The Minister for Youth and Sports, Mr Solomon Dalung, will lead NFF President Amaju Pinnick and other football officials to support the Super Eagles when Nigeria confront Niger Republic in their opening game at the ongoing African Nations Championship in Rwanda.
Others that will be part of the delegation are Vice Presidents Seyi Akinwunmi and Shehu Dikko and the Chairman of the Technical and Development Committee, Chris Green.
The ‘Super Eagles B’ clash with the Mena is one of the opening matches of Group C, will be played on Monday at the Stade Regional Nyamirambo, from 5:00pm Nigeria time.
The Nigerian delegation arrived in Kigali on Sunday and had dinner with the players and officials of the Super Eagles at the Hills View Hotel, where Sports Minister Dalung delivered the message of President Muhammadu Buhari to the group.
“I want to assure you that the government and people of Nigeria are with you as you start this campaign for honours. President Buhari has mandated me to tell you that you should confront all challenges with courage and confidence because he is with you in spirit.
“You have shown excellent patriotic spirit and we are proud of you. Go to battle with the mind to conquer.”
The Eagles perfected strategies for the three-week championship at the High Performance Centre in Pretoria, South Africa, where they spent two weeks, and will start as tournament favourites being the top-ranked team from the last competition present in Rwanda.
Nigeria won bronze in South Africa in 2014, but champions Libya and runners-up Ghana both failed to qualify for Rwanda.
This is the fourth edition of the championship and it kicked off on Saturday with host nation, Rwanda, beating Cote d’Ivoire 1-0.
