President Bola Tinubu has directed a “comprehensive reform” of Nigerian football following a series of setbacks suffered by the country’s national teams in major international competitions.
The directive was issued on Thursday, shortly after Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) President Ibrahim Musa Gusau, General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi and members of the federation’s Executive Committee resigned amid growing concerns over the state of Nigerian football.
The NFF confirmed the mass resignations in a statement, saying Gusau’s decision was aimed at creating room for “a comprehensive and orderly reform process” to tackle longstanding governance, institutional and developmental challenges affecting the sport.
Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, announced the presidential directive, saying Tinubu wants the reforms to address Nigeria’s repeated failure to qualify for major regional, continental and global competitions.
According to the President, the continued decline of Nigerian football is linked to “structural weaknesses” within the system. He noted that other sports had made progress following the restructuring of the sector under the re-established National Sports Commission (NSC).
“The reform must respond to a longstanding need to strengthen governance, administration, stakeholder representation, development pathways, domestic competitions and accountability across Nigerian football,” Tinubu said.
He added: “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.”