As the countdown to the much awaited elections into various posts of Kwara State Football Association comes to a close today, the football fraternity in the state in less than 24 hours will put forward a new administrators to usher in a new dispensation in the football management in the State.
Prior to now, there have been heated debates and permutations amongst enthusiatic soccer followers in the state who are desirous to see a paradigm shift from the hitherto institutional colodrum that bedeviled the system in the recent time.
Most of this arguments among soccer analysts centred around the fact that Kwara football developments is grossly receding, a multiplier effect which can largely be felt from the poor performance of clubs.
These veterans further validates their submissions on the facts that Kwara football has come of age and described the snail pace of football growth in the state as ugly in variance with other states in the country.
It’s however interesting to note that, today’s elections in the annals of the State has the best and qualified candidates jostling for various elective posts of Kwara FA ever.
This was alluded to by the former FA Chairman in the state who also doubles as the Chairman electoral committee, Saliu Ojibara.
He said and I quote, “I was impressed when they appeared before me, I had the opportunity of talking to virtually all of them, and I felt that there is a future for the management of football in Kwara given the quality of men that appeared before me. All of them have something to offer.”
Four candidates are in the race for the post of Chairman, and these people according to Ojibara are technocrats who undoubtedly are seasoned football managers.
These candidates are: the former Nigeria Premier League (NPL) Board member, Alhaji Abdulrazaq Owolabi Wopa Agbaji, former Chairman of Kwara United Football Club, Alhaji Sulyman Toyin Olokoba, Engr Jibril Idris Etsu who is the founder of JT Academy and Alhaji Idris Abdullahi Musa, popularly known as Turaya.
Also, four candidates are contesting for the position of the Vice Chairman, namely; Alhaji Abdulkadri Shuaib, Chief Afolabi Ajide Salami, Bashorun Kayode Bankole Emmanuel and Alhaji Umar Bolaji Yahaya.
Seven aspirants will slug it out to be on the Board from the three Senatorial Districts, as each of the districts is said to have three members on the Board.
Prior to the hitherto shifts in the elections dates some times in February this year, the four contestants for the post of chairman had presented their manifestos and agenda to the football family in the state in a media debates which afforded stakeholders in the industry to have knowledge of what to expect from the prospective football administrators.
Each contestants at the wittily marshaled logical agendas alongside modern football philosophies which meet up with global practises, that ordinarily one would no doubt the veracity of their capability.
Whichever way, for every contest, there will always be a winner viz-a-viz a runners up. Whoever get the blessings of the electorate or delegates today should not arrogate to himself as the best or as super being.
Rather he should be magnanimous in victory and endeavour to co-opt others into the system so that the avowal football development that had eluded the state will be redeemed.
To get Kwara Football Association working again is purely the duty of all and sundry, and as the world football coasts through the 21st century, the place of Kwara football shall not be jettisoned for debris.
