“Gusau Must Go” — Nigerians Demand NFF President’s Resignation After a Historically Bad Four Years
It’s rare for Nigerian football fans to agree on anything, but right now there’s near-unanimous frustration pointed at one man: NFF President Ibrahim Gusau. The calls for his resignation aren’t new, but they’ve reached a boiling point after what fans are calling one of the most disastrous stretches in the federation’s history.
The Scoreboard Nobody Wants To Talk About
Let’s lay out exactly what’s fueling this anger, because the list speaks for itself:
The Super Eagles will miss the 2026 FIFA World Cup after a heartbreaking penalty shootout defeat to DR Congo in the African qualifying playoffs marking Nigeria’s first consecutive World Cup absence since missing in 2006, 2022, and now 2026.
The Super Falcons’ 2-1 defeat to South Africa in a decisive play-off ended Nigeria’s enviable record of qualifying for every single edition of the Women’s World Cup since the tournament began in 1991meaning, for the first time ever, Nigeria will miss both the men’s and women’s World Cups at the same time.
The U17 side missed out on three consecutive World Cups, the Super Falcons endured their worst-ever WAFCON outing, and the U20 team failed to qualify for both the AFCON and the FIFA U20 World Cup a near-total collapse across every age grade and both senior national teams.
For a football-obsessed nation that expects its teams at every major tournament as a baseline, not an achievement, this stretch has been described by fans as nothing short of catastrophic.
The Voices Leading the Charge
This isn’t just angry tweets from anonymous accounts some serious football names have put their reputations behind the resignation calls. Former Super Eagles captain John Obi Mikel, who earned 89 caps and represented Nigeria at two World Cups, told talkSPORT bluntly: “The people running the FA, the president of the FA, the organisation people, they have to resign because African football is growing so much and we are being left behind.” He specifically pointed to Morocco as an example of a country moving forward while Nigeria “keeps going backwards time after time.”
Former NFF president Amaju Pinnick has also weighed in, arguing Nigeria had no business failing to qualify given that the expanded 48-team World Cup format opened up ten African qualification slots making the miss even harder to explain away.
Online, the anger has gotten sharper still. One fan wrote, “He should face jail time not just resign, very corrupt and incompetent NFF president,” while another called Gusau “grossly incompetent,” and a third posted, “If FIFA wants to ban Nigeria the time is Now Because Gusau Must Go.”
