Pinnick Game Plan Is To Extend Tenure Till January 2023

NFF President Amaju Pinnick (PICTURED with alter ego Infantino) is plotting to extend his tenure until January 2023 with the grander plot to stay in office for a third term even after a public declaration he will not seek such.

His excuse is that there is not enough time to prepare for fresh elections by the time his tenure ends on September 20, 2022.

A tenure elongation going into the New Year will defy President Muhammadu Buhari’s orders and suit Pinnick rather nicely as by then the Federal Government will be neck-deep in General Elections and so have little or no time to “interfere” with the running of Nigeria Football.

Several critical Stakeholders in Nigeria Football have confirmed the latest Pinnick Plot.

The NFF Congress, which has the power to appoint an Electoral Committee and the Appeals Committee, has not met since a Federal High Court sitting in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, ruled against the NFF Annual General Assembly (AGA) in December 2021.

Litigants of the court case have since applied to suspend it and thus paving the way for the NFF Congress to be convened.

But Pinnick has seen a window of opportunity to perpetuate himself in power and despite this latest development has yet to respond to an ultimatum by “Concerned FA Chairmen” for the NFF Congress to meet to chart the way forward for Nigeria Football.

The deadline issued by the FA Chairmen will end today.

President Buhari has ordered that NFF Elections be conducted not later than September 2022 and that reforms be effected to expand the NFF Congress for better representation.  

Even though Pinnick sits on both the CAF Executive Committee and the FIFA Council, the real power resides with the NFF Presidency, which allows him to control a budget and be much more visible in the public eye.

It would be recalled that speculations were rife before the 2022 World Cup playoffs against Ghana earlier this year that Pinnick has always been shopping for a reason for Elections not to be held in September.

Then the excuse to delay Elections was that the polls would be a major distraction to the Super Eagles preparations to the 2022 World Cup, but unfortunately for him Ghana beat Nigeria to the ticket to Qatar 2022.