Between Ahmad and Pinnick, insults too dreadful to bear

By Steve Alabi
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The leadership of football in Nigeria and at the continental level is unraveling faster than anticipated. The NFF President, Amaju Pinnick and his CAF counterpart, Ahmad of Madagascar, once chummy pals, have become estranged in recent times. Their relationship is now reportedly filled with intrigue and backstabbing. Both men are subject of inquest, one by a court of competent jurisdiction, the other by French crime-busting authorities and FIFA’s Ethics Committee.

The issues leading to inquest relate to corruption, poor leadership and inordinate ambition. While one accuses the other of overarching coup tendencies, both stand accused of leadership inadequacies and having fast fingers. Once united in ambition and by common interests, the duo’s hold on power is slipping. Their careers, from all indications, may nosedive in only a matter of months.

The main problem of Ahmad, who took charge of African football in March 2017, comes from two fronts, both centring on corruption. He is accused of receiving two sets of expenses, claiming to be in two different countries, for the same nine-day period during the 2018 World Cup.

Documents unearthed by investigators reveal that he claimed payments from CAF for work carried out between June 23 and July 1. Reports said the documents indicate he signed for daily allowances that stated that he was in Egypt during this period before later appending his signature to a document claiming he was in Russia at the same time.

The arrest of the CAF supremo in Paris by French authorities on corruption allegations last month led to FIFA appointing its Secretary General, Fatma Samoura from Senegal as General Delegate to oversee administrative reform in the governance of the continental body effective from August. This is an eternal stain on his reputation as the action is unprecedented in the 115-year history of FIFA, which has never had recourse before to help guide the administration of a confederation. Even though the Delegate is an African, many view this development as recolonization.

The result was the drawing of daggers with Ahmad suspecting that Pinnick was subverting him with a view to supplanting him. Last Thursday, after the Super Eagles’ campaign in the AFCON ended in a bronze winning anticlimax, Ahmad moved swiftly against his former ally. Some reports said Pinnick was removed, others said his term expired and Ahmad did not reappoint him.

Whether removed or not reappointed, the fact of the case is that Pinnick is no longer the First Vice President of CAF. By this, Pinnick can no longer succeed Ahmad in the event of such an opening. We can safely predict that eclipse has set in on the Ahmad era in CAF. It is difficult to see him surviving the inquest.

Even after Pinnick was sidelined, the rumours remained strong that he wanted to kick out Ahmad because he caused CAF to respond to Nigeria’s Special Presidential Investigative Panel’s inquiry into a NFF payment of $500,000 to the continental body in 2015. Daggers are drawn at home against Pinnick, not only on the allegations against him but also on his inexplicable lowering of the barometer of success for the Super Eagles.

How can anyone entrusted with Nigeria’s football destiny set a semi finals target for the Super Eagles in the AFCON, let alone a man who sacked a cup winning coach for “incompetence”? There is eternal wisdom in the assertion of Dan Agbese years back that, “Nations can forgive those who mess up their politics and the economy and even with human rights, but those who mess up with their right to conquer and dominate others on the soccer pitch cannot expect to be forgiven.”

The sound advice that one should situate ambitions within a realistic framework does not mean that you set targets of low esteem for your team. Algeria that eventually won looked beyond its recent failures to target cup triumph despite going through five coaches in only two years while Pinnick set a condescending lower rank for the Super Eagles, one of the five elite teams in the continent by the ranking of the last World Cup.

The sage remains blessed who uttered the immortal words that, “Far better is to dream mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though chequered by failure, than to take rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much because they live in the grey twilight that knows not victory or defeat.”

By lowering the standard of success for the Super Eagles, Pinnick has injured our national integrity. He further incensed the sensibilities of Nigerians by insisting that the chef he hired to cook this putrid and foul smelling menu will remain in position.

Even though we hear that he is actually stuck with Gernot Rohr on account of outstanding wages, this excuse is unacceptable. Nigerians are not satisfied with Rohr. They are not satisfied with winning bronze. There is nothing golden about Rohr’s bronze. Under him, the Nigerian game has refused to evolve.

Pinnick has tied his destiny to a failed gaffer, and the repercussions must manifest. No one whose idea of continental success is a semi finals ticket for a great country like Nigeria deserves to remain in position. No one whose leadership leads to denigrating recolonization of the African continent deserves to remain in position. These are insults too dreadful to bear.