Ajibade Blasts NFF Over Poor WAFCON Preparation as Super Falcons Head Into Tournament With Barely Two Friendlies Played

Eniola Olagunju 

Super Falcons captain Rasheedat Ajibade has had enough, and she is no longer keeping it to herself.

On April 9, the Real Madrid midfielder took to her Instagram story to publicly call out the Nigeria Football Federation over what she described as a disorganised and dangerously inadequate preparation for the 2026 Women's Africa Cup of Nations. Her frustration, shared in a series of posts, was not abstract. She put evidence behind it, a screenshot of what appeared to be an informal chat with an NFF official, through which she learned, without any formal communication, that the Super Falcons camp would open on April 11.

Not a letter, not an official announcement, rather a chat message.

Ajibade's grievance was straightforward. The April international window in women's football runs from April 7 to 18, and with WAFCON kicking off on July 26 in Morocco, every available window between now and then carries weight. Players needed to know when camp was opening. They needed confirmed friendlies on the calendar. They needed to feel, at the very minimum, that the federation understood what was at stake. None of that had been communicated.

"We are not just preparing for the Women's Africa Cup of Nations," she wrote. "We are also fighting for World Cup qualification. Our performance at WAFCON will determine whether we qualify for the World Cup. So why are we not preparing with the seriousness and intensity this demands? This is not something to take lightly, for God's sake."

She added, slipping into Pidgin in a way that shows are built up emotions: "Abeg, wetin be all this one? For how long?"

The frustration has been building. The Super Falcons have played just two matches in 2026, both friendly games against Cameroon in February, a 1-0 loss in the first and a 3-1 win in the second. A planned double-header against Cape Verde this April, which would have given the team two more competitive run-outs before the tournament, collapsed after the Blue Sharks pulled out. No replacement opponent was confirmed. The NFF, it appears, did not find one in time.

To put that in perspective, Nigeria will walk into WAFCON having played two matches all year. South Africa's Banyana Banyana have been playing regularly throughout the same period. Morocco, who host the tournament, have had the luxury of full-squad sessions on home soil. The preparation gap is real, and it is widening.

What made Ajibade's outburst particularly pointed was the contrast it exposed. Around the same time the Super Falcons were waiting for basic camp information, the NFF was busy announcing that the Super Eagles would feature in the Unity Cup, a four-nation exhibition tournament against Jamaica, Zimbabwe, and India at Charlton Athletic's ground in London, scheduled for late May. The announcement came with confirmed dates, confirmed opponents, and a confirmed venue.

The Super Falcons had not even received an official camp date.

Goalkeeper Chiamaka Nnadozie did not miss it either. Her response on Instagram carried the kind of dry, cutting sarcasm that suggests the frustration in the camp runs deeper than one player's social media posts.

The stakes behind all of this are too significant to treat as background noise. WAFCON 2026 is not just a continental championship. It is Africa's official qualifying tournament for the 2027 FIFA Women's World Cup in Brazil. The four semi-finalists earn automatic berths. Two more teams enter intercontinental play-offs. Miss the semi-finals, and Nigeria's World Cup chances disappear with it. This is the tournament the Super Falcons cannot afford to sleepwalk into and yet, by the account of their own captain, that is precisely what is happening.

Nigeria has won the Women's Africa Cup of Nations eleven times, more than any other country in the history of the competition. The current squad is not short on quality. Ajibade herself plays for Real Madrid. Nnadozie is at Brighton. These are professional athletes competing at the highest level of the club game in Europe. What they are asking for from the federation is not luxury, it is basic professional organisation.

This is also not the first time the Super Falcons have had to raise their voices to be heard. In the past, the team joined the global players' union FIFPRO in publicly pressing the NFF over unpaid salaries. The pattern of neglect is documented. What changes between one generation of players and the next is not the problem, it is only the names of those speaking out about it.

As of the time of this report, the NFF had not responded publicly to Ajibade's comments. WAFCON begins on July 26. The clock is running.