Groan as Super Eagles players, Musa, Abdullahi, donate N50,000 at SWAN Almanac launch

From Mustapha Adamu, Kano

Members of Sports Writers Association of Nigeria (SWAN), Kano chapter were on Thursday bewildered when two popular players of Nigerian National Football Club, Super Eagles, Ahmed Musa and Shehu Abdullahi announced meager amount to purchase copies of the Almanac.

The embarrassing situation occurred at the launch of the 2021 Almanac by the Kano chapter of SWAN, held at the conference hall of secretariat of the Kano Council of Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ).

The Chairman of Kano Pillars football club, Surajo Shuaibu Yahaya Janbul annoumced the donation of N50,000 each for 10 copies by each of the two Super Eagles stars.

The announcement was then greeted with boos from the unprecedented crowd, who apparently expressed their disappointment in view of the status of the players, who started their football career in Kano.

The players, according to one of the invited guests, who did not want his name on print, should not have made this meagre donation announced in view of their financial status, as both of them have been playing abroad.

“This very embarrassing for the fact that we missed the presence of those international players, who were duely informed of this event. It is very pathetic that they donated such a meagre amount.

“ Don’t forget that it is the same sports writers in Kano; I am talking about SWAN,  that opened the floodgate to the peak of their career today. One had expected that they could have done much better than what they did,” he lamented.

Another guest stated that Musa and Abdullahi have apparently exhibited indifference to the development of sports in their country, particularly northern region where they hailed from by donating such a meagre amount.

According to him, the duo have played in European Champions League and World Cup, therefore, it would be foolhardy to have made such donation to a great event organised by one of the leading sports association in the country.

“Look at how some unpopular sports personalities in Kano donated N100, 000 for just 5 copies. But, it is embarrassing to these two players and the SWAN itself to donate such a small amount. I’m sure this would never be done in the southern part of the country,” he said.

Ahmed Musa has established investments running into billions of naira in oil and housing estates in Kano, the most populous state in Nigeria and commercial nerve centre of the Northern part of the country.