Why Gusau-led NFF board must go – Editors

By Jacob Ajom

What happened to the Golden Eaglets of Nigeria? It hurts to note that Nigeria’s legacy in age group football competitions has become a distant history. The Golden Eaglets, with five FIFA World Cup titles and three runners up medals are the most successful international team in the world in that category. They have also won U17 AFCON twice. In the U20 class, the Flying Eagles used to be one of the best out of Africa with two silver medals from the FIFA U20 World Cup.

In 1996, Nigeria shook the world when the Dream Team(as the U23 team was then called), defeated the likes of Mexico, Brazil and Argentina at the Los Angeles Olympics to become the first African team to win an Olympic gold medal in football. They remain the only team that won gold, silver and bronze in the Olympics. With such a robust history, Nigeria’s age-group teams have of late suffered the indignity of not qualifying for most of the tournaments, even in WAFU.

Nigeria’s misfortune has been accentuated by administrative lapses resulting in poor policy implementation and lack of accountability.

The national team, the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the World Cup back to back, the once dreaded Golden Eaglets have failed to qualify for the U-17 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) and the FIFA U-17 World Cup. Their most recent heartbreak came after a 2-0 defeat by Ghana’s Black Starlets in the semi-finals of the WAFU-B U-17 Championship last year, which eliminated them from the global stage.

For a team celebrated as a five-time world champion, this decline has been difficult for Nigerian fans to accept. Several systemic and structural issues have contributed to this string of failures

Super Eagles, three time African champions and once consistent African representatives at the FIFA World Cup have not qualified for the tournament since 2018.

In sports, result is the only yardstick for measurement of failure or success. Fresh elections into the board of the Nigeria Football Federation have been billed for September and almost all members of the present board want to make a return. The question being asked by Nigerians is should they? Based on the results on ground, should Ibrahim Gusau return as NFF President?

Tana Ayejina, the Deputy Editor of Punch Newspapers said, “No..After destroying Nigerian football for over a decade, what else do they have to offer? To cause more damage? Almost every member of the present board was part of the former which Gusau took over from. That board failed to take Nigeria to the World Cup. This present board was given another simple chance of taking Nigeria to the World Cup and they failed. I said simple because, imagine a World Cup with 48 teams and 10 from Africa and Nigeria is not there and you say you want to come back. To do what?” he asked.

“In sports, if you are good, you move on, but if you are not good, you quit,” said Adekunle Salami, a senior editor at New Telegraph Newspapers. “You must earn whatever you get in sports. For the NFF board to have failed to qualify Nigeria for two consecutive World Cups, the U17 is not competing, U23 are nowhere and U20 are all failing in their various qualifiers and no longer as competitive as they used to be. We are not playing at the Olympics. Indeed, the question one is forced to ask is, what are they(the board) still doing?”

He questioned the purported endorsement of the board at the extraordinary Assembly of the NFF. “How do you endorse a board that has no results to show for their long stay?”

Tana retorted, “I see this board as a group of people who have no plan, if not, what have they been doing with the huge grants they have been receiving from the federal government and the world governing body, FIFA? Nothing is being done to raise the standard of the domestic game. Nigeria that used to be feared in age group competitions has lost on all fronts. This is unacceptable.”

Salami urged Nigerians with the wherewithal to challenge the present board members in the coming election. “What I expect is that Nigerians who have the capacity to right the wrongs that have been committed against Nigerian football to challenge them”.

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Tana said that instead of vying to return, members of the current board should resign en mass for failing Nigeria. “In Italy and other countries that failed to qualify for the World Cup, their FA members are resigning. I expect that NFF members should resign instead of seeking another term.”

To force a change at the Glass House, stakeholders must act decisively. In an interview with former international, Adokiye Amiesimaka some sometime ago, the former chairman of defunct Sharks FC of Port Harcourt challenged Nigerian football fans. Said he, “I have realised that as a people, we are not yet ready to move our sports forward. The fans don’t put any pressure on those that manage sports in our country; not even the press. You(the press) are not going about how to get things done the proper way. You don’t probe, you don’t ask questions. I’m sorry to say this, but that encapsulates the tragedy called Nigeria.