Federal government dissolves all Nigerian footballing bodies as part of widespread reforms

PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu has ordered the dissolution of all of Nigeria's footballing administrative bodies and the postponement of the Nigeria Football Federation's (NFF) annual congress due for September 27 as part of a major ongoing shake-up.        

This year, Nigeria's Super Eagles failed to qualify for the World Cup and the country's junior teams have also missed out on global tournaments. Earlier this month, things came to a head when the Super Falcons not only crashed out of the Women's African Cup of Nations in the quarter final but also failed to qualify for the Fifa Women's World Cup.

Arguably Nigeria's most successful team ever, the Super Falcons have won the Women's African Cup of Nations a record 10 times and have been at every single Women's World Cup since the inception of the tournament in 1991. Likewise, the Golden Eaglets have won the U17 Fifa World Cup a record five times but of late, they have failed to qualify for the last three tournaments.

Following these recent failures, there have been strident calls for the NFF board to be designed and yesterday, the federation's president Ibrahim Gusau stood down. His general secretary Dr Mohammed Sanusi has also resigned and now his deputy Emmanuel Ikpeme has been named as acting secretary, with Ademola Olajire, the NFF director of media and communications, named as interim deputy general secretary.

Before all these changes, the NFF had been planning to hold an elective congress next month, in Lafia, the Nasarawa State capital. Now, a fresh electoral process will begin after consultation between Fifa the Confederation of African Football, the Nigerian government and other key figures in Nigerian football.

Meanwhile, the chairmen, appointed directors and chief executive officers of the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL), Nigeria National League (NNL), Nigeria Women Football League and Nationwide League One have been directed to hand over the administration of their respective leagues. Administration will temporarily be transferred to the chief operating officers (COO) of the leagues, provided they are members of the NFF staff.

Where the existing chief operating officer is not an NFF staff member, the acting general secretary has been directed to deploy a new COO from the federation. These measures effectively place the administration of Nigeria's four major domestic league competitions under the direct oversight of the NFF secretariat during the transition.

Bayo Onanuga, President Tinubu's spokesman said: "The reforms must respond to a long-standing need to strengthen governance, administration, stakeholder representation, development pathways, domestic competitions and accountability across Nigerian football. Now, football, Nigeria's most popular sport and the greatest beneficiary of public support, investment and national attention, has continued to struggle basically due to structural deficits within the system."

President Tinubu also directed the chairman of the National Sports Commission to work with the NFF secretariat and relevant football stakeholders to ensure continuity in football administration and facilitate a broad, consultative reform process. For now, the interim NFF leadership headed by Mr Ikpeme is expected to maintain the federation's essential operations while the government and key figures in Nigerian football work on a roadmap for the proposed reforms.