By Victor Kanayo
Outgoing President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick, has claimed that some influential Nigerians have advised him to contest for a third term.
Amaju Pinnick has been the NFF President for two tenures in eight years, and he has now hinted at reigning four more years.
The 51-year-old who is a member of the FIFA Council representing Anglophone countries as well as a member of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) Executive Committee, on Monday told the People Sport in Nairobi of his third term ambition.
“I had initially decided not to vie, but I have been receiving several calls from very influential Nigerians as well as genuine lovers of the sport urging me to seek another term. It is within the law and I will decide about it when the right time comes.
“I’m yet to talk to my family and my business associates though, but there are voices wanting me to continue,” he told a local media platform in Nairobi, Kenya.
Pinnick who took over the leadership of Nigeria football from Amimu Maigari in 2014, is the only person to have served the federation for more than a single term and is currently serving the final days of his second term.
In Nigeria, many football stakeholders are of the view that his eight-year as NFF President has dragged football in the country backwards.
Under him, the country’s senior national team commonly known as Super Eagles failed to qualify for the 2022 World Cup scheduled for Qatar.
Also, domestic football development has suffered profusely.
However, a Congress where eligible stakeholders will elect a new NFF President and board executive members is slated for September, 2022.
That will ofcourse happen after an earlier extraordinary Congress later in August.
Yenagoa, Bayelsa State capital, South-south Nigeria has been tentatively fixed for the gathering expected to draw up guidelines for the upcoming election.
