Director General of the National Sports Commission, Honourable Bukola Olopade, has hailed the resilient spirit of former NFF President, Amaju Pinnick, despite narrowly losing his FIFA Council seat at the CAF Extraordinary General Assembly in Cairo, Egypt on Wednesday.
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Pinnick who has been an active FIFA Council member since 2021 lost by a whisker, scoring 28 votes, only one short of both Ahmed Yahya of Mauritania and Souleman Hassan Waberi of Djibouti, who each scored 29 votes to make it to the highest governing body of football in the World.
The DG said Pinnick must be proud of himself despite the loss and his passion for the growth of the game is very evident for all to see while expressing confidence that the temporary setback will only propel him to greater heights in his already accomplished career.
” I am very proud of you, Amaju Melvin Pinnick. You fought to the very end as a strong man that you are. You had a stint in CAF and FIFA where you used your network to position so many Nigerians and did a good job for our country.
” I came to Egypt along with the Chairman of the NSC, Mallam Shehu Dikko as directed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to give you all the necessary support. And We saw first hand how the politics of only serving Chairmen of Federations should and must emerge, but despite this, you lost only narrowly by one vote.
” I am sure if the canceled paper was counted, just maybe we could have seen a three way 29 tie”.
” I want to say how proud you should be of yourself and how thankful you should be to President Bola Tinubu, the NSC Chairman, Mallam Shehu Dikko, the NFF President, Ibrahim Gusau, the General Secretary, Sanusi Muhammed, but above it all, you must count your blessings and say a huge thank you to God Almighty for all he has done for you all through your football career as an administrator and more he shall do for you”.
” My friend, my brother, and my Compatriot, I love you, and I am proud of you”, he concluded.
