‎‎The Bible tells us that there is seed time and harvest time.  It also tells us that what you sow you must surely reap.

‎And one of Nigeria’s greatest reggae crooners, Majek Fashek put it in his popular song, ‘Send down the rain’ thus: “You don’t expect to sow cassava ‎and reap up cocoyam, you don’t expect to sow rice and reap up cassava’.

‎No man would be happy after sowing rightly and when it is harvest time, he doesn’t get full reward for his labour.

‎Was that not why when Jesus Christ who was hungry got to a fig tree and expecting to get fruits to eat, found nothing and cursed it?

‎So it is with man. When what you planted fails to yield any fruit, you are bound to be downcast and naturally would likely cut the tree down and plant another that could yield good fruits.

‎I have cited these examples to proffer what should happen to the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF board following the Super Eagles’ failure to qualify for two consecutive World Cups.

‎In 2022 when the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the World Cup in Qatar, Nigerians were so angry that the fans who watched the last qualifying match between the Super Eagles and the Black Stars of Ghana went berserk and destroyed seats at the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja.

‎They were angry because it was a match Super Eagles needed to win to qualify after holding the Black Stars to a barren draw in Accra a week earlier. They played a 1-1 draw and so Ghana qualified on the away goals rule.

‎The NFF board was then led by Amaju Pinnick with Ibrahim Gusau, the current president, as one of the board members.

‎When it was time in 2022 for the election to pick Pinnick’s successor, he ensured that Gusau, his anointed candidate, was voted for against his first vice president, Seyi Akinwunmi, who was the chairman of the Lagos state football association at the time to the chagrin of most football stakeholders.

‎Unfortunately since then the Gusau-led NFF has not inspired any hope among Nigerians to show that they are capable of taking the country’s football to the next level.

‎The game has continued to go downhill so much so that the junior national teams who once dominated the continent are now having difficulties qualifying for continental and world competitions.

‎Few victories have been recorded along the line, not because it was  deliberately planned and worked for but more or less because of the sheer determination of the players to succeed.

‎Players have told tales of poor planning towards competitions as well as poor welfare coupled with owed allowances and bonuses which often led to protests and boycott of training even during competitions.

‎The Gusau-led NFF board has towed the line of past boards which have proven to be competition driven rather than development driven as is the case with some other African countries, notably Senegal and Morocco whose football has shown evidence of great transition from the cadet through junior to senior levels in recent years.

‎The Gusau-led NFF board members are quick to point to the silver and bronze medals the Super Eagles won at the 2023 and 2025 AFCONs in Cote d’Ivoire and Morocco respectfully as well as the Super Falcons 10th WAFCON title achieved under their tenure.

‎They try as much as possible to conceal the fact that Nigerians are still angry that the Super Eagles are missing the World Cup for a consecutive time, more so in a year that Africa got 10 representatives.

‎Nigerians are pained because the country’s flag failed to be hoisted in a World Cup where a lesser endowed African country, Cape Verde with about 500,000 citizens qualified for.

‎The pain would even be more now following Cape Verde’s performance against almighty Argentina in the round of 32 match where they stretched Lionel Messi and his teammates to 120 minutes but lost by an own goal through their defender Diney Borges.

‎That is why after seeing countries which qualified for the World Cup but have either sacked their coaches or seen the administrators resign over the poor performance of their team, Nigerians are questioning the rationale behind the hunger by the Gusau-led NFF board for a second term.

‎One of the strong voices against the retention of the present NFF board is a former captain of the Super Eagles, John Obi Mikel who is vehement in his call for their sack if possible. ‎‎‎He described the failure of Nigeria to qualify two times consecutively as a ‘disaster’ and called for the resignation of the Gusau-led board..

‎The arrowhead of the ‘Gusau-must-go’ campaign is another big name in Nigeria’s football, Chief Segun Odegbami (MON) who has asked for the change in the statute of the NFF that has allowed a cabal to hold the country to ransom whenever the issue of reform in the sector is advocated.

‎He has threatened to use the court to halt the elections scheduled for this September, arguing that the current constitution unlawfully restricts voting power to state FA chairmen (who are mostly politicians)  instead of actual football stakeholders.

‎A Journalist and former Sports Editor of the Punch newspapers, Tana Ayejina added his voice and has asked what Gusau and his co-travellers still want to do in football after destroying it

‎”After destroying Nigerian football for over a decade, what else do they have to offer? To cause more damage?”, he asked.

‎The stand of most stakeholders now is that the country cannot afford to retain a non performing bunch of administrators.

‎They believe that the ‘Gusau-must-go’ campaign should be sustained until the proverbial fruitless fig tree is cut down.