Cold War looms in NFF, Gusau, Fresh, Anyansi’s supporters set for showdown
By Abdulgafar Oladimeji
The last may have not been heard on the squabbles that heralded the election of Ibrahim Gusau as the incumbent president of the Nigeria Football Federation. NFF.
There are clear indications pointing to the possible outbreak of major crisis between major camps that contended to poach the leadership of Nigeria’s football governing body.
The contending camps in the looming crisis are drawn from three interest groups namely those for the incumbent, Ibrahim Gusau, foot soldiers of the chairman of chairmen, Ahmed Yusuf Fresh and those of the Vice president of the federation ,Felix Anyansi Agwu.
The Gusau camp have continue to ensure that those assumed to be loyal to the duo opposing camps are deprived from been assigned prominence in assignments relating to the running of the affairs of the federation.
In the aftermath of the NFF elections on 30th September, 2022 in Edo state, NFF boss, Ibrahim Gusau is now been accused of the alleged adoption of the winners take it all method of governance.
Our checks reveal that , sympathizers to Ahmed Fresh and Anyansi Agwu are brewing with dissatisfaction over how the Gusau led federation and his cohorts have continued to shelve their principals from the centre of administrative gravity at the football house in FCT Abuja.
Though harboring a contrast view , members in the Gusau camp have not hidden their disdain for the role played by the once almighty Fresh and veteran football technocrat Felix Anyansi Agwu, Gusau cabal as they are fondly called have continued to openly defend and attempt to justify their alleged actions by saying those who did not partake in preparing the meals could not be allowed to sit at the dinner table nor allowed to have not even a taste or a ration of the delicacy .
They argued that you cannot eat your cake and have it “ it is our time” . A member of the pro Gusau camp opine.
An insider in one of the camps, who confided in our correspondent said “ it is a matter of time, before the bubble will burst, a close look at the situation, it is very clear that the Gusau camp are not ready to heal the wounds caused by the election in Benin.”
An impeccable source, when contacted by our correspondent confirmed that there is a cold war ongoing between the composers of the pre NFF election factional alignments within the federation.
The source said “ we are all aware of what is happening except we want to pretend that all is well, ever since Gusau became NFF president, Ahmed as the chairman of chairmen has been relegated to the background, Anyansi is no where near the running of affairs in the federation, Gusau boys are now in charge.”
NFF officials would no speak, in their official capacity for the fear of reprisals, a close ally of the NFF president speaking on the matter said “ there is no standing instruction from Gusau that anybody should be victimized, but, during the election those you are talking about did not support Gusau, they fought against our interest and it is natural that , it will take time for the wounds to heal.
“I don’t know what you expect, do you expect that after the elections, we should just hand over the federation to them, who worked against us we need to consolidate , you can not handover your destiny to those on the divide. For now, we did not keep Fresh and Anyansi in the cooler, like some people are thinking , Gusau is not a rookie, so do don’t be surprise if he is seen every where dominating the whole space, he knows the terrain that is why those people you are talking about cannot outshine him, like they did to some others, in power before him.” Our source stated.
All efforts to reach the parties to comment on the matter proved futile.
The president, Nigeria Football Federation, NFF, Ibrahim Gusau did not respond to messages sent by our correspondent to his known mobile phone number.
The chairman of chairmen, Ahmed Yusuf, popularly known as Fresh likewise did not reply to messages sent to his known whatsapp number.