Amaju Pinnick may have won the recent election of the Nigeria Football Federation as the president but he has a huge task ahead of him to reconcile with opponents to ensure a successful tenure

By Benprince Ezeh

DESPITE making history as the first president of the Nigerian Football Federation, NFF, to win re-election, sports analysts believe that Amaju Pinnick has a huge task of fixing the challenges at the Glass House. They said the first challenge before him and his board is how to reconcile all aggrieved members of the NFF.

Etta Egbe, public relations officer, Nigeria Football Coaches Association, NFCA, said Pinnick needs to sit up because all is not well. He said Pinnick may have succeeded in the politics of the game but in terms of grassroots development he was a colossal failure.

He pointed out that the appointment of national coaches has been lopsided. “He has to redress the imbalance in the appointment of coaches to the national teams. He should make all the geopolitical zones feel a sense of belonging, and being part of the country. Right now, coaches from some parts of the country feel alienated,” Egbe said.

Similarly, Ike Shorunmu, Nigerian ex-international, after the re-election told journalists that there are some areas Pinnick must improve on. “I have congratulated him for retaining the sit for the first time in the history of NFF. We have to give him our support for his second term to be a success. However, he needs to look back on the areas he needs to work more on so that the next four years will be better than before.

“We have to wish him all the best. He has done well he needs to continue and do more although there is no way in the world everybody can be satisfied. He needs to put attention on youth football, the grassroots, the under 17, 20 and the female football.

“He shouldn’t just put his attention on the Super Eagles alone. He has muscled the Super Eagles in terms of cash and organisation, he needs to do more of this for the young ones too and the ladies for everybody to enjoy his tenure. I wish him all the best and he must try to carry everybody along,” he was quoted as saying in a Daily Post report.

Also Pinnick has to find a way to ensure that members of the youth football team make it to the national team. Right now most of the youth players who excelled in the under 17 World Cup in 2015, only about two players made it to the national side. They are Kelechi Iheanacho and Kelechi Nwakali.

Pinnick is a history maker and an achiever, as witnessed during the September 20, NFF elections in Katsina State.  Though many would say he has overachieved, especially with the manner in which he won his second term – the pertinent question would be ‘what has Pinnick done for Nigerian football lately that the NFF congress presented him with another four years?

No man or woman has won two consecutive terms in office since the body overseeing football in Nigeria came to be in 1945 and was affiliated with FIFA in 1960. Over the last two decades, men that have held the position of NFF president have been disgraced from their jobs, ignominiously castigated and on some occasions have even had to endure jail term.

Pinnick’s rise to breaking the jinx was marked by so many obstacles. Apart from the intractable Chris Giwa problem, Pinnick’s frosty relationship with Solomon Dalung, minister of sports and youth development, cannot be forgotten easily. At a point, it appeared the minister stood up headlong against the very government he was supposed to be serving as he was on one side supporting Giwa while the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo rooted for Pinnick.

Before the election, the minister who openly supported Giwa’s claim to the NFF presidency did not hide his disapproval of the elective congress. He labelled it as an illegal gathering and, to cap it all, he refused to attend the election. He did not send a representative either. But the congress went on to elect Pinnick as president of the federation.

Notably, bearing in mind the crisis in the Glass House, Pinnick in his acceptance speech said, “The first thing we need to do is to initiate reforms in our statutes. We need to capture things in our statutes to reflect true reconciliation and we have to do this right away.

“This is something that we need to start immediately to ensure true reconciliation. We have to do it right away. I am happy, though it is not about me or the executive committee, but the Congress who believed in us and we will work hard not to fail them,” he said.

But it is doubtful if that message will appeal to his arch opponent or even mark the end of the troubles for Nigerian football, which has been embroiled in a leadership crisis with Giwa claiming to be the rightfully elected president of the federation since 2014.

– Oct. 1, 2018 @ 16:15 GMT |