Chief Lucky Igbinedion served as the Chairman of Oredo local government area of Edo state from 1987 to 1989.
He did well in the eyes of the people. When he contested as governor in 1999 he was overwhelmingly voted with the hope that he would replicate what he did in Oredo for the entire Edo.
The people were however, disappointed and started a campaign that he must not return for a second term.
His father, the Esama of Benin, Chief Gabriel Igbinedion, in appealing to Edo people to give his son a second chance, added some humour in his campaign saying, “at least when a student
fails, he is given a chance to repeat the class”.
What the Esama did not know then was that failure is like an accident which could be ghastly or fatal.
As a student of the University of Ife ( later renamed Obafemi Awolowo University) in the mid 1980s, I got to understand that ‘fatal’ failure doesn’t give one a second chance as the university’s message to such a student is “you are advised to withdraw “.
This is exactly the scenario the outgoing President of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF Ibrahim Gusau is facing now..
Like Gusau, President of FIFA, Gianni Infantino is facing the same heat from the football fraternity around the world.
For Gusau the reason for the advice from Nigeria’s football stakeholders is non-performance while Infantino’s is betrayal of trust.
Under Infantino, football is ‘suffocating’ with new ideas which have made the game more enjoyable and profitable.
Developments like increase in the number of teams participating in the World Cup as well as prize money for teams, for qualifying, participating and winning from stage to stage until the final.
He got carried away by the successes he was recording maybe as well as the endorsement he had received for another term of four years when the next election is held next year that he started acting arbitrarily without consulting his fellow executive council members nor the Congress.
While member confederations were still seething with anger over his romance with US president, Donald Trump which they felt was eroding the independence of FIFA, Infantino unilaterally came out with a plan to privatize and sell billions in commercial stakes for the World Cup through a subsidiary called FIFA Forward Enterprise.
The list of Infantino-must-go advocates is increasing among federations in Europe, Asia, North America & the Caribbeans as well as Oceania. Only Africa and South America led by Argentina
are rooting for him.
The African voice is championed by the CAF president, Patrice Motsepe who insists that Infantino shouldn’t be forced out, stressing that those who think they can do better than Infantino should wait for the election and vote him out.
If Infantino who has done so much for football, especially in the developing countries, could be asked to quit on moral grounds, why are Nigerians being sentimental when Gusau’s failure
appears ‘fatal’.
What can Gusau’s apologists say are his achievements in his first term as president of the NFF?
A colleague, Richard Jideaka, in defence of Gusau wrote this: “One of Gusau’s notable achievements has been his emphasis on strengthening football administration. His administration has revived coaching education programmes with various grades of CAF licences coaching courses held in Abuja, supported referee reforms, pursued infrastructure projects through FIFA Forward funding, and worked to improve domestic league administration with the Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) and other tiers of our domestic season aligning with the other parts of the world. The development and expanded opportunities for women’s football.”
Let’s take Jideaka’s points one after the other. How has the revival of coaching education in Nigeria rubbed off on the various national teams as well as the clubs which are all falling or have really fallen apart under Gusau’s watch.
He talked about improved domestic league administration when the Nigeria Professional Football League still hasn’t got a sponsor and the league is still not on television.
How has Gusau’s administration supported referees reform when no Nigerian referee gets invited for CAF or FIFA competitions? Nigeria once had referees like Festus Okubule, Linus Mba and Callistus Chukwujekwu who were highly rated FIFA-badged referees.
Okubule became the first Nigerian referee to officiate at a FIFA tournament during the 1983 FIFA World Youth Championship in Mexico. He officiated key matches at the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), including the 1986 edition in Egypt.
What is the state of refereeing in Nigeria today? Has the so-called reforms Gusau introduced yielded any dividend to their continental or global rating?
A Somali referee Omar Artan currently is the highest ranked African referee and made history during the week by becoming the first non-European to handle the Super Cup final match a few
.weeks after Trump’s USA denied him entry into their country to officiate in the 2026 World Cup.
The last achievement Jideaka listed for Gusau is “development and expanded opportunities for women’s football.” Yet the Super Falcons performed miserably at the 2026 WAFCON which ends today in Morocco.
Worst of all, the 10-time African Champions failed to qualify for the women’s World Cup scheduled for Brazil next year, for the first time ever, when Malawi, first timers in WAFCON qualified and may just emerge African champions today.
Without any tangible developmental strides from the NFF which is perpetually competition driven and Gusau superintending over the various ‘fatal’ World Cup failures – Super Eagles – out, Super Falcons – out, Flying Eagles – out and the Golden Eaglets also out, one is at a loss why Gusau wants to remain in power for another four years? Why?
Football stakeholders are clamouring that Gusau should step aside since he appears not to have any clue on what to do to revive the country’s football, the citizen’s major source of succour in a stressful economy.
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