By Jude Opara, Abuja

More endorsements came the way of the president of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), Amaju Pinnick over the weekend with the chairman of Abia Warriors FC, Chief Emeka Inyama appealing to Nigerian football stakeholders to support Pinnick if he indicates interest for another term in office.

Pinnick

Chief Inyama told Sports Vanguard in an exclusive interview that it will benefit Nigerian football more for Pinnick who was just elected into the executive committee of the Confederation of African Football (CAF) to get another mandate which he said will help him to consolidate his position in the continental and global football politics.

The former member of the board of the NFF further argued that in reality one needs a good number of years to be in sports administration to be able to make any appreciable impact.

“To be honest with you, Pinnick has done well for himself and for Nigerian football. It was not easy to have raised the bar the way he did by taking Nigerian football to the continental and global consciousness. In the past it was dominated by the Portuguese, Spaniards and the French speaking people, but today the Anglophone countries have a say in world football.

“Four years may not be good enough to do what you need to do in football administration. So if Pinnick wants to run for a second term, he has my support because I believe that we should steady the adminstration of football in Nigeria. This practice of every four years we get a new leadership is not  good because sports administration is based on experience and you get that experience by staying over the years.

“In my opinion, Pinnick deserves another four years. I may have my personal issues with him but that will not stop me from saying the right thing. He should need another term to perfect on what he has started both in administration and development of football. He is a person close to the corporate world, he speaks and understands their language. If he is in CAF and FIFA, we should not dismantle him after four years. That is my view and opinion.”

He also argued that considering the opposition the NFF boss had to deal with even from home before the election, that he still got elected despite all the obstacles indicating that he is a go getter that should be encouraged.

Chief Inyama also called on all Nigerians to support the Super Eagles to win their next round of the 2018 FIFA world cup qualifier against current African champions, Cameroon insisting that the task should not be left for the NFF alone