The Sports Minister Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi has lamented Nigeria’s absence at the ongoing 2012 Africa Cup of Nations holding in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The minister expressed his feeling in Lagos at the opening session of stakeholders meeting he called in a bid to end the several fights in Nigeria football administration.

He said, “In recent years we were just debating whether it was okay to even appreciate the bronze and silver medals we were winning but it is a pathetic situation now. As a layman who watches football, it pains me that of the 67 million youth in Nigeria, we could not raise a formidable 11 that could represent the country in Gabon. It’s quite tragic.”

Abdullahi told the gathering of most of past and present managers of the game in Nigeria that the problems bedevilling football in the country was a creation of some of those gathered in the hall just as some of those in the meeting have genuinely contributed to the progress of the game.

“I don’t have the solution to the problem in the system and that is why I have called this meeting but I want to do the right thing in the very short time I have to spend here. Some people here have helped and some have contributed but this is the time to make things right.

“My vision (and that of the President) is to see fresh, functional and accountable system. I have noted the matters concerning Nigerian law and the game and also the statutes governing the game. I state here that the solution to the problem will not come from the law or statutes because it is obviously political. But in all this I affirm my neutrality and commitment to do the right thing.”

A Federal High Court in Abuja last Friday declared that neither the Nigeria Football Federation nor Nigeria Premier League had any statutory recognition.



http://www.punchng.com/sports/gabon-2012-sports-minister-laments-nigerias-absence/