FIFA presidency: Igbo youths in Spain drum
support for Kalu
…Say his FIFA’s bid is Africa’s dream
FROM CHIDI NNADI, ENUGU
The call for former Abia State governor and Africa’s Pillar of Sports, Dr
Orji Uzor Kalu, to contest the Federation of International Football
Association (FIFA) presidency has received a boost from far away Spain as
Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council (OYC) in that country has joined in the call.
The leader of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Youth Council (OYC) in Spain, Hon. Uchendu
Precious Onuoha made the call while addressing Igbo youths during their recent
congress in Madrid.
The leader of the group in a statement made available to Saturday Sun said:
“Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu’s bid for the top most position, as president of the
world’s highest football ruling body known as the Federation of International
Football Association (FIFA) is not just a personal ambition rather a response
to a yearning call by Africa for someone to stand the gap.
“It is beyond ethnic divide, it cuts across national boundaries, it is the
quest of Africa, it is the dream of Africa, and it is Africa versus the rest of
the world.”
He, therefore, urged the youths to support Kalu’s bid, who he likened his
decision to the biblical saying: “I heard the Lord’s voice saying, whom shall
I send, and who will go for us? And I say, here am I, send me”.
Onuoha pointed out that Africa has been yearning for someone over the years
that would step out and go for them.
He said: “And none was bold and courageous enough until Kalu recently
volunteered to pay heed to the voice of Africa and decided to take the bull by
the horn. Kalu’s laudable desire to take a shot at the world’s highest reigning
football position is the best thing that c ould happen to Nigeria and Africa.”
The Ohanaeze youths leader advised Kalu to discard the voices of myopic and
feeble minded ones who may raise dissenting voices trying to distract and
scuttle his ambition and vision.
“To a determined mind, no height is un-attainable. Kalu, as a pace-setter
has all it takes to grab that position if given the necessary support,” Onuoha
said.
He said that it was wrong for anyone to think that Kalu because he is
black man or African would go there as an underdog or play a second fiddle.
“Rather Kalu is a man, and no man irrespective of colour or race is foreign
to him,” pointing out that inferiority complex has sometimes hindered many Africans
to go for greater heights on international scenes and competitions.
He noted that on one-to-one basis, Kalu has all it takes to tower above
other contenders.
Onuoha, therefore, said that OYC would reach out to all African youths in
Spain and Europe to draw support for Kalu, the Pillar of Sports in Africa even
as he called on all well-meaning Nigerians and Africans both at home and in the
Diaspora to rally round Kalu in his bid to pilot FIFA affairs, saying that it
is Africa’s wish and dream.
Also speaking, the Secretary General, Uzoma Amaechi, noted that, “Kalu’s
pedigree as a tested administrator and former governor, his achievements for
making Nigeria proud through Enyimba Football club to win the elusive CAF
competition, and his accomplishments as Africa’s Pillar of Sports are very good
credentials for him to vie for the FIFA presidency.”
Also the
enthusiastic OYC youths commended and pledged their unanimous support for Kalu.
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