The Nigeria Football Federation has been in the news headlines lately. The news has not been good because Nigeria’s national teams, from U17 to the flagship Super Eagles and Super Falcons, have failed to qualify for World Cup outings. For the Super Eagles, it was back-to-back.
The news has been compounded by the upcoming elections to the Federation’s Board. Calls for the resignation or outright ouster of its president, Ibrahim Gusau, are viral. It is so outlandish that Super Eagles legend, Segun Odegbami, even called for the postponement of the NFF elections. Tampering with the inner workings of member federations in FIFA is anathema in Zurich, where football’s world governing body is located. The emotions are definitely in overdrive.
If only it were the emotions, we might have been able to live with it. Still, reputable news outlets like Arise News and The Guardian have joined dark-alley websites to promote all manner of fake news, reporting the arrest of NFF board members by the DSS, the resignation of some NFF board members, the dissolution of the NFF board by the federal government, et al.
For me, though, the problem is not just with the NFF or Nigerian football alone, but with Nigerian sports and the way we run it. No serious country or, put in another way, any country that wants to win Olympic Games medals, let alone gold, will run sports the way we do in Nigeria.
