Sunday Dare, the honorable minister of youth and sports development, has given the newly elected Executive Committee of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) the responsibility of enhancing football at all levels throughout the nation.
When the NFF leadership paid him a polite call on Tuesday in his office at the Federal Secretariat in Abuja, Dare dropped this accusation.
According to the Minister, Nigerian football is a national treasure and a unifying force, and the Federal Government is keen in seeing it grow and develop through his Ministry.
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His words: “I am happy to see that you have settled down to work as a team.
“I thank you for this courtesy visit and want to urge you to get down to business quickly to the enormous task ahead of you.
“You have to move the game in the right direction, where all the genuine stakeholders want it to go.
You have to hold crucial and critical conversations before you take crucial decisions.
Let the interest of the nation be the first and most important consideration in all you do.”
“As a new board, this is a new beginning. You have to move things to a higher level.
If there are some areas of our football that are broken, then you must fix them and if some areas are unbroken, then don’t try to fix them.
“I urge you to improve all levels of our football, build strong national teams, well structured, efficiently run leagues by improving their governance structures.
“This new leadership must be aware and sensitive to the issues that will lead to the growth and development of our football and I promise that as a Ministry, we will continue to do our best to seek the right kind of funding for your programmes,” he added.
The Permanent Secretary, Alhaji Ismaila Abubakar, congratulated the new board in his remarks and gave them instructions to collaborate with the Ministry in creating the game.
Ibrahim Musa Gusau, the newly elected NFF President, thanked the Minister for his support and vowed to serve the needs of the nation alongside other board members.
Ahmed Yusuf Fresh, Rabiu Inuwa, Aisha Falode, Margaret Icheen, Rt.Hon Essien Udofot, and the General Secretary Dr. Mohammed Sanusi were also present as members of the new NFF leadership.