The House Committee on Sports in the Federal House of Representatives has advised Nigeria to withdraw their bid of hosting the 2027 African Cup of Nations, AFCON, following the current economic situation facing the country as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy.
The Chairman, House Committee on Sports, Hon. Ekene Adams, said the Federal government should focus more on alleviating the sufferings of it’s citizenry due to increase in fuel pump price rather than wasting huge funds on hosting the African Cup of Nations.
“The Federal Government and state governments should at this time be concerned with how to alleviate the suffering of the citizens.
“We all know that the Federal Government and State Governments have distributed palliatives to Nigerians but it seemed not enough and need to come up with different programmes to alleviate the suffering of Nigerians.
“At this time, the priority of government should be about the welfarism of the citizens.
Hosting the African Nations Cup is good but it is better that such billion of naira that will be spent on hosting be diverted into the economy,” Adams noted.
Nigeria is hoping to host Africa’s biggest football showpiece for the third time after doing so in 1980 in Lagos, which they won and also in the year 2000 where they co-hosted with Ghana.
Nigeria and Benin Republic submitted a joint bid to host the AFCON in 2027.
The Minister of Sports Development, John Owan Enoh, and the leadership of the Nigeria Football Federation, NFF flew to Cairo, Egypt for a meeting with CAF EXCO on Wednesday, to present Nigeria’s Nations Cup bid.
Other countries who submitted bids to host the tournament in 2025 and 2027 respectively will also attend the meeting.
