NFF Election: Ogunjobi, Pinnick and Dikko in close race

One of the trio of administrators is in line to become president on September 30 when the Fifa-sanctioned electoral congress finally takes place.

As the race hots up to elect a new executive committee for the Nigeria Football Federation on September 30, Goal has tried to decipher where the race will swing to.

We have learnt that former NFF secretary general Taiwo Ogunjobi is leading the race to win the presidential position but he is closely challenged by Amaju Pinnick and Shehu Dikko.

The NFF election has been mired in crisis recently after a faction voted Chris Giwa as the president of the federation but Fifa has since brought sanity back after threatening twice to slam a ban on Nigeria’s football.

There has been a lot of politicking after Fifa reinstated sacked president Aminu Maigari and ordered him to midwife fresh elections that have now been tentatively fixed for later in the month.

The latest happenings show that Ogunjobi, who is a former chairman of the NFF Technical Committee, is enjoying a lot of goodwill among the 37 state football association chairmen who are delegates that will vote.

But Ogunjobi has two major hurdles to cross if he must fulfill his aspirations and the hurdles are two very strong candidates for the post in the persons of Amaju Pinnick who is the Delta State strong man in sports and Shehu Dikko who is also a strong upcoming football stakeholder.

One key hurdle that Ogunjobi will encounter is that he hails from the same South West region as the director general of the National Sports Commission, Gbenga Elegbeleye. Northern delegates are asking for a stake in the industry and this could work against Ogunjobi.

Goal gathered that Pinnick is strongly backed by the Sports ministry while other sources dispel this as rumour and name dropping. It is said that since the government backing of Chris Giwa has failed, the ministry has handed off and asked candidates to find a way of lobbying the NFF delegates to vote for them while promising to support whoever emerges as winner.

Another issue that would work against Pinnick’s candidacy is the regional card as he is from the same South South region as the sports minister Tammy Danagogo.

Dikko, a young technocrat and member of the League Management Company, has the support of the Northern delegates who want somebody from that region to still be in power.

It was also learnt that Maigari has endorsed Dikko who it was rumoured has the pedigree to lead Nigerian football to greater heights because of the football league organization knowledge he possesses.

But among the delegates who are mostly state football association chairmen, there is an agreement and consensus opinion that the next NFF president must come from the state FAs.

Since Dikko is not a state football association boss, it could be difficult for him to get the seat. This could make the way clearer for Ogunjobi or Pinnick to win the election.

But since elections are known for surprises and unless the unexpected happens, one of these three looks the man to beat for the NFF hot seat and he is even supported by major stakeholders in the sports reporting sector in Lagos and Abuja, Goal also learnt.