The Green Eagles legend warns that leadership change without statutory reforms will not fix the crisis in Nigerian football.
Olusegun Patrick Odegbami, Nigeria’s most versatile former Green Eagles player and captain, has declared that the country’s football struggles are “Not Yet Uhuru,” stressing that meaningful change must go beyond the resignation of NFF President Ibrahim Gusau and his board .
In a column by Patrick Omorodion, Odegbami, who has campaigned alone for open football administration for years, noted that the recent crisis erupted after the Super Eagles missed two consecutive World Cups and the Super Falcons failed to qualify for the 2027 World Cup for the first time since 1991 . While he acknowledges that the call for Gusau’s resignation is justified, he argued that it is not enough .
Odegbami took decisive action, writing to President Bola Tinubu to halt the NFF elections scheduled for September 27, 2026, arguing that it would be “pouring new wine into an old wine bottle” if the flawed NFF Statutes remain untouched . His appeal worked—the government directed security agencies to investigate NFF administrators over how they spent the N17 billion provided by the state .
The “Not Yet Uhuru” phrase, popularised by Kenyan nationalist Oginga Odinga in his 1967 autobiography, is used to express the fact that “a long-fought struggle or goal is incomplete, even if nominal independence or a milestone has been reached” . Omorodion had previously used the phrase to describe Nigeria’s broader sports decline, noting that while Nigeria dominated athletics in the past, countries like Jamaica have overtaken them, and football success at youth level has not translated to senior achievement .
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