After a keenly contested election on September 30, Ibrahim Gusau beat nine others to emerge the 35th President of the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF). He was elected at the NFF’s 78th elective Congress held at the Edo Heritage Hotel, and replaced Amaju Pinnick, who served for two terms.
Gusau’s victory is very significant. It is expected that his administration will bring the much-needed changes in managing the affairs of the NFF, a body, which has been ineffectual in revolutionising football and sports. It’s obvious that there are people in NFF who ought not to be there in the first place. The politicisation of the organisation has stagnated the country’s football and sports in general, to the extent that we could not progress beyond the group stage in AFCON 2021 in Cameroon or to qualify for this year’s World Cup in Qatar.
Now that Gasau is in charge, we believe that he will not disappoint Nigerians. The NFF he inherited must be repositioned to achieve more sports laurels. Therefore, the tasks before him are enormous but achievable. Our soccer glory is waning and soccer-loving Nigerians need a changed national league and a rejuvenated Super Eagles that will be competitive and poised to win trophies. The same charge goes to the Super Falcons. For this vision to be realised, he must hit the ground running without much ado. As the new NFF boss, the expectations are so high. And there will be no room for excuses.
Nigerian football is no longer enticing and exciting. His vision to return Nigeria to soccer victory is laudable. Being an insider, as the former Executive Committee member of the NFF, he is in a better position to overhaul the football body for more results. As a member of Confederation of African Football (CAF), CHAN organising committee and its youth committee saddled with the duty of organising the U-17, U-20 and U- 23 Africa Cup of Nation’s tournaments, his ability to reorganise our league and football is not in doubt.
He has also sat on the NFF board as the chairman of all states while serving as the chairman of the Zamfara Football Association. As the former president of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the chairman of the NFF Security Committee, he will definitely perform so well. His exposure to sports administration and politics in Nigeria and Africa put him in a good stead to retool Nigerian football. The problems of football in Nigeria are multi-faceted. The non-development of grassroots football has led to unavoidable reliance on foreign based footballers. Having a strong national team goes beyond wishful thinking. It demands a robust and committed approach to improve our football. Scouting for local talents that will feed the national league needs to be intensified. Most of the players that brought soccer glory to Nigeria came from the grassroots. The likes of Henry Nwosu, Christopher Ohenhen and the late Rasheed Yekini, to mention just a few, came from the grassroots. To raise the football standard and avoid the over-reliance on foreign based footballers, the domestic league has to be reorganised. All organs in charge of football, such as the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL), Nigerian National League (NNL) and the Nigerian Women Football League (NWFL) have to be made more vibrant. At the peak of Nigerian football glory in the 90s, the core of the players were home based. And they were readily poached by foreign clubs.
The NFF under Gusau should pay more attention to age-grade football. The stellar performance of the nation’s U-16 team at the maiden FIFA World Cup in China in 1985, which Nigeria won and the second edition in 1987, brought Nigerian football to global attention. In all, Nigeria has won the tournament a record five times and came second thrice.
The soccer feats heralded the phenomenal growth of Nigerian football. At Atlanta ‘96 Olympic Games, the “Dream Team” won the soccer event. Footballers on national service should be adequately equipped and cared for. In achieving these targets, there is need to shun greed, cronyism and nepotism in team selection. Football can create wealth and jobs at the same time if well managed. For this to happen, private sector and corporate bodies must be allowed to play crucial roles in funding football. Government alone cannot do it.
Of the 20 clubs competing in the Nigerian Professional Football League, only two clubs, MFM of Lagos and Remo Stars, are privately owned. The government’s role in the development of football should be reduced to allow more private sector participation in football business as it is the practice the world over.