President of the Nigeria Football Federation Amaju Pinnick may have bowed to the pressure to drop his third term ambition as he announced on Monday that he will not offer himself up for reelection at the next NFF polls.
The NFF boss who became the first Nigerian to successfully run for two terms, in an interview on Arise TV on Monday, publicly declared he would not run for the post again, pledging to work with whoever emerges as president.
“Third term, no, no. I am fine and I’m telling you that as there are so many Nigerians that are capable to run the Nigerian football.
“I will assist and work with whoever emerges as the new Nigeria Football Federation President and that’s my promise. I’ll intervene but never interfere,” Pinnick replied when put on the spot on whether he would seek to continue in office.
The rumour of his third term bid gained more traction at the weekend when he told a news outlet in Nairobi, Kenya, that influential Nigerians were mounting pressure on him to contest for the third term.
The statement from the NFF boss was a complete departure from his earlier remarks in March, shortly after the Super Eagles failed to pick the World Cup ticket when said he had decided to listen to the advice of his family who want him to quit the job.
The FIFA Council member told a Kenyan newspaper on the sidelines of the CAF General Assembly, that, “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.”
Meanwhile, more facts have emerged on why the former Chairman of the Delta State Sports Commission decided to abandon his third term bid.
Sources in the federation reliably told our correspondent that Pinnick’s efforts to get three state Governors and an influential monarch to support his bid met a brick wall.
“He had approached them to speak to the powers that be in the Presidency on the need to endorse his third term agenda but all of them pointedly told him the mood in the country supports the idea of having a new person running the affairs of football in the country. One of them even told him he was constrained by the fact that Pinnick himself had said he would not run and it is a moral burden for him to advance another course that is against the earlier position. Since he found out he has lost the full grip of the NFF Congress and he didn’t get the endorsement of the powerful people, he decided to throw in the towel,” the source said.
