Nigerian football stakeholders remain divided over calls for the suspension of the Nigeria Football Federation elections, even as former internationals point to the country’s recent setbacks in continental football as evidence of a system in need of urgent reform.
Former Dream Team star Abiodun Obafemi, a member of Nigeria’s gold medal-winning squad at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, lamented the contrast between the spirit that drove that triumph and the current state of the game following the exit of both the Super Falcons and the Flying Eagles from their respective World Cup pathways.
“We were celebrating the anniversary of our Olympic triumph just a few days ago, and now we find ourselves facing a World Cup miss for the first time, with the Falcons and the young Flying Eagles both missing out,” Obafemi said.
“In our days, we came into camp with hunger, and our relationship with the administration and our coaches was open and sincere. Today, it appears to be a different story entirely.”
His comments come after the Super Falcons were eliminated from the 2026 Women’s Africa Cup of Nations by Cameroon in the quarter-finals on Sunday, a defeat that cost Nigeria automatic qualification for the 2027 FIFA Women’s World Cup, while the Flying Eagles suffered a 4-1 defeat to Burkina Faso in the final of the WAFU Zone B Under-20 Championship, a result that eliminated Nigeria from contention for next year’s Africa Under-20 Cup of Nations and, by extension, the 2027 FIFA Under-20 World Cup in Azerbaijan.
The setbacks have added weight to renewed calls from former Super Eagles captain Segun Odegbami for a temporary suspension of the NFF’s 2026 Executive Committee elections, scheduled for September 27 in Lafia, Nasarawa State.
Odegbami has argued that the country’s football administration has failed to match the enormous talent within Nigerian football, describing NFF elections as having become “a four-yearly ritual of crisis,” and has appealed to President Bola Tinubu and other well-meaning Nigerians to halt the process.
Chief Executive Officer of Monimichelle Sports Facility, Ebi Egbe, has echoed that position, arguing that the current electoral structure, in which 37 of the 44 Congress delegates are state Football Association chairmen, gives incumbents an overwhelming advantage over genuine reformers.
“It will be very difficult for genuine reformers to even consider buying nomination forms for the current NFF elections when the electoral structure appears to give the 37 State Football Association members such enormous influence over the outcome,” Egbe said.
“For me, the real issue is not about who buys a form or who eventually wins. It is about whether the process gives every credible candidate a genuine and equal opportunity to compete.”
However, not all stakeholders support a halt to the elections. Founder and Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Athletics and Other Sports Development Commission, Ahmed Shuaibu Gara-Gombe, has rejected Odegbami’s position, describing it as being driven by personal interest rather than the broader development of Nigerian football. “I disagree with many things he said in that video,” Gara-Gombe said.
Gara-Gombe further challenged Odegbami to account for controversies surrounding the Shell Cup and the Nigeria Academicals Sports Committee, which he chaired, alleging that the former international had “no moral right to talk about corruption or accountability.”
He also disputed claims that Odegbami’s failed attempt to secure an NFF position in the past was due to a flawed process, insisting Odegbami had failed to secure the required endorsement from Football Associations in his South-West zone.
While rejecting calls to stop the election outright, Gara-Gombe agreed that broader electoral reform was necessary, though he maintained that such changes could only be delivered through the National Assembly rather than court action.
“We need electoral reforms, not only in Nigerian football. Electoral reform is required in everything that we do,” he said. “The issue of the composition of Nigerian Football Association Congress has to do with the National Assembly. Let the National Assembly go there and take up that challenge.”
He also called on the National Sports Commission, led by Chairman Shehu Dikko and Director-General Bukola Olopade, to publicly clarify its position on the controversy. “The National Sports Commission must come out and state their position,” he said. “Their silence shows that they are behind it, and we are going to take them on it.”
With Nigeria facing an unfamiliar reality of missing out on senior and age-grade World Cup qualification in the same window when the Super Eagles had also just missed the 2026 World Cup, the debate over the NFF’s electoral structure looks set to intensify in the weeks leading up to September’s Elective Congress in Lafia.
By Peter Akinbo
