March 29, 2024

CANDIDATE of Accord for Oyo South Senatorial District, Kolapo Kola-Daisi, has lauded the enthusiasm of Nigerians in the ongoing FIFA World Cup in Qatar in spite of the fact that Nigeria is not represented at the Mundial.

He described sports as the undisputed unifying factor of the world, noting that he was thrilled by how Nigerians adopted players, teams and countries and get carried along to make up for the disappointment of Eagles’ absence in Qatar.

Kolapo Kola-Daisi has, for the period of the World Cup, mounted a huge TV screen for free viewing of all the 64 matches of the World Cup at the Obafemi Awolowo Stadium in Ibadan and, sometimes, joined football fans to watch the games.

“I could feel the pulse, the energy and the enthusiasm of fans in matches involving  Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The atmosphere, though tense, was exhilarating. The fans, through their preferences and biases, took us to

Qatar live. I was there in the penalty shoout win of Argentina over Holland and Portugal’s loss to Morocco. Nigerian youths are great, they are special. Sports and football in especially, brings the best from them all. The passion, the feeling, the emotion is something else. The vibes are encouraging. Leaders should exploit this to engage the youth.”

 He also believed that with the historic performance of Morocco in Qatar, Nigerian football authorities will be moved into doing more work on the development of numerous talented Nigerian players in order to raise a crack team not only to qualify for but excel at the 2026 World Cup.

He also commended Team Oyo for impressing at the just concluded National Sports Festival in Delta where the state ended fourth on the medals’ table.

“Here in Oyo State, the history is in our favour. We are lucky to have within our locality the famous Liberty Stadium, now Obafemi Awolowo Stadium. It is the first Olympic standard model in Nigeria. It was built to enhance sports development in this region and we have to sustain the motive of the founding fathers and keep the flag flying.”

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