NFF Names New Interim Leadership as Football Reform Begins
Ibrahim Gusau, whose term as NFF president had just 33 days left to run, told reporters at a news conference in Abuja on Thursday that he was stepping down. He said the choice came after talking things through with family, friends and people close to the game.
Gusau had been in the job since September 2022 and was under heavy pressure over how Nigeria's senior and junior national teams had been performing. He had actually been expected to run again for the top job next month before this sudden exit.
The problems went beyond results on the field, where the Super Eagles missed out on the last two World Cups in a row. The federation had also been dealing with tough questions about how it was run and how it handled money.
President Bola Tinubu has now called for a full overhaul of Nigerian football, saying the sport keeps falling short again and again. This came right after Gusau, general secretary Mohammed Sanusi, and the other 11 members of the executive committee all stepped aside.
Emmanuel Ikpeme, who used to be deputy general secretary, has now moved up to take on the general secretary role on an interim basis. Ademola Olajire, who used to run the federation's media and communications work, is stepping in as interim deputy general secretary.
The NFF elections that were supposed to happen on September 27 have now been put on hold. Federation officials say a new voting process will only start once the planned reforms are finished, and that this will be worked out together with FIFA and the Confederation of African Football.
Why the Reforms Are Needed
President Tinubu said the point of the shake-up is to build a football system in Nigeria that is stronger, more responsible and gets better results. He pointed out that football gets more public backing, money and attention than any other sport in the country, yet it keeps being held back by problems built into how it's organized. He said the reform needs to tackle a long list of issues that have piled up over the years, covering how the game is governed, run day to day, how different groups get a voice, how young players are developed, how domestic leagues work, and how everyone involved is held accountable.
Gusau had come under growing heat over the past few weeks after Nigeria failed to reach the 2027 Women's World Cup. That result ended a streak that went all the way back to the first Women's World Cup in 1991, a tournament Nigeria had qualified for every single time until now.
The Super Falcons went into this year's Women's Africa Cup of Nations as the team to beat, since they were the defending champions. But they got knocked out in the quarter-finals by Cameroon, and then lost their World Cup play-off match against South Africa, closing the door on their chances.
At Thursday's press event, Gusau said he still believed good things were ahead for Nigerian football, and that he hoped he and others could keep contributing in some way, since the relationships and experience built up over the years within African football circles shouldn't just go to waste.
There were some bright spots during his time in charge. Under Gusau's watch, the Super Eagles reached the final of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations and finished as runners-up. But missing two World Cups back to back is something Nigeria, long seen as one of the strongest football nations on the continent, had never really experienced before at this scale.
The younger national teams haven't fared much better lately either, struggling to leave a mark in African and global tournaments at the youth level.
Money Questions and a Critical Report
On the financial side, a lot of attention has landed on a 17 billion naira fund, worth around $12.66 million, that President Tinubu reportedly signed off on back in 2024. That money was meant to clear unpaid dues owed to the national teams.
Nothing has been officially confirmed yet, but people familiar with the ongoing checks say reviewers are going through financial records and how things were administered.
Separately, a fact-finding committee that the NFF itself set up after the Super Falcons' early WAFCON exit this month came back with some troubling findings about how the board and national teams were being managed.
The report raised claims that board members had a hand in picking players for teams, and that some officials and coaches were choosing players based on money changing hands rather than who actually deserved to play.
Pressure for big changes at the federation has been building for months now. Former Nigeria internationals like John Obi Mikel, Jay-Jay Okocha and Segun Odegbami have all said publicly that real progress won't happen unless the country moves away from the same old administrators who have been in charge during years of poor results.
The sudden resignations have left things uncertain for now, but some people involved in the sport think this shakeup could actually be a chance for the kind of deep structural change and fresh start the federation has needed for a long time.
All of this is happening while football governance is already a hot topic worldwide, with FIFA president Gianni Infantino often at the center of those conversations.
The real question now is whether Nigerians can trust the NFF again as it tries to deal with both its struggles on the pitch and the problems happening off it
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