Gusau was elected in September 2022 and his resignation comes just 34 days to the end of his four-year term. The NFF president was seeking re-election at next month's election, but announced his departure at a news conference at the NFF headquarters in Abuja.
He pointed to the sustained public demand for the leadership to go, following the failures of both the Super Eagles and the Super Falcons to qualify for the FIFA World Cup, as major reasons for the decision, despite successes elsewhere. "Because of that, there was so much clamour from here and there," Gusau said. "We feel it is important to see that as Nigerians, nobody is greater than this country.
"And we all love our country and we all love the progress of our country and we need to look at yourselves and say what next.
"So we made consultations with family, friends and I decided to resign my position as president of the NFF and I advised my board members that everybody should also resign."
Gusau said he was leaving office with a sense of satisfaction over what his administration had been able to achieve during his tenure, pointing to the renewed and vigorous focus on coaching education, with coaching courses organized consistently in virtually all the license categories, culminating in the long-awaited CAF A-License course set to commence on September 13.
He also pointed to the improved stability in the domestic league calendar, progress in the refereeing sector and infrastructure in the form of a 68-room Players' Hostel and new training pitches at the MKO Abiola National Stadium, as well as silver and bronze medal finishes of the Super Eagles from the past two Africa Cup of Nations tournaments, and the Super Falcons' WAFCON triumph in Morocco in 2025.
Still, the immediate trigger for the demands for the leadership to resign was the Super Falcons' disastrous Women's Africa Cup of Nations campaign in Morocco last month.
Nigeria arrived at the tournament as defending champions and 10-time African champions but suffered their worst performance in WAFCON history, losing three of five matches and failing to reach the semifinals for the first time.
The Super Falcons still had a second opportunity to remain in World Cup qualifying through the WAFCON playoffs but lost 2-1 to South Africa four days later.
That defeat meant the Super Falcons will miss the Women's World Cup for the first time since the competition began in 1991. Nigeria had been one of only seven countries to appear at every edition of the tournament.
The twin failures sparked widespread demands for Gusau and the NFF leadership to resign, and came less than a year after the Super Eagles also failed to qualify for the 2026 men's World Cup.
It was Nigeria's second consecutive failure to qualify for the men's World Cup after also missing Qatar 2022.
The pressure on the NFF intensified after the Super Falcons' elimination, with the federation apologizing to the country's President Bola Tinubu and Nigerians following the quarterfinal defeat.
Gusau then established a six-member fact-finding committee headed by former NFF general secretary Fanny Amun to investigate what he described as the "direct and remote causes" of the recent failures of Nigeria's national teams, with particular attention to the Super Falcons.
The committee's findings ultimately went considerably further. In its four-page report submitted August 21, the panel identified administrative, technical, financial, organizational and developmental problems across Nigerian football, including concerns about the structure and composition of the NFF Congress.
The committee accused the Congress of resisting changes to the federation's statutes despite reform requests under three Nigerian presidents, saying amendments were needed to broaden representation and "liberate" the federation.
It recommended that Congress members be knowledgeable, credible and experienced and serve no more than two terms.
Amun also said Gusau had declined an invitation to appear before the committee.
The findings reinforced an argument the National Sports Commission had been making for months.
NSC chairman Shehu Dikko told delegates at the NFF's Extraordinary General Assembly in March that the federation needed to undertake wide-ranging governance reforms, including greater representation for players, clubs, leagues, referees, coaches and administrators.
"This Assembly must set aside any personal interest and or any immediate benefits, to initiate and drive a process of reform that is deliberate, inclusive, and aligned with both international standards and national realities," Dikko said in his address to the Congress.
"Football governance must now be designed not only to administer the game, but to grow its economic value as well as ensure its sustained competitiveness and success on the pitch."
He ended his address with a warning: "Let me state this clearly and without ambiguity: the system must correct itself. If it does not, the correction will be done for it."
The resignations potentially clear the way for the NSC, which supervises Nigerian sports, to begin implementing those reforms without directly removing the NFF's elected leadership and risking a confrontation with FIFA over third-party interference.
FIFA statutes require member associations to manage their affairs independently and without undue third-party influence, and Nigeria has previously faced the threat of suspension over government involvement in NFF affairs.
The voluntary departure of Gusau and the entire executive committee now provides a pathway toward establishing an interim management structure while the governance reforms are carried out.
Gusau said his resignation should help accelerate that process: "My resignation is intended to give way to a comprehensive and orderly reform process aimed at addressing the longstanding institutional, governance and developmental challenges confronting Nigerian football."
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