Inside Gusau’s ‘rotten’ NFF, by Patrick Omorodion
There is no story trending in Nigeria’s sports circle today that interests Nigerian football fans as the call on the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF to either resign or not to bother to seek to return in the next election.
Mainstream and social media platforms are buzzing with stories on what has happened or about to happen to the outgoing board of the NFF headed by Ibrahim Musa Gusau.
Stakeholders like Chief Segun Odegbami, Dr. Danladi Bako, Barrister Godwin Dudu-orumen and Tony Ubani, editor of Sporting Vanguard are all of the opinion that Gusau and his clique have no moral right to seek reelection. Another strong voice that is singing the same song, London-based anti-corruption crusader in football, Osasu Obayiuwana has joined them.
Obayiuwana, a renowned former BBC sports correspondent, has worked closely with the NFF at committee levels and knows much about the shenanigans going on there.
In his reaction to an inquiry on the NFF brouhaha, Obayiuwana retorted, “I know you folks want me to give you chapter and verse on all that is happening.
But to be honest, I’m fed up of talking….”.
The crusader spirit in him however, didn’t allow him to “siddon look”, apologies late Chief Bola Ige, so he voiced his mind in these words:
”As a member of the NFF governance reform committee, between 2018 and 2020, I said all that needs to be said, about what must be done to put the filthy house of Nigerian football in order. The NFF during Pinnick Amaju’s time, of which Ibrahim Musa Gusau was also a board and congress member, threw our well thought out recommendations into the dustbin.
Seyi Akinwunmi, then NFF first VP and the chair of our committee, will testify that I asked the NFF secretariat, during one of our sessions, for its organogram, in order for me to analyse organisational flow and the general chain of command. Do you know that they could not give this to me for three months, despite repeated requests? And when they did, they sent me a pathetic scrap of paper that said nothing. That told me everything I needed to know about the quality of NFF governance.
At the laughable NFF fact-finding committee, headed by Fanny Amun, coach (Austin) Eguavoen and Justin Madugu have been spitting fire over the last few days, about their frustrations of working for the federation.
But Madugu has not helped himself by only talking about his challenges after the Super Falcons crashed out of the Wafcon. Why did he not speak in the months before the competition? I hear that he is also owed years of wages, since he joined the team as an assistant coach in 2022.
Eguavoen is also complaining about how he is not enabled to do his job as Technical Director, because he is not given the required material support. But did he let the Nigerian public know? And shouldn’t he have done? Did Nigerians not see how Paolo Maldini and Leonardo swiftly resigned from the FIGC (Italian Football Federation), when the president interfered and disrespected their work?
During the 2024 AFCON in Côte D’Ivoire, I had a conversation with Ibrahim Musa Gusau at Hotel Ivoire in Abidjan. He asked me why I criticise him in public and do not counsel him privately, over my misgivings about the management of Nigerian football.
I had to robustly remind him that as a journalist and governance analyst, it is my responsibility to report the issues for the public’s notice. And while I was happy to tell him some things privately, it is not in my job description to be anyone’s courtier or supplicant.
Nigeria has brilliant, world-class people that can run football properly. But until the country’s football institutions are restructured to enthrone merit, competence and integrity, its football will remain in the deep, dark night and will remain in the hands of mediocre people. I have been saying this for decades now. But do the people that really matter listen? You all know the answer to that.” Another stakeholder in the pen profession who believes enough is enough to end the corruption in the NFF, which to a large extent, has contributed to the decline of football is Sylvanus Ofekun.
He wrote, “On record, no NFF administration has enjoyed the kind of financial windfall that the Gusau board has enjoyed. Beyond the ₦17 billion released in January 2024, the federation has received multiple intervention funds from the Federal Government, FIFA Forward funds, CAF grants, and sponsorship monies running into several billions. Yet with all this inflow, there is little or nothing to show for it. Both the male and female national teams have failed to qualify for the World Cup.
Age-grade teams have been absent from major tournaments. Training camps are poorly organized, foreign-based players are owed, and domestic league clubs are struggling.
The Super Falcons are currently in the Court of Arbitration for Sport, CAS, with the NFF over unpaid bonuses and entitlements, an issue that has been deliberately blocked from entering mainstream media.”
Nigerians have forgotten that in 2005, Alhaji Ibrahim Galadima’s only sin was that the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup. He had no financial scandals hanging on his neck like the present administrators, yet he was booted out.
Twenty years after, and after missing two consecutive World Cup Finals, those who shouted “crucify Galadima” then, and are responsible for the embarrassing performance of all our national teams and are being investigated for financial misdeeds are telling Nigerians that they deserve another term in office.
And we ask, for what ? For destroying Nigeria’s football ? Or for the misapplication of a humongous N17 billion and other intervention funds the federal government made available for the various national teams?
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