By Harry Awurumibe
Few days to the much-awaited Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) election into its Executive Board slated for September 30 in Benin City, frontrunner in the race for the President of the federation, Dr. Christian Emeruwa has concluded his nationwide consultations with critical stakeholders in Nigeria football with a meeting with South South Caucus yesterday.
Dr. Emeruwa’s meeting with South South Delegates on Saturday, September 24, 2022 at the posh
Top Rank Hotel, Asaba, Delta state capital was attended by
Comrade Roland Abu, Chairman, Edo Football Association and Mr. Greg Abang, acting Chairman of Cross River Football Association.
Also in attendance at the meeting are
Pastor Emmanuel Brown, Board member Akwa Ibom state FA and
Chief Kenneth Nwaomucha, Chairman of Delta FA, the host state while the duo of Chairmen of Rivers and Bayelsa states FA took excuse and did not attend in person.
Dr. Emeruwa who seems to be the only presidential candidate running for the exalted office has for the past 15 days been engaging the NFF Delegates to the Elective Congress in Benin City, just as he has held several media sessions with the sporting press.
Specifically, the astute football administrator and Founder/Head of Security and Safety Department of Confederation of Africa Football (CAF) who was the first person to indicate his interest in the NFF Presidency and the first aspirant to buy the form has held Consultative Meetings with NFF Zonal Delegates across the six geopolitical zones including yesterday’s South South Caucus meeting which held in Asaba.
The former Head of Integrity Unit of NFF has successfully held meetings with the North Central, North West and North East Caucus of NFF just as he also met with South East and South West NFF Delegates.
Worthy of mentioning is the facts that 95% of State Football Associations Chairmen attended the meetings where Dr. Emeruwa presented his strategic plans to create a viable football economy that will benefit Nigeria football stakeholders if voted into the office in Benin City.
Aside holding meetings with FA Chairmen, the most visible candidate out of the 11 cleared by the NFF Electoral Committee first met with the vibrant Nigerian sporting press when he hosted the Sports Editors at Sheraton Hotels Ikeja in Lagos where he laid bare his plans to overhaul the entire gamut of Nigeria football administration and organisation of the various leagues.
Also, Dr. Emeruwa has held strategic meetings with other critical stakeholders in football as he has extracted commitments from the multinational oil company TotalEnergies Plc after paying a courtesy visit to the. Managing Director Dr. Samba Seye in Lagos.
The energetic presidential candidate has also become a toast of the media as he has made several appearances on national and international television stations, radio and newspapers houses to sell his plans to create a viable football economy that will benefit stakeholders if voted into the office.
Meanwhile, Dr. Emeruwa on Thursday attended NFF Presidential Debate organised by the Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN) Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Chapter for the 11 persons cleared to contest for the September 30
presidential election.
Sadly, Dr. Emeruwa and current FCT Football Association, Chairman Mohammed Mouktar were the two contestants out of 11 who attended the debate which took place at Nigerian Union of Journalists (NUJ) FCT Secretariat at Utako, Abuja.
Nine other candidates for the NFF top post did not attend the debate, although details of why they
failed to show up could not be obtained as at the time of this report.