Segun Odegbami won the Africa Cup of Nations on home soil in 1980. Forty-six years later he is watching Nigerian football and calling it the worst period the country has ever been through. As the Super Eagles begin their 2027 Afcon qualifying campaign, the man they called Mathematical is not interested in softening the assessment.
"It has never been this bad in our entire history that we didn't qualify for the World Cup," the 74-year-old told BBC Sport Africa. In the past twelve months both the Super Eagles and the Super Falcons missed out on their respective World Cups. That had never happened before.
The failures go well beyond the senior teams
Odegbami's argument is that the national teams are the symptom rather than the disease. Age-group sides have underperformed, Nigerian clubs have struggled in African competition, and the domestic league is not generating money. The Under-20 women reaching a World Cup quarter-final is close to the only bright spot he can point at.
"Our girls, who were African champions, failed to win a competition that was just there for their taking," he said, referring to the 2025 Women's Afcon. "All our junior teams are not doing well. Our local league is not bringing in money. Something is definitely wrong."
A federation that emptied out
The pressure has already removed most of the people in charge. Nigeria Football Federation president Ibrahim Gusau, general secretary Mohammed Sanusi and several executive committee members all resigned last month. Emmanuel Ikpeme is now interim general secretary with Ademola Olajire as his deputy, and the NFF elections that had been scheduled for 27 September have been suspended.
A joint Fifa and Caf delegation has been talking to the National Sports Commission about what the structure should look like next. President Bola Tinubu has publicly demanded reform to fix what he described as repeated failures.
"The outcry by Nigerians was total. Everybody wanted them out," Odegbami said. "Everything came together like a jigsaw puzzle and is working now for us to produce a blueprint that will cover every aspect of our football development."
Sports journalist Fisayo Dairo argues that swapping the names at the top achieves nothing on its own. "The reform should be the setting up of a proper framework and structure that our football can thrive on," he told BBC Sport Africa. "The corporate world has to be fully represented so that the administration is able to generate funds."
Stadiums that used to be the best in Africa
What visibly angers Odegbami most is the infrastructure. He listed the National Stadium in Surulere, which hosted the 1980 and 2000 Afcons, the old Liberty Stadium in Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello Stadium in Kaduna and UJ Esuene Stadium in Calabar. All have decayed.
"I weep when I think of the amount of damage they have done to Nigerian football," he said. "Whether it was wilful, whether it was ignorance, they did irreparable damage to what was Nigeria's heritage. Uyo is the best we have in Nigeria, but it is not half as good as what we had from the 1960s to the 90s."
The comparison stings more because of what neighbours are doing. Senegal hosts the Youth Olympic Games next month. South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia stage next year's men's Cricket World Cup. Kenya has the 2029 World Athletics Championship. Morocco co-hosts the 2030 World Cup with Spain and Portugal.
Odegbami's view is that no government since the mid-1990s has treated sport as a priority, and that the damage runs through every layer: grassroots, scouting, player development, academies, coaching methodology. "What is the philosophy of our football in the country? What is our culture, what is our style?"
The context: Segun Odegbami, 74, scored 23 goals in 47 Nigeria appearances and was named in the team of the tournament as Nigeria beat Algeria 3-0 to win Afcon 1980 in Lagos. Nigeria have also won the tournament in 1994 and 2013, finished runners-up in 2023 and third in 2019 and at this year's finals in Morocco. The Super Eagles failed to qualify for both the 2022 and 2026 World Cups. Afcon 2027 qualifying begins against Madagascar at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo on Friday at 16:00 GMT, followed by a trip to Guinea-Bissau on 29 September. Victor Osimhen is out of Eric Chelle's squad through injury.
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