Nigerian President Persuaded by Facebook to Reverse Football Team Ban

Facebook’s reach is universal and, while there are still some countries where the site doesn’t dominate, it’s safe to say that it’s a global phenomenon. So the fact that Nigerian president was persuaded in reversing the ban on the country’s football team by his Facebook followers shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Following a poor World Cup campaign, the president had made the decision to ban the team for two years but was persuaded not to do so by the thousands of comments on his Facebook Page.

“I read your comments and took them into account in the government's decision to rescind the suspension of Nigeria from International Football,” he said on his Facebook page.

“To Suleiman Musa, Nwanze Francis Uchenna and Ifade Udunayo Peter and the hundreds of Nigerians who appealed to me on this page, I have listened to your voices and those of others and we must now work together to make sure that the NFF and our players do us proud in future events,” he added.

The president had taken a rather controversial decision recently. Under FIFA’s rules, governments are not supposed to be involved directly in how the teams organize. Yet, disappointed by the team’s performance at this year’s Word Cup in South Africa, the president wanted to ban the team from all international matches for two years.

FIFA had issued a deadline for Monday to overturn the decision, but the president only relented after appeals from Nigerians on his Facebook page and after the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) promised to undergo a complete overhaul.

What’s interesting is that he has created his Facebook Page just a few days ago and the move has proved tremendously popular. He already has more than 77,000 Facebook followers and thousands of comments for each of his entries. What’s more, he seems to be genuinely invested in it and takes the time to engage with his followers.