NFF Reform: State FA Elections Suspension Will Be Dead On Arrival

An online report had claimed that the Nigeria Football Federation has suspended elections into the 36 State Football Associations and Local Football Councils due to the ongoing transition at the Glass House.

http://Sportsnow.com.ng can authoritatively report that the move will be dead on arrival and the kite that is being attempted to fly will not fly.

The plan to stop grassroots polls has no backing in law and was initiated by an officer exercising powers he does not have even if he was the substantive General Secretary.

The letter that purportedly put the State elections on hold was signed by Dr Emmanuel Ikpeme as Acting General Secretary. Checks by http://Sportsnow.com.ng on the NFF Statutes amended on March 23, 2026, in Yenagoa show that the office of Acting General Secretary does not exist.

Under Article 45 of the new Statutes, there is only a General Secretary who must be appointed by the Executive Committee on the proposal of the President.

It was for this reason that members of the NFF Congress rejected Ikpeme’s appointment in that capacity, insisting that the Statutes make no provision for it. Even world football governing body FIFA, in its correspondence of September 7, 2026, signed by Chief Member Associations Officer Elkhan Mammadov, still addressed Ikpeme as Deputy General Secretary and only as primary point of contact.

Sources also confirmed to Sportsnow that Ikpeme was queried even before FIFA intervened for going beyond his powers. In his circular to the State FAs, he had declared that Congress does not exist, dissolved the Electoral Committee and stopped State and Local Council elections. That is illegal.

The March 2026 Statutes are clear. The role of the General Secretary in elections is only to provide logistic and operative support upon request from the Electoral Committees. He has no power to dissolve them.

Article 38 also states that even when more than 50 percent of the Executive Committee resigns, the Congress still exists and the General Secretary shall convene an Extraordinary Congress. Congress does not die because the board resigns.

The intervention of FIFA and CAF has also been misinterpreted. FIFA and CAF did not stop State FA elections. In their September 7 letter to Ikpeme, they only ordered the suspension of the NFF electoral process leading to the elective congress scheduled for September 27 in Lafia, Nasarawa State, to allow them assess the leadership crisis that followed the resignation of President Ibrahim Gusau, General Secretary Mohammed Sanusi and other board members. FIFA never said grassroots elections should stop.

In fact, FIFA needs legitimate State FA Chairmen to constitute a legitimate NFF Congress for any future election.

State FAs also do not need prompting from Abuja to organize their elections. Under the NFF and FIFA Statutes, they are autonomous members with their own Statutes, their own Congress and their own Electoral Committees. Their job is to organize their own polls when tenure expires while the NFF only supervises.

On record, the last general State FA elections were held in May and June 2023, which means the next general cycle is due in mid 2027. However, about 11 to 15 states are currently operating with expired, disputed or caretaker boards and urgently need fresh elections to produce legitimate delegates for the national body.

Those states are free to go ahead and conduct their elections in line with their own Statutes.

As a top member of Congress put it, you cannot kill the Congress to save the Secretariat