By Harrison Jalla
Abuja, March 27, 2024 In a deft political move prior to the Feb 25TH 2023 presidential election, Nigeria football legends as encapsulated in the above video identified and showed solidarity with the All Progressive Congress (APC). Presidential candidate now current president of the federal republic of Nigeria Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR).
This piece intends to x-ray that land mark visit in the political history of Nigeria being the first time Nigeria football legends as a group would publicly back a presidential Candidate.
What was the motive behind that visit and show of solidarity? Was it to support the presidential candidate at that time for a reward for political appointments to some of the legends in their area of specialization? This was certainly not the reason for the solidarity visit because few months later president Bola Ahmed Tinubu appointed in line with the legacy of his predecessors appointing ministers without sports background appointed a total stranger in Senator John Enoh as sports minister of the federal republic of Nigeria.
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a man of his words right from his days as Executive Governor of Lagos State. If the legends solidarity was based on the understanding for political appointments, the president would have fulfilled his part of that bargain a long time ago, to the benefit of footballers bloc and sports men and women in general.
So what could be the reason behind this solidarity? Or was it that the legends visit was for personal gain and they indeed got settled and moved on without looking at the bigger picture? I do not also agree with this view because majority of the legends are financially stable.
So what is the benefit of that solidarity? This question would remain a mirage until our football legends in Nigeria know who they are , the enormous influence they can wield and how best to apply it for the benefit of the footballers bloc and sportsmen and women in general.
Our legends can do better by becoming relevant in their primary constituency and the time is now.