A one \u2013time Vice Chairman of then Nigeria Football Association, Barrister Richard Nwabufor Obienu has thrown his weight behind the plans and programs of the present NFF administration, headed by Amaju Melvin Pinnick.<\/p>\n

The fiery administrator, not known to waste his encomiums, showered praises on the Amaju Pinnick \u2013led NFF for the on-going reforms that have restored the credibility of the domestic League, improved Nigeria\u2019s reckoning in the international football community and registered a rebirth in the various National Teams, among other groundbreaking feats.<\/p>\n

\u201cI must say that I am truly impressed by the moves being made by the Amaju Pinnick \u2013led NFF. I have been in the United States of America for some months but I have been following developments back home with keen interest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was here as vice chairman when the body was Nigeria Football Association, and I can tell you that it takes a courageous and focused team to initiate the reforms that we are witnessing.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone knows that Obienu says it as it is, without minding whose ox is gored. But when I see good moves, I recognize them,\u201d Obienu said on a visit to the NFF Secretariat on Thursday, where he met with the General Secretary, Dr. Mohammed Sanusi and a number of members of Management.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am delighted at the way things are going: the commitment to transparency, accountability, integrity. The reforms are excellent, and I believe the choice of Sunday Oliseh as Super Eagles\u2019 Head Coach is genuinely inspired,\u201d the former vice chairman noted, recalling the events of 2002 Africa Cup of Nations where he stood by Oliseh despite the team captain\u2019s castigation by top officials.<\/p>\n

Obienu, who was saddled with the responsibility of ensuring Super Eagles’ qualification for the 2002 FIFA<\/a> World Cup and was successful, called on Nigerians at home and in the diaspora to support the efforts of the NFF Board and Management.<\/p>\n

\u201cI appreciate that Nigerians are very passionate about sports, particularly football, and everyone has an opinion. But we must give a team that has shown focus and genuine intention the benefit of doubt.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are not there yet, but with our support and prayers, they will take our football to a great level.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A one \u2013time Vice Chairman of then Nigeria Football Association, Barrister Richard Nwabufor Obienu has thrown his weight behind the plans and programs of the present NFF administration, headed by Amaju Melvin Pinnick. The fiery administrator, not known to waste his encomiums, showered praises on the Amaju Pinnick \u2013led NFF for the on-going reforms that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4119,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[150],"tags":[75,116,43,196,30,46,369,211,60,144],"class_list":["post-4118","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","tag-amaju-pinnick","tag-featured","tag-fifa","tag-mohammed-sanusi","tag-nff","tag-nigeria-football","tag-nwabufor-obienu","tag-sunday-oliseh","tag-super-eagles","tag-ticker"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.thenff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4118","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.thenff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.thenff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.thenff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.thenff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4118"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/web.thenff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4118\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.thenff.com\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.thenff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4118"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.thenff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4118"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.thenff.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4118"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}