President Muhammadu Buhari on Monday expressed surprise that allowances of Nigeria’s national team, the Super Eagles had not received their allowances.
Plateau state governor Simon Lalong, disclosed that this despite the fact that the President had approved payment of the team allowances
The Governor who stated this while fielding questions from State House Correspondents after meeting with the President, said he was at the Presidential Villa to brief the President on their visit to Egypt to cheer the Super Eagles
“I come to see the President on behalf my state and on behalf of the 19 northern states as chairman of Northern governors’ forum.
“I came in to have a discussion with Mr. president, of course many of you know that I just came back from Egypt where we went to cheer our Super Eagles
“ I also brought him the concerns of our players over there and he promised to handle the matter immediately.
Lalong warned against playing politics with football which he described as “ a unifying factor in Nigeria”
“We shouldn’t joke with it, if they bring back the cup it will cement our relationship and that is one of it.
“Well, many of the concerns raised were that their allowances were not paid and Mr President expressed surprise that signed these allowance and wondered why they are not paid to them.
“I was a footballer, it’s not like before when you play football out of patriotism, now it’s combined with the economic aspect. When you bring people, definitely from the ministry, you must ensure that their allowances are paid.
“We went there for the joy of it and the day we were there they won their match but when we left yesterday, I understand they lost to Madagascar.
“Defeating Guinea and allowing Madagascar to defeat us is a surprise, but I think with good motivation, these boys would bring back the cup. ”
Tony Ailemen, Abuja
