A former president of the Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Abdullahi Sani Lulu has endorsed Chief Amanze Uchegbulam for the position of the federation president.
Lulu further appealed to the voting delegates to resist the temptation of voting along religion and regional lines and elect the right person that has the experience and capacity to turn around the dwindling fortune of Nigeria’s football in the September 30 elections.
“Our football has witnessed ups and downs and what we need right now is someone with an in-depth knowledge of football politics and administration across the African continent to restore our glory of football.
“When I became NFF president in 2006, one of my cardinal objectives was to ensure that I develop football from the grassroots programme and through our project, we got the best players for all the national teams and qualified for all the FIFA organised competition, with Brazil being likely the only country with such a record. We were rated 9th among the football-playing nations in the world by FIFA.
“I didn’t achieve the feat alone, I worked with people like Chief Amanze Uchegbulam who was my first vice president and Taiwo Ogunjobi. I believe Uchegbulam has the experience and capacity to surpass the record if voted as president of NFF,” Lulu said.
The former FCT director of sports development denounced the agitation by some northern stakeholders, that the next president of NFF after Amaju Pinnick should come from the northern region since the outgoing president is from the south.
He said merit rather than sentiments should guide the delegates in deciding the next president of the NFF.
