Nigeria Football Federation president Amaju Pinnick says he is still garnering support for a possible run at the Presidency of the Confederation of African Football but maintains he is neither desperate nor “emphatic about whether I will contest for the presidency or not”.
CAF has fixed the Elective General Assembly where elections will be held into the presidency of the body for 12 March 2021 in Rabat, Morocco.
Candidates interested in the top job have between 11 September – 12 November 2020 to complete the process of registering their candidacy and approved candidates will be announced on 11 January 2021.
NFF supremo, Pinnick, has never hidden his ambition to become CAF president and has long been widely tipped to enter the ring for the presidential elections.
That would mean taking on incumbent and former ally Ahmad Ahmad whose emergence as president in 2017 owed a lot to a continent-wide coalition spearheaded by Pinnick which ended the hegemonic decades-long rule of Cameroonian Issa Hayatou.
The relationship between both men has since soured and Ahmad declined to renew the Nigerian’s tenure as CAF’s 1st Vice President on its expiration in July 2019.
However, while Ahmad has already declared his intention to run for a second term, neither Pinnick nor any other African football figure has committed to running.
The NFF president has previously said a tilt at CAF’s top job is “very possible” but speaking in Lagos at an event to unveil the logo and ambassadors for the National Principals’ Cup, Pinnick said he is weighing his options and “still consulting” before committing himself to the contest.
While stressing that any decision he arrives at won’t be out of “desperation”, Pinnick acknowledged his CAF ambitions hinges on securing backing from a broad spectrum of interests which he says he is in the process of courting.
“I’m still consulting. You know the president of CAF is not a cup of tea,” Pinnick told busybuddiesng.com.
“So, first, you have to ask God for direction, you have to ask your wife, your wife is the boss. If she says no, it’s no.
“Then you have to ask your children, that’s the immediate family, then you go to the extended family which is the football family. The Executive Committee, the Congress, the critical stakeholders.
“After you’ve gotten the endorsement you have to go to the ministry, you have to go to the Presidency, then you have to go to the zone, get their endorsement. You have to talk to other critical stakeholders.
“Then you have to talk to your friends possibly in Zurich, then you look at it, and all those things.”
While he hopes he’ll be able to secure the required backing in his quest to become the first Nigerian president of CAF, Pinnick revealed a backup plan if his ambition doesn’t work out.
“So, if it works out, fine, if it doesn’t, maybe I’ll just find myself in the FIFA council.
“We are looking at all the various options but we are not doing it out of desperation, but you will see things unfold, but I’m not emphatic about whether I will contest for the presidency or not.”
