute. Professional Footballers Association of Nigeria is the body that secured an injunction stopping the September 30 polls; the players union had approached the court to compel the NFF to rework its statute to give equal representations of all blocs that make up the Congress of the federation.
The players union fumes at the current arrangement that granted the STtae Chairmen bloc 37 voting slots while the four other components of the federation are jostling for the remainder of the 44 slots. The sports ministry which is the supervisory body shares the same position with the players union but the NFF is reluctant to change the status quo, preferring to head into the next poll with the current setup. It is believed that if the current voting arrangement is eventually adopted somebody from the current board could emerge as the next president which may lead to the extension of the era of failure. However, there were frantic efforts being made by stakeholders to vacate the subsisting restraining order against the election and here are individuals jostling to succeed Pinnick
Shehu Dikko
When he forayed into football administration in 2004, obviously Shehu Dikko had a big vision of emerging the numero uno in the management of the beautiful game in the country one day. He is just a step toward realizing that ambition but truth be told, it is becoming increasingly a tall order for the cerebral administrator to become the next President of the Nigeria Football Federation because of the deluge of baggage that has trailed him to this point. He was supposed to be crowned at the Elective Congress held in Warri, Delta State, eight years ago; he was the overwhelming favourite of the members of the electorate but fate and intense intrigues turned the tide against him; he was not even allowed to reach the venue of the election as it was alleged that higher forces stopped him from making the trip and forced him to declare his intention to pull out of the race.
That is the power of Nigerian politics, it reflects in all areas of Nigeria’s national life. It has become a history that Amaju Pinnick won the election and immediately extended the hands of fellowship to Dikko by naming him the CEO of the emerging professional league, the chairman of the League Management Company, Nduka Irabor, was later pushed aside so that DIkko could assume full control of the entity. However, that signaled the beginning of the problem that is bedeviling Dikko’s candidacy today because he is being rated by the performance of the league under his charge. Many of his critics are asking questions about how a league he has superintended over no longer has title sponsors despite inheriting one in 2014 when he took over. There is also the question of how a television licence holder quit under his charge and matches are no longer on television.
They said the fortunes of Nigerian clubs on the continent have continued to nosedive because of the lack of competitiveness and he is also accused of not doing well to tackle hooliganism, match-fixing and drug abuse by players. Dikko was also accused of concentrating on helping Amaju Pinnick run the larger football community to the detriment of his primary assignment of de-veloping the league.
The biggest challenge against his candidacy is the plethora of corruption allegations hanging on his neck. He is still under investigation by the anti-graft agencies including the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) for alleged mismanagement and embezzlement of funds meant for the development of football. His sojourn into football administration started on a large scale in 2004, when he started as the FIFA Goal Project Manager (Nigeria), organizing several club tours between Portsmouth FC and Manchester United (both in England), alongside Kano Pillars FC (Nigeria). In 2008, he was hired as a consultant to the sports committee of the Nigerian House of Representatives, where he served till 2011. While he was consulting for the government, he assisted in drafting the National Sports Commission Bill. He was later appointed as the secretary of the Super Eagles Bonus Row and Code of Conduct Drafting Committee from 2012 to 2013.
Christian Emeruwa
Nigeria has been paying lip service to the call to have round peg in round hole and the need to have the right man at the saddle of the country’s football. It’s in changing this narrative that the candidacy of Christian Emeruwa excites many football stakeholders who see him as largely ticking the boxes for the presidency of the Nigerian Football Federation.
He is unarguably one of the most educated and internationally-exposed individuals in the football circle in Nigeria at the moment; he is currently the Head of the Safety and Security Department in the Confederation of African Football (CAF) after years of being the lead at the Integrity Unit of the NFF. His resume is quite intimidating; he holds a PhD in Administration and Organisation of Sports from the prestigious University of Ibadan.
He is a member of the pioneer class, as well as the first African to be a Certified Sports Safety and Security Professional from the SRH Heidelberg University Germany in a course facilitated by the International Centre for Sport Security (ICSS) Doha, Qatar. Before joining the service of the NFF, Dr. Emeruwa was the National Sports Manager of Special Olympics Nigeria and led the athletes to the World Summer Games of the Special Olympics in Shanghai, China, in 2007.
Dr. Emeruwa served as the Secretary of the Security Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation from 2008 to January 2019 and served as the NFF National Integrity Officer and Leagues Coordinator from July 1, 2015, to February 2, 2019, during which he introduced several reforms on integrity in Nigerian football. Dr. Emeruwa is also a part-time lecturer at the Pan African University Institute of Life and Earth Sciences (Including Health and Agriculture) where he teaches master’s degree students in sports management and policy development.
He also served as Personal Assistant to one General Secretary of the NFF and later as special assistant to two other NFF General Secretaries during which he distinguished himself as a reliable assistant and adviser. He is also a FIFA Senior Safety and Security Officer and has assisted FIFA as a member of the FIFA Delegation to the FIFA U-20 Men’s World Cup New Zealand 2015.
He has also represented FIFA as a Senior FIFA Safety and Security Officer in selected 2018 FIFA World Cup Qualifier Matches across the Asia region. He is also a member of the United Nations Office of Counter Terrorism, an expert panel group member on Major Sport Emeruwa was also a member of the FIFA Delegation to the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup Papua New Guinea 2016, FIFA U-20 World Cup South Korea 2017, and FIFA World Cup U-17 India 2017 where he acted as both a Senior FIFA Safety and Security Officer and a Trainer to a FIFA Trainee Safety and Security Officer. Considered a dark horse in the race for the plum job, Emeruwa has been in the system for a long and he is now saying that Nigerian football is still running on an archaic template that has bogged it down for too long.
Seyi Akinwunmi
Oh yes! darkness may appear to have enveloped Nigerian football at the moment but Seyi Akinwunmi, the incumbent 1st Vice President, has stepped forward with a message of hope, offering himself as the right man to engineer the change and galvanise the game to greatness again. He could be accused of being part of Amaju Pinnick’s administration largely rated to have underperformed but those who understand how power is set up in this part of the world know the limited influence a deputy can wield over his principal, especially the one who elects to choose a different path from what the subordinate believes is the right way. Instead of operating on the peripheral by just delivering on the roles, he is assigned alone, Akinwunmi believes it is the right to make Nigerian football benefit from the immense experience he has gained over the years by being the man calling the shot. He is the 1st vice president but major stakeholders know that he is treated like an ‘outcast’ because of his constant demand for effective footballing decisions by the board. His latest role in the struggle to have the Congress convened and the executive committee adhered to the provision and supremacy of the NFF statute truly underlines how much effort he has put in for the sanitisation of the game in the country. Just like most local lads, he started playing football from the streets and even represented his secondary school, Maryland Command School, in many competitions but his football administration skills first manifested way back in his primary school days when as a teen, he formed a football club Young Potentials FC which turned out to be the most organized intraschool football team and dominated local competitions for years. He later chose to study law and he has been a successful lawyer but despite being unable to pursue a career in football, he found administration as a route to sustain his interest in the game. His board created the enabling environment for a plethora of privately organised competitions which formed the channel for the discovery of talents; he even sponsors one, named Seyi Akinwunmi Charity Tournament, through which he delivers his philanthropy. Many talents, including Super Eagles players Samson Tijani and Akinkunmi Amao, have been discovered through several initiatives pioneered by his board.
Ibrahim Gusau
Gusau cut a figure of a kingmaker in the football circle but he is now keen on wearing the crown himself. He is one of those bidding to succeed incumbent AMaju Pinnick as the president of the Nigeria Football Federation. He has been on the Executive Committee of NFF since 2014 and has been the Chairman of all FA chairmen in the country. Aside from serving as an executive member of the current board of the NFF’s executive committee, he is also the chairman of the NFF’s security committee. Recently, he was appointed as a member of the Confederation of African Football’s youth organising committee. The committee is saddled with the responsibility of organising the Africa Cup of Nations (in the Under-17, Under-20 and Under-23 categories). He previously served as a member of the CHAN organising committee. Gusau is hugely popular among the electorate and his ambition has since torn the Northern bloc of the football fraternity apart as he is now at loggerheads with another arrowhead of the bloc Shehu DIkko who is the real threat to his presidential ambition. He’s gained experience over the years as one of the hatchet men for the outgoing president Amaju Pinnick, but Gusau his detractors strongly believe he doesn’t have enough intellectual capacity and deep knowledge of football to handle the precarious situation of the game at the moment in such a way that soccer could put on a trajectory of growth. Another factor militating against him is that he is believed to be a card-carrying member of the opposition Peoples Democratic Party. People in government are believed to be against his candidacy as a result of his political affinity as they can’t stand the possibility of allowing another man from the PDP to be in charge of the most important parastatal in the ministry of sports.
Musa Amadu
Musa Ahmadu has harped on the need to create a new image for Nigerian football which will inevitably attract sponsors and deepen the country’s standing in the comity of nations. And very few stakeholders can argue with the fact that there is no man among those jostling for the plum job capable of driving such a dream to fruition better than the former NFF Secretary-General whose integrity can be vouched for by most of the people in the Nigerian football fraternity. Amadu earned his praise as a man of integrity when he voluntarily gave up his position as the Secretary-General of the NFF in the early days of Pinnick’s administration in controversial circumstances and many stakeholders including ex-internationals such as Victor Ikpeba, Emmanuel Babayaro and Sunday Mba are now asking for his return to the federation as President. A lawyer, one of the very first Nigerians with a FIFA Master’s Degree in law, humanities and sports management, Ahmadu was the General Secretary of the NFF from 2010 to 2015 in an era described as one of the best moments of Nigerian football. As the man handling the administrative aspect of football during the time, he worked tirelessly as Nigeria claimed the African Cup of Nations for the third time in 2013. He also played a pivotal role as the Golden Eaglets under coach Manu Garba also in 2013, won the country’s fourth FIFA U-17 World Cup with aplomb in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) while the Super Falcons were the team to beat as they also won the seventh of their nine Women’s Africa Cup of Nations (WAFCON) titles. He said his vision is to recreate such moments and build football from the grassroots for enduring success.
Abba Yola
He is currently the chief of staff to Nigeria’s Honorable Minister of Youths & Sports, Sunday Dare. He was formerly the chairman of Nigerian football giants, Kano Pillars. Adam Mouktar Mohammed: Economist. The current chairman of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Football Association. He also heads the Abuja-based football academy, FC Hearts.
Amanze Uchegbulam
The current chairman of the Imo State Football Association. He formerly served as the 1st vice president of the NFF and as a former vice president of CAF’s Board of Appeal.