Veteran administrator, Orok, commends NFA

07.05.2008

The first Nigerian member of the Executive Committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF), Mr Oyo Orok Oyo, last Saturday commended the efforts of the Nigeria Football Association (NFA) to make positive changes to the administration of the game in the country.

Oyo, who served CAF between 1974 and 1998, when he retired as honorary member of the CAF Executive at the African Cup of Nations finals in Burkina Faso, and was also member of FIFA Executive Committee, made this statement when receiving NFA chairman, Alhaji Sani Lulu Abdullahi, first vice chairman, Amanze Uchegbulam, Executive Committee members Chief Taiwo Ogunjobi and Dominic Iorfa, Secretary General Bolaji Ojo-Oba, the Cross River State FA boss and a host of other well–meaning football stakeholders, in his home in Calabar on Saturday evening.

“I have been following reports of the positive changes you have been making at the FA and I implore you to continue. You should never be afraid of doing the right thing or doing things right.

“Football has become a religion with many Nigerians and this means heavy burden on the neck of those who administer the game. There is great pressure, but I know you have been acquitting yourselves well and I pray that God will continue to guide you to taking the right decisions,” Oyo said.

The NFA chieftains had gone to pay homage to the grandfather of Nigerian football administration on the eve of Sunday’s African Nations Championship qualifier between Nigeria’s home-based Eagles and their counterparts from Burkina Faso, which Nigeria won 2-0.