Following the recent challenges faced by Nigeria’s national football team during their Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match preparations in Libya, Nigeria’s Minister of Sports Development, John Enoh Owan, has stated that contrary to accusations flying around, that Libya and South Africa faced uncomfortable situations during their trip to Nigeria, that is not the case.
He stated during an interview with ARISE NEWS on Tuesday that “There’s nothing that happened to the Libyan Football Federation. When they came to Nigeria, they had a mission and they created problems for themselves and the Nigerian Football Federation (NFF), was on ground. Every problem they created, they were available to solve for them.”
Narrating the incident of when the Libyan team came to Nigeria, Enoh said, “In terms of the Libyan case, the Libyan national team, by the time they were leaving Libya for Nigeria, first they left ahead of schedule. They informed nobody. It was after they were airborne that NFF’s attention was brought to the fact that they were airborne and the fact that they were no longer landing in Uyo, they were landing in Port Harcourt. In spite of that, NFF made frantic efforts to be able to provide the logistic support they needed on landing in Port Harcourt. When they landed in Port Harcourt, NFF informed the delegation that they have cleared Uyo airport for them to take off from Port Harcourt and land in Uyo and the legal delegation told them that the arrangement they had with whoever brought them was to stop in Port Harcourt and they were going to go by road. NFF had to advise them that it was late, they should wait and go by road the next day. They insisted they would go by road that night. NFF provided transportation and security. They didn’t want to use the transportation organised by the NFF but the security was still available for them. They went to Uyo, they were accommodated in a 5-star hotel, they were supposed to train for just one moment but NFF allowed them to train in the field about twice. Even after the match when they said they were going to be done on Sunday, NFF allowed them access to the training pitch on Saturday, before they left on Sunday. Everything was provided and available.”
Speaking on the South African experience, he said, “In a conversation I had yesterday with the Confederation of African Football (CAF) president, I called attention to a similar situation that came up in June involving South Africa. Because the senior team’s national matches take place in the country in Uyo, anytime any of those matches is going to take place, the NFF has always advised the country that is coming for that match that look, this match is taking place in this venue in Uyo, there is an airport, therefore, fly to Uyo. And each of those times, the NFF has worked with Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) and the Ministry of Aviation to make sure that Uyo airport is cleared for activity, landing and all of that. In the case of South Africa, South Africa themselves elected and preferred to land in Port Harcourt.”
Enoh pointed out that Nigeria has always extended full support to visiting teams and urged that Nigerians rally together in moments of national concern rather than promoting false narratives.
He said, “I think that as a country, going through what we’ve gone through in the last 48 hours, I believe that if there is one issue that should unite this country, it is this particular issue without prejudice to whatever biases or sentiments anybody has. I say this because I find out that as Nigerians, there are some people that are promoting the kind of narrative they’ve tried to put forth and I think that it’s unfortunate. It’s important for us to be abreast properly with the facts and with the situation and how dissimilar these matters are. It’s important for Nigerians to realise that when we have a common problem like this facing Nigeria, we all should unite as a people. We shouldn’t be just promoting a narrative that is wrong, that is not correct and selling it in the public space.”
The sports minister further expressed confidence that the ongoing investigation would clarify the facts, pointing out that NFF officials have detailed records of communications with the Libyan Football Federation, which can provide clarity on the matter.
He said, “I have read the statement from the Libyan Football Federation and that is neither here nor there. I’m glad that when I spoke to the NFF, the NFF secretary general, who himself was the one corresponding with the secretary general of the Libyan Football Federation, says he has the content of all the phone calls, all the chats, all the discussions between him and the Libyan Football Federation secretary general and all of these are available and I’m glad that there’s going to be an investigation. If any of these countries was so subjected, do they have any protest? Do they have any complaint to CAF as to their maltreatment? I don’t think this is correct and I think that we all need to understand and separate this.”
Melissa Enoch
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