Pinnick came, saw but didn’t conquer

On Wednesday, March 12, Nigeria had another sporting disappointment. This time, it wasn’t on the field of play but in the boardroom where a former Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president, Amaju Melvin Pinnick, failed to retain his FIFA Council seat, losing by a single vote at the poll that took place as part of the […]

On Wednesday, March 12, Nigeria had another sporting disappointment. This time, it wasn’t on the field of play but in the boardroom where a former Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) president, Amaju Melvin Pinnick, failed to retain his FIFA Council seat, losing by a single vote at the poll that took place as part of the 14th CAF Extraordinary Congress in Cairo, Egypt.

He scored 28 votes, only one short of two other opponents who secured their seats on the exalted Council with 29 votes. In fact, Pinnick, who was elected a member of the FIFA Executive Council in 2021 and served as CAF first vice president between 2018 and 2019 after he had done eight years as NFF president, was on the verge of history in Cairo because no Nigerian has served two terms as a member of the exalted FIFA Council. Unfortunately, he failed narrowly, maybe because he was overwhelmed by the political intrigues that played out.

Expectedly, the failure of Pinnick to retain his position in FIFA has drawn mixed reactions from Nigerian football stakeholders. While some feel that despite his shortcomings, he should have continued to represent the country and the continent in FIFA, others are of the view that what has happened is good for him.

Throughout his eight years as the president of the NFF, Pinnick wasn’t popular with Nigerian football stakeholders because of his leadership style. Although he eventually rose to the pinnacle of world football, most Nigerians didn’t see anything tangible he did for Nigerian football to justify his elevation.

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It is, for this same reason that today, not many people are willing to share in his present political mishap. While some are trying to console him, others are looking the other way because they don’t believe that his second term in FIFA would have made any difference for Nigerian football.

In all honesty, some of us admire the strong character of Mr Pinnick who broke down all barriers to achieve his ambition in football. Of course, getting to where he reached wasn’t a stroll in the park, but being a smart and dogged fighter, he was able to scale the heights to become one of the most influential figures in world football.

But when he presided over Nigerian football, it was mostly tales of woes as the little achievements made under him appeared like a drop of rain in an ocean. The impact wasn’t felt by Nigerian football and the situation became even worse when he joined international politics of the game.

Anyone who is still wondering why most Nigerians are unperturbed by Pinnick’s failure to retain his FIFA seat should take a look at some of the failures that Nigerian football recorded when he led the country’s football governing body from 2014 to 2022. 

In as much as I do not want to remind anyone of the sad memories, it is necessary to state here that it was during his time that the Super Eagles failed back-to-back to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON). Both the national U-23 men’s team and the Super Falcons failed to qualify for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. His parting gift was the failure of the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2022 World Cup.

Apart from on-the-field failures, Pinnick’s reign introduced ‘audio money.’ This means that Nigerians, on a daily basis, heard and read stories of multi-million-naira sponsorship deals with reputable corporate organisations, but the NFF was constantly running to the federal government cap in hand for sponsorship to attend international competitions.

In addition, he always said the NFF was 99.9 per cent financially independent, but coaches and players of the national teams were owed salaries and allowances. In addition, clubs that won NFF organised competitions received ‘audio money’ as they fought in vain to claim their prize monies.

In all honesty, Pinnick failed to give back to Nigerian football, which served as a stepping stone for him. One is not saying that before he delved into football administration, the Delta State-born football administrator was a poor man, but no one can deny the fact that football has made him richer, more popular and more powerful.

Unfortunately, instead of investing in the game, Pinnick has opted to invest his money in other business ventures. He is the owner of multi-billion naira Brownhill Farms, located somewhere in Oyo State. In a viral video that surfaced on the social media in 2023, Pinnick proudly advertised the farm, which he said had the potential to support the economic growth of the country. He was talking about agriculture and not football, where many believe he had acquired his fame and riches.

Furthermore, while some Nigerian football stakeholders are spending their hard earned money to sponsor clubs in the NPFL, Pinnick has nothing to do with such endeavours. It is doubtful if he owns a football club or an academy. Remo Stars, owned by a business mogul, Kunle Soname, have one of the best stadiums in Africa. I doubt if Pinnick is thinking of a similar thing.

In view of the above, most stakeholders have lost confidence in his ability to serve the interest of Nigerian football. Therefore, even when he announced his intention to run for a second term as FIFA executive member, only few people showed solidarity with him. Most of the people concluded that if in the end he won, good for him, but if he didn’t, life would go on. Eventually, Pinnick missed the target narrowly, leaving his supporters in agony.

As we reflect on his failure, it may not be wrong to say that he came, saw but didn’t conquer because in spite of all the opportunities he had, he didn’t do much to lift Nigerian football out of the doldrums. He did his best, but it wasn’t good enough. Therefore, some people believe that he left Nigerian football worse than he met it.

How he performed as NFF president, member of CAF and FIFA Council is well documented. Therefore, other football administrators should learn from some of his mistakes in order to make better decisions in the future. Nobody needs a seer to know that the present president of the NFF, Alhaji Ibrahim Gusau, may attempt to follow in Pinnick’s footsteps. If so, he should be the first to avoid some of the costly mistakes of his predecessor.