FG, stakeholders kick as NFF plots tenure extension

The plot by the current board of the Nigeria Football Federation to stay beyond September 2022 when its tenure will statutorily end is gaining traction as New Telegraph learnt that the executive committee had written to the world football governing body, FIFA, seeking approval for the extension of its tenure by at least one year.
The election for a new board is expected to take place in September to signify the end of the four-year tenure of the current board but rumours had surfaced that the Amaju Pinnick-led executive was planning to extend its tenure by shifting the poll till next year.
And to concretise the plot, our correspondent reliably learnt that the federation had sought the approval from FIFA for tenure elongation with excuses that there were many litigations against the board which had made the staging of the election in September almost difficult.
A source in the federation told our correspondent that the federation was still awaiting the green light from FIFA with Pinnick pulling his weight as a member of the Advisory Council of the world football body to see out the plan.
The NFF is standing on a pending case before Bayelsa High Court in 2021 that barred the federation from holding any congress.
A board member of Nembe City Football Club Seigha Obiene had sued the NFF for the alleged illegal composition of its board. He alleged that against the NFF statute, some persons who were not eligible to vote in the 2015 and 2018 NFF elections voted and are also illegally occupying their present positions as board members.
The court then stopped the federation from holding its congress. On January 10, 2022, the court advised the defendants to apply for an ‘out of court settlement’.
Neither an out-of-court settlement nor a move to vacate the court order has been pursued by the NFF, a development some claim is deliberate so as to extend the tenure of the present board.
“FIFA is currently considering the proposal by the NFF but no approval had been given as of this moment. The Federal Government has already insisted that the election must go ahead and will hope the board will accommodate all the stakeholders.
“All those who have gone to court have agreed to withdraw the cases but the federation is playing hide and seek and wouldn’t blame those who have said the plot is to make sure that the current executive is only trying to be in charge of the process during the next African Cup of Nations in June,” a source in the federation told our correspondent.