Cynthia Ezegwu
Former Minister of Youth and Sports, Solomon Dalung, has attributed Nigeria’s failure to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup to entrenched corruption, impunity, and systemic hypocrisy within the nation’s football administration.
The former minister’s comments came on Monday in Abuja, following the Super Eagles’ loss to the Democratic Republic of Congo Leopards on Sunday. Nigeria was eliminated in a sudden-death penalty shootout in Rabat, ending its hopes of advancing to the Intercontinental Playoff.
Dalung, who served as Minister from November 2015, said the challenges undermining Nigerian football date back decades and remain unresolved due to vested interests. He recounted experiences from as far back as 2002, when he was part of the Federal Government delegation to the African Cup of Nations in Mali, noting disputes over players’ bonuses and unaccounted delegation allowances.
He revealed that systemic corruption in football often rewards failure, as administrators benefit financially when teams exit tournaments early, due to unspent budget funds rarely being audited. Dalung said his attempts to demand accountability during his tenure were often mischaracterised as ministerial interference, with some officials petitioning FIFA to block reforms.
The former minister explained that he later constituted a technical committee led by Col. Abdulmumuni, comprising former NFA chairmen, secretaries, ex-internationals, coaches, private sector representatives, and government officials. The committee identified corruption, unpaid allowances, nepotism, impunity, and lack of transparency as the key obstacles to football development in Nigeria.
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“One major recommendation was for Nigeria to voluntarily withdraw from global football for six months and request FIFA to set up a normalisation committee to overhaul governance and restore sanity,” Dalung said. He added that although the ministry accepted the proposal and communicated it to the President and FIFA, the reform process was derailed when President Muhammadu Buhari fell ill and the presidency unilaterally disowned the ministry’s report.
Dalung described the decision as a “significant victory for corruption and impunity” and stressed that Nigeria’s repeated failure to qualify for the FIFA World Cup since 2018 is a direct result of long-standing administrative decay.
He concluded that only bold reforms, political will, and genuine accountability can rescue Nigerian football from the persistent challenges of corruption, indecision, and impunity.