A former chairman of the Gombe State Football Association, Alhaji Ahmed Shuaibu Gara Gombe, has appealed to interested persons eyeing the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) presidency in the election expected to hold later in the year to exercise restraint.
Though about five aspirants comprising one administrator and former Nigeria internationals have so far indicated interest in the NFF top job, Gara Gombe considers their action as hasty.
“I think it is rather too early for such declaration to be made by any one yet,” counselled Gombe, the Special Adviser on Sports Development to former Kano State governor Engineer Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. “There is the issue of statute that has not been sorted while the NFF Congress would still have to seat and draw out the electoral guidelines as well as announce the election date.
Whatever any one is doing at this time with regard to the election is hasty and it cannot amount to anything tangible at least for now,” the astute football administrator also said.
Gara Gombe has at different times been two-time chairman of Gombe United Football Club, member of Gombe State Sports Council Board, Secretary General of Nigeria Football Stakeholders Forum and is the youngest Match Commissioner ever in the history of Nigeria football after commissioning his first match aged 28 years in Ibadan.
Meanwhile, Gombe is reportedly being urged by Nigeria football stakeholders at home and in the Diaspora including politicians, civil servants, diplomats and key figures in Corporate Nigeria ,to declare interest in the NFF job.
Having assessed that the major challenges bedevilling the country’s football over the years, many said a credible administrator such as Gombe who is fearless, courageous, passionate and sincere is required at the helm of the NFF.