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Analysis Feature Update

Pinnick Satanic Game Plan To Remain In Power Is Up And Running

The desperate bid to hang on to power by former NFF President Amaju Pinnick (PICTURED) and his cronies is behind the looming crisis that has already seen the NFF come in direct confrontation with the Federal Government of Nigeria over NFF Elections in Benin City on Friday.

Despite eight years as NFF President and the multiple corruption charges that hang over his head, like the Sword of Damocles, Pinnick is the one who is now taking on the might of the Federal Government for his selfish ambition after his third-term bid was kicked out of touch.  

In August at the Emergency Congress in Lagos, Pinnick and his main ally Shehu Dikko literally begged for an elongation of tenure for the NFF Executive Committee only for them to be rebuffed by a very hostile Congress.

It was the rudest assault on their bloated egos.

Pinnick went underground thereafter, but not before he planted a stooge to head the NFF Electoral Committee and he also unilaterally picked Benin City in a PDP-controlled Edo State as venue for the much-awaited Elections, after all other PDP States like Delta, Rivers and Akwa Ibom partnered with him in respect of the Super Eagles home games.

The former NFF President has always boasted he is “an integral member” of both the FIFA Council as well as the CAF Executive Committee and that the NFF Presidency, on which he launched his personal ambition for those international positions, was only a sideshow.

However, those who know the politics of international football will tell you the NFF Presidency is the real deal with a vote in a sharply divided FIFA Congress and those international positions are at best ceremonial.

 Ironically, Pinnick was the “Government candidate” for the NFF Presidency in 2014, again thanks to his close affinity to then PDP-controlled FGN of President Goodluck Jonathan and his wife Dame Jonathan.

In the 2018 Elections in Katsina, he was not “Government’s candidate”, but he outsmarted a confused Sports Minister Solomon Dalung to be re-elected for a second term.

Pinnick believes he can also do same to Dalung’s more urbane successor, Sunday Dare, who has been a lot more tactful and less of a rabble rouser.

As he junketed across the world on his Vanuatu passport these last few weeks, Pinnick was still very much in charge of the NFF through his lap dog and NFF General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi.

Both men have endured a love-hate relationship for the past seven years, but they both still need each other more than ever before.

These two men composed both the NFF Electoral Committee and NFF Election Appeals Committee in Pinnick’s house in Lagos hours after the Emergency Congress.

Some NFF Executives led by 1st Vice President Seyi Akinwunmi took exception to this, but both men got their way yet again.

Both Pinnick and Sanusi are desperate for Elections to take place on Friday because it will be on their own terms and the outcome will define their relevance to the Nigeria Football ecosystem.

A hostile NFF administration could compromise Pinnick’s jealously held FIFA and CAF posts, while Sanusi will most certainly lose his $10,000-a-month salary as NFF chief executive.

These men’s resolve is partly strengthened by how the Athletics Federation of Nigeria (AFN) and the Nigerian Basketball Federation (NBBF) battled the Sports Minister almost to a standstill before the might of Government eventually prevailed.

These power grabbers are further comforted by the fact that they have in their corner Almighty FIFA, not a dilly-dallying FIBA during the basketball crisis.  

But Dare has maintained there is first a country called Nigeria, before a football federation.

Who will win this Game for the heart and soul of Nigeria Football?

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