Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan on Monday bowed to pressure from FIFA and reversed his decision to suspend the country’s national football teams from taking part in international competitions for two years.
“The government has been gracious to lift the ban for the good of Nigerian football,” said Aminu Maigari, the newly-appointed president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF).
Maigari confirmed in Abuja that the government had rescinded its decision in the face of pressure from world football’s governing body.
The move came shortly before the expiry of a deadline imposed by FIFA, which had warned the Nigerian government that it would face sanctions if it did not lift the ban. Jonathan had announced the suspension on Wednesday in the wake of the national team’s poor performance at the World Cup in South Africa.
Nigeria was eliminated in the tournament’s group stage after picking up only one point from three games.
The NFF’s previous boss, Sani Lulu, was fired at the weekend.
Nigeria’s next international tournament is the FIFA Under-20 female World Cup, which kicks off next week in Germany.
