Opinion: The Amaju Pinnick’s NFF Scorecard, The President We Never Prayed To Have

It’s no longer news that Amaju Pinnick is stepping away as the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) President, after holding sway for close to eight years. With a whirlwind leadership full of ups and downs, he made history as the first-ever NFF president to be re-elected for a second term in office.

During the last football congress – a convergence of football stakeholders in Nigeria, Pinnick confessed with mixed feelings that he will not be running for third term in office and has openly vowed to support whoever emerge winner in the October 2022 election.

Looking at how much he has fared; his tenure has been nothing short of a disaster to Nigerian football, and he will go down in history as the worst NFF President. Please, find below, his scorecard statistics.

His predecessor, Aminu Maigari in four years as NFF President, won 13 trophies, including the all-important African Cup of Nations (AFCON), while Pinnick in 8 years won only 3 trophies, one of which, the team were prepared by Maigari before he left office. 

Pinnick is the first and only NFF President that failed to qualify the Super Eagles for AFCON, back-to-back. 

For the very first time in the history of Nigeria’s participation at the FIFA U-17 Men’s and Women’s World Cup, Nigeria failed to qualify for the tournament under Pinnick’s leadership. Similarly, for the very first time in the history of Nigeria's participation in the FIFA U-20 Women’s World Cup, Nigeria failed to qualify for the tournament. For the longest time, Nigeria has failed to qualify for the FIFA U-20 Men’s World Cup. All these failures and more, are against the superlative performances of Pinnick's predecessors.

During Sani Lulu Abdullahi's regime as NFF President, and Late Oyuki Obaseki, a former chairman of the Nigerian Professional Football League (NPFL), the League was highly rated in Africa. On the same vein, when Aminu Maigari was NFF President and Rumson Baribote oversaw NPFL as chairman, the League was rated number one in Africa, unlike what we have today under Pinnick and Shehu Dikko, the League Management Company’s (LMC) Chairman. The league has lost its glory and rated 14 in Africa. 

Under the leadership of Pinnick, both Nigerian Men and Women teams failed to qualify for the Olympic games as against his predecessors.

This is the first part of an ongoing series by the author

Aderonke Ogunleye-Bello is an award-winning sports journalist, and governance analyst, she writes from Abuja.