Yilwatda: Our Strategic Renewed Hope Impacted on Super Eagles in Morocco
The 35th Africa Cup of Nations ended last night in Rabat, Morocco with Senegal emerging champions of the 2025 edition after 1-0 defeat of hosts Atlas Lions. The continental football showpiece saw Nigeria’s Super Eagles go all the way to the semifinal unbeaten. The three-time African champions however lost out in the race to the final in penalty shootouts against the host country and their 65,458 fans baying for blood inside the impossing Prince Moulay Abdellah Stadium. 120 minutes of grueling actions on both sides failed to produce result to break the deadlock until Samuel Chukwueze and Bruno Onyemaechi missed their spot kicks in the shootouts for Morocco to snatch the ticket to the final played last night.
Amongst some of the eminent Nigerians that watched Super Eagles go all the way to win the bronze medal in the third placed match in Casablanca on Saturday evening included the National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Engr Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda. After watching Stanley Nwabali and his Super Eagles teammates end Salah’s dream of winning the only medal missing from his impressive resume, the APC top man spoke with DURO IKHAZUAGBEof THISDAY and AriseNews Sports Anchor, AARON AKEREJOLA. Excerpts…
New Improved Super Eagles…
It is not all the times that you find a politician that loves sports. Engineer
Nentawe Goshwe Yilwatda, a Nigerian politician, engineer and academic who previously served as the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development from October 2024 to July 2025, proves a difference. Fielding questions from the AriseNews/THISDAY reporters, the APC chairman proved that he’s at home in the sector and not someone that does not know how many players make up a football team. He expressed excitements with the transformation that has taken place in the Super Eagles in the one year that Franco-Malian coach, Eric Sekou Chelle, has been in charge.
“The improvement in the Super Eagles is quite impressive compared to when they started their campaign for the Africa Cup of Nations to the 2026 World Cup qualifiers. From that extent, most Nigerians were not too impressed with them at the beginning when they were trying to qualify for the Africa Cup of Nations and the World Cup. But in between these tournaments, towards the end of the campaign for the World Cup qualifiers, as soon as this coach (Chelle) came in, we have seen progress and improvement. We have also seen some brand of football we’ve never expected from this squad of Super Eagles. These boys are now reminding me of the 1994 generation brand of football played by the Super Eagles. It reminds me of the coach that we had then in Clemens Westerhof. We’re seeing that brand of football that Nigerians are familiar with in their Super Eagles. To me, it’s among the best brands of football that you can see in Africa. I’m very impressed with what I’ve seen amongst these players. I think we need to keep this team, keep the coach, keep the team and work on the team improving on this new found form.”
The renewed hope and sports bonding Nigerians…
Yilwatda insisted that what Nigerians and the rest of the world saw of the Super Eagles in Morocco “is the renewed hope that the APC government has been very strategic about in sport in terms of funding, in terms of reorganisation and we are beginning to see it bear fruit.”
Asked if Nigerians should be expecting more from across the sports sector because sports unites the nation, as seen happened during Super Eagles matches at AFCON 2025, the APC Chairman agreed that it is the new direction that the party was directing the country’s sports to. “If you go to social media, I respond to young people, especially. I listen to them on social media. I read, I read, I read them. I hear their voices and their feelings. I normally feel the tempo, the pulse of the young in the social media. And you could hear how they’re responding to what sports can do. The whole country was united during the period of the Eagles play at AFCON 2025. Any day the Eagles are playing, the whole country is united. No division, no political discussion, no religious sentiments, no tribal sentiments. The whole country becomes one. Nobody discusses other matters. On that last day they were playing, I didn’t even know which party anybody on social media belongs to. All of them were not discussing national issues. They were all united in praying for Super Eagles to win. Nigeria, here we go. You could hear people speaking with one voice as a united country, united people. And to me, this is what we need to keep this country as one. Our sport is a veritable tool that we can use to drive the unity of this country. But beyond that, when I came into Morocco, to me, I didn’t come just to watch football. I also want to have a look at why Morocco has done so well in the last 10 years in improving in terms of sports. Why are they hosting most of the major tournaments in the last 10 years? Why is it that their team has become the best in Africa within the last 10 years? I mean, before the last 10 years, Morocco that could not compete among the top 10 in Africa, has become the major force in football . So we are studying what happened in the last 10 years that they are now among the best in Africa? So what happened? What happened that they are hosting most of the major tournaments in sports in Africa? What happened that most Moroccans who are playing overseas, they are making Morocco their first destination of choice? So these are the questions that when I came into town here, I was curious to ask, because I’m not only here to watch football alone. Being somebody that I am and the chairman of the party in government, I need to also go back with a message for the local government chairmen, for my party, for the state governors in my party, National Assembly members in my party and the Ministry of Sports of states in my party. So, it was critical for me to have a look at all these components so that I’m not just coming here to watch sports, but I’m using the opportunity to also study why Morocco has improved. This is necessary so that I can go back and improve the governance of sports back home and also support governance back home. I think to me, these were critical factors that need for us to also do a little study on.”
Revamped Reward System for Sportsmen and Women…
The Bola Tinubu administration has taken the process of rewarding sportsmen and women to another level. Nigerians saw how the Super Falcons who won the 10th Women’s Africa Cup of Nations were fabulously rewarded with $100,000, a flat in Abuja and National honours. Other winners in other sports have been similarly rewarded. According to the National APC chairman, “another thing that this government has done is in terms of redemption of its pledges to players/ and sportsmen and women. Unlike what we’ve seen in the past, players or rather athletes and all that do so well and then they are promised rewards that are not redeemed. But what this government has done, especially with this particular set of athletes, whether it’s basketball players or footballers is that they are rewarded. This is part of the new, you know, vista, in terms of approach to the reward system.
What we need to do to turn around the sports ecosystem in Nigeria…
“I came to Morocco and discovered that on the average, every five kilometers, you see football pitches, you see young people playing, you see a coach by the side talking to the boys while they play. Do we have that back in Nigeria? Maybe the answer should be no. Can we do that very soon? The answer is yes. And to me, it’s one of the things that we should do as a government. Secondly, I also discovered that most Moroccans who are playing in the national team, they were not even born in Morocco. Most of them stay overseas, in France and different other countries. But today, they make Morocco their first choice of destination to play for the country. So what can we do back home to improve the sports sector, maybe the motivation that we give these players that can make Nigeria attractive to our young Nigerians who are born overseas, who have lived overseas, or who have gone overseas and they have a choice of playing for other countries, to prefer to play for Nigeria. To me, that’s key and it’s a good thing for us and a low-hanging fruit for Nigeria to undertake to improve the Super Eagles. And then three, do we have competitive means of recruiting sportsmen in Nigeria? Like, it was in the 1980s, why is it that most of the teams, most especially of the Super Eagles could not get good players from the local league? People like Thompson Oliha, Daniel Amokachi, Sunday Oliseh and the likes were playing for teams in the domestic league before they made the national team and moved abroad. Some of these players were benching guys coming from Europe even as local players. Secondly, we need to strengthen our domestic clubs and leagues. We must begin to look at ownership of clubs. Clubs should be owned by individuals and entities. The Leventis United, Stationery Stores, Abiola Babes, Ranchers Bees, JIB Rocks, Iwuanyanwu Nationale, BCC Lions were not government clubs yet flourished in the 1980s to 1990s. They were either owned by private entities or owned by individuals. People must begin to have shares in clubs. States must begin to think about how to divest from club ownership. Government can own say 30 per cent equity in clubs and sell off the 70 per cent to the citizens of their states.
Take for instance Plateau State where I come from, we have Plateau United. Plateau State government can own 20%. They can sell their shares. How much is the worth of Plateau United? Let’s say it’s N2 billion and government is taking 20%. That’s about N400 million, the remaining N1.6 billion can be sold as shares among individuals in the state. Is it impossible for business entities within Plateau State to raise N1 billion? Can’t you get foreign-led purchasing entities that can raise N1 million? This means that we can actually buy off Plateau United from the state government and run it like proper business. The people who have businesses within the Plateau can raise N1 billion, N5 million, N3 million to buy their shares. And then you look at the business approach of running these clubs. Club now owned by individuals run productively, more professional, and then individuals can now watch these people transition from local to international, much more easier. These well run clubs will improve the league and invariably have enough money to attract good players to the league even from outside the country. The improved league will also in turn impact on the national team, the Super Eagles.
To me, these are things that we need to do as a government. Are we doing some of them? Yes. But can we improve on it? Yes. Can we have the local government, the state government, and the national government also participate in the sport investment? The answer is yes. Can we have individuals? The answer is yes, If the economy is growing every day as we make it up now.”
