National Sports Commission Chairman Shehu Dikko has come under fire from a leading football activist for including former Nigeria Football Federation President Amaju Pinnick in the country’s delegation to FIFA headquarters in Zurich on Tuesday, even as officials moved to deny Pinnick is angling to head the proposed Normalisation Committee.
Advocacy for Nigeria Football Reform Initiative Chairman Prince Harrison Jalla accused Dikko of undermining President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s reform mandate by bringing Pinnick into the delegation, arguing that immediate past NFF President Ibrahim Gusau and former presidents Aminu Maigari and Sani Lulu Abdullahi were more deserving of a seat on the trip.
‘Stakeholders and Nigeria football followers were stunned yesterday when they saw a former Nigeria Football Federation president, who destroyed Nigeria football for eight years, remote-controlled and misled the Ibrahim Gusau-led board for another four years, in the Nigerian delegation to Zurich,’ Jalla said in a statement, questioning why Gusau, Maigari and Lulu Abdullahi were left out if a former president had to be included at all.
Jalla pressed further on Dikko’s motives, asking: ‘What does Dikko want to achieve? Is it loyalty to a friend and gang leader, or loyalty to the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, who appointed him as NSC chairman on a platter of gold, and to Nigerians?’ He urged the NSC chairman to test public opinion before proceeding.
‘Dikko should go and gauge the mood of Nigerians on social media about the man he is trying to launder his image,’ he said.
Jalla argued that the diplomatic route was straightforward, noting that a member federation seeking a fresh start could simply write to FIFA to invoke Article 8.2 of the FIFA Statutes and trigger a normalisation process.
He warned Dikko against letting the transition spiral into fresh controversy: ‘Dikko was part of the history that brought our football to this sorry state, and now that providence and political connection have given him a second chance, he must not abuse it.’
He added that Nigerians expect ‘his best hands’ running the game and do not want old wounds reopened.
But a top official who travelled with the delegation to Zurich, pushed back on separate reports that Pinnick was being lined up to chair the Normalisation Committee FIFA is expected to name before the end of the week.
The official said Pinnick told FIFA directly in Zurich on Tuesday that he wanted to be left to run his private business and continue in his global football roles, and dismissed the speculation as untrue.
The official credited Pinnick with attracting unmatched sponsorship to the NFF during his tenure and pointed to his continuing influence as an adviser to the CAF President and Deputy Chairman of FIFA’s Men’s National Teams’ Competitions Committee as an asset for Nigeria, rather than grounds for exclusion.
Pinnick joined the Zurich delegation on Tuesday alongside Dikko, NSC Director-General Bukola Olopade and NFF Interim General Secretary Dr Emmanuel Ikpeme following Gusau’s resignation as NFF President. The Normalisation Committee is expected to draw up a roadmap for reforming NFF governance, including an overhaul of a Congress structure currently dominated by state FA chairmen and federation loyalists.