Football Supporters Club Names Akunyili Patron

The Nigeria Football Supporters’ Club has named Prof. Dora Akunyili, the Minister of Information and Communications, as its Super Grand Patron.

Mr Rafiu ladipo, the club’s president, announced this when he led a delegation to the minister’s office in Abuja, earlier in the week.

Ladipo said the official decoration of Akunyili would hold on December 14 at the National Stadium Media Centre.

He said the gesture was to appreciate the minister’s efforts at re-branding the nation’s image.

“I want you to do more by getting more people involved in this re-branding exercise,” he added.

He said the club with more than 57,000 members across the world would support the ministry in the re-branding project.

In her acceptance speech, Akunyili commended Ladipo for taking the club to a remarkable level.

“The club is equally as important as the game itself. Without the supporters, sports will not have glamour and it becomes dull,” she noted.

She said the club had been sending re-branding messages through their songs to support the re-branding campaign.

“From January till date, only N70 million has been released by the Federal Government for this campaign.

“We, however, have been having contributions in terms of re-branding materials amounting to about N300 million from friends I had while I was in NAFDAC,” she added.