Former Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) Vice-President Amanze Uchegbulam has reignited debate over the roots of Nigeria’s football governance crisis, blaming the Presidential Task Force established during the Goodluck Jonathan administration for what he described as the beginning of the instability that has persisted in the country’s football administration.

Uchegbulam, in a strongly worded statement, traced the current crisis to the events surrounding Nigeria’s qualification for the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa and the subsequent removal of the Sani Lulu-led NFF administration.

He specifically accused the Presidential Task Force, which he said was headed by then Rivers State Governor Rotimi Amaechi and involved former Sports Minister Ibrahim Bio and former National Sports Commission Director-General Patrick Ekeji, of interfering in the affairs of the football federation.

According to Uchegbulam, the NFF under Lulu had developed a relatively stable structure before the intervention of the task force.

He recalled that the federation resisted pressure to replace indigenous coach Shuaibu Amodu with a foreign technical adviser during the 2010 World Cup qualifying campaign, eventually securing Nigeria’s qualification for the tournament.

“Somehow, we supported our local coach, Amodu Shuaibu, to qualify for South Africa 2010, which surprised the nation,” Uchegbulam said, while acknowledging the contribution of the late Chief Oyuki Ogunjobi and others.

He alleged, however, that pressure subsequently mounted for Amodu to be replaced ahead of the World Cup, claiming that the NFF Board was informed that the appointment of Swedish coach Lars Lagerbäck was a presidential directive.

Nigeria eventually crashed out in the group stage of the 2010 World Cup, after which, Uchegbulam alleged, efforts intensified to remove Lulu from office.

The former NFF vice-president claimed he was personally approached to support an impeachment move against Lulu and take over the leadership of the federation, but rejected the proposal because, in his assessment, the NFF president had committed no offence warranting impeachment.

“I flatly refused, that Sani Lulu had committed no offence to warrant his impeachment,” he stated.

Uchegbulam further alleged that other officials later persuaded Aminu Maigari to support the move, which ultimately paved the way for a change in the federation’s leadership.

He also mounted a strong defence of Lulu’s record, claiming that the administration secured Nigeria’s qualification for nine FIFA World Cups across different age-grade men’s and women’s competitions, including beach soccer.

Uchegbulam also cited what he described as an improved financial position under Lulu, claiming that the administration inherited about N300 million in debt from the Ibrahim Galadima-led federation in 2006 but had cleared the debt and built up approximately N2.7 billion in the NFF account by 2010.

He alleged that the federation’s financial position attracted the attention of anti-corruption authorities and claimed that corruption allegations were subsequently used as part of the campaign against the Lulu administration.

The allegations are particularly significant because Uchegbulam himself was among former NFF officials prosecuted over the handling of funds released for the 2010 World Cup. In 2016, a Federal High Court in Abuja ruled that he, Lulu and other former federation officials should face trial over allegations involving more than N1.5 billion. Uchegbulam’s current account, however, presents the political intervention surrounding Lulu’s removal as the critical turning point in the federation’s subsequent troubles. 

Uchegbulam argued that Lulu’s removal created a leadership vacuum and set Nigerian football on a path of recurring administrative instability.

“Since after Maigari, an offshoot of Lulu administration, we have been unable to get it right in our selection of people to run the NFF and hence this hullabaloo in the Federation which we are still battling with,” he said.

He linked the alleged governance failures to Nigeria’s subsequent inability to qualify for the 2018, 2022 and 2026 FIFA World Cups.

Uchegbulam therefore called for a critical examination of the circumstances surrounding Lulu’s removal and the role of government in the establishment of the Presidential Task Force as Nigeria searches for a lasting solution to its football crisis.

“Blame Amaechi’s PTF with Ekeji and Bio for the removal of Lulu for this confusion in our football today,” he declared.

His intervention comes at a critical moment for Nigerian football, with the country once again confronting questions about the structure, leadership and governance of the NFF.

The claims are likely to add another dimension to the ongoing debate over football reform, particularly the longstanding tension between government involvement and the principle of football-governing-body autonomy.

As Nigeria considers a comprehensive reset of its football administration, Uchegbulam’s account has reopened an old question: whether the recurring crises in Nigerian football are isolated leadership failures or symptoms of a deeper governance problem that has remained unresolved for more than a decade.