Honourable Yahaya Suleiman Kwande is a frontrunner to take over as the Nigeria Football Federation NFF president after declaring his intention to run for the position over the weekend.

The NFF elective congress has been scheduled to hold on September 30th in Benin City, the Edo State capital following the approval at the just concluded Annual General Assembly in Lagos State.

Posters seen on the social media over the weekend indicated that the Executive Board member of the current NFF board, Yahaya-Kwande, is preparing to declare his intentions to be the next NFF President.

Posters, produced by Plateau State Football stakeholders encouraging him to run for the position, were shared on various sporting WhatsApp groups detailing his desire to be the man to rescue the round lethal game in Nigeria.

The former chairman of Mighty Jet and the vice chairman of Plateau FA, who promised to run open governance which includes Equality, sustainable development for humanity, quality Welfare for players and staff, is among many contenders for the position declared vacant by the outgoing NFF president, Amaju Pinnick.

According to write-ups and roadmap on the poster, the former member of the House of Representatives is set to return the soccer glory of the nation back to its glorious day.

While he also looks forward towards making accountability, transparency and honesty his watchword, his plans is also to attract corporate sponsorship for the development of football in the country.

Hon. Kwande has held several positions in the country’s football house and has never been indicted for any form of corruption or misappropriation.

He has held position of Match Commissioner Appointment Committee Chairman, Chairman Finance Committee of the NFF among others.

A grass-root Mobilizer, Honourable Yahaya Suleiman Kwande, is also set to create a platform where the Sports ministry, ex-internationals and the NFF can share ideas capable of promoting the development of football In Nigeria.

With several other contestants flying their posters on the social media platforms, it has been revealed that Hon. Kwande will have to contend with some of his current executive board members who are also in the race to be the number one man running the affairs of football in the country.

Organized by the Supporters Club of Plateau United Football Club of Jos, the competition which is tagged Coach Fidelis Ilechukwu Football Tournament will feature sixteen teams from Jos and environs.

Chairman, Supporters Club of Plateau , Umar Shehu said the essence of the competition is to honour Coach Fidelis Ilechukwu for his hard work, dedication and commitment to duty which propelled the team to finished second in the Nigeria Professional Football League and pick a continental ticket in the process.

He explained that the Supporters Club are motivated to organize the competition in his name after turning the fortunes of the team around in his first season at the club and for carrying them along in the scheme of things especially his support to its indigent members, something that never happened in the history of the club.

“We are really happy with him because he has been supporting us morally and financially since he assumed work here last year and we felt we appreciate him by naming this tournament after him.

An elated Coach Fidelis Ilechukwu who expressed gratitude to the Supporters Club for the honour done to him, Commended the Supporters Club for their passion and commitment to the cause of the club noting that the team would not have achieved this much in his very first season in the club.

Ilechukwu who is on the verge of finishing second on the league table and picking a continental ticket at the process , commended the Club’s General Manager, Pius Henwan and the Technical Director, Ahmed Ibrahim for their unflinching support and described the duo as the best in the NPFL.

He assured that he will continue to support the competition which will also serve as an avenue to discover young budding talents, appealed to the participating teams to play according to the rules.

The competition kicks-off Thursday 14th July, 2022 by 3:30pm at the Rwang Pam Stadium Jos and three other designated centres in the city of Jos.

General Manager of the Club, Pius Henwan and Technical Director , Ahmed Ibrahim aka Coach Bros are among dignitaries that are expected to grace the opening ceremony.

Signed:

Albert Dakup.

Media Officer,

Plateau United Football Club of Jos.

Hon. Longbap who was speaking as guest on a popular sports show on the Plateau, Total Football Extra on Peace 90.5 FM,Jos with Sammy Adesoji on Sunday, noted that the new programme which have been scheduled to get under after the lockdown were designed to produce more talented young players fit enough to play for Nigeria’s Future Eagles and Golden Eaglets.

He said the association’s programs which have been arranged to meet with Nigeria Football Federation, NFF’s requirements on age grade national teams have produced lots of players including Super Eagles’ defender Chidozie Awaziem, among others.

“We have a lots of plans starting from the age group tournament, growing up to the senior championship, this is just to keep in touch with NFF’s new guidelines that for you to play in the U17 (Golden Eaglets) you must be from an academy and must be a registered academy.

“So we don’t want to pick anybody out of card academies because and we believe we would get correct age group players that we’ll nurture for Under 17. So all registered academies must have a complete data of a child and we cannot have that without having a similar tournament that will bring out the best for us to produce for the national team.

“So, we call it future eagles, its a program that is suppose to start from the grasaroots and we are keying into it. We’ve been sending a lot of players to the national teams.

“For the records, Chidozie Awaziem is one of the products of youth programmes from Plateau State, and he’s making us proud with his performance and we have more of him here.

“We have primary school competition for U13, U15 which all Local Government Areas are participating.

“We are planning to meet with the ministry of education to revamp the Principal’s Cup which will be one of our major programme we will be looking at from next year,” he said.

Hon. Longbap who is also a member of NFF’s Football Reform Committee however appealed to soccer faithful in the state be patient and stay safe from the Coronavirus pandemic which has paralyzed major activities including football.

And to football fraternity on the Plateau who are eager to have football, which has been under ban back to live, says:
“I want to appeal to football family that we should be patient, this Coronavirus is still having its way, we need to follow NCDC’s guidelines to the core, and I’m assuring you that as soon as we are able to meet up with requirements from Covid19, football will come and we’ll participate.”