It was still the same old song of aspirants bribing delegates with dollars at the elective congress off the Nigeria Football Federation held in Benin City, Edo State.
Ibrahim Musa Gusau emerged president of the nation’s soccer ruling body and it remain to be seen if he can redeem the sport dying for reforms in all aspects.
Gusau who is Zamfara State FA chairman polled 39 votes to Peter side Idah’s one vote in the elections that went into second round after the first ballot failed to produce a clear winner. Most of the candidates stepped down afterwards except Idah a former Super Eagles goal keeper. Gusau will now replace Amaju Pinnick who was eying a third term, but the Super Eagles failure to win a world cup ticket to Qatar 2022 became his albatross.
Gusau, 58, will now try to revive football that is practically comatose in the country, the league is in need of fixing, the national teams are struggling to make impact in the continent and football generally is in need of reinventing. Gusau was a member of the Pinnick led out going board, and football observers are hopeful that Gusau can deviate from seeking personal gains and focus on delivering services.
“My vision is a stable and successful Nigeria football Federation focused on the development of the game at grassroots, leagues, and national teams’ levels. The theme is ‘Letting football win’
“I have what it takes to provide the required leadership to promote, control, and regulate association football in the country in an open, transparent and sustainable manner. I have the capacity to execute all my lofty plans for the development of football in the country,” Gusau said before the elections.
However, speaking on the elections, Idah claimed that it was still the same pattern of bribing delegates and football would like suffer the same fate of retarded grow in Nigeria.
“The elections were like a crime scene and EFCC must act if we must put our football in the right path.
“We did not sleep till 3am (Friday morning) because we were trying to convince people. Some told us they were offered $15,000; $10,000. What gain do I have to lie about this?
“A young man told me that he had $5,000 shared into six places to offer zones who would vote.”
“ Hoodlums will continue to run our football and how can it improve?
Gusau...