The President-General of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club, Dr. Rafiu Ladipo, has declared that contrary to wide spread speculations that he is holding tight to the highest position much that he intends to rule for life, he would vacate the position when God says it is time for another Nigerian to take over. Ladipo, told Sunday Telegraph in an exclusive interview that: “I won’t die in office as the President- General of the Supporters Club, I will surely leave one day when my time is up in the club, but nobody can force me out of the group I worked so hard to give international prominence.”
He noted that lot of people make the mistake thinking that there is money to be made in the Supporters Club. “I want to say categorically, that there is no money in the Supporters Club. If you want to be the President- General of the club, you must be ready to spend you own money at will to sustain the club, because there is no funding from anywhere.
“Our members pay an annual dues of N6,000 each, that means if one thousand members pay their dues, that amounts to N6 million, this is not enough to do anything tangible to move the club forward. For the Brazil 2014 World Cup finals, the Supporters Club spent N189million thanks to the backup from philanthropic Nigerians, the corporate bodies and former President Goodluck Jonathan. Other monies came in from our private pockets from people like me. We are happy spending our money for the goodness of Nigeria.”
He stressed that the Club has not been in existence without crisis. There has been a lot of it but we thank God that He has given us the wisdom to be able to surmount all those challenges. We call it challenges because of the large size of the club membership that is over 50,000 all over the world.
“We expect people to come in and be ambitious. But we have been asking our members not to get over-ambitious as such is capable of destroying the good house we have strongly built over the years. The club is like a big family and God has given them Dr. Rafiu Ladipo as the leader as at now. And if it pleases God that Rafiu Ladipo will continue to lead them until God says he should go and sit down for somebody else to take over.
“The fact remains that when that happens, people that must lead should understand what Rafiu Ladipo did that has brought the club from grass to grace, which has made the club a worldwide phenomenon, a club that FIFA, CAF and everybody around the world respect.
But some people, must accept the bitter truth that you must learn the rope before venturing to take over the mantle of the leadership of the Nigeria Football Supporters Club worldwide the way Rafiu Ladipo has done so far. I know there are people who want to be leaders of the club, there is no problem, this is allowed but they must learn how to crawl before venturing to run the one hundred metres race.”
Ladipo, who believes that the Cup of Nations should be Super Eagles’ birthright looking at the caliber of Nigerian players plying their trade in overseas clubs, revealed that for not going to the last edition of the Nations Cup, the Club lost millions of money as thousands of printed t-shirts, face caps and other souvenirs that would have been sold at the venue of the Nations Cup were wasted.
We have been giving out the souvenirs free of charge. “It was a big loss for the Supporters Club.” He disclosed that the Club has started planning the formation of a soccer club that would start from the lower league.
“On this, newly recruited players have been training at the National Stadium, Lagos three times weekly in readiness to stage a bold move into the country’s football league.
This is to prove a point that we are top stakeholders who must be taken serious in everything we do.” Ladipo said the Supporters Club despite being self-sustaining with no financial support from any quarters, has been growing in leaps and bounds because of the commitment of the club’s leadership and the astuteness of the members who are always ready to sacrifice.
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