Vice President Kashim Shettima’s engagement with Nigeria’s national team, Super Eagles of Nigeria, last Wednesday at the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) tournament spoke eloquently to the connection between leadership and the round leather game.
It also underscored the extent to which football has grown to become one of the most influential games and one with long-term sustainable growth and national integration- a sport that influences the social, economic, political and demographic aspects of a nation.
So, it was quite strategic that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has again sent a high-powered federal government delegation led by the Vice President to Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to stamp the President’s unalloyed support for the Super Eagles as they take on host, Cote d’Ivoire in the finals of the tournament.
At the instance of the president, the delegation was in that country last Wednesday where it motivated the team to advance to the final of the tournament after beating Bafana Bafana of South Africa 4-2 on penalties. On the entourage of VP Shettima, President Tinubu’s personal emissary, were Governors Dapo Abiodun of Ogun and Duoye Diri Bayelsa States; minister of Youth, Dr. Jamila Ibrahim; Wale Tinubu; former NFF president and FIFA Council member, Amaju Pinnick, and NFF President, Ibrahim Musa Gusau.