By Danladi Bako, PhD
Danladi Bako
In years gone by, the Nigerian Football Federation board led by Ibrahim Gusau would have been sacked by now. Their continued stay in office after a woeful first tenure makes past military regimes look messianic because during General Babangida or General Abacha’s regimes, the monumental failures of the current board would not have lasted this long before they get fired.
It is self-serving, immoral and insensitive to throw the emotions of 200 million football loving Nigerian fans into a ping-pong, ding-dong and topsy-turvy clanger. I imagine the pain of the country and a football loving President Tinubu that the Super Eagles have not qualified for the FIFA World Cup since 2018, losing out in 2022 and 2026 even when Cape Verde, a country of less than a million people qualified, even when a small Carribean country like Curacao gualified, even when FIFA increased the CAF African slots to 10. I was the producer of NTA “Mastersports” in 1992 and galvanized the fight and advocacy for FIFA to increase Africa’s slots from 2 to 5. We qualified for the first time in 1994 ! 32 years later we can’t qualify for 2022 and 2026 World Cups. Even at the last stages of the last AFCON in Cote D’ivoire , the President graciously released N12 billion for the campaign yet we came back empty handed. I am not sure the Sports Commission and the Federation have accounted for that money. They will scream if auditors want to scrutinize their books.
I imagine the first lady Senator Oluremi Tinubu’s pain from Wednesday’s WAFCON defeat in Morocco by South Africa that the Super Falcons did not qualify for Women’s football World Cup coming up in Brazil next year. That we lost out at the quarter final is embarrassing enough, we simply did not play well, we scrapped through the whole tournament unconvincingly.
At the Football Federation headquarters, they will tell you to blame the coaches, players, pitches and most incredibly to blame “bad luck”.
No, it is sheer incompetence that produces these kinds of results. I was FA Chairman in Sokoto State and Special Adviser to Minister of Sports Jim Nwobodo, when we plotted how to win the football gold at the Centennial Atlanta Olympic games in 1996 so I speak out of experience. I am sorry, the immediate past President of the NFF and the current one as well have no inspiring pedigree to drive huge campaigns of an impactful World Cup. It is no gainsaying our age group national teams have all underperformed and the sad issue is that there seems to be no hope ahead.
How did we get here ? As at 1985 we did not know that FIFA gave the football body as much as $500,000 Swiss francs for the Kodak U-17 victory in China. Going forward the Association developed a secrecy code of non-disclosure that they were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for every qualification at the senior World Cup to ensure quality preparation. At every attempt by any supervising Minister to investigate or make the Association accountable, the leadership screams that government is interfering and they threaten FIFA will ban Nigeria.
Free money has become the attraction to fight tooth and nail to be NFF President. Any attempt to retool and recalibrate the lopsided composition of the Congress which serves as the Electoral college will herald hoopla and false propaganda that FIFA will ban us. That story line is outdated and totally false. Besides, technically we banned ourselves from the last two World Cups by installing poor leadership. FIFA did not ban countries like England for making Prince Charles or Prince William the President of the English FA. Are there elections for President of the Saudi Arabia Football Association? Countries are allowed to fashion what works for them and forward such statutes to FIFA so it becomes a rule book when crisis and infighting arise within the organs.
We must rewrite the NFF Statutes and reform both the Electoral process of that Federation Executive Board by giving the voting rights to the “goose that lays the golden egg”, in this case the Premier League clubs. Clearly, there might be State Association Chairmen who are passionate and knowledgeable but in most cases, they are political appointees who merely were on the campaign bandwagon preceding the elections. They get to run our football while Dr Felix Owolabi, Daniel Amokachi, Nwankwo Kanu and Segun Odegbami are onlookers and passengers in a game they gave their whole youth and adult ages.
A Minister of Youth and Sports in the last five years had an opportunity to influence the election of a better candidate as the President of the NFF but he “chickened out” of choosing the better candidate saying “northern Governors” wanted the fella on the seat now. That explains why we are where we are today.
The seat of the Federation President requires someone with capability and deep capacity in making decisions about the quality and choice of National team coaches beyond just the choice of the Technical Committee, the President requires an Air Commodore Ikhazoboh mentality to inspire players and coaches especially at halftime when Super Eagles are one goal down in a World Cup match. The Federation requires a groit with the charisma of Samson Omeruah and the world-wide connections of a Kojo Williams.
The President requires a deft business acumen of a Yusuf Alli who was a banker and petrol magnate to get necessary funds and utilize them well.
The Football house President requires a dogged defiance , determination of a Jim Nwobodo during his days as Chairman Enugu Rangers Football Club in the seventies.
In conclusion, the President can easily save us all this sadness and wahala by quietly asking CoS Gbaja or football expert Gov Abdurahman of Kwara State to invite Shehu Dikko and nicely direct Gusau and his folks to resign since they lack the morality to do the right thing and take a bow. The Italian Football Federation Board resigned for not qualifying for the 2026 World Cup. Many other Associations did exactly that when they failed to qualify.
Danladi Bako PhD, OON attended 6 FIFA World Cups, 3 Olympics and 12 AFCON Competitions.
