Nigeria Football Supporters Club has appealed to members in other groups to join hands together so as to give the various national teams support. The club members, who lit the environs of their new national secretariat on the country’s 60th anniversary day, October 1, were seen dressed in green and white attires, drumming to the delight of passersby, who also joined the celebrations.
Speaking on occasion, the club’s chairman, Rev. Samuel Ikpea, stated that as the 12th player of the national teams, the club doesn’t need any other body apart from the one that is already existing.
“In the Nigeria Football Supporters Club we don’t have anything call faction. What you have are other groups springing up. And you want to ask why are they doing this? It is because of the good things we’ve been doing since this club was formed in 1955.
“But I think in the country we have one Super Eagles, One Nigeria, and we should have one Nigeria Supporters Football Club. If those clubs springing up have good intention, they should join us in the Nigeria Football Supporters Club to play our role as the 12th player on the field for the Eagles.
“We in the Supporters Club are always ahead of others and if you check the history book, in the world over, we are one of the best. We’ve won the CAF and FIFA laurels and we are not stopping at that. That is why we are trying to improve in other areas.
“Every year, FIFA comes out with their rules and we are also trying as much as possible to also meet up with their standard. We just acquired a new secretariat at a highbrow area of Lagos and this is part of the improvement we are talking about as far as the club is concerned.
Currently, we have membership strength of 55,000 and my desire is to increase it to 100,000 in the next five years,” he said, adding that the country should do more to achieve better success in years to come.
“We’ve had the good and the bad side of our football. The good side is that we were able to win different laurels and the bad side was that we lost some matches that were very painful. All in all, it has been fair for us, but there is still a lot of room improvement if we are to go far.
“I want to appeal to the government to remain focused. Our leaders should have listening ears, and also know that they are voted into power to take care of the masses. That should be their major concern. And to the Nigerians, they should never give up because their hope at the end of the tunnel,” he stated.
