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Anthony Nlebem
Ibrahim Musa Gusau was on Friday in Benin City, the Edo State capital, elected as the new President of the Nigeria Football Federation at the federation’s 79th Annual General Assembly and Elective Congress.
The Zamfara-born football administrator defeated nine other contestants to emerge as the successor of Amaju Pinnick, who was head of the football body for eight years.
He polled 39 out of 40 votes in the re-run election after all the candidates had initially failed to meet the 22-vote requirement, while South Afric-based Idah Peterside got the remaining vote.
In the first election, Gusau had 21 votes, followed by outgoing NFF VP Seyi Akinwunmi who got 12. Shehu Dikko, another outgoing NFF VP amassed six votes, with Peterside Idah and Abba Yola had a vote each.
Akinwunmi and Dikko, however, stepped down from the re-run election, paving way for a landslide victory for Gusau, over Peterside.
Gusau, a seasoned football administrator with decades of experience, has held different positions in and outside football management in Nigeria, the Confederation of African Football and FIFA.
He’s a civil servant and staff of the Zamfara State Ministry of Finance. Here, PUNCH Sports Extra brings you facts about the Zamfara-born administrator…
Chairman, Zamfara FA.
Gusau has a lot of grassroots and international football administration experience, having served as Chairman of Zamfara Statesy FA, with stints as a Member of CAF’s Organising Committee for the African Nations Championship. He is a CAF Security Officer.
NFF Executive Member
Gusau was an Executive Board member of the Pinnick-led NFF Executive Board and served as Chairman of Chairmen of the NFF Executive Committee.
Head, NFF COVID-19 Task Force
Gusau was the head of NFF’s Special COVID-19 Task Force that was charged with working with the various league bodies to monitor compliance with the protocols by all football clubs at all levels of the leagues.
CAF roles
CAF in June 2022 announced Gusau as a member of the CAF Youth Championships Committee. The Committee is in charge of age-grade football tournaments, which includes AFCON U-17, U-20 and U-23 categories.
As Chairman, NFF Security Committee, he is also a member of the Organising Committee for the African Nations Championship.
Campaign promises
Before the NFF elections, Gusau said that if elected as president, he would revive Nigerian football through his robust grassroots football development plans. He added that international footballers at all levels would be selected based on merit, adding that he would give attention to the discovery of fresh talents across the country.
“The basis of football is about grassroots development. I have a robust plan to develop it and we will take it from there, then we will see how we are going to make our league competitive and to be among the best in Africa, if not the world.”
Gusau also promised to implement the 10-year Football Development Masterplan approved by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), if elected the NFF president.
“We will see how we are going to implement the plan step by step as stated by the President, for us to achieve our objectives. And we will do our best in conjunction with other stakeholders to make sure that we implement it for the benefit of Nigerian football,” he added.
Now that he has been elected president of NFF, the stage is now set for him to actualise his campaign promises to better Nigerian football.
Millions of Nigerian football-loving fans are full of expectations and hoping to see the national teams return to the old glory days, as well as a revival of grassroots football in the country.
Is Gusau the man who will take Nigeria to football’s El Dorado?
The next four years of his reign will surely tell.