EDITORIAL: The End Of The Road For Pinnick

If Amaju Pinnick still had any modicum of honour, he will resign as NFF President today.

Pinnick has lost the trust and support of the NFF Congress.

He has lost the confidence of the general public.

He does not have to wait till September 20, 2022, when his disastrous second term terminates, before he throws in the towel.

Nigeria Football, which has brought  joy, pride and glory to many millions but now delivers pain, bitterness and anguish, will be better off without a selfish, egoistical Pinnick.

In eight years, he has led Nigeria Football from one inglorious failure after another.

The latest disaster was the unexpected dismal outing of the Super Falcons at the 2022 WAFCON in Morocco.

The Super Falcons are far and away Nigeria’s most successful national team in Africa having won the WAFCON a record nine times since 1998.

However, in Morocco this month this all-conquering team not only failed to successfully defend their title, they left North Africa empty handed.

Pinnick personally handpicked Randy Waldrum to handle this team at the second time of asking after the American coach first opted to take up another appointment before he eventually took up the Falcons job when the Swede Thomas Dennarby was hounded out by no other person than Pinnick.

Waldrum has not added value to this team and this was obvious by their lethargic performance in Morocco.

Again, the team were forced to embark on another embarrassing pay strike in Morocco over unpaid bonuses and allowances.

It is the third time under the watch of Pinnick that this nation has been so embarrassed.

When the team did Nigeria proud by winning the 2016 WAFCON ahead of hosts Cameroon, they were up in arms against the Pinnick-led NFF over money.

They were holed up at a hotel in Abuja for weeks and even marched in protest at the National Assembly.

The Super Falcons went on a similar strike when they crashed out of the 2019 FIFA Women’s World Cup and it needed the intervention of FIFA before they agreed to leave France after another international disgrace.

The NFF under Pinnick  have always shied away from taking responsibilities to save their skin.

It was therefore not surprising that for the latest pay strike by the Falcons, they tried to put the blame on the Sports Ministry.

This cannot hold as the NFF only applied to the FGN for the budget for the 2022 WAFCON two weeks to the tournament in what an inside source revealed was a desperate attempt to “mess up” Sports Minister Sunday Dare.

Pinnick has been openly on a personal vendetta against Sunday Dare after the Sports Minister conveyed the orders of the President Muhammadu Buhari for a fairer  representation in the NFF Congress and that Elections be conducted not later than the terminal date in September.

That vendetta led to The Punch editorial, which was initiated by Pinnick and which demanded for the sack of the Sports Minister for incompetence.

The 2022 WAFCON in Morocco was again proof of how Pinnick has turned the NFF into his personal estate – from flying down his family in style as well as other friends to getting a dozen FA Chairmen to be part of the jamboree on the ticket of the NFF.

This explains why despite huge Government investment and claims by Pinnick that the NFF are on course for financial independence, the football federation’s finances remain in tatters.

At this juncture, we call on the anti-corruption agency ICPC to without further delay charge Pinnick and other top officials to court for alleged corruption.

They have a case to answer and ICPC must in the national interest do the needful.

Under Pinnick, Nigeria Football is dead.

The Super Eagles failed to qualify to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar.

This was after the Eagles failed to qualify to two AFCONs back-to-back.

Now this proud footballing nation has had to lament the disaster that has befallen the Falcons in Morocco.

The Nigeria Professional Football League (NPFL) is only professional by name amid hooliganism, dearth of sponsors, allegations of match-fixing and biased governance by the LMC.

Nigeria has now been reduced to celebrating sub-regional exploits because the country’s teams are no longer competitive at higher levels.

 It can only get worse with Pinnick at the helm of the NFF.