_By Sylvanus Ofekun_
Aside from his monumental failures, gross incompetence and financial recklessness under his watch, the embattled President of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau MON is a dishonourable man, whose words cannot be trusted.
In less than three years, he has presided over the most expensive yet most barren era in the history of Nigerian football, turning what was once the pride of Africa into a global object of pity and ridicule.
Events in the past few days have revealed a man desperate to cling to the paraphernalia of office, playing god by handpicking loyalists to the NFF board while running away from accountability.
The NFF board was summoned to provide explanations regarding billions of naira released to the football house, particularly the ₦17 billion intervention fund released in January 2024 for allowances, bonuses and preparations of national teams.
Despite giving his personal assurances that he would honour the invitation on Thursday, an obdurate Gusau was sighted in Katsina. He switched off his official lines and resorted to using a burner phone to communicate with associates.
He was eventually picked up by operatives of the Department of State Services, DSS, in Katsina.
According to a source familiar with the situation, “The Director of Katsina DSS was the one who arrested him and one other person. The plan was for them to be detained and then flown to Abuja on Friday to answer the corruption charges against them. A call from the leadership of the National Sports Commission aborted the plan after he, Gusau, agreed to honour the invitation on Friday in Abuja.”
By Friday, however, words began circulating that Gusau had vowed not to honour any invitation. He was said to have reached out to persons of influence to intervene with the Presidency, insisting that his records were clean.
This pattern of evasion is not new. In May 2026, Gusau was part of the entourage of the CAF President who met President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the sidelines of an African Business Summit in Nairobi, Kenya. Eyewitnesses at the meeting described a visibly angry President Tinubu expressing displeasure over the incompetence and the avalanche of allegations against the Gusau-led NFF board. That displeasure has since deepened as the rot in the Glass House continues to spill into the public.
On record, no NFF administration has enjoyed the kind of financial windfall that the Gusau board has enjoyed. Beyond the ₦17 billion released in January 2024, the federation has received multiple interventions from the Federal Government, FIFA Forward funds, CAF grants, and sponsorship monies running into several billions. Yet with all this inflow, there is little or nothing to show for it.
Both the male and female national teams have failed to qualify for the World Cup. Age-grade teams have been absent from major tournaments. Training camps are poorly organized, foreign-based players are owed, and domestic league clubs are struggling. The Super Falcons of Nigeria are currently in the Court of Arbitration for Sport, CAS, with the NFF over unpaid bonuses and entitlements, an issue that has been deliberately blocked from entering mainstream media.
The financial recklessness under Gusau goes beyond unpaid bonuses. Contracts for kits, logistics and technical services have been awarded without due process. Expenditures for “administrative overheads” have ballooned while grassroots development remains comatose.
Audited accounts of the federation are either delayed or never made public, and FOI requests are routinely ignored. FIFA and CAF funds meant for youth development and women’s football have disappeared into vague line items, with no verifiable impact on the pitch. The NFF has also been accused of double-dipping, collecting money from government for the same tournaments while also taking funds from sponsors, yet players still protest over unpaid allowances at airports.
Maladministration has become the hallmark of this board. Technical appointments are made based on loyalty rather than competence. A coach with a pedigree of relegation was handed the Super Falcons, and the result was predictable. The technical department is hollow, scouting is non-existent, and the relationship between the NFF and stakeholders, including former internationals, the NPFL, and state FAs, has broken down completely. Decisions are taken in secrecy, and dissenting voices on the board are sidelined or threatened.
The international embarrassment is now total. Nigeria, a five-time African champion and regular World Cup participant, could not qualify across categories. Our women, who carried African football for decades, were locked out of the World Cup for the first time since 1991. Sponsors have pulled out. FIFA has queried the federation over governance issues. And yet the man at the center of it all continues to act with impunity, attending ceremonial functions and local tournaments named in his honor while the house burns.
Nigerian football belongs to over 200 million people, not to one man and his clique. The patience of fans, players, and stakeholders is exhausted. President Tinubu must act decisively. A full forensic audit of all funds released to the NFF since 2022 must be ordered, starting with the ₦17 billion of January 2024.
The architecture of the NFF must be restructured to remove political patronage and entrench transparency. Those found culpable must face prosecution, regardless of status. The era of executive rascality, financial opacity, and football by press release must end. If not, we risk losing an entire generation of footballers to a leadership that has thoroughly disqualified itself from holding that sacred trust.
