The President of the Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Aminu Maigari, will be the cynosure of all eyes on Friday when he is honoured as the Sports Personality of the Year 2012 at the African Development Magazine Awards in Accra, Ghana.
The 2nd Annual ADM Awards of Excellence in Development will take place at the Novotel City Centre, Accra on Friday evening, starting from 6.30pm.
According to the top-flight magazine’s Chief Executive, Ayo Ilesanmi, the President of the Republic of Ghana, His Excellency, Dr. John Dramani Mahama, will be the Special Guest of Honour while the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Barrister Godswill Akpabio, will be the Special Guest.
Maigari, who was honoured in Lagos on Saturday with the year’s Achievement Award at the annual Awards Ceremony of the Lagos Junior League, has been honoured several times this year for the remarkable turnaround in fortunes and wave-after-wave of success of Nigeria football in the past 16 months.
No Nigeria National Team has failed to qualify for a major tournament in the past 16 months, with the Super Eagles lifting the Africa Cup of Nations for the first time in 19 years, at the 29th edition in South Africa earlier in the year.
The U-20 and U-17 National Teams also impressed at their continental championships in March and April respectively, in the process qualifying for their respective FIFA World Cup championships.
Victory in South Africa has also earned the Super Eagles the ticket to represent Africa at the FIFA Confederations Cup in Brazil next month.
The keynote address for the award on Friday will be delivered by Professor Robert Woode while Professor Leonard Karshima Shilgba will give the day’s lecture.
Last year, the U-20 and U-17 Women National Teams impressed at their different FIFA tournaments in Japan and Azerbaijan respectively, while the Super Eagles, Flying Eagles and Golden Eaglets all qualified for African tournaments.
After finishing third at the 12th African championship in Algeria, the Flying Eagles qualified as one of Africa’s representatives at the FIFA U-20 World Cup Turkey 2013, which will take place between June 21 and July 13.
On their part, the Golden Eaglets finished second at the 10th CAF U-17 Championship in Morocco, losing on penalties to Cote d’Ivoire, and also qualifying for the FIFA U-17 World Cup 2013, between October 17 and November 8.
Trending
- Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger form new confederation after exiting ECOWAS
- Traders, customers flee as soldiers invade Abuja plaza + Video
- Youth leader advocates ministry for youth unemployment in Ebonyi
- Enhancing disaster resilience through prevention, mitigation, and preparedness, by Kenechukwu Aguolu
- How I became involved in pornography – Pastor Oyedepo
- Minister of Information congratulates newly-elected APRA executives
- Seven injured, cows die in Lagos-Ibadan Expressway accident
- FG constitutes Governing Councils of tertiary institutions + Full list