by The Ajasa News | February 5, 2019 9:24 pm
Minister of Youth and Sports Development, Barrister Solomon Dalung has unequivocally declared that he has forgiven President of the Nigeria Federation, Amaju Pinnick of whatever wrong he may have done to him.
Speaking with news men in Abuja, Dalung while explaining what informed the forgiveness of the man he had long had a running battle with said it is bore out of the fact that Pinnick begged for it.
“In Benin, the president of NFF ambushed me. And as I was just stepping out when the governor said we will do something unusual and I said what? He said can I allow him to bring in somebody and I said, who is he, he mentioned his name and I said in view of our relationship there is nothing that is impossible. So, the president came in and said if there was anything they have done which would have angered me they are asking for apology. I said yes, we are all human beings, yes to err is human and to forgive is divine.
“So, that basically took place and I told them they must respect my office as a minister, and they should open up the space to accommodate some other people. Crisis in football is not about leadership, it about narrowing of the space. A country of about one hundred and eighty million people and you are narrowing the space, you know there will be trouble,”
When asked if the Amaju Pinnick led board is now a legal body considering that he had been in the forefront of referring to them as an illegal body because of the Supreme Court ruling , Dalung said,
“There is nothing about recognition. I said election took place in view of an existing court order, so legality and illegality is a word you chose to apply.
Sometimes when people talk about the reconciliation with the NFF I seem to wonder. I am the minister of Youth and Sports in Nigeria and Nigeria football federation is a parastetal under my ministry I have the responsibility of over sight and ensuring that rules and regulations are complied with.
All I did was to raise an issue which they went public denying government funding and I said that wasn’t correct because it was putting Government in bad light. We actually funded every activities of football in Nigeria. All the matches played during the world cup were funded by the government. And we have about 1.26 billion Naira released to them during the world cup which they were unable to give us retirement. And that was misconstrued as if there was crisis, no, that cannot be crisis. I am just doing my job telling them to do what is right.
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