Even If Nigeria Qualifies by Mistake, Ibrahim Gusau Still Needs to Step Down

If Nigeria doesn’t qualify — sorry, when Nigeria doesn’t qualify — for the World Cup, heads need to roll. People need to resign, and the first person that should heed the call is the NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, who has achieved nothing since he took office. Only the devil — sorry, God — knows how he won the election to lead the NFF after not achieving anything during his years as the head of the Zamfara FA.

I mean, this is someone who made our U-20s play like they hadn’t kicked a ball in their lives. We all know that Nigeria is on the verge of missing another World Cup, though permutations and calculations might still find a way to help us finish among the best second-placed teams. However, my point is that when the Super Eagles draw against Lesotho today, everybody’s eyes will clear.

But if the Eagles win their remaining matches with a very good goal difference — even if South Africa don’t drop points — Nigeria still has a chance to qualify. This is because, among the second-ranked teams, and due to Eritrea’s withdrawal from the qualifiers, Group E has only five teams. To balance this, CAF decided that the games against the bottom teams in each group would not count.

For this to favor Nigeria, we have to pray that Zimbabwe, who haven’t won any of their games, finish bottom. This is because we only managed two draws against Zimbabwe, which means we’d lose just two points. Meanwhile, other second-placed teams in different groups would be deducted more points because they won their matches against the bottom-placed teams.

However, if we want direct qualification, we have to pray that Zimbabwe beat South Africa, who are on 14 points after being docked three points for fielding an ineligible player against Lesotho.

Now, we need to win our game against Lesotho but also pray they don’t finish bottom. In fact, even if we qualify by mistake — maybe God wants to punish South Africa for something — Ibrahim Gusau still needs to step down, first for making me start learning Further Maths that I didn’t even do in secondary school.

What pains me most is the fact that he has the effrontery to be gunning for a second term despite his glaring failure.