NFA to Vote For Hayatou

Nigeria will back the candidature of incumbent, Issa Hayatou in Thursday’s Confederation of African Football (Caf) elections in Ethiopia.

This follows a directive from the Nigerian government instructing Nigeria’s delegate at the elections, Amaju Pinnick to cast his vote for the 70-year-old Camerounian who has been in charge of the Africa football-governing body for the last three decades.

Pinnick, the President of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), is a major ally of Hayatou’s main challenger, Ahmad Ahmad and has severally declared publicly that he would vote for the Malagasy.

Nigeria’s minister for Sport, Solomon Dalung has now made the disclosure that Pinnick must vote for Hayatou during a parley with the media in the country’s capital, Abuja.

“Not too long ago, the Federal Government made categorically clear, her position.

“And the position of the Federal Government of Nigeria is that in view of the fact that Cameroun has been a major key player in the war against insurgency and the involvement of Cameroun in fighting for the stability of Nigeria, it would be out of the foreign policy context of Nigeria to abandon Cameroun.

“The acting President (of Nigeria, Yemi Osibajo) has directed, and which I have communicated appropriately, that if the only vote that will come to Hayatou will be from Nigeria, Nigeria should stand with Hayatou.

“I have communicated that (to the leadership of the NFF and) that is the directive from the Federal Government,” Dalung said.

The 2017 Caf elections will take place in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia this Thursday.