Ahead of next month’s CAF Presidential elections, President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick has thrown his weight behind South Africa’s Patrick Motsepe for the position.
Motsepe will face a tough battle with fellow candidates such as Cote D’Ivoire’s Jacques Anoum‚ Senegal’s Augustin Senghor, and Mauritanian Ahmed Yahya for the seat.
Pinnick, who was instrumental in the successful victory of Ahmad Ahmad of Madagascar against incumbent Issa Hayatou in 2017.
Speaking with Sowetan Live, the former Delta State sports administrator stated that he’s confident Motsepe will claim
“The truth is you can see me in South Africa very regularly. I’m super excited because for the first time in football in the continent‚ Africa is about to get it right‚” Pinnick said, as per Sowetan Live.
“ … And that’s the excitement of everybody in Nigeria‚ and it’s the same excitement of everybody on the West African coast.
“So when you say you [Cosafa] are giving 14 votes – and I said this during Ahmad’s campaign where he got 35 votes – that by God’s grace we are looking at 40 votes [for Motsepe].
“I travel every day campaigning for my president [Motsepe]‚, and they say‚ ‘But you are not campaigning for yourself’. I say‚ ‘Let him get in there’.
“So I can assure you‚ between 35‚ 38 and 40 [votes].”
By Augustine Akhilomen
4 Comments
Apologies for this statement I will make as I am not trying to incite violence or deepen the already existing fracas between Nigeria and SA but how can Pinnick be supporting a South African Candidate against his West African counterparts whether french or not – Because considering the level of Xenophobic attacks meted out towards Nigerians in South Africa and considering our immense contribution, support and solidarity towards South Africa during Apartheid and the evil with which they paid us back we ought to have learned our lessons that we should never support anything that has to do with South African owned ideas or investment but I don’t know what is wrong with the people at our helms of affairs if I were Pinnick I would have rallied support for Senegal or even Ivory Coast where my citizen enjoys better freedom and safety of life and properties than SA where we are constantly envied and subjected to life threatening situations I don’t think Motsepe deserves any Nigerian support in anything they do anymore because they are proven ingrate and chameleons in human skin.
It’s not good to pass such comment when you don’t have credible source of your assertions. It’s true there’s Xenophobia in SA but how many Nigerians did you confirmed were killed during this attacks? Social media videos are highly misleading my brother. SA has been a prosperous 2nd home to Nigerians since their Independence and the relationship between the 2 super powers in Africa has been so robust and cordial irrespective of what you read on Social media. Cities of SA are filled with 9ja brothers, most Universities in SA are filled with 9ja Professors and postgraduate students, 9ja Doctors can be found in almost all hospitals in SA, not to forget your yahoo boys and Drug dealers all over the place. And many of these 9ja men are married to beautiful SA ladies. Now tell me where else in the whole Africa do you find so much Nigerian presence as much as you find in SA?
Surely Pinnick is right in his choice because he knows the calibre of Motsepe and his achievements in life and in football circles, he recognises excellence and integrity which he surely do not find in your Senegalese and Ivorian candidates, so lets support him to have a credible leader for once in CAF
@Sideen, we need to stop painting Nigerians as saints and South Africans as devils. Inasmuch as South Africans did not do well with foreigners, Nigerians seriously messed South Africa up. I saw it live and I will not deceive you because I am a Nigerian. The things Nigerians have done in South Africa, if any foreign nationality tried it in Nigeria regardless of how lawless our society is, we will behave worse that South Africans.
South Africans have their history and they are still bedeviled by their past. Even amongst South African tribes there is serious problems. It is not just about the foreigners. They have a lot of baggage they are still dealing with based on their past. Am I justifying Xenophobia based on their history? Capital NO. All I am saying is that we should also stop pretending as if we are saints, hiding under the umbrella of how much we helped them in the past. I know what I am saying, many Nigerians truly deserve most of the ill treatment they received from South Africans. If we start that debate its going to take a long time to conclude it. But like I said, I know what I am saying. I lived in South Africa for close to a decade.
And if South Africans do not deserve our support, would you have said the same thing if Pinnick declared his support for a Ghanaian? Because from where I am sitting, South Africans have not yet gone to destroy Nigerian embassy with a bulldozer at gun point. Almost ALL the countries of the world have issues against Nigerians because some bad eggs have destroyed our reputation. And they made things very difficult for the good ones. Its time to wake up and smell the coffee.
Why will he support those Francophone countries that have ganged up against Nigeria several times. These Francophone countries only have allegiance to France and nothing else. Look at how they messed up U17 and U20 qualifications so that Nigeria and Ghana will find it difficult to dominate again in Africa. All jealousy. I am happy that Pinnick is now playing Anglophone politics better.