12th December, 2013
President of Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Aminu Maigari, has commiserated with his South African counterpart, Dr. Danny Jordaan over the passing of former South African President and world statesman, Dr. Nelson Mandela.
Mandela, who died on the eve of the Final Draw of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Salvador, Brazil last week, has been remembered by world leaders from far and near and has been variously described as one of the world’s truly adorable figures.
In his letter of condolence to President of South African Football Association, Dr. Jordaan, Maigari pointed out that Dr. Mandela inspired billions of people all over the world with his story and would forever be remembered across several sectors of human endeavour.
“The Nigeria Football Federation and the entire Nigeria football family grieve with you and the football family of the Republic of South Africa on the demise of a truly remarkable figure, who left gigantic footprints in politics and sport, and indeed other areas of human endeavour. From being a militant freedom fighter to a prisoner and then to the first elected President of multi-party South Africa, Dr. Mandela inspired billions of people with his story, which was underscored by his humility, selflessness, perseverance, a kind heart, honesty and dignified bearing.
“Dr. Mandela has inspired us all and the challenge is for us to honour him by adopting his tenets to build a better community, country and universe at large,” wrote Maigari.
Jordaan, a former parliamentarian and university lecturer from Port Elizabeth, was himself an activist in the anti-apartheid era and was quite close to the late Madiba. Jordaan travelled the world twice to bring the FIFA World Cup finals to Africa for the first time, and played a wise card in flying Dr. Mandela to Zurich in June 2004 for the vote of the FIFA Executive Committee on host nation for the 2010 finals, which South Africa won.