15th February, 2013
The Chairman of Surulere Local Government, Tajudeen Ajide Yussuf, a former defence ace for First Bank and Nigerian international with the Flying Eagles, has hailed the victory of the Super Eagles at the Africa Cup of Nations, describing it as the greatest gift to the country as it celebrates the centenary anniversary.
Speaking while reviewing the 3-week tournament in South Africa that saw the Eagles 1-0 victory over Burkina Faso, Ajide who played in the Greater Tomorrow youth side and the Gotha Cup in the early 80s with coach Stephen Keshi under coach Michael Malagu and the Youth Sport Federation of Nigeria (YSFON) when Tony Eke was Secretary-general, said he was looking forward to a reception for a former colleague.
Ajide, who had featured in the Principal’s Cup for Igbobi College against Keshi’s Saint Finbarr’s College, said the victory which the country waited for in the last 19 years was the result of belief in the youth and development.
“I had no doubt from the onset that Keshi and the boys were to perform beyond expectations despite what people described as a wobbling performance in the first group matches. Those of us who had played the game at youth, schoolboy and clubside know what it is to re-build in a nation like Nigeria where the entire 150 million population are coaches.
“I realised the pressure and at every point in time I made sure I impress it upon people that what Keshi was going through is what we are also going through with our Sportscity soccer team in the J-League. Now that the cup has come, it is clear that the experiment had paid off and Nigeria can now look to the glory days of football once again.” Ajide said.
The Chairman added that the Council’s budget of N3.4billion will give priority to sports development, education and health in line with the campaign by UNICEF.
Presenting the budget to the Legislative arm at the Chambers within the Local government Secretariat, Ajide said the 44 public schools and the four special schools for the hard-of-hearing, partially sighted and the challenged will be given a facelift while four others will be completely re-built from their dilapidated state while all sectors of security personnel in the Local government will be deployed to flush out area boys and miscreants from the premises of Saint Saviours and Our Lady of Lourdes primary and secondary schools.