The former secretary general of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) Ambassador Fanny Amun, has appealed to stakeholders in Nigeria’s sports industry to rally around the newly appointed chairman of the National Sports Commission (NSC), Mallam Shehu Dikko, to ensure a rapid sports development in the country.
Amun made the appeal in an interview with some sports journalists in Abuja yesterday, urging aggrieved stakeholders in the sports circle to sheathe their sword and join hands with the new NSC leadership for all round sports development.
According to him, since the announcement of Shehu Dikko as NSC chairman, the nation’s sports stakeholders have been praising president Bola Ahmed Tinubu for choosing one of them and saddled him with the responsibility of overseeing the country’s sports and wants all hands to be on deck to fashion a way forward to deal precisely with the differences and actors taking for the entire sports to benefit in the long run.
He particularly appealed to the Harrison Jalla-led group to change their narrative and support the move to restore Nigeria’s sports to its former glory.
Part of the group’s claims, he said, was that the NSC boss Shehu Dikko has a court case and is not qualified to be appointed the NSC boss.
“His appointment may not have been expected as a choice but the book keepers led by my very humble self can affirm that Mallam Shehu Dikko remain one of the best hands that was ready for the job and his choice has come to stay for the good of the game to turn things around at this auspicious time in the history of Nigeria sports.
“For how long can we fight this unending legal battle that has no end for close to two decades when it is the sports that has suffered the most till date. It will take courage to intervene pleading with the warring factions to shave their swords for peace to rain which l have commenced in the past weeks that the sports ministry was scrapped with the appointment of Mallam Shehu Dikko the new sheriff in the sports community as the Chairman National Sports commission.
“The attitude of walking away from people with claims that pulling others down in any fights that will never be resolved to as well regard them as poison should never be an option hence the office we occupy remains a public service and in harmony for peace to reign.
If the truth must be said some semi god within the sports circle has used government positions to trample on the rights of others to destroy structures that has existed and those are people with doubting character that some sycophants celebrate this day to circumvent the truth acting as godfathers in the sports community protecting their relevance till death even when the game was over,” Amun said.
Amun, however, advised the NSC leadership to focus more on grassroots sports such as YSFON, NUGA, NICEGA as a penance to the nation’s nosedive in sports.
