Femi Solaja
Former African Footballer of the Year and member of the victorious Super Eagles of 1994 class, Emmanuel Amuneke, is delighted with the news that President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the allocation of three-bedroom apartments to the team for winning the AFCON tournament that year.
Late Head of State, General Sani Abacha, had rewarded members of the team with a three-bed room apartment each but poor cash gifts from state governments, corporate bodies and well-meaning individuals and also the political turmoil over the annulment of the June 12, 1993 election presumably won by MKO Abiola in the country then, distracted the regime from fulfilling the shelter promise till he died in June of 1998.
But members of the team did not lose hope as they kept pressing for the reward which President Buhari has now put to rest yesterday following the directive that those who are yet to collect their own should be rewarded as a matter of urgency.
“It’s a dream come through to all members of the team and I want to thank the President for making the wish of members of the team come through. “I also want to thank the Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, whom we learnt took it upon himself to make it come true.
Its most unfortunate that some of our members are no longer alive but the joy of it is that the families they left behind have something to fall back on-going by this latest development.
The former FC Barcelona star also debunked the news making around that part of the reason for the delay in the allocation of the apartments was because some members of the squad at the expense of majority.
“The insinuation was false, most of those have collected their own are mainly those who chose Abuja and it was easy for the Federal Housing Authority to allocate to them but for most of us that wanted Lagos and other State capital spread across the country was part of the reason for the delay,” he pointed out.
Also speaking on the house gifts 27 years after the promise, Samson Siasia while thanking President Buhari, stressed that it was worrisome that those of them collecting the keys to the houses now no longer have the initial privileges of deciding where to have the houses.
“Some of us wanted to be allocated the houses in Abuja but now we are hearing that we can only have the houses in our states of origins,” observed Siasia who later after hanging his playing booths led Eagles as head coach
Siasia however remains grateful to President Buhari for including late members of the squad amongst those to benefit from the largesse coming now after 27 years.
