September 02, (THEWILL) – Nigeria’s indigenous airline company, Air Peace, will be flying the Nigerian men’s national football to Cape Verde for their second fixture of the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifiers on September 7.
This comes on the heels of a sponsorship partnership between the airline and the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF), making it the exclusive airline sponsor of Nigeria’s national football teams.
With an annual and renewable deal worth N300 million for an initial four-year period, the company aims to associate itself with the federation, in particular, and football in general.
Speaking at the ceremony commemorating the partnership, Air Peace chairman, Allen Onyema, said the company entered into the partnership to bring hope back and be part of the federation’s success story.
He said: “I decided to be part of what NFF is doing today, not because of their hard work, resilience, breaking barriers to make sure that Nigerian football is in the forefront globally, but principally because I want to use the platform that God has given me to restore hope in this country.
“A lot of people are in despair. People are losing hope in the country. I plead with you not to lose hope, it’s a great country. Other countries are envious of Nigeria.”
It was a pleasing turn of events for the NFF. According to Amaju Pinnick, the NFF president, the Air Peace partnership will aid the federation’s goal to be financially self-sufficient. He pointed out that with the financial injection from the contract, the body now 75 percent self-funded.
Pinnick promised to maintain the federation’s side of the contract while continuing the drive towards complete self-funding. He said: “Air Peace is not only 100 percent about safety, but it is an organisation with a human heart. We have noticed their rise meteorically and we are convinced that this coming together is ordained by God Almighty.
“We are going to protect what we’ve signed. We want to attain 100 per cent self-funding and that is our dream. We will be signing another major contract tomorrow (today) and by then we will be 90 per cent self-funding. In another four weeks, we are signing another contract that will liberate us and move us to the level where we are 100 per cent self-funding.”
Witnessing the ceremony in the company of NFF representatives were a quartet of Super Eagles stars—Alex Iwobi, Tyronne Ebuehi, Oghenekaro Etebo, and Joe Aribo—who are in the country ahead of the Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifier against Liberia on Friday.
About the Author
Jude Obafemi is a versatile senior Correspondent at THEWILL Newspapers, excelling in sourcing, researching, and delivering sports news stories for both print and digital publications.
