Gabon 2012: Sports Minister laments Nigeria’s absence

The Sports Minister Mallam Bolaji Abdullahi has lamented Nigeria’s absence at the ongoing 2012 Africa Cup of Nations holding in Gabon and Equatorial Guinea. The minister expressed his feeling in Lagos at the opening session of stakeholders meeting he called in a bid to end the several fights in Nigeria football administration.
He said, “In recent years we were just debating whether it was okay to even appreciate the bronze and silver medals we were winning but it is a pathetic situation now. As a layman who watches football, it pains me that of the 67 million youth in Nigeria, we could not raise a formidable 11 that could represent the country in Gabon. It’s quite tragic.”
Abdullahi told the gathering of most of past and present managers of the game in Nigeria that the problems bedevilling football in the country was a creation of some of those gathered in the hall just as some of those in the meeting have genuinely contributed to the progress of the game.

Source: PUNCH